Associate, Education

Sallie Mae•New Castle, DE

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Associate, Education designs, delivers, and evaluates educational programs and training initiatives for newly hired and tenured employees. The role includes direct management of employees assigned to New Hire Education, with responsibility for setting expectations, monitoring performance and attendance, coaching and providing feedback, managing employee development, and holding employees accountable to performance, behavioral, compliance, and workplace standards. The position helps ensure front-line employees are equipped to deliver exceptional customer service, maintain compliance, and meet operational performance targets, and assesses their readiness to transition into production. The Associate develops training curricula for onboarding, compliance, product knowledge, systems usage, soft skills, and customer service. Training is delivered through in-person facilitation, virtual classrooms, e-learning, microlearning, and simulations. The role aligns learning programs with contact center performance metrics, provides post-training coaching and reinforcement, collaborates with business and support teams to identify needs, and updates training for regulatory, product, and process changes. It also administers the Learning Management System, maintains training records, analyzes results, and recommends improvements.

Requirements

Strong organizational skills and attention to detail to manage program logistics and administrative tasks.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and other relevant software applications.
Knowledge of contact center operations and performance metrics.
Experience with adult learning principles, instructional design, and learning technologies.
Strong communication, facilitation, and coaching skills.
Ability to analyze data, measure training effectiveness, and adjust content accordingly.
Demonstrated experience directly managing, coaching, and developing employees.
Ability to create a positive learning environment while maintaining consistent leadership expectations and performance standards.

Nice To Haves

Bachelor’s degree in education, Business Administration, or a related field; relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Five or more years of experience in training design and delivery, preferably in a contact center, banking environment, grade school, or higher education.

Responsibilities

Manage and lead employees throughout New Hire Education and their transition to the production environment.
Communicate expectations for attendance, punctuality, engagement, professionalism, conduct, performance, productivity, quality, and compliance.
Monitor employee performance, progress, and proficiency throughout the education program; provide documented feedback and take appropriate action when expectations are not met.
Manage attendance and employee matters in accordance with company policies, partnering with Human Resources and Operations leadership as appropriate.
Evaluate employee readiness to transition to production based on demonstrated knowledge, skills, behaviors, performance, and completion of required education.
Foster accountability, engagement, inclusion, continuous learning, and high performance, including consistent standards during the transition to production.
Design and develop training curricula for onboarding, compliance, product knowledge, systems, soft skills, and customer service.
Deliver interactive training through in-person facilitation, virtual classrooms, e-learning modules, microlearning, and simulations.
Develop training on core banking systems, CRM platforms, and other customer service technologies.
Align programs with contact center metrics including Initial Call Resolution (ICR), Average Handle Time (AHT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), and Quality Assurance scores; monitor post-training performance and identify refresher or coaching needs.
Implement post-training reinforcement through floor coaching, on-the-job training, knowledge assessments, and job aids; mentor and coach frontline staff.
Partner with department heads, QA, compliance, and customer experience teams to identify training needs and performance gaps.
Use quality monitoring insights and customer feedback to refine training programs and support change management for product rollouts, process changes, and regulatory updates.
Embed customer experience principles in training and teach emotional intelligence, empathy, de-escalation, and effective communication.
Ensure training content meets current banking regulations, compliance standards, and internal policies; update materials as laws, products, and industry practices change.
Administer the Learning Management System for course management, tracking, and reporting; maintain accurate training and assessment records.
Generate reports on training effectiveness and recommend improvements based on data analysis.
Collaborate with training professionals and provide leadership, coaching, feedback, recognition, and development to direct reports.

Benefits

Competitive base salaries
Bonus incentives
Generous paid time off, floating holidays, and 12 observed federal holidays
Financial well-being and retirement support
401(k) with employer match
Medical, dental, vision, hospital indemnity, critical illness, and pet insurance
Employer-paid short-term and long-term disability and basic life insurance
Flexible hybrid working arrangements
Paid parental leave and adoption reimbursement programs
On-site staffed fitness centers in Delaware and a gym subsidy for locations outside Delaware
Confidential counseling support (EAP), Health Advocacy services, and a wellness program with financial incentives
Tuition reimbursement and family scholarship programs
Career development and training opportunities