| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Human Resources |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | Chief Human Resources Officer |
| Direct reports | Learning and Development Manager, Training Manager, Corporate Trainer |
| Experience | 12 to 16 years, with 7 or more years in learning and development and 3 or more leading an L&D team |
Head of Learning and Development job description template
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Job title: Head of Learning and Development
Department: Human Resources
Reports to: Chief Human Resources Officer
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
The Head of Learning and Development decides what employees need to learn to deliver the business plan, and makes sure they learn it. The role owns the learning strategy and budget, leadership development, functional academies, induction and mandatory training. It reports to the CHRO or HR Director and leads L&D managers, trainers and coordinators. A good L&D head can show business leaders what changed after a program, not only how many people attended it.
Key responsibilities
- Build the yearly learning plan from the business plan, talent review outcomes and capability gaps agreed with each function head.
- Own the L&D budget, decide what to build in house and what to buy, and select external partners and learning platforms.
- Design leadership programs for first-time managers, middle managers and senior leaders, combining assessments, workshops and coaching.
- Set up functional academies for large job families such as sales, customer service, nursing or plant operations, with defined certification levels.
- Oversee induction so that every new joiner completes the company, role and compliance modules within the first month.
- Ensure mandatory programs such as POSH awareness, safety, data privacy and code of conduct are completed and recorded for every employee.
- Measure the effect of programs on business numbers such as sales productivity, error rates or time to competence, and report it to leadership.
- Build a network of internal trainers from subject experts and managers, and certify them to deliver core programs.
- Keep training records, hours and completion data accurate for audits, client requirements and the annual report.
- Lead the L&D team of managers, trainers and coordinators, set their yearly goals and develop their facilitation and design skills.
Requirements
- MBA or PGDM in HR, or a master's in psychology or education
- Graduate in any discipline
- Certification in coaching, instructional design or psychometric assessment is an advantage
- 12 to 16 years, with 7 or more years in learning and development and 3 or more leading an L&D team
KRAs and KPIs for a Head of Learning and Development
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Learning plan delivery | At least 90 percent of planned programs delivered in the quarter they were scheduled |
| Mandatory training | Every employee completes assigned mandatory programs within 30 days of assignment |
| Manager development | At least 70 percent of first-time managers finish the manager program within 6 months of taking the role |
| Business impact | Two or more programs a year show a measured improvement in their target business metric |
| Budget control | L&D spend within the approved budget, with cost per training hour reported every quarter |
| Internal trainer network | At least one certified internal trainer available for every core program |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: Learning management system, Psychometric assessment tools, MS PowerPoint, Zoom or MS Teams, Survey tools, MS Excel.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Chief Human Resources Officer, HR Director, Vice President HR
Interview questions for a Head of Learning and Development
- How do you split an L&D budget between leadership programs and frontline training?
- Show us how you measured the business impact of one program you ran.
- A sales head says training takes time away from selling. How do you respond?
- How would you build a first-time manager program for 60 new team leads across five cities?
- What would you always build in house, and what would you buy from outside?
- How do you get mandatory training completed by shift workers who cannot leave the floor?
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What does a head of learning and development do?
A head of L&D plans and runs everything a company does to build its people's skills: the learning strategy and budget, leadership programs, functional academies, induction and mandatory training. The role also measures whether programs change business results and leads the team of L&D managers and trainers.
What is the difference between learning and development and training?
Training usually means delivering specific programs, such as product, safety or software sessions. Learning and development is broader: it decides which capabilities the business needs, plans how people build them over time through programs, coaching and job moves, and measures the outcome. Most L&D teams run training as one part of that work.
How is the performance of an L&D head measured?
Common measures are delivery of the learning plan, completion of mandatory programs, progress of first-time managers through the manager program, spend against budget and at least a few programs with proven business impact. Attendance and feedback scores matter less than evidence that people perform differently after a program.