Senior Manager, Tax Learning & Instructional Design

Cohen & Co•Milwaukee, WI

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Senior Manager, Tax Learning and Instructional Design provides crucial support to our Tax practice. In this key role, the individual leads the technical learning initiatives, instructional design strategy, and compliance monitoring for the Tax practice, while partnering cross-functionally with People & Culture Business Partners, Innovation, and international teams — including resources in India.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree.
4+ years of progressive learning experience, particularly in instructional design.
Familiarity with CPE and regulatory compliance requirements.
Ability to manage multiple priorities and stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.
Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
Demonstrated leadership skills, including coaching and developing team members.
Strong organizational, time management, and problem-solving abilities.
Positive, team-oriented mindset with a willingness to learn and take initiative.
Experience designing and implementing technical/regulatory training curricula (e.g., annual tax training).

Nice To Haves

Experience working in a professional services firm strongly preferred (accounting, legal, consulting, etc.).
CPA license or progress toward CPA preferred
Familiarity with software for tax professionals (i.e. SurePrep, CCH Axcess, CCH System fx Engagement).
Knowledge of corporate and partnership taxation (experience with S-corps, individuals, and tax credits a plus).
Experience with tax research, compliance, and client advisory across a variety of engagements.
Experience collaborating with international teams, including resources in India

Responsibilities

Serve as the strategic learning partner to Tax leadership, Talent Deployment, People & Culture Business Partners, Innovation, international teams, and key SMEs to ensure learning solutions support business needs, technology adoption, and process changes.
Lead the Tax learning strategy, roadmap, and annual curriculum planning process to support evolving technical, regulatory, onboarding, and professional development needs.
Lead the annual Tax service line training program, providing strategic direction, coordination of subject matter experts, team oversight, and execution accountability to ensure the program supports enterprise Tax priorities and learner needs.
Oversee the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of scalable Tax learning solutions, ensuring the team applies sound instructional design practices and appropriate learning methodologies.
Guide the team in conducting learning needs analyses, job/task analyses, and stakeholder discovery to identify performance gaps and recommend effective learning solutions.
Provide leadership and day-to-day direction to roles supporting Tax learning, including prioritization, coaching, quality review, and execution oversight.
Ensure effective execution of Tax onboarding and role-, level-, pod-, and system-specific learning pathways, including support for new hires, experienced hires, reviewers, overseers, and other technical learning audiences, in partnership with the Senior Specialist, Onboarding & Cultural Integration.
Oversee Tax learning operations, compliance, and reporting, including CPE-eligible training execution, NASBA documentation, and full program lifecycle from set up to completion.
Manage the Tax training budget in partnership with the Director, Learning & Development, and work with stakeholders to prioritize investments based on business need, learner impact, compliance requirements, and available resources.
Lead the vendor and build-versus-buy strategy for Tax learning, including vendor research, relationship management, contract awareness, renewals, usage reporting, scope of services, platform adoption, and decisions about when to build internally versus leverage vendor or partner solutions.
Guide the coordination of SME reviewers, instructors, and client-facing contributors to maintain learning quality while managing the efficient use of billable/client-facing time.
Champion continuous improvement in Tax learning by using feedback, learning analytics, compliance data, and stakeholder input to refine curriculum, delivery methods, and learner experience.
Establish and oversee methods to measure Tax training program effectiveness, using learner feedback, completion data, behavior change indicators, and business impact to assess impact and inform ongoing program improvements.
Ensure Tax learning solutions are scalable, sustainable, and accessible across offices, remote teams, and international resources, including increased use of self-study, asynchronous learning, and other flexible delivery methods.