Job Description

Company Description

Fastmarkets is an industry-leading price-reporting agency (PRA) and information provider for global commodities, providing price data, news, analytics and events for the agriculture, forest products, metals and mining and new-generation energy markets.


Fastmarkets' data is critical for customers seeking to understand and predict dynamic, sometimes opaque markets, enabling trading and risk management. Fastmarkets is a global business with a history dating back to 1865 and is built on trust and deep market knowledge. It has more than 600 employees spread across global locations in the UK, US, China, India, Singapore, Brazil, Belgium, Finland and beyond.

The Role

The Learning and Development (L&D) Lead plays a key role in shaping, delivering, and evolving Fastmarkets' global learning and development agenda. Working closely with the Head of Learning and key stakeholders across the business, the L&D Lead will design and implement impactful learning strategies that align with organisational priorities, drive capability growth, and promote a high-performance culture.


the L&D Lead will lead on cross-functional learning initiatives, harness data-driven insights to inform decision-making, and ensure learning solutions are scalable, inclusive, and future-focused. The postholder will contribute to the continuous evolution of our learning function, ensuring it meets the needs of a fast-paced, global business.

PRINCIPLE ACCOUNTABILITIES

Champion a culture of continuous learning and development

across all levels of the organisation, embedding CPD principles into key employee lifecycle touchpoints.

Design and execution of blended learning programmes

, combining digital, social, and in-person approaches to address technical, behavioural, and wellbeing skills development.

Act as an advisor to People Business Partners and functional leaders

, supporting talent development, succession planning, and strategic workforce planning through robust L&D interventions.

Creation, governance, and ongoing refinement of core development programmes

, including onboarding, manager development (e.g. Thrive and Aspire to Thrive), and organisation-wide capability-building.

Drive optimisation of the Learning Management System (LMS)

, ensuring it delivers an intuitive, data-rich, and scalable learning experience, and tracking key learning metrics to demonstrate business impact.

Use analytics and qualitative insights

to evaluate learning effectiveness, identify gaps and opportunities, and continuously improve the impact of L&D initiatives.

Oversee the evolution of the UK Apprenticeship programme

, leveraging the levy to maximise development outcomes, while exploring learning subsidies in global markets.

Curate and create learning content

, including mandatory and core eLearning modules, aligned with business priorities and legal compliance requirements.

Drive organisation-wide AI and digital skills learning

, leading the development and delivery of training on tools such as Microsoft 365 Copilot and other emerging technologies.

Oversee strategic partnerships with external learning providers, coaches, and facilitators

, ensuring delivery standards meet expectations and provide ROI.

Support the design and embedding of competency frameworks

, working in partnership with HR and business leaders to align skills with performance and progression.

Promote and expand development initiatives such as the Fastmarkets Mentorship Marketplace and internal coaching programmes

, ensuring access, impact, and engagement.

Facilitate across cross-functional learning initiatives

, including DiSC training, Active Bystander interventions, and leadership capability-building.

Own and evolve key learning communications channels

, such as the monthly L&D newsletter and intranet presence, ensuring learning opportunities are accessible and compelling.

Support L&D budget management

, including reporting, and ensuring efficient use of resources in partnership with Finance and the Head of Learning.

Deputise for the Head of Learning two days per week

, providing strategic oversight, guidance, and decision-making across the learning function.

KEY INTERFACES

Senior Leadership Team & Functional Leaders

- Shape learning strategy and influence leadership on capability priorities.

People Team (HRBPs, Talent, DEI)

- Collaborate on talent planning, inclusion, and employee experience initiatives.

External Learning Partners & Coaches

- Manage partnerships to deliver high-quality, business-relevant solutions.

Employees & Managers

- Consult and co-create impactful development solutions that meet real needs and enable performance.

LMS Administrators & IT Teams

- Align digital learning infrastructure with L&D strategy.

Finance

- Support L&D budget planning, tracking, and reporting.

Qualifications

We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission to provide the world's leading and most trusted price reporting, events, and intelligence service for the markets we serve. We're proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully.


If you are open-minded, curious, resilient, solutions-oriented and committed to promoting equality, then read on...

KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

We're seeking a proactive and driven learning professional who brings a learning mindset and a passion for enabling development and growth in a fast-paced, high-performing environment. You'll be a collaborative team player who is also confident working independently, flexibly adapting to changing priorities and business needs.

What you'll bring:

A deep passion for learning and a genuine commitment to supporting others in their growth and development. Proven experience in Learning & Development, with expertise in LMS administration, e-learning design, and digital learning tools. Familiarity with Articulate 360 is highly desirable. Strong capability in conducting training needs analyses and translating insights into impactful learning solutions. Comfortable navigating technology and systems, with advanced skills in Microsoft Office--particularly Excel and PowerPoint--for data analysis and presentation. Skilled in using learning data to tell compelling stories, evaluate effectiveness, and drive continuous improvement. Confident and engaging facilitation and communication skills, with the ability to connect with diverse audiences. A solutions-focused, self-starter mindset--able to anticipate challenges and take initiative to resolve them. Energy, resilience, and adaptability to thrive in a dynamic, high-growth organisation.

If you're excited about the role but your experience, skills or qualifications don't perfectly align, we encourage you to apply anyway.

Additional Information

Our Values

Fastmarkets people come from all different walks of life. It's this mix of brilliant personalities, experiences and insights that gives us that warm, open, and friendly culture you can feel as soon as you meet us. But however wonderfully different we all are, there are six things we all have in common - and they form our Fastmarkets values.


Created by our own employees to reflect some of the personal traits that Fastmarkets people have, our values are key to what makes our culture unique. They reflect who each of us are and they're embedded in everything we do. Our values are:

METRICS DRIVEN.

We use insights to improve our customers' experience and our business performance

ACCOUNTABLE.

We are accountable to ourselves and those we work with: we keep our promises and get things done

GROWTH MINDSET

. This value enables us to be nimble to the changing realities and operate with a sense of urgency

INCLUSIVE.

We are inclusive and respectful, celebrating each of us and giving everyone a deep sense of belonging with the desire to bring their best self to work every day.

CUSTOMER CENTRIC.

We are customer-centric in all that we do

COLLABORATIVE.

We are collaborative, able to work across teams and capitalise on the diversity of intellect, perspectives, and experiences.

You've read a little about us - now it's over to you!

If you like what you've read so far and think you can see yourself as a Fastmarkets person, it's time to fill in your application form. This form is an important part of the selection process: it's used to determine whether or not you'll be chosen to have an interview and acts as a basis for the questions we'll ask you on the day.


It's vital that you try to capture all the relevant information we have asked for on the form so we can get a good feel for who you are and why you're great.