Summary

Valon is a company of high-agency, high-velocity people building in a complex, regulated domain. Your job: be the force multiplier that gets them to mastery faster than anyone thinks is possible.

We're hiring a Learning SystemsLead - a single owner who will build Valon's learning infrastructure from the ground up. The immediate priority is new hire onboarding and deployment ramp (cutting time-to-mastery from ~6 months to ~3). The long-term vision is much bigger: an AI-native, always-on learning layer across the entire company - what we internally call the "eternal coach."

This is not a traditional L&D role. This is a systems-building role that happens to live in the learning domain. You will design, ship, measure, and iterate on the programs and tooling that accelerate how people learn at Valon - starting with onboarding, then expanding into manager development, continuous skill growth, and eventually the full employee learning experience.

Why this role exists

Valon's ramp curve is steep. Today, it can take ~6 months for someone to feel fully ramped. The goal is to drive that toward ~3 months, without sacrificing quality.

We have many smart, high-agency people, but "figure it out" does not scale in a regulated, fast-changing environment. We need one owner who is obsessed with how people learn, and who can translate dense context into repeatable pathways, verification, and reinforcement loops.

The bottleneck isn't volume of people - it's volume of ramped people. This role exists to fix that.

What you'll do (Phase 1: onboarding + ramp)

This is the highest-leverage starting point and your Day 1 priority.

Own new hire onboarding end-to-end (not just content).

• Design the full onboarding journey - "moments that matter," role-relevant tracks, and what good looks like at each stage.
• Make onboarding meaningful across populations, partnering with department leads.
• Ensure someone can explain and apply core mortgage servicing + Valon concepts faster.

Build the Deployment ramp pathway as the first deep dive.

• Partner with deployment leaders and domain experts to extract knowledge and turn it into teachable artifacts.
• Create practice loops for the parts of deployment that are not naturally verifiable.
• Build certifications / verification where appropriate (what "mastery" means, how it is demonstrated).

Orchestrate the system, not just facilitate sessions.

• Create the structure, formats, and delivery mechanisms so experts can plug in.
• Over time, take more lift off leaders by being the "client" for learning: you drive the plan, the standards, and the iteration.

Measure ramp effectiveness and iterate quickly.

• Define and track the KPI: time-to-ramp / time-to-mastery by role.
• Instrument leading indicators (adoption, practice frequency, completion of verification steps) and lagging indicators (performance outcomes).

What you'll do (Phase 2: the full learning layer)

After onboarding and ramp are stabilized, you expand into the broader learning system.

• Manager development: build pathways that create great managers - including, over time, an AI-powered "manager coach" (we've called this the "world's best boss" bot).
• Cross-functional ramp: when someone moves to a new domain or product area, they go through a version of the same mastery system. It's not just for new hires - it's for anyone learning something new.
• Performance + feedback systems enablement: partner with People leaders to operationalize how feedback is taught, practiced, and reinforced.
• Continuous learning loops: ongoing drills, refreshers, and systems that stay current as Valon evolves.
• Certification programs: expand the verification model beyond deployment as needed.

AI is the delivery surface, not an add-on

This is what makes this the L&D role of the future. AI is not a nice-to-have here - it's how this role scales.

• Systems thinking for AI-enabled scale: you design learning that can be delivered and reinforced through tooling, not just live facilitation. One person, powered by the right systems, should be able to do what used to take a team.
• The "eternal coach" vision: over time, you are building toward an always-on, AI-powered learning layer - a resource that any employee can access to get answers, practice skills, and deepen mastery at any point.
• Curious and hands-on: you experiment with AI tools (LLMs, agents, automation) and develop a strong point of view on what actually helps people learn versus what's just noise.
• Build, not just buy: you grow into prototyping internal workflows and tools - like the "manager bot" concept - that reduce "time to answer" and speed mastery.

What success looks like

• New hires reach practical competency materially faster (targeting ~3 months vs ~6 months).
• Deployment ramp is structured, repeatable, and includes verification where it matters.
• Managers spend less time repeating context and more time coaching judgment.
• Learning artifacts stay current and are actually used.
• Continuous learning loops exist (not one-and-done onboarding).
• The onboarding and ramp system gets better every month through measurement, feedback, and iteration.
• Over time, AI-powered tools extend the reach of learning far beyond what one person could deliver through facilitation alone.

Who you are

• Obsessed with how people learn. You think in pathways, practice loops, and behavior change - not slide decks and lunch-and-learns.
• A systems builder. You can design programs that scale via templates, standards, and tooling. You see AI as the delivery surface, not a buzzword.
• High ownership. Accountable for outcomes by date. You fix whatever is required to deliver.
• Comfortable in deep ambiguity. The environment changes; your job is to create clarity and systems anyway. The scope will evolve - and that excites you.
• A strong operator who partners well. You can pull context from domain experts and turn it into usable, teachable artifacts. You're the "client" for learning - you drive the plan.
• A clear writer and communicator. High-signal documentation, workshops when needed, and the ability to make complex things simple.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in regulated industries, or a demonstrated ability to learn dense domain context quickly.
• Experience building certification/verification programs.
• Familiarity with automation/no-code tools and rapid prototyping.
• Background that's non-traditional for L&D (education, product, enablement, EdTech) - we care about learning obsession and building instinct over pedigree.