Manager, Talent Management-Skills and Career

CDW • Full-time • Hybrid in Vernon Hills, Illinois, United States • $114,000 - $158,800 / year • 17h ago

Fast Facts

Join CDW as a Manager of Talent Management focused on architecting and scaling a global skills-based talent infrastructure, driving strategic workforce transformations across the enterprise.

Responsibilities: Design, build, and maintain an enterprise-wide skills taxonomy; develop skills gap analysis; integrate skills into talent processes; collaborate across departments to shift to skills-based practices.

Skills: Strong understanding of skills-based talent management; experience with Workday; data literacy; exceptional facilitation and stakeholder influence abilities.

Qualifications: Bachelor's degree in HR or related field; 5+ years in HR or talent management with 3+ years in skills management; managerial experience preferred; strong analytical and communication skills.

Location: Vernon Hills, Illinois, United States

Compensation: $114000 - $158800 / Annually

Description

At CDW, we make it happen, together. Trust, connection, and commitment are at the heart of how we work together to deliver for our customers. It’s why we’re coworkers, not just employees. Coworkers who genuinely believe in supporting our customers and one another. We collectively forge our path forward with a level of commitment that speaks to who we are and where we’re headed. We’re proud to share our story and Make Amazing Happen at CDW.

Job Summary

Manager, Talent Management — Skills and Career is a strategic and operationally-focused role responsible for architecting, launching, and scaling a global skills-based talent infrastructure across the enterprise. This individual will serve as the primary owner of the organization's skills taxonomy, competency framework, and skills intelligence ecosystem — shifting the organization from a traditional job-title-centric model to one where skills are the foundational currency of all workforce decisions, including hiring, mobility, development, performance, and succession.

Reporting to the Director of Talent Strategy and working in close partnership with HR Business Partners, L&D, HRIS, Total Rewards, Talent Acquisition, and senior business leaders, this role will ensure that skills data is accurate, actionable, and embedded across all talent platforms and people processes. This is a high-visibility, enterprise-wide transformation role that requires equal parts strategic thinking, program management, change leadership, and analytical acumen.

What you’ll do

Skills Taxonomy & Framework Architecture: Design, build, and maintain an enterprise-wide skills taxonomy, partnering with business leaders and domain experts to validate and regularly refresh the skills library, ensuring relevance as roles evolve and new capabilities emerge.
Build and govern a skills data infrastructure that aggregates skills signals through Workday including LMS, ATS, performance management, and other to-be-designed assessments into a unified talent profile.
Translate workforce planning inputs into prioritized skill gaps and future capability needs.
Develop and implement a skills taxonomy governance approach, establishing processes for ongoing skills gap analysis at individual, team, function, and enterprise levels.
Integrate across talent processes, embedding skills as an organizing principle within career pathing, performance management, succession planning, talent acquisition, and total rewards.
Partner with L&D to ensure learning pathways, reskilling programs, and development content are mapped directly to priority skills.
Work with Talent Acquisition to shift sourcing criteria from credentials to skills, expanding the accessible talent pool.
Collaborate with Total Rewards on competency-based pay frameworks that reflect skills contribution and market value.
Support the development of an Internal Talent Marketplace & Mobility program, partner with HRIS and technology teams to design or configure an internal talent marketplace that enables employees to discover projects, gig assignments, and full-time roles based on skills matching.
Develop governance models for internal mobility that balance organizational needs with employee career aspirations.
Facilitate the development and execution of a global change management strategy to shift cultural mindsets from role-based to skills-based thinking among leaders, managers, and employees.
Drive adoption of skills-based practices through enablement, tools, and change leadership.

What we expect of you

Minimum basic requirements

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Business, or related field; Master's degree or MBA preferred. · 5+ years of progressive HR or talent management experience, with at least 3 years directly focused on skills management, workforce planning, competency frameworks, or organizational capability building, & 1+ years of managerial experience.
Demonstrated experience translating strategy by designing or scaling a skills taxonomy, job architecture, or competency framework in a large, complex organization (5,000+ employees preferred).
Strong understanding of skills-based talent management principles and the strategic shift from job-based to skills-based workforce models.
Experience working with Workday.
Proven ability to manage enterprise-scale HR programs with cross-functional stakeholders and global scope.
Strong data literacy — able to interpret workforce analytics, build business cases, and present data-driven insights to executive audiences.
Exceptional communication, facilitation, and stakeholder influence skills.

Preferred skills, experience and qualities

Experience implementing or operating an internal talent marketplace or gig platform.
Familiarity with AI-powered skills intelligence tools and their application in large-scale workforce strategy.
Prior exposure to global or multi-regional HR environments with matrixed teams, including navigating cultural and regulatory nuances.
Consulting or transformation experience.
Experience leveraging Censia for skills.

Pay range: $114,000 - $158,800 depending on experience and skill set

Annual bonus target of 10% subject to terms and conditions of plan

Benefits overview: https://cdw.benefit-info.com/

Salary ranges may be subject to geographic differentials

CDW is committed to being an AI-fluent organization

As a leader, you will champion and be accountable for our vision of becoming an AI-fluent organization. We expect leaders to model curiosity, encourage responsible AI adoption, and foster a culture of continuous learning. You don’t need deep technical expertise, but you should be comfortable exploring how AI can enhance strategy, decision-making, and team performance. Your role includes guiding others in building confidence and capability with AI tools and practices, while promoting openness to experimentation and shared learning.

We make technology work so people can do great things. 

CDW is a leading multi-brand provider of information technology solutions to business, government, education and healthcare customers in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. A Fortune 500 company and member of the S&P 500 Index, CDW helps its customers to navigate an increasingly complex IT market and maximize return on their technology investments. Together, we unite. Together, we win. Together, we thrive.

CDW is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other basis prohibited by state and local law.

CDW is committed to fostering an equitable, transparent, and respectful hiring process for all applicants. During our application process, CDW’s goal is to get to know you as an applicant and understand your experience, strengths, skills, and qualifications. While AI can help you present yourself more clearly and effectively, the essence of your application should be authentically yours. To learn more, please review CDW's AI Applicant Notice.