Searchlight Ventures is the group company for The Light Cinemas, Light Entertainment and All Star Lanes. We operate a growing network of cinema, entertainment and hospitality venues across the UK, bringing together film, leisure activities, food and drink to create memorable experiences for our guests..

As our business continues to expand this is important stage for our business development so we are seeking an experienced and forward-thinking Head of Learning &Development to lead and shape our learning strategy across the organisation.

The Role

Head of Learning & Development is a key leadership role responsible for creating a high-impact learning culture that supports business objectives, strengthens leadership capability, and enables employees to perform and grow. Reporting to the People Director, the role works closely with HR and Operations to address capability gaps, raise standards and improve consistency across sites.

The Head of L&D is expected to stay close to operations, focus on what actually improves performance and challenge activity that doesn’t add value.

What you will be doing:

Own businesswide capability, with a focus on leadership and management effectiveness
Lead and evolve performance and development frameworks
Ensure leadership, management and compliance training is effective and consistent
Develop practical learning solutions for a fastpaced, multi-site environment
Align recruitment and development activity to support future capability needs
Drive internal progression, succession planning and highpotential talent development
Own learning systems, content and engagement
Ensure learning content remains relevant, accessible and effective
Partner with HR and operational leaders on capability and performance priorities
Focus on highvalue interventions that improve performance
Lead the Recruitment Manager and create alignment across recruitment, onboarding and development

About You

You’ll be an experienced L&D leader who understands how to build capability in a fast-moving, operational environment. You’re as comfortable shaping strategy as you are rolling up your sleeves to deliver practical solutions that make a real difference.

You’ll bring:

Strong experience leading Learning & Development within an operational or multisite business
A track record of improving manager capability, leadership effectiveness and performance
Experience creating practical learning frameworks that drive measurable results
The confidence to build strong relationships with HR and Operations, offering both support and constructive challenge
Experience managing learning platforms, systems and engaging content
The ability to turn insight and data into action that delivers impact
A pragmatic, commercially minded approach, with credibility and strong influencing skills

In return we offer:

Competitive salary
Employee perks, social events and discounts across venues
Private medical insurance
Life insurance
Wagestream - access to your earned £££ whenever you need
Up to 33 days holidays
Flexible working,
The opportunity to be part of exciting business venture,
Employee assistance programme
Enhanced maternity and paternity
Career development opportunities in a growing company

If you're passionate about building capability, developing leaders and creating learning that delivers real business impact, we'd love to hear from you

Our dedicated Recruitment Team will review every application, and get in touch to arrange a chat with suitable candidates.

If we don't feel like you are the right match for now, we will make sure to let you know, however detailed feedback won't be provided at this stage

The Light jobs

Head of Learning & Development