Learning and Development Manager jobs: skills, pay and how to get hired

What a learning and development manager does

A learning and development manager, often shortened to L&D manager and also called a training manager, and in German a Personalentwickler or Leiter Personalentwicklung, decides what a company's people need to learn and makes sure they learn it: onboarding for new starters, compliance courses, skills for a new system, programmes for new managers. The job is part analyst, part designer and part project lead, with a budget, suppliers and a learning platform to run.

The role sits inside HR next to the other people roles. The HR manager runs HR as a whole and the HR business partner advises one part of the business, often bringing L&D its first request. The recruiter brings people in; learning helps them grow once they are there. Pay, grades and benefits belong to the compensation and benefits manager. Trainers who only deliver courses have a job of their own; the L&D manager plans what they deliver. The steps from coordinator to chief learning officer are in the career paths of this role.

Rules on training differ by place; the works council's rights in Germany and the training duties of some sectors are examples, and each country's section names its own. This page describes the work; it is not legal advice.

The skills the ads ask for

We read a sample of the ads every day and count the skills they name. On a computer, hover a skill in the text to see its share; on a phone, the table has the same figures.

Design comes first: instructional designTurn a business need into learning objectives, activities and practice that change what people do., which turns a need into objectives and practice, starting from a training needs analysisFind out with managers which skills are missing, for whom, and whether training is the answer. and ending in evaluationShow whether a programme changed behaviour and results, not only whether people liked it. of what changed. Delivery runs on learning management systemsRun the learning platform: catalogues, enrolments, reports and the link to the HR system. such as Cornerstone, Docebo, Moodle, SAP SuccessFactors Learning or Workday Learning, with e-learningBuild or brief short digital modules and blend them with live sessions where practice matters. built in tools such as Articulate or Adobe Captivate. Programme work follows: leadership developmentDesign programmes that prepare people to lead teams, from first-time managers to executives., talent managementLink learning to career paths, succession and the reviews where talent is discussed. and changeHelp people through new systems, structures and ways of working with learning that fits the change. when the company reorganises, run as projectsRun programmes with a plan, a budget, suppliers and dates that hold. with the HR systemKnow how learning data flows between the platform and the HR system, for reports and compliance. behind them.

Frameworks and certificates are named side by side and none is a must everywhere: ADDIEKnow the ADDIE steps of analysis, design, development, delivery and evaluation and when to shorten them. is the classic design model and the Kirkpatrick model the classic way to judge results; the US-based ATD awards the CPTDA talent development certificate shows the ground covered; programmes that worked show the rest., and the UK's CIPDKnow what the UK's CIPD qualifications cover and how UK employers read them. has its own learning and development qualifications at several levels. Most of the job is winning managers' timeWin managers' time for learning and agree with them what success looks like., explaining what a programme changesExplain to executives what a programme will change, and to learners why it is worth their time. and running sessionsFacilitate a room or a video call so that people practise and do not only listen. where people practise. Many programmes run in the language of the country, so GermanAsked for in most German ads, for work with managers, trainers and the works council. counts where it is spoken, next to EnglishThe language of most learning tools, content libraries and international programmes..

Where the jobs are, country by country

Each country below has its own figures: which cities have the most jobs in our list, whether the number is going up or down, how often ads offer remote or hybrid work, the titles used in the country, and pay ranges from published research, in the local currency.

The rules and bodies that reach company training are named side by side, each with its place: the EU AI Act asks employers in the EU that use AI to make sure their staff know enough about it; the German BetrVG gives the works council a say in company training; the US-based ATD sets a certificate many US ads know; the UK Apprenticeship Levy funds apprenticeships at larger UK employers; the Swiss SVEB certifies trainers; India's NSDC funds skills training. The company's HR and legal teams say which apply.

Building one programme, step by step

1. Ask: what the business wants to change, such as fewer errors after a system launch, and how it will know.
2. Analyse: who needs which skill, what they already know and whether training is the fix at all.
3. Design: objectives, practice and a blend of live sessions, digital modules and work on the job.
4. Deliver: with trainers, the platform and managers who give people time and follow up.
5. Evaluate: what people do differently and whether the business result moved, then improve the programme.

The hard part is rarely the content; it is getting managers to make room for learning and to ask about it afterwards. A good learning and development manager is trusted because the business asks for the next programme on its own.

Your CV for a learning and development manager job

A learning and development manager's CV is read first by hiring software that looks for the ad's words, then by an HR leader who wants to see which programmes you built, for whom, and what changed afterwards. Give both: the keywords and the evidence.

Use the keywords the ads use

• Write the work as the ads do: "learning and development", "training needs analysis", "instructional design", "e-learning", "leadership development", and the platforms you ran. The skills table above shows which keywords the ads use most.
• Say how many people a programme reached in words that fit, such as a whole sales team or every new manager, and in how many countries.
• Show results the business recognised: time to competence, errors, staff turnover, internal moves.
• Show a certificate you are still working towards as in progress, with the module or exam you have planned next.

Prove each skill

A learning line proves itself with a need, a design choice and a change you can measure.

Keep confidential details out: no names of people in programmes and no internal survey scores.

How we read our data

• The jobs: the learning and development manager jobs in our job search (L&D managers, training managers, heads of learning and the German titles Personalentwickler and Leiter Personalentwicklung), matched by their titles the way the search matches them; trainers who only deliver courses are not counted here. Our list is not the whole market, so we give shares and rankings, never counts.
• The skills: every day we read a sample of these ads and count the skills in them with a fixed word list. Only the counts are kept, never the text of an ad.
• Pay: from published salary research, each source named with its date, as a range from entry level to senior. Our ads are not used for it.
• Dates: every figure is worked out again each day and shows the day it was worked out.

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