Director of Learning and Talent Development

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced Learning & Development leader to build, implement, and scale a comprehensive L&D function for a growing wealth management firm. This individual will create the infrastructure that enables employees, particularly Advisors and other client-facing professionals, to develop the knowledge, skills, and experience required to succeed in their current roles and progress throughout their careers. The firm has already invested in Advisor development and has meaningful work in place; this role is responsible for evolving, extending, and scaling that foundation rather than building from scratch.

The role spans learning strategy, career architecture, competency development, performance and development management, workforce readiness, and measurable organizational capability. The ideal candidate has built or significantly evolved an L&D function within wealth management, financial advisory, or a similar professional-services organization, and understands the challenge of developing professionals into highly capable, trusted client advisors.

Key Responsibilities

Build & Scale the Learning & Development Function

• Design and implement a firmwide Learning & Development strategy aligned with the organization's growth plans, talent needs, and business objectives.
• Create the infrastructure, processes, curriculum, and governance needed to carry the firm’s existing development work forward into a structured, repeatable, and scalable development model.
• Establish annual and multi-year L&D priorities, and determine what learning is built internally, delivered by subject-matter experts, supported through technology, or sourced externally.
• Scale development capacity by broadening how learning is delivered (recorded and video content, vendor and third-party resources, case studies, competency assessments, structured contributions from Advisors across the firm, and learning software) so that development capacity is not dependent on any single subject-matter expert.

Career Architecture & Competency Frameworks

• In partnership with firm leadership, develop clear career paths across key functions, with particular emphasis on Advisor career progression.
• Define the competencies, knowledge, behaviors, experiences, and performance expectations required at each career level.
• Create objective criteria for advancement, so that employees understand what is expected of them now, what they need to develop, and what they must demonstrate to advance.

Performance & Development Management

• Own the firm’s performance review process, including its design, cycle management, manager and employee guidance, calibration, documentation, and ongoing improvement.
• Partner with firm leadership to design and continuously improve the performance and development framework, so that expectations, competencies, development priorities, and career progression are clearly connected.
• Ensure individual development plans reflect performance feedback, identified competency gaps, career goals, and organizational needs.
• Equip managers with the tools and frameworks to give meaningful feedback, assess development needs, and hold employees accountable for progress.

Learning Design, Delivery & Technology

• Establish a disciplined process for assessing individual, team, and organizational skill gaps, and translate findings into learning priorities and measurable interventions.
• Create role-specific learning journeys that combine formal training with coaching, mentoring, experiential learning, and on-the-job development.
• Own and optimize the firm's learning technology ecosystem, including its learning management platform, and identify where LLM tools can improve personalized learning, knowledge access, content development, skills assessment, and coaching practice.
• Design the learning components of onboarding, with structured plans and defined milestones that accelerate new-hire proficiency.

Advisor Development, Readiness & Workforce Capacity

• Create a structured Advisor development framework defining what performance and readiness look like at each stage, from Associate Advisor through Lead Advisor and into senior leadership and/or Partner-level roles.
• Partner with firm leadership to identify the technical, client-management, judgment, leadership, and business-development competencies required at increasing levels of responsibility.
• Develop objective methods for evaluating when an Advisor is ready to manage client relationships more independently and advance within the firm.
• Define readiness in observable terms — for example, whether an Advisor can independently lead a discovery meeting, manage a plan-change conversation, or defend a recommendation to a client — and track and evidence progress against those standards so that development is demonstrable rather than assumed.
• Maintain and share a forward-looking view of the Advisor pipeline and talent capacity, including who is ready now, who is expected to be ready within 6, 12, and 24 months, and where growth may create future capacity gaps.
• Monitor Advisor capacity on an ongoing basis and, working with firm leadership, model future capacity against the firm’s growth projections forecasting which roles will be needed and when, and translating that view into a forward hiring plan.

Advisor Collaboration & Firm Culture

• Guide the firm’s Advisor collaboration forums, including the recurring weekly Advisor calls, so that these touchpoints reinforce development priorities, shared standards of practice, and peer-to-peer learning.
• Support the firm’s cultural touchpoints, including town halls and firm events, so that they reinforce the firm’s standards, values, and development priorities.

Measurement & Impact

• Build an L&D measurement framework that evaluates more than participation and completion, tracking skill development against identified gaps, time to proficiency, Advisor readiness, internal mobility, bench strength, and the impact of development on individual and organizational performance.
• Report regularly to leadership on workforce capabilities, development progress, emerging gaps, and areas requiring intervention.
• Provide readiness and development data to inform succession planning, development priorities, and future hiring needs.

Qualifications

• 8-10 years' experience in Learning & Development and/or Talent Development.
• Demonstrated experience building or substantially scaling an L&D function.
• Strong experience developing meaningful L&D metrics, competency models, career frameworks, learning journeys, and managing performance and development frameworks.
• Demonstrated experience scaling development through multiple delivery channels, including learning technology, third-party and vendor content, and structured use of internal subject-matter experts.

Strong preference will be given to candidates with Learning & Development experience within wealth management, registered investment advisory, or closely related financial services organizations.

What Success Looks Like

Within the first 12 months:

• Employees understand what is expected of them, how they are performing, and what they must demonstrate to advance.
• Career paths, competency expectations, performance management, and development planning are clearly defined and connected to one another.
• Leadership has visibility into skill gaps, Advisor readiness, bench strength, and potential capacity constraints.
• Learning programs are tied to identified business and talent needs.
• The firm can objectively assess whether its investment in learning is producing greater capability, readiness, and business impact.
• The firm’s existing development work has been consolidated, extended, and made repeatable, with less reliance on any single individual to deliver it.

A detailed Year 1 success plan, including specific measures of progress, will be developed with the successful candidate and firm leadership.

Compensation & Work Arrangement

The annual base salary for this position is $135,000 to $150,000. This range reflects the good-faith compensation the firm expects to pay for this role at the time of posting; actual compensation will be determined by relevant experience, demonstrated capability, and internal equity. The position is based in the firm's Jericho, New York office and requires on-site presence five days per week.