Senior Manager, Learning & Development

Zynga•Austin, TX

About The Position

Our Functional Councils are the "guardians of the bar" for Zynga’s talent. While studio leadership manages vertical day-to-day operations, the Councils provide the horizontal integrity necessary to ensure our disciplines remain world-class. We are introducing a new role, Sr. Manager L&D, to serve as the primary partner for these Councils, directly supporting the functional and technical training requirements across the business. This individual will turn high-level talent observations into high-impact, craft-specific training roadmaps. You will be responsible for evolving our training strategy beyond general professional development into the specialized, technical upskilling required for Art, Engineering, Game Design, Product, and Production.

Requirements

8+ years of experience in Technical Training, Instructional Design, or Talent Development, preferably within the gaming, tech, or creative industries.
Deep expertise in adult learning principles. This person must be able to design comprehensive learning interventions that ensure skill transfer and long-term retention in a fast-paced environment.
Experience building and delivering programs from concept to daily use at scale.
Passion for continuous improvement and evolving the "craft" of learning.
Experience with the Cornerstone on Demand platform or other Learning Management System (LMS) as a delivery mechanism for training programs.
The ability to "speak" the language of engineers, artists, product managers, and producers. A deep understanding of game development cycles and creative pipelines is essential to maintain credibility with Council Leads and SMEs.
Expert-level knowledge of adult learning principles and instructional design. Proven experience designing comprehensive learning interventions that ensure skill transfer and long-term retention in a fast-paced, high-output environment.
Strategic agility to navigate and align the needs of five distinct Discipline Councils. Ability to synthesize disparate requests into a cohesive global strategy for functional development.

Responsibilities

Design and execute thorough needs assessments to identify the technical and functional skills required for the next 1-2 years across all major disciplines.
Translate these insights into a multi-quarter functional training roadmap that balances specific discipline needs with a global, cross-discipline perspective.
Partner directly with Discipline Council leads (Art, Production, Game Design, Product, and Engineering) to prioritize initiatives that drive the most business value.
Partner with relevant AI Stakeholders to integrate AI training and enablement into the functional training roadmap across disciplines.
Partner with internal Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) to design training interventions that are technically accurate, culturally relevant, and optimized for high-retention learning.
Curate and manage craft-specific learning paths within our training platforms (e.g., Cornerstone, Pluralsight).
Scale a "Peers Teaching Peers" culture designing with internal knowledge sharing in mind, reducing reliance on external vendors through collaborative learning programs.
Move beyond tracking simple completion rates to focus primarily on performance outcomes and behavioral change.
Provide the Discipline Councils with data-backed proof of how L&D investments are moving the needle on organizational "Readiness" and craft excellence.
Other Talent related assignments and projects as business needs require.