Lead Specialist, Learning and Development

Pearson is the world's leading learning company. The Learning and Development team operates in a disruptive and exciting space where pedagogy, learning science, and adaptive technology converge to reshape how humans build capability.

About the role

The Lead Specialist, Learning & Development is an emerging expert in learning science and pedagogy who translates that expertise into practical, AI-enabled development experiences for Pearson's workforce. They apply Pearson’s knowledge of how people learn and how learning is evidenced to help employees progress, grow, and build meaningful careers while demonstrating Pearson’s market approaches.

This role contributes specialized learning science and pedagogy expertise to enterprise Talent Development initiatives, designing and delivering learning solutions that embed capability building into work, tools, and workflows. The focus is on Pearson’s Power Skills (Adaptability, Learning to Learn, AI fluency) to enable career growth and progression. The role integrates evidence-based learning science with modern technologies such as adaptive platforms, agentic AI, skill signaling, verification (Credly), and AI-driven learning design.

The work supports Pearson’s Career Navigation System, helping employees navigate their careers using the D.E.E.P Learning Framework (Diagnose, Embed, Evaluate, Prioritize) to clarify current skills, future opportunities, and next steps.

Success requires strong learning-design judgment, credibility with stakeholders across HR, Product, Engineering, and the business, and the ability to translate emerging priorities into practical, measurable, and adopted methodologies. The role also involves testing and evaluating Pearson’s emerging products and technologies in real-world use to shape development and generate evidence for broader adoption.

Direction of Travel for L&D Professionals at Pearson

This role is shaped by four shifts defining the future of Talent Development at Pearson. The Lead Specialist is expected to design and deliver solutions that advance each of them:

• From participation to verified proficiency: Moving beyond activity metrics and self-declared skills to evidencing capability through application, skill verification, and credentialing (e.g., Credly).
• From learning alongside work to capability embedded in agentic ways of working: Engineering capability into workflows, agents, and decisions.
• From uneven manager quality to manager as multiplier: Equipping managers to role-model AI-fluent leadership, develop human skills, and enable growth conversations that fuel Career Navigation.
• From linear career paths to skills-powered navigation: Designing development paths that support career progression and growth.

Responsibilities

• Learning Science, Pedagogy, and Design
  • Serve as an emerging technical expert in learning science, learning design, and behavior change, applying evidence-based pedagogy to enterprise learning solutions.
  • Design AI learning experiences that move learners from awareness to applied skill proficiency in-the-flow-of-work.
  • Continuously scan external research and practice; test and integrate new mechanisms and platforms for learning and development to keep Pearson’s practice ahead of the market.
  • Act as a technical advisor to peers, HRBPs, and business partners on learning design, quality standards, and appropriate use of modern learning technologies.
• AI-Enabled Learning, Evaluation, and Verification
  • Integrate AI, including generative and agentic AI, responsibly and ethically into learning design, content development, delivery, and evaluation.
  • Contribute to how Pearson assesses capability internally by designing and iterating skill-rating, evaluation, and verification approaches that provide trusted signals of proficiency.
  • Partner with Product, Technology, and OCTO teams to co-design and stress-test Pearson products (e.g., Credly Workforce, Skills Intelligence Engine, CARA, Learning Hub) as Customer 0.
  • Translate emerging AI priorities into practical development solutions that build AI fluency and applied AI capability across the workforce.
• Career Progression and Growth
  • Bring the Career Architecture and Career Navigation System to life for employees and managers, making career pathways clear, visible, and usable in practice.
  • Embed learning into the flow of work through CARA (Pearson’s career coach agent) or other agents to help employees diagnose where they are, evaluate progress, embed learning, and prioritize action (D.E.E.P Learning Framework).
  • Design targeted development for cohorts of common roles or job categories to enable progression, productivity, and open more career pathways.
• Enterprise Capability Building
  • Embed capability building into priority work, tools, and workflows to deliver business impact rather than standalone programs.
  • Apply behavior-change principles to drive sustained adoption and performance improvement.
• Impact, Adoption, and Evidence
  • Apply Pearson’s skills evaluation and verification approach to measure capability growth, behavior change, and business outcomes, not just activity or satisfaction.
  • Use data and insight to continuously improve initiatives and strengthen enterprise talent intelligence.
  • Develop case studies and proof points demonstrating internal adoption and business impact, including externally relevant examples that support Pearson’s commercial narrative and product credibility.
• Stakeholder Partnership and Delivery
  • Partner with HR, business leaders, and Product teams to shape and prioritize enterprise capability needs.
  • Act as a trusted advisor within their scope, challenging and guiding stakeholders on where to focus to build the capabilities that matter most.
  • Drive delivery through complexity, maintaining momentum and translating ideas into practical, adopted outcomes.

Requirements

• Proven applied experience designing and scaling learning and capability-building solutions in complex, matrixed organizations with visible impact on behavior and business outcomes.
• Demonstrable grounding in learning science, pedagogy, and behavior change, with the ability to translate research into practice.
• Experience embedding AI and modern digital learning tools into design, delivery, assessment, and evaluation to move learners from awareness to applied capability in role.
• Experience with career development, career pathing, credentialing, and internal mobility, with a working understanding of how skills data supports talent decisions.
• Experience partnering across HR, business, Product, and Technology teams; comfortable navigating ambiguity to deliver adopted, measurable outcomes.
• Emerging thought partner in the L&D community, engaged with external research, market practice, and Pearson’s own product portfolio; positioning themselves as a future leader in the field.

Skills

• Learning and Development / Pedagogy: Applies learning science to achieve behavior change and performance.
• Instructional and Experience Design: Designs adaptive, in-flow-of-work, and AI-enabled learning experiences.
• Digital Learning Technology: Evaluates and applies modern learning platforms, agentic AI, and adaptive systems.
• Program Evaluation and Skill Verification: Evidences impact through Pearson’s skill-evaluation and verification approach.
• Analytical Skills: Uses data to evidence behavior change and business impact.
• Business Acumen: Aligns capability priorities to enterprise strategy.
• Stakeholder Management: Partners credibly with HR, business, Product Managers, and Engineering stakeholders.
• Problem Solving: Turns emerging strategy into practical, adopted, customer-centric solutions.

Attributes

• Emerging expert energy with deep curiosity about how people learn and how AI is reshaping learning, with a bias to test and evidence.
• Strong judgment; prioritizes effectively in a complex, evolving environment.
• Pragmatic and solution-oriented; operates across strategy and delivery, shaping direction while driving tangible progress.
• Defines and advances new areas of work in a rapidly evolving context, comfortable where the path is not yet fully drawn.
• Partners with Product and Technology teams, recognizing Pearson’s dual position as both a consumer and a creator of learning and skills products.
• Lives Pearson’s culture: customer-centric, raises the performance bar, collaborates exceptionally, inspires as a leader through expertise.

Pay

The minimum full-time salary range for this position is between $103,000 and $191,000. Compensation at Pearson is influenced by factors including skill set, level of experience, and specific location.

Benefits

This position is eligible to participate in an annual incentive program. Information on benefits offered is available here.