Senior Manager: Learning & Development – Professional Skills

Overview

As Senior Manager: Learning and Development – Professional Skills, you will design, deliver and evaluate the London-based professional skills portfolio for lawyers and business services professionals, with oversight across EMEA and Asia. You’ll partner with senior stakeholders to align programmes with firm strategy, coach teams, and potentially line-manage an L&D administrator or apprentice. The role blends facilitation, instructional design and stakeholder advisory to deliver measurable behavioural impact. This is a global, collaborative position within Mayer Brown’s L&D team.

Pay / Benefits

• hybrid working policy
• flexible working
• inclusive culture
• opportunity for cross-regional collaboration
• supportive L&D environment
• professional development opportunities

Responsibilities

• Set the annual professional skills curriculum for London, EMEA and Asia aligned to firm priorities
• Manage budget and external providers, ensuring value for money and procurement compliance
• Line manage and develop direct reports
• Lead end-to-end design, delivery and evaluation of learning programmes (e.g., Apprentice, Secretarial Team Leader, Junior/Mid-level Manager)
• Lead graduate recruitment, CSR and community engagement learning initiatives
• Co-deliver Trainee Development Centre with Legal Skills lead; support global coaching/mentoring
• Manage L&D sponsorship and clawback agreements
• Maintain L&D intranet content and oversee ad hoc projects
• Design and facilitate workshops across in-person, hybrid and virtual formats
• Develop blended/digital learning; keep abreast of learning theory and tech; innovate methods
• Coach individuals/teams and guide on further support; ensure inclusive access across offices
• Provide return-to-work coaching; keep updated with L&D and legal sector developments
• Design proactive communication plans and act as trusted adviser on development needs
• Collaborate with HR teams and other departments for integrated learning interventions
• Evaluate programmes for behaviour change and business impact; produce L&D metrics
• Ensure regulatory and professional requirements compliance (SRA competence)

Key requirements

• Substantial experience designing, delivering and evaluating professional skills learning, ideally in a law firm or professional services
• Highly skilled facilitator with senior audiences and coaching experience
• Strong instructional design and project management abilities
• Experience evaluating learning for behaviour change and business impact
• Ability to influence partners and senior leaders
• Excellent written/oral communication and stakeholder management
• Experience with learning management systems and digital tools (e.g., Poll Everywhere, Microsoft Forms)
• Knowledge of Micron CE Manager, VinciWorks or AI-enabled learning tools is advantageous
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint) and collaboration tools (Teams, Zoom, WebEx)
• Degree level education or equivalent experience (education specified as a general requirement)
• Coaching qualification and CIPD or related field qualification (desirable)
• Accreditation in psychometric tools (e.g., DiSC, MBTI, Hogan) (desirable)

• Relationship-building
• Proactive and self-motivated
• Attention to detail
• Learning design and development
• Facilitation (in-person, hybrid, virtual)
• Blended and digital learning development

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