Learning Development Program Manager Jobs in Union City, NJ

At Dig Inn, learning happens everywhere- from a cook practicing their knife skills to a restaurant leader guiding their team through a new hospitality process. We believe thoughtful, accessible learning & growth paths give our teams the confidence to grow, take ownership, and deliver great food and hospitality every day.

As the Manager of Learning & Development, you will focus on our hourly growth program & non-culinary (everything but the food) learning paths. This involves management of our succession planning and reporting, revamping our Hourly Orientation process, advising on our standard operating procedures, and turning team initiatives into organized, engaging learning experiences for our restaurant teams. You'll be responsible for  visualizing what courses should look like, and delivering them with the support of the L&D Associate. 

This is a highly collaborative and detail oriented role. You'll spend time both behind the scenes organizing content and in our restaurants observing training in action, gathering feedback, and learning directly from the people using the materials you create. You do not need to have run your own kitchen, but you should understand restaurant environments, feel comfortable working alongside culinary teams, and have a genuine appreciation for real, good food.

Reporting to the Senior Manager of Training & Development, this role will serve as a foundational piece of our small but mighty Learning & Development team, helping keep projects organized, materials current, and training initiatives moving forward.

• Manage and facilitate hourly succession planning i.e., field communications, establishing meeting cadence & scheduling with the field leaders, compliance tracking of the hourly growth program via the people dashboard. 
• Conduct dashboard maintenance & sharing with the field communicating where each restaurant stands with performance grade, pay rate, certifications (station).
• Own our "First 5 days" program for new hourly employees by actively participating in & improving the Hourly Orientation process. 
• Manage the learning paths for key training items put forth by our Marketing/Business Development, Tech, and Facilities teams and collaborate with the L&D Associate in building and delivering these structured learning paths.
• Co-Manage the day-to-day administration of Dig Inn's Learning Management System, Circle.
• Visit restaurants to observe processes, test materials, gather feedback, and better understand how training comes to life in a working kitchen. This would involve quarterly audits of our Training Restaurants in Front of House & hourly program compliance. 
• Track participation, completion, feedback, and other learning data to help the broader team understand whether programs are effective.
• Keep training calendars, project trackers, shared drives, and content libraries organized and up to date. 
• Help identify opportunities to make training clearer and more useful for our restaurant teams.
• Proofread and quality-check all materials with a serious focus on detail, consistency, and accuracy.

• 1-3 years of relevant management experience in learning and development, training coordination, culinary or restaurant operations, or a related field.
• Experience closely supporting a restaurant, food service, culinary, hospitality, or other food-focused organization in an H&R or People Team capacity. 
• Experience in developing curriculum, or course design in an e-learning environment. 
• Excellent writing and communication skills, with the ability to turn detailed or technical information into content that feels clear, approachable, and easy to follow.
• Strong organization, project-management skills, and attention to detail.
• Comfort spending time in active restaurant and kitchen environments and building relationships with restaurant teams.
• Confidence in learning and managing new technology, experience administering an LMS strongly preferred.
• Flexibility and a "will do" attitude when priorities shift or new needs arise.
• A passion for real, good food.

• Experience with Circle LMS.
• Experience creating digital gamified content, videos, quizzes, or assessments.
• Spanish-language skills.

Salary Range: $95,000-$105,000/year

• Health Insurance (Medical, Dental, and Vision)
• 16 weeks of Fully Paid Parental Leave for primary and secondary caregivers
• 401K Plans
• Short-Term Disability
• Bonus Potential
• Phone reimbursement
• Commuter benefits
• Company laptop
• Flexible vacation time, up to 20 days per year
• Hybrid work environment.
• Complimentary Dig Inn lunch every day (we highly recommend the sweet potatoes.)

Dig Inn is an upscale fast-casual brand with 30 locations throughout the Northeast. We're committed to sourcing, cooking, and serving delicious, seasonal vegetables and culinary comfort food at scale. Sounds good? Tastes even better.

Each of our restaurants is run by a chef and an entire culinary team, all dedicated to cooking from scratch all day, everyday. We've trained a whole generation of chefs and cooks from the ground up, including many who had never worked in a restaurant before. That's because we believe knife skills are life skills.

We're focused on doing things right and building our business on good food and great people. We believe access to good food shouldn't have to be a movement, an ethos, or even a doubt-which is why we built Dig Inn to be fresher, from sourcing to serving.