Learning and Development Specialist - Leadership and Professional Development

Learning and Development Specialist – Leadership and Professional Development

Downtown Emergency Service Center, Seattle, Washington, United States – Human Resources

The Learning & Development Specialist, Leadership and Professional Development is responsible for leadership development opportunities s role focuses on maintaining high‑quality leadership programs, building new courses where gaps exist, and creating career pathways for staff to advance into leadership positions. The specialist also oversees the Train the Trainer program.

This position is part of the Learning and Development team within the Department of Organizational Equity and Inclusion and reports to the Senior Manager of Learning and Development.

Recognized nationally as an innovator and leader in developing solutions to homelessness, DESC is a social services organization, supportive housing operator, and licensed behavioral health treatment provider focused on meeting the needs of people experiencing long‑term homelessness and living with complex behavioral health and other medical conditions. Approximately 3,000 people receive services from DESC at any given time. DESC operates five shelter/emergency housing programs, 19 permanent supportive housing facilities with over 1,750 units, several hundred additional scattered site apartments, and a range of behavioral health services including outpatient mental health and substance use disorder treatment, residential crisis stabilization, street outreach, mobile crisis response, and treatment for opioid use disorder.

Leadership Foundations

• Manage all aspects of the Keystone Leadership Development Program, Leadership Foundations.
• Maintain a regular scheduling cadence for the Leadership Foundations series.
• Keep an up‑to‑date spreadsheet tracking current cohorts, leaders who need to enroll, and completed cohorts.

Curriculum Development

• Collaborate with cross‑agency stakeholders to identify skill gaps.
• Create curriculum for trainings and workshops for all levels of leadership for continuous learning.
• Use online authoring tools to create asynchronous learning modules.
• Bring innovative solutions founded in adult learning principles.
• Identify gaps and develop learning courses to address them.

Training and Facilitation

• Facilitate leadership programs, partnering with co‑facilitators and subject matter experts.
• Own the Train the Trainer program, maintaining the primary Train the Trainer 101 and developing continued facilitation skill development opportunities.
• Coordinate sessions of Train the Trainer for curriculum to support leaders’ compliance knowledge and ability to teach their staff.

Agency Representation

• Present a persona of professionalism and model of leadership.
• Interface with leaders of every level with warmth, collaboration, and respect.

Communication

• Communicate all leadership development opportunities.
• Manage email communications and questions related to projects.

Other Duties as Assigned

• Assist in efforts to maintain agency‑wide learning compliance, tracking in the LMS, and reporting as needed.
• Facilitate and assist the Learning & Development Department at the request of the Senior Manager for Learning and Development.

Minimum Qualifications

• 2 years of experience with related skills such as managing projects and programs, training/facilitating, and developing curriculum.
• Confident with public speaking, directing large groups, and serving as an agency representative to staff and external partners.
• Excellent interpersonal, teamwork, and diplomacy skills. Strong collaborative partner to leadership and staff across the agency.
• Knowledge of best practices in adult education, with the ability to design and deliver engaging and effective presentations, workshops, and other learning experiences.
• Demonstrated success in managing multiple projects, with the ability to organize and coordinate work efficiently.
• Strong ability to communicate and prioritize competing deadlines, varied workload, and adapt to changing priorities with short notice.
• Initiative‑taking critical thinking skills with strong attention to detail.
• Skilled in Microsoft Office, including word…