Design Strategy Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

The Senior Manager, Tax Learning and Instructional Design provides crucial support to our Tax practice. In this key role, the individual leads the technical learning initiatives, instructional design strategy, and compliance monitoring for the Tax practice, while partnering cross-functionally with People & Culture Business Partners, Innovation, and international teams - including resources in India.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership & Partnership

• Serve as the strategic learning partner to Tax leadership, Talent Deployment, People & Culture Business Partners, Innovation, international teams, and key SMEs to ensure learning solutions support business needs, technology adoption, and process changes.
• Lead the Tax learning strategy, roadmap, and annual curriculum planning process to support evolving technical, regulatory, onboarding, and professional development needs.
• Lead the annual Tax service line training program, providing strategic direction, coordination of subject matter experts, team oversight, and execution accountability to ensure the program supports enterprise Tax priorities and learner needs.

Learning Design & Development

• Oversee the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of scalable Tax learning solutions, ensuring the team applies sound instructional design practices and appropriate learning methodologies.
• Guide the team in conducting learning needs analyses, job/task analyses, and stakeholder discovery to identify performance gaps and recommend effective learning solutions.

Team Leadership & Onboarding

• Provide leadership and day-to-day direction to roles supporting Tax learning, including prioritization, coaching, quality review, and execution oversight.
• Ensure effective execution of Tax onboarding and role-, level-, pod-, and system-specific learning pathways, including support for new hires, experienced hires, reviewers, overseers, and other technical learning audiences, in partnership with the Senior Specialist, Onboarding & Cultural Integration.

Operations, Compliance & Budget

• Oversee Tax learning operations, compliance, and reporting, including CPE-eligible training execution, NASBA documentation, and full program lifecycle from set up to completion.
• Manage the Tax training budget in partnership with the Director, Learning & Development, and work with stakeholders to prioritize investments based on business need, learner impact, compliance requirements, and available resources.
• Lead the vendor and build-versus-buy strategy for Tax learning, including vendor research, relationship management, contract awareness, renewals, usage reporting, scope of services, platform adoption, and decisions about when to build internally versus leverage vendor or partner solutions.
• Guide the coordination of SME reviewers, instructors, and client-facing contributors to maintain learning quality while managing the efficient use of billable/client-facing time.

Continuous Improvement & Measurement

• Champion continuous improvement in Tax learning by using feedback, learning analytics, compliance data, and stakeholder input to refine curriculum, delivery methods, and learner experience.
• Establish and oversee methods to measure Tax training program effectiveness, using learner feedback, completion data, behavior change indicators, and business impact to assess impact and inform ongoing program improvements.
• Ensure Tax learning solutions are scalable, sustainable, and accessible across offices, remote teams, and international resources, including increased use of self-study, asynchronous learning, and other flexible delivery methods.

Required:

• Bachelor's degree.
• 4+ years of progressive learning experience, particularly in instructional design.
• Familiarity with CPE and regulatory compliance requirements.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and stakeholders in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
• Demonstrated leadership skills, including coaching and developing team members.
• Strong organizational, time management, and problem-solving abilities.
• Positive, team-oriented mindset with a willingness to learn and take initiative.
• Experience designing and implementing technical/regulatory training curricula (e.g., annual tax training).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience working in a professional services firm strongly preferred (accounting, legal, consulting, etc.).
• CPA license or progress toward CPA preferred
• Familiarity with software for tax professionals (i.e. SurePrep, CCH Axcess, CCH System fx Engagement).
• Knowledge of corporate and partnership taxation (experience with S-corps, individuals, and tax credits a plus).
• Experience with tax research, compliance, and client advisory across a variety of engagements.
• Experience collaborating with international teams, including resources in India
• We are open to this position being in any of the following office locations, working in a hybrid capacity of 3 days in-office per week.

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• Championing the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion by embracing the unique stories, backgrounds, perspectives and ideas that come from our people; and
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*Base compensation offered to candidates are determined based on factors such as candidate's relevant skillset, experience, licensure, and certifications, as well as job responsibilities, geography, market considerations, and organizational needs. At Cohen & Co, we don't stop at setting ourselves apart by offering competitive base compensation. As part of our 'great people first' foundational principle, our firm offers a comprehensive and competitive Total Rewards package that allows each employee to design a package that best suits their needs and goes beyond standard options, including time off outside of your standard PTO to recharge and give back to the community, annual discretionary merit increases and bonuses, talent development resources to tap into growth opportunities.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity of thought and background to build an inclusive and energized culture and better meet the needs of our clients.

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