Talent Development Manager

About the role

The Talent Development Manager owns the end-to-end delivery of White Lodging's instructor-led, in-market leadership development programs, including Flight School, our three-day cultural and leadership immersion experience for every newly hired or newly promoted manager across our properties. This role blends detailed program and event management with confident, engaging facilitation. It also serves as the primary point of contact for the White Lodging Career Journey, our organization-wide career pathing and development program. This is a highly visible, collaborative role that touches leaders across every hotel in our portfolio, and it requires someone who is as comfortable managing a hotel's Banquet Event Orders (BEOs) and travel itineraries as they are standing in front of a room of new managers early in their management journey with White Lodging.

Responsibilities

• Manage the full lifecycle of in-market, instructor-led leadership development programs from initial planning through post-event close-out, with meticulous attention to detail and a proactive, deadline-driven approach.
• Identify, schedule, and confirm guest leaders and subject matter experts to speak at programs, balancing availability and applicability.
• Build and send calendar invitations to all participants, facilitators, and guest leaders, keeping details current as plans evolve.
• Request and secure meeting space from participating hotels for each program, coordinating dates, room setups, and rate negotiations directly with property teams.
• Review and confirm hotel Banquet Event Orders (BEOs) to ensure meeting specs, food and beverage, group resumes, and audiovisual needs are accurate and confirmed well ahead of each session.
• Partner directly with participating leaders and their managers to confirm travel arrangements and ensure participants have completed any required pre-class work and understand what to expect before day one.
• Review post-event invoices for accuracy against contracted rates and BEOs and submit them for processing through Finance and Accounting teams, ensuring accuracy and timely payment to our hotel and vendor partners.
• Seek to understand the needs of participants, hotel partners, and property leaders, checking in proactively throughout each program to confirm expectations are being met, not just after the fact.
• Analyze evaluation data to make recommendations on updates to training content and program structure.
• Explore and apply AI-enabled tools to strengthen program logistics and evaluation analysis, bringing fresh efficiency to planning and reporting without losing the personal attention hotel partners and participants expect.
• Monitor program-related spend against projected costs for meeting space, catering, travel, and materials, flagging variances to leadership in a timely manner.
• Serve as a confident, credible facilitator who brings White Lodging's culture and leadership expectations to life in the room.
• Before leading any program independently, the Talent Development Manager will spend a structured onboarding period learning the full content, design, and delivery model, understanding the intent behind this