Director, Sr. Talent Development

Keystone is a premier economics, technology, and strategy consulting firm built to help companies lead through transformation. As breakthrough innovations reshape industries, redefine competition and change our society, complex and highly competitive ecosystems emerge. Keystone advises technology leaders, Fortune 100 companies, their legal counsel, and governments on business, economic, litigation, and regulatory strategy in relation to these innovations and competitive eco-systems. We operate globally from offices in Boston, New York City, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., London, Dubai, and Bengaluru.

About the Role

The Performance Culture Center of Excellence (CoE) exists to cultivate a culture of high performance across Keystone — through a rigorous approach to assessing and developing talent, delivering clear feedback, and identifying career paths that reward performance and align individual contribution with firm goals. As we build out the CoE, we're adding to the team and looking for a Talent Development Lead to help stand up and run core programs for Keystone's senior population.

This is a hybrid role with a minimum in office requirement of 3 days per week.

We are not able to provide relocation support for this position. We value talent from all backgrounds; however, for this position, we are unable to sponsor employment visas. We welcome applications from individuals who are already authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship.

Key Responsibilities

Performance & Calibration

Drive the execution of performance evaluation and talent review processes for Keystone’s senior team members, ensuring rigor, consistency, fairness, and appropriate differentiation across practices and offices.

Maintain a continuous pulse on senior talent, with an ongoing understanding of each leader's performance, development priorities, career trajectory, and readiness for expanded responsibility or partnership.

Design and facilitate senior talent reviews and calibration discussions, bringing together performance, team leadership, commercial contribution, and firm-building perspectives to support well-grounded decisions.

Serve as a strategic partner to senior leaders in addressing performance challenges, role-fit questions, and readiness gaps, ensuring concerns are identified early, expectations are clear, and decisions align with the firm's performance philosophy and standards.

Partner closely with HR on sensitive performance and transition matters, ensuring appropriate coordination, documentation, and handoffs.

Leadership Expectations & Competency Frameworks

Maintain and continuously refine competency models, leadership expectations, scorecards, and promotion or hiring criteria for Principals, Partners, and other senior roles.

Translate performance and competency information into actionable insights that inform promotion, role progression, leadership appointments, succession, and development decisions.

Leadership Development, Succession & Career Planning

Guide individualized development planning, coaching, sponsorship, and stretch opportunities that accelerate leadership growth and prepare high performing talent for broader roles.

Lead succession and leadership-pipeline planning, identifying critical roles, bench strength, future-partner candidates, readiness gaps, and targeted actions to strengthen the firm's leadership capacity.

Support thoughtful career and role planning for senior talent, including evolving leadership mandates, internal mobility, and transitions when appropriate.

Senior Leader Enablement

Equip Partners and other senior leaders to deliver candid, actionable, and development-oriented feedback to senior colleagues.

Provide leaders with the tools, data, and guidance needed to assess performance and potential, sponsor future leaders, and make high-quality talent decisions.

Identify common leadership capability gaps and recommend targeted development, coaching, or organizational interventions.

Reporting & Talent Insights

Analyze senior talent performance, promotion, succession, retention, engagement, leadership pipeline, and development data to identify trends, risks, and recommended actions.

Support executive decision-making through analyses, dashboards, and executive-ready reporting that provide visibility into bench strength, future-partner readiness, succession coverage, and organizational health.

Partner closely with firm leadership, Practice Leaders, Learning & Development, HR, Talent Acquisition, and Staffing to deliver integrated senior talent solutions.

Help drive continuous improvement by identifying opportunities to strengthen governance, simplify processes, improve the leader experience, and increase program effectiveness.

What You'll Bring

Passion for developing exceptional leaders and building a strong, sustainable leadership bench.

Significant consulting and relationship-management skill, with the credibility and presence to advise Partners and influence senior stakeholders without direct authority.

Exceptional judgment and discretion when handling highly confidential, sensitive, and consequential talent matters.

Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize nuanced, sometimes conflicting inputs into clear recommendations.

Analytical mindset with experience interpreting talent, performance, and succession data and translating insights into action.

Highly organized with strong project management skills and the ability to manage multiple high-stakes processes and stakeholder groups simultaneously.

Comfortable navigating ambiguity, constructive tension, and complex decision environments while building new programs and operating models.

Service-oriented mindset and the ability to build trusted relationships with senior leaders while maintaining independence and consistent standards.

Continuous improvement orientation with a bias toward simplifying processes and scaling best practices.

The salary range below represents total annual compensation across all U.S. locations. Actual compensation will depend upon the level the individual is hired into based on their experience, knowledge, skills and qualifications. In addition to annual salary, we offer a comprehensive benefits package, 401k contribution, and a culture grounded in integrity, curiosity, and teamwork.

Annual Salary Range$140,000—$200,000 USD

At Keystone, we value the varied backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives our colleagues bring to our firm. We are committed to building an inclusive culture where everyone feels respected, has a sense of belonging, and has opportunities to grow.

This commitment extends to how we hire. Keystone is an equal opportunity employer committed to fair and inclusive hiring practices. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.