Learning & Development Specialist

Purpose of the Role

The Employee Learning & Development (L&D) Specialist builds the learning infrastructure AFS needs to help employees grow, perform, and advance. This role designs practical, role-relevant development programs that strengthen employee capability, support internal mobility, improve onboarding and career progression, and equip managers to develop their teams. AI-enabled tools will be used to increase speed, personalization, and scale. The primary objective of this role is to create learning experiences that help employees build the skills needed to achieve AFS’s business goals and see a future for themselves at the company.

Scope of Responsibility and Authority

This role owns the design, development, maintenance, and continuous improvement of AFS employee learning programs and materials. The Specialist partners with HR, business leaders, managers, and subject matter experts to identify critical skill gaps, translate business priorities into practical learning solutions, and create clear development pathways for employees at different levels and functions. The role has decision-making authority over instructional design choices, curriculum structure, content formats, and learning delivery methods within approved guidelines. It escalates decisions involving enterprise-wide learning strategy, new vendor contracts, material budget impact, or significant policy changes to the Managing Director, HR. When AI-enabled tools are used to support content development, personalization, or delivery, this role works with IT, Information Security, and Compliance to ensure tools and content comply with AFS privacy and security policies.

Core Responsibilities

• Identify priority capability gaps across the organization and translate business goals into practical learning plans, curricula, and development resources.
• Design and deliver role-based learning programs that help employees build the skills needed for current performance, future progression, and internal mobility.
• Create clear learning pathways for key employee populations, including new hires, emerging leaders, managers, technical teams, and employees preparing for expanded responsibilities.
• Support onboarding by building structured, engaging learning experiences that shorten ramp time and help employees understand AFS products, processes, culture, and expectations.
• Partner with managers to integrate learning into performance, development, succession, and career conversations.
• Partner with subject matter experts across AFSVision, IRIS, CRN, Pricing Dashboard, operations, customer-facing teams, and corporate functions to convert institutional knowledge into scalable learning content.
• Maintain and continuously update the L&D content library so materials remain accurate, relevant, accessible, and aligned with product, process, compliance, and organizational changes.
• Facilitate live and virtual training sessions, workshops, and manager enablement sessions that are practical, engaging, and immediately applicable.
• Use engagement, completion, feedback, performance, and mobility data to assess training effectiveness and prioritize improvements.
• Use AI-enabled authoring or personalization tools thoughtfully where they improve quality, speed, accessibility, or scale, while ensuring all usage follows AFS data security and compliance standards./

First 12 Months Outcomes: What Success Looks Like

Success in the first year is defined by measurable improvement in employee capability, onboarding effectiveness, manager enablement, internal mobility, and employee engagement with development opportunities. The role should create practical learning infrastructure that helps employees perform better today while preparing them for future growth at AFS.

• Establish a prioritized learning roadmap tied to AFS business goals, critical roles, and the most important skill gaps across the organization.
• Launch role-based learning pathways for at least two priority employee populations, such as new managers, customer-facing roles, technical/product teams, or employees preparing for advancement.
• Improve new hire onboarding by creating structured learning journeys that reduce ramp time and improve early employee confidence, clarity, and productivity.
• Create manager enablement resources that help managers coach employees, discuss development goals, and connect learning to performance and career progression.
• Stand up a current, searchable learning content library that supports employee self-service and reduces reliance on one-off SME explanations.
• Define learning effectiveness measures, including completion, feedback, confidence, application, skill growth, and internal movement indicators, and review them regularly with HR leadership.
• Facilitate practical live or virtual sessions on priority skill areas, ensuring sessions are tailored to employee needs and reinforced with follow-up materials.
• Where AI-enabled tools are used, demonstrate responsible, secure, and value-added use that improves development speed or personalization without making AI the center of the learning strategy.

Ways of Working

• Employee-centered: designs learning around what employees need to succeed, grow, and see a path forward at AFS.
• Business-aligned: connects development priorities to company goals, role expectations, and the capabilities AFS needs to execute.
• Practical builder: prioritizes usable, high-quality learning resources that can be applied on the job, not theoretical programs that sit on a shelf.
• Collaborative partner: works closely with leaders, SMEs, managers, HR, IT, and Compliance to build learning that is credible, accurate, and adopted.
• Data-informed: uses feedback, completion, engagement, skill, performance, and mobility data to decide what to build, improve, or retire.
• Responsible innovator: uses AI and other tools thoughtfully when they improve quality, accessibility, speed, or personalization, while keeping employee outcomes and security requirements at the center.

Profile

The ideal candidate is a practical, employee-centered L&D professional who understands how learning supports performance, career growth, retention, and organizational execution. They can identify skill gaps, build clear learning pathways, translate SME knowledge into accessible development content, and partner with managers to make learning part of day-to-day employee growth. They are comfortable using modern tools, including AI-enabled tools where appropriate, but they are not defined by the tools themselves; they are defined by their ability to help employees build capabilities that matter to AFS and to their own careers.

Qualifications

We are looking for a hands-on learning professional who can connect business priorities, employee development needs, and practical training solutions. The strongest candidate will be able to build and deliver useful learning programs, support manager-led development, and help employees prepare for growth opportunities within AFS. Experience with AI-enabled authoring or learning tools is helpful, but it should support—not replace—strong instructional design, facilitation, stakeholder partnership, and employee development judgment.

• Experience designing, building, and delivering employee learning programs in a corporate L&D, instructional design, talent development, or related function.
• Demonstrated ability to identify skill gaps, define learning objectives, and create practical development content aligned to business needs.
• Strong instructional design judgment; able to translate technical, product, operational, or business subject matter into clear, engaging, role-relevant learning experiences.
• Experience supporting onboarding, manager enablement, career development, internal mobility, or employee development programs.
• Facilitation skills sufficient to lead live and virtual training sessions for employees and managers.
• Ability to partner effectively with managers, HR, business leaders, and subject matter experts to gather input, validate content, and drive adoption.
• Comfort using learning data, feedback, and business context to evaluate effectiveness and continuously improve programs.
• Familiarity with AI-enabled authoring, content-generation, or personalization tools is a plus, particularly when used responsibly to improve quality, speed, accessibility, or scale.
• Comfort operating in a regulated, audited environment and following data classification, confidentiality, and compliance requirements.
• Familiarity with commercial lending, financial services, or B2B SaaS environments is a plus but not required.

Work Environment & Physical Demands

Work is performed primarily in an office setting during normal business hours, with limited evening requirements for special events. Flexible schedule options are available in accordance with AFS company policy. This role requires high-frequency use of computer keyboards and monitors

Position Description Disclaimer

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty listed above satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this role. This position description is intended to provide guidelines for job expectations and is not an exhaustive list of all functions, responsibilities, skills, and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by supervisors as deemed appropriate.

This document does not constitute a contract of employment. AFS reserves the right to modify this position description and assign tasks as business needs require.

Automated Financial Systems, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Equal Opportunity Employer

This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.
For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.