The Learning Experience Manager is responsible for leading a team of learning strategists, learning designers, and training coordinators to design, develop, and deliver a portfolio of learning solutions for operational roles across the Underwriting (UW) department. This role reports to the Senior Director of UW Learning & Development, and partners with UW leaders, SMEs, and stakeholder groups across UW teams to understand skill gaps and changes in the UW process to lead the design and development of learning solutions. The Manager is responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the team including staffing team members to projects, managing the scope of work, ensuring expectations are met, keeping the team aligned with department changes / needs, and supporting the performance and career development of team members. This position requires travel to the Milwaukee office on a quarterly basis.
Primary Duties & Responsibilities
Work & People Management
- Articulates team objectives and expectations, holds the team accountable and celebrates successes.
- Tracks and reports-out on team performance, progress, and challenges.
- Manages people and work requests by aligning resource capacity to business priorities.
- Partners with the Insurance Center of Excellence team, shares information and co-creates learning deliverables for UW audiences when needed.
- Provides day-to-day direction and coaching to team members.
- Conducts performance conversations with team members including annual performance reviews and career development conversations.
Change and Process Leadership
- Guides the team through department and team-level changes.
- Identifies and manages through interpersonal and/or team conflicts quickly and fairly.
- Guides process improvements for learning needs assessment, design, delivery and evaluation strategy.
- Leads team members to work creatively within constraints.
- Solves problems and challenges impacting the team through root cause analysis and consideration of multiple perspectives.
- Facilitates open and collaborative discussions within and across teams and stakeholder groups.
Decision Making
- Makes routine decisions for the team independently or with minimal guidance from supervisor.
- Participates in UW L&D leadership team meetings to help establish priorities, troubleshoot issues, and create a productive and positive team culture across L&D.
Learning Design & Development
- Meets with UW leaders, SMEs and stakeholders to understand learning needs and assess skill gaps.
- Serves as an individual contributor on specific projects when additional support is needed with learning strategy, design, and development.
- Provides leadership across the department on learner centric design and development best practices.
- Champions and stays abreast of new learning capabilities and technologies.
- Facilitates training sessions in partnership with SMEs as needed.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Instructional Design, Organizational Development, Education, Communication, or a related field.
- A minimum of 8 years of progressively responsible work experience in corporate learning and development or education-related field.
- A minimum of 3 years of leadership experience with direct reports, 5 years preferred.
- Ability to be agile, flexible and work creatively within constraints.
- Ability to drive work quickly and efficiently in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment.
- Demonstrated ability to partner with others to solve problems, build relationships and lead others through change.
- Strong consulting skills and ability to solve problems using a systematic approach.
- Experience in large-scale curricula development that impacts multiple audiences.
- Experience with using Learning Management systems to improve the delivery and tracking of training.
- Demonstrated experience with project management & collaboration tools (i.e. Jira, Trello, Clarizen).
- Classroom facilitation and meeting facilitation skills.
Compensation Range:
Pay Range - Start:
Pay Range - End:
Geographic Specific Pay Structure:
Structure 110:
$94,640.00 USD - $175,760.00 USD
Structure 115:
$98,910.00 USD - $183,690.00 USD
We believe in fairness and transparency. It's why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you're living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.
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Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer who welcomes and encourages diversity in the workforce. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.
Skills
Learning Agility & Critical Thinking (NM) - Advanced, Talent Development & Planning (NM) - Intermediate, Customer Centricity (NM) - Advanced, Accountability (NM) - Intermediate, Technical & Digital Acumen (NM) - Intermediate, HR Ethics (NM) - Intermediate, Cross Functional Partnering & Planning (NM) - Advanced, Business Influence (NM) - Intermediate, Adaptive Communication (NM) - Expert, Strategic Vision & Planning (NM) - Intermediate
FIND YOUR FUTURE
We're excited about the potential people bring to Northwestern Mutual. You can grow your career here while enjoying first-class perks, benefits, and our commitment to a culture of belonging.
- Flexible work schedules
- Concierge service
- Comprehensive benefits
- Employee resource groups
Top Skills
What We Do
You’ll Like It Here
At Northwestern Mutual, we believe that our lives and our work matter. And that doing what’s right is good for everyone. We follow through by designing tech that improves the community and cultivating creative ways to make finance accessible anywhere. These guiding principles have allowed our company to grow for more than 160 years.
Here, you’ll be with a team who emphasizes integrity and prioritizes security to design experiences that better everyone. You’ll work in cross functional teams to create optimal solutions that are rooted in innovative strategy and thoughtful execution. And you’re provided development tools and opportunities to become a leader all with the support of a collaborative team. You’ll be surrounded in a culture that values innovation and works to always evolve to stay ahead of trends and client needs.
We are intentional in seeking out team members who will challenge us. Our employees choose us for the career opportunities, commitment to philanthropy and desire to have a meaningful impact in the lives of our clients. You have career passions and goals. We have ambition and opportunity for you to grow your future in tech. Discover today: https://careers.northwesternmutual.com/
Why Work With Us
We invest in our people. We know careers are about choices, so we provide intentional opportunity. Here you can build creative ways to make finance accessible anywhere and revolutionize traditional processes. As a mutual company, our focus is our people — whether professional development or investments in the community.
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Hybrid Workspace
Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.
We offer a flexible, hybrid approach for our employees . Teams are in the office a few days a week and work from home the others.





