Director of Learning & Employee Experience

Sonida Senior Living•Addison, TX

About The Position

Sonida Senior Living is seeking a Director of Learning & Employee Experience to establish consistent HR operations and develop learning, culture, and employee development programs across its communities. The role owns the design and standardization of HR processes and workflows, supports consistent application by HRBPs and Talent Partners, and builds onboarding and training infrastructure for team members and leaders. The Director leads 1–2 direct reports and partners with the broader HR team, department trainers, subject matter experts, and community leadership. The position oversees onboarding effectiveness, culture and service excellence, learning and development, leadership development and talent management, employee engagement, and HR process standardization. It builds scalable programs and resources, monitors outcomes, translates data into improvements, supports talent processes, and leads change management for new HR processes and policies.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Education, Business Administration, or a related field; an equivalent combination of education and experience will be considered.
At least 7 years of experience in HR, learning and development, or organizational development, with progressive responsibility.
Strong project management skills and experience managing multiple workstreams simultaneously.
Confident facilitation skills for audiences ranging from frontline hourly employees to senior leaders.
Proven ability to design learning curricula from scratch, including needs analysis, content development, and measurement strategies.
Comfort working with HRIS/LMS platforms and Microsoft 365, including Teams for virtual delivery.
Familiarity with employee engagement or survey platforms.
Demonstrated ability to design, document, and implement HR processes and workflows at scale and drive consistency across distributed teams.
Experience managing or developing direct reports.
Ability to build a small, high-performing team and influence without authority across a matrixed organization.
Passion for people and culture, and belief that team orientation and development shape the resident experience.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in organizational development, HR, or a related discipline.
Experience in multi-site or field-based organizations.
Familiarity with project management tools such as Smartsheet, Asana, or Microsoft Planner/Project.
UKG experience.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end onboarding experience for new team members and leaders across all communities.
Develop standardized onboarding timelines, checklists, and touchpoints, including a dedicated new-leader onboarding track.
Partner with Talent Partners and HRBPs to create seamless recruiting-to-onboarding handoffs.
Track onboarding effectiveness using 30/60/90-day metrics, retention data, and new-hire feedback, and apply findings to improve the process.
Embed Sonida’s mission, vision, and CARES values into orientation and ongoing leadership development.
Develop a consistent, scalable orientation experience across communities.
Partner with community and department leaders to incorporate the mission, values, service recovery techniques, and relationship-centered care into daily operations.
Develop tools and resources that help department trainers reinforce Sonida’s culture.
Design, build, and improve learning programs for frontline, operational, and corporate employees across career stages.
Establish a curriculum-design framework in collaboration with department trainers and subject matter experts, grounded in adult learning principles.
Manage and develop the L&D Associate and any additional direct reports to support program delivery and content creation.
Use UKG, SharePoint, and Microsoft 365 to deliver, track, and report on training completion and effectiveness.
Build and manage leadership development programs for emerging leaders, new managers, and senior community leadership.
Partner with HRBPs and Talent Partners on succession planning, high-potential identification, and individual development planning.
Ensure leadership programs develop cultural alignment and service excellence alongside competencies in emotional intelligence, servant leadership, accountability, operational excellence, and HR best practices.
Support the creation and maintenance of talent review processes with HR leadership.
Design and lead the employee engagement strategy, including survey cadence, analysis, and action planning.
Partner with HRBPs and community leaders to turn engagement data into community-level action plans.
Champion recognition programs and initiatives that celebrate employees and reinforce company values.
Monitor engagement trends and share regular insights with HR and senior leadership.
Support a programmatic framework for HR process standardization across communities, including systems, workflows, and accountability structures.
Build and maintain HR process guides, standard operating procedures, and decision trees for the field HR team.
Partner with HRBPs and Talent Partners to identify process gaps, inconsistencies, and improvement opportunities across the employee lifecycle.
Establish accountability mechanisms and workflow checkpoints to monitor process adherence and flag deviations.
Lead change management for new HR processes or policies, supporting adoption through training and clear communication.
Lead 1–2 direct reports and collaborate across the HR team, department trainers, subject matter experts, and community leadership.