Manager, Learning & Development Programs & Consulting

Manager, Learning & Development Strategy & Programs

The Manager, Learning & Development Strategy & Programs will build organizational capability by creating and driving learning programs while serving as a consultative advisor to business and HR leaders. This role requires a strong combination of learning expertise, critical thinking skills, partner influence, program execution, people leadership, and data-driven decision-making.

Meet the Team

You will work closely with business leaders, HR business partners, Talent Management, People & Communities, Organizational Effectiveness, Diversity & Inclusion, functional enablement teams, communications partners, learning operations, vendors, and global employee populations. You will also advise senior leaders on learning strategies, development solutions, organizational capability needs, and program effectiveness.

Your Impact

As a Manager, Learning & Development Programs & Consulting, you will lead the creation, execution, and continuous improvement of learning and development programs while also serving as a trusted internal consultant to business leaders and HR partners. You will partner with interested parties to diagnose capability gaps, assess organizational learning needs, recommend development strategies, and design scalable solutions that improve employee, manager, and leadership effectiveness. This role combines strategic consulting, program management, learning design, collaborator influence, and people leadership. You will translate business priorities into practical learning strategies and drive programs that enable performance, growth, transformation, and long-term capability building.

Key Responsibilities

Learning Strategy & Program Creation

Develop and own learning strategies aligned to business priorities, workforce capability needs, talent priorities, and leadership expectations. Design scalable learning programs, curricula, development journeys, and enablement solutions for targeted employee populations.

Internal Consulting & Needs Diagnosis

Serve as a consultative partner to business leaders, HR business partners, and functional collaborators. Conduct discovery sessions, analyze business challenges, identify root causes, assess skill and capability gaps, and recommend learning or development solutions that address business needs.

Advisory Partnership

Provide guidance to leaders on learning strategy, manager enablement, leadership development, team effectiveness, employee growth, and capability-building approaches. Influence interested parties by bringing insights, data, external standard methodologies, and practical recommendations.

Program Leadership & Execution

Drive end-to-end learning program delivery, from discovery and needs assessment through design, launch, adoption, measurement, and continuous improvement. Manage program plans, landmarks, communications, risks, vendors, budgets, and partner expectations.

People Management

Lead, coach, and develop a team of learning professionals, program managers, instructional designers, facilitators, or consultants. Set clear expectations, provide feedback, remove barriers, and build a team culture focused on quality, accountability, inclusion, and impact.

Learning Design & Experience

Ensure programs are practical, engaging, inclusive, accessible, and grounded in adult-learning principles. Support blended learning experiences, including live sessions, digital content, cohort-based programs, manager toolkits, peer learning, coaching, and on-the-job application.

Organizational Effectiveness Support

Partner with HR and business leaders to support broader organizational effectiveness initiatives, including culture activation, leadership capability, team development, change readiness, employee engagement, and performance enablement.

Change Management & Adoption

Create adoption strategies that drive awareness, participation, engagement, completion, and sustained behavior change. Partner with communications teams, people leaders, and HR partners to position learning programs effectively and increase business adoption.

Measurement & Continuous Improvement

Define success metrics, gather feedback, analyze learning data, and report outcomes to interested parties. Evaluate participation, learner satisfaction, behavior change, capability growth, customer value, and business impact. Use insights to improve programs over time.

Minimum Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Learning & Development, Business, Education, Psychology, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

8+ years of experience in Learning & Development, Talent Development, Organizational Development, HR, business enablement, or internal consulting.

3+ years of experience leading programs, projects, teams, or consulting engagements in a matrixed organization.

Experience designing, launching, and managing enterprise or business-unit learning and development programs.

Experience consulting with business leaders or HR partners to identify needs, diagnose capability gaps, and recommend development solutions.

Program Management skills, including planning, execution, collaborator management, risk management, reporting, and continuous improvement.

Preferred Qualifications

People management experience leading L&D professionals, program managers, instructional designers, facilitators, consultants, or vendor partners.

Experience in internal consulting, organizational effectiveness, change management, talent consulting, or leadership advisory work.

Experience building leadership development, manager enablement, onboarding, career development, team effectiveness, culture-change, or capability-building programs.

Knowledge of instructional design, adult learning theory, organizational development practices, change management, and blended learning models.

Experience working in a global technology company or large, complex enterprise environment.

Strong executive communication and facilitation skills, including the ability to present insights, recommendations, and outcomes clearly.

Experience conducting needs assessments, stakeholder interviews, focus groups, capability assessments, or learning diagnostics.

Vendor management experience, including selection, contracting, quality management, and performance tracking.

Certification or advanced education in coaching, organizational development, instructional design, agile, change management, consulting, or project/program management.

Why Cisco?

At Cisco, we're revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We've been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint. Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you'll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $147,100.00 to $190,700.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits. Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco's plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco's policies:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• 1 paid day off for employee's birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
• Exempt employees participate in Cisco's flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from