Head of Training & Development

Senior HR leadership role responsible for building and leading our training and development function from the ground up. The Head of Training & Development initially balances strategic program design with hands-on execution — building curriculum, standing up systems and processes, and personally facilitating high-priority training — and over time transitions into leading a team of regional trainers who deliver day-to-day courses and classes. This role's initial focus is technician and safety training, with responsibility expanding to own all training company-wide, including sales, management, and leadership development. This role is results-oriented, defining clear KPIs and metrics for every program and articulating training's return on investment to executive leadership.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: In addition to the essential job functions described below, all associates will perform duties as requested by management.

Training Strategy & Program Build-Out

• Build our enterprise training and development strategy, curriculum, and infrastructure from the ground up, balancing long-term program design with the hands-on work needed to get programs off the ground.
• Establish a phased roadmap and priorities for the training function, sequencing technician training first and expanding into sales, management, and leadership training.
• Select and implement the tools and systems (LMS, curriculum library, certification tracking, etc.) needed to scale training across a growing, multi-site field service organization.
• Define the long-term operating model for the training function, including the transition from directly-delivered training to a network of regional trainers.
• Partner with executive leadership to align training investment and priorities with overall business strategy.

Technician Training

• Own technician training end to end in the near term, including technical skills and certification curriculum, partnering with operations and branch managers to identify and close skill gaps.
• Align technician training content with our technician career path and skill-based leveling framework to support consistent development and advancement.
• Build and, in the near term, personally deliver onboarding and ramp-up training for newly hired technicians to accelerate time-to-productivity.
• Build customer-facing soft-skills training (communication, professionalism) for technicians to strengthen the customer experience during service visits.
• Establish the technician training curriculum and delivery model that regional trainers will use once the function scales.

Safety Training

• Partner with our EHS team to ensure safety training content is relevant, relatable, and effective for the field workforce, pairing EHS's compliance expertise with a training and adult-learning lens.
• Own development and, in the near term, personal delivery of safety training curriculum, partnering with EHS on technical content and accuracy.
• Align safety training with EHS audit findings, incident trends, and DOT/compliance requirements to keep content current and relevant.
• Build safety training into technician onboarding and certification pathways, with delivery transitioning to regional trainers over time, consistent with the technician training model.

Enterprise Training Portfolio (Sales, Management & Leadership)

• Own training and development for the full organization beyond technicians, including sales training, management/supervisory training, and leadership development.
• Prioritize and sequence the rollout of non-technician training programs based on business need and organizational readiness.
• Partner with sales, operations, and HR leaders to ensure training content reflects current tools, processes, and strategic priorities.
• Build a leadership development pipeline that supports succession planning and internal promotion.

Facilitation & Delivery

• Personally facilitate high-priority or high-visibility training sessions, particularly during the early build-out phase, when a dedicated trainer team does not yet exist,
• Design train-the-trainer standards and programs to prepare regional trainers to deliver consistent, high-quality instruction.
• Transition day-to-day course and class facilitation to regional trainers as the function matures, retaining ownership of content quality, consistency, and program direction.

Metrics, ROI & Reporting

• Define KPIs and success metrics for every training program (e.g., completion and certification rates, time-to-competency, behavior change, business impact).
• Build reporting and dashboards that clearly articulate training's return on investment to the executive team.
• Use performance data to continuously prioritize, refine, and sunset training content and delivery methods.
• Present training performance and ROI updates on a regular cadence to HR and executive leadership.

Team Building & Regional Trainer Network

• Build the business case for, and once approved, hire, onboard, and develop a network of regional trainers/facilitators.
• Establish delivery standards, tools, and coaching support to ensure consistent training quality across the organization.
• Provide ongoing leadership, coaching, and performance management to the regional trainer team as it is built out.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Change Leadership

• Partner with HR, operations, and business leaders to align training initiatives with broader talent and business strategy.

• Serve as a change agent, driving adoption of new training programs, tools, and processes across the organization.

• Represent training and development priorities and needs in cross-functional planning and decision-making.

Success Measurements:

• Technician training completion and certification attainment rates, by branch and region
• Time-to-competency for new technicians and new hires in other training tracks
• Training's measurable contribution to increases in technician write-ups as a percentage of PMs completed
• Technician aptitude advancement rate: tracking each technician's level progression during employment (hire-in level as the baseline, with each training-driven level advancement scored) to measure the function's ability to advance technicians over time
• Reduction in voluntary turnover attributable to training and development investment
• Win-rate improvement on non-bid contracts, reflecting the impact of traditional sales training (equipment, field sales)
• Renewals team performance following sales training, measured by PM retention, margin improvement, scope increases, and upside
• Leadership and management training participation and bench strength for succession planning
• Demonstrated training ROI, measured against cost per participant and program
• Progress against the training function build-out roadmap (systems, curriculum, and regional trainer network)

Other:

• Abide by all policies, rules, and regulations of the company including all applicable safety rules, regulations, and procedures
• Work overtime as needed, particularly during the early program build-out phase
• Ability to travel as needed to branches and regions to deliver training, assess needs, and build the regional trainer network, which may include frequent overnight travel - roughly 25-30%

Experience, Skills and Abilities:

• 7+ years of progressive experience in training and development, learning & development, or organizational development, including experience building a training function or program from the ground up
• Experience training a technical, trade, or field-service workforce (e.g., technicians, tradespeople) strongly preferred
• Proven ability to design and scale training programs spanning technical/operational, sales, management, and leadership development
• Strong track record defining KPIs and metrics for training programs and articulating ROI to executive leadership
• Demonstrated ability to operate at both a strategic level (program design, roadmap, executive communication) and a tactical level (curriculum development, hands-on facilitation), especially in an early-stage or fast-growth environment
• Experience building and leading a team of trainers or facilitators, including designing train-the-trainer programs
• Instructional design experience, including adult learning principles and multiple delivery modalities (in-person, virtual, hands-on/technical)
• Experience with learning management systems (LMS) and training/performance data tools (e.g., Power BI)
• Strong facilitation and presentation skills, with the ability to engage both frontline technicians and senior leaders
• Strong project management, prioritization, and organizational skills to manage multiple concurrent training initiatives
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate training outcomes into business terms for executive audiences
• Bachelor's degree in a related field (e.g., Organizational Development, HR, Education, Business) or equivalent experience; advanced degree or learning & development certification a plus
• General computer skills (Microsoft products, Power BI, LMS platforms, auxiliary software)

Physical Requirements: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an associate to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation can be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Vision: minimum vision required to prevent injury from oneself and others
• Hearing: perceiving the nature of sounds with or without correction
• Talking: expressing or exchanging ideas by means of the spoken word
• Lifting small objects constantly; 20-pound objects frequently and 20-50 pound objects occasionally
• Climbing ladders, stairs and ramps