The posting
The Role
Morningstar is looking for a Director, Learning & Development to define how we build critical capabilities across a global workforce and lead a portfolio of learning experiences that are already setting the standard.
You will inherit a strong foundation: an award-winning, multi-level AI Academy, enterprise learning programs, and global infrastructure. Your job is to strengthen what works, challenge what is possible given technological and business evolutions, build what is still needed, and connect learning clearly to the business outcomes that matter.
This role sits at the intersection of Morningstar's talent strategy and its mission to empower investor success. As AI and technology continue to reshape work, you will help Morningstar invest in the capabilities that remain distinctly human: critical thinking, strategic thinking, sound judgment, collaboration, and adaptability.
You will report to the Global Head of Talent Management and partner with colleagues and stakeholders globally.
This role is based in Chicago.
What You’ll Do
Set the Enterprise Learning Strategy
- Define and lead a global learning strategy aligned with Morningstar's business priorities, talent agenda, and future capability needs.
- Build an always-on learning ecosystem spanning academies, in-the-flow resources, self-directed development, social learning, and AI-enabled personalization.
- Partner with business, People & Culture, workforce planning, talent, and technology leaders to anticipate emerging capability needs.
- Decide what to build, buy, curate, scale, personalize, or stop based on speed, quality, and business value.
Lead and Expand the Academy Portfolio
- Lead the award-winning AI Academy, advancing employees from foundational fluency to practical application and transformational use.
- Expand the academy portfolio to build the innovative and human capabilities required in a technology-driven world.
- Establish portfolio governance with defined audiences, business outcomes, accountable owners, milestones, and impact measures.
- Partner with program owners, facilitators, experts, vendors, and regional talent leaders to scale learning globally while activating it locally.
Advance AI-Enabled Learning
- Use AI as both a subject and a medium for learning, enabling employees to practice, test, and apply new capabilities in real work.
- Apply AI to needs diagnosis, content development, personalization, coaching, reinforcement, assessment, and learning operations.
- Help leaders identify the capabilities required as AI reshapes roles, workflows, decisions, and value creation.
- Ensure AI learning is responsible, practical, tied to business priorities, and measured through application and impact.
Consult, Coach, and Connect
- Build trusted relationships with business leaders, HRBPs, and learning practitioners across Morningstar's businesses and regions.
- Consult and coach partners to diagnose capability needs, define outcomes, and determine whether learning—or another intervention—is the right response.
- Connect learning resources and expertise across businesses to reduce duplication and scale strong solutions without losing local context.
- Lead communities of practice that strengthen standards, solve shared challenges, and accelerate adoption.
Build a High-Impact L&D Function
- Lead and develop a globally distributed team with clear priorities, ownership, decision rights, and accountability.
- Grow L&D capability across strategy, consulting, experience design, facilitation, technology, skills intelligence, community-building, and measurement.
- Strengthen the learning technology ecosystem, including data, dashboards, vendor partnerships, and AI-enabled tools.
- Manage major learning experiences as evolving products, using evidence, learner feedback, and business outcomes to improve impact.
What We’re Looking For
Required
- 10+ years of progressive experience in learning and development, enterprise capability building, talent management, organizational effectiveness, human capital consulting, or a related field.
- Demonstrated success setting and delivering an enterprise learning strategy in a complex, global organization.
- Track record building, scaling, or evolving academies, capability programs, or enterprise learning portfolios tied to strategic priorities.
- Strong consulting and coaching judgment, including the ability to diagnose needs and determine when learning is, and is not, the right solution.
- A current point of view on adult learning, including experiential, in-the-flow, social, digital, and technology-enabled approaches.
- Practical knowledge of AI's implications for learning, capability building, and how work is changing.
- Experience partnering with senior executives, HR leaders, business leaders, and cross-functional stakeholders across regions.
- Ability to build and sustain communities of practice that connect expertise, build shared capability, and improve execution.
- Strong portfolio and operational leadership, including prioritization, governance, vendor management, budget stewardship, risk management, and delivery.
- Experience using data, learner insight, and business measures to evaluate solutions and demonstrate impact.
- Experience leading globally distributed or matrixed teams.
- Executive-level communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to simplify complexity, surface tradeoffs, and build alignment.
Preferred
- Experience in financial services, fintech, investment research, asset management, data, technology, consulting, or another knowledge-intensive industry.
- Experience designing capability strategies for AI adoption or workforce transformation.
- Familiarity with learning platforms, skills technology, AI-enabled tools, instructional-design agents, analytics, and learning experience ecosystems.
- Experience with business academies, technical learning, professional certifications, educational-support programs, and global learning communities.
How You’ll Make an Impact
- Morningstar's learning investments are clearly connected to business priorities and future capability needs.
- Employees access relevant learning in ways that fit their roles, workflows, and level of experience.
- Academies and other learning solutions deliver distinctive, scalable experiences tied to practical application.
- Business leaders experience L&D as a trusted consultant, coach, connector, and capability-building partner.
- Communities of practice help expertise travel across businesses and turn strong local solutions into shared enterprise capability.
- AI helps the learning function move faster, personalize thoughtfully, and focus human expertise where it creates the most value.
- Success is measured by application, capability growth, adoption, and meaningful outcomes, not headcount or hours completed.
Compensation and Benefits
At Morningstar we believe people are at their best when they are at their healthiest. That’s why we champion your wellness through a wide range of programs that support all stages of your personal and professional life. Here are some examples of the offerings we provide:
- Financial Health 100% 401k match up to 6% of salary Stock Ownership Potential Company provided life insurance - 1x salary + commission
- Physical Health Comprehensive health benefits (medical/dental/vision) including potential premium discounts and company-provided HSA contributions (up to $500-$2,000 annually) for specific plans and coverages Additional medical Wellness Incentives - up to $300-$600 annual Company-provided long- and short-term disability insurance
- Emotional Health Trust-Based Time Off 6-week Paid Sabbatical Program 6-Week Paid Family Caregiving Leave Competitive 8-24 Week Paid Parental Leave Adoption Assistance Leadership Coaching & Formal Mentorship Opportunities Annual Flex Stipend - $1000 annually to cover personal education & well-being expenses Tuition Reimbursement
- Social Health Charitable Matching Gifts program Dollars for Doers volunteer program Paid volunteering days 15+ Employee Resource & Affinity Groups
Total Cash Compensation Range
$161,050.00-246,933.33
Inclusive of annual base salary and target incentive
Morningstar's hybrid work environment gives you the opportunity to collaborate in-person each week as we've found that we're at our best when we're purposely together on a regular basis. In most of our locations, our hybrid work model is four days in-office each week. A range of other benefits are also available to enhance flexibility as needs change. No matter where you are, you'll have tools and resources to engage meaningfully with your global colleagues.
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