Lead, Learning and Development - Fossil & Corporate

Talen Energy•Columbus, OH

About The Position

The Learning & Development team partners with Plant Operations to build workforce capability, strengthen safety culture, and support safe, reliable power generation. As a working team lead with direct reports, this position guides learning professionals while personally assessing, designing, delivering, and evaluating technical, safety, and regulatory learning solutions across operating locations. The role supervises, coaches, develops, and evaluates assigned staff; sets expectations; prioritizes workloads; monitors quality and capacity; and provides instructional design guidance. It partners with Plant Operations and Corporate leaders to assess capability gaps and align learning plans with operational readiness, workforce planning, knowledge transfer, changing technology and procedures, and regulatory requirements. The position designs, develops, delivers, and improves technical, operational, safety, compliance, and employee development training. It applies adult learning principles across instructor-led, digital, blended, and on-the-job learning, and creates assessments, videos, job aids, facilitator guides, and train-the-trainer programs, using AI and automation where appropriate. It also partners with plant leaders and Environmental, Health & Safety to reinforce a proactive safety culture and supports current safety, employee, contractor, NERC, and other regulatory learning content. The Lead evaluates internal and external training solutions, coordinates vendors, establishes learning governance and content review processes, leads concurrent initiatives across locations, and measures and communicates training quality, participation, proficiency, effectiveness, and improvement opportunities. The role requires periodic travel to operating facilities and the ability to work in plant environments while following safety requirements. Nuclear plant background and security clearance requirements must be met where applicable. Other duties may be assigned consistent with the responsibilities of the position.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Learning & Development, Instructional Design, Education, Human Resources, Organizational Development, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent education and experience.
Eight or more years of progressive learning and development experience.
Instructional design expertise or technical training experience, along with experience supervising, coaching, or leading training professionals.
Experience conducting needs assessments and developing instructor-led, digital, and blended learning programs.
Experience consulting with business leaders and using learning management systems and instructional design technologies.
Strong project leadership, communication, stakeholder engagement, analytical, and cross-functional coordination skills.
Ability to travel periodically to operating facilities and work in plant environments while following safety requirements.
Ability to meet nuclear plant background and security clearance requirements, where applicable.
Ability to balance strategic consultation with hands-on execution, staff development, and workload management.
Ability to align learning with operational objectives and influence without formal authority.
Instructional design, facilitation, performance consulting, and ability to translate complex technical information.
Analytical, organizational, project management, written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal skills.

Nice To Haves

Experience in power generation, utilities, energy, manufacturing, or other industrial environments.
Experience developing technical, operational, safety, or regulatory training.
Familiarity with NERC Reliability Standards, Critical Infrastructure Protection training, and other regulatory obligations.
Knowledge of OSHA requirements, industrial safety practices, safety management systems, and EHS partnerships.
Experience with competency-based training, knowledge transfer, outsourced learning solutions, video production, and AI-enabled learning tools.
Professional certification in learning and development, instructional design, project management, or a related discipline.

Responsibilities

Supervise, coach, develop, and evaluate assigned learning and development staff; set expectations and provide performance feedback.
Prioritize team workloads, monitor quality and capacity, provide instructional design guidance and review, and identify staffing and vendor needs.
Partner with Plant Operations and Corporate leaders to assess capability gaps, performance challenges, and training priorities.
Align learning plans with operational readiness, workforce planning, knowledge transfer, and changing technology, equipment, procedures, and regulatory requirements.
Design, develop, deliver, and improve technical, operational, safety, compliance, and employee development training.
Apply adult learning principles to instructor-led, digital, blended, and on-the-job learning; translate complex content with subject matter experts.
Create assessments, videos, job aids, facilitator guides, and train-the-trainer programs, using AI and automation where appropriate.
Partner with plant leaders and Environmental, Health & Safety to reinforce a proactive safety culture.
Develop and maintain learning on hazard recognition, risk awareness, safe work practices, and accountability, incorporating lessons from incidents, near misses, observations, and procedure changes.
Support employee and contractor safety onboarding and refreshers; collaborate with course owners to keep content current.
Partner with NERC Compliance, Plant Operations, and technical experts to develop and maintain regulatory learning content aligned with approved requirements, applicable standards, company policies, and operating procedures.
Evaluate internal development versus external providers, vendors, and learning technologies based on business need, quality, cost, and outcomes.
Coordinate external training and evaluate vendor performance and resource effectiveness.
Establish training intake, prioritization, design, delivery, evaluation, maintenance, and content review processes.
Lead concurrent initiatives across locations and partner with course owners, learning systems administrators, and Corporate Learning & Development on platform-ready content and consistent standards.
Measure training quality, participation, proficiency, and effectiveness; communicate priorities, results, and improvements to stakeholders.
Travel periodically to operating facilities and field or corporate sites as needed, and follow plant safety requirements.