Senior Manager Leadership Capability

Company Description

NBCUniversal is one of the world’s leading media and entertainment companies. We create world-class content, which we distribute across our portfolio of film, television, and streaming, and bring to life through our global theme park destinations, consumer products, and experiences. We own and operate leading entertainment and news brands, including NBC, NBC News, NBC Sports, Telemundo, NBC Local Stations, Bravo, and Peacock, our premium ad-supported streaming service. We produce and distribute premier filmed entertainment and programming through our powerhouse film and television studios, including Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, and Focus Features, and the four global television studios under the Universal Studio Group banner, and operate industry-leading theme parks and experiences around the world through Universal Destinations & Experiences, including Universal Orlando Resort, home to Universal Epic Universe, and Universal Studios Hollywood. NBCUniversal is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation. Visit www.nbcuniversal.com for more information.

Our impact is rooted in improving the communities where our employees, customers, and audiences live and work. We have a rich tradition of giving back and ensuring our employees have the opportunity to serve their communities. We champion an inclusive culture and strive to attract and develop a talented workforce to create and deliver a wide range of content reflecting our world.

Job Description

This is a rare opportunity to shape the next generation of leadership capability in a complex, global organization – and to do it from the ground up.

As part of the Leadership Capability & Learning Center of Excellence, this role serves as the diagnostic and design engine of our leadership development system. The Sr. Manager, Leadership Capability is responsible for identifying the leadership capability gaps that matter most to business performance, translating those gaps into clear behavior targets, and designing practical development experiences that drive real and measurable behavior change.

This is not a role for someone who delivers programs that already exist. It is a role for someone who figures out what the organization actually needs — and then builds it. Every experience this role designs is grounded in diagnosis, anchored to our Leadership Expectations Framework, and built with measurement in mind from the very first conversation.

You will work closely with Talent Management, Organizational Effectiveness, and HR Business Partners to read organizational signals, form a point of view on what must change, and build leadership experiences that connect directly to business outcomes. You will also collaborate closely with the Senior Manager of Leadership Growth & Enablement, whose work governs the infrastructure of how leaders move through the development ecosystem. Together, these two roles form the architecture of the COE — one diagnosing and designing, the other governing and sequencing.

This role is for a builder and a thinker. Someone who is as comfortable forming a point of view in ambiguity as they are translating that view into something a leader can use on Monday morning.

Here you can:

Diagnose Leadership Capability Needs

The most important thing this role does is form a clear, evidence-based point of view on what is actually getting in the way of leadership effectiveness at UDX. That requires more than gathering data – it requires synthesizing signals into a prioritized perspective and making a call.

• Partner with Talent Management, Organizational Effectiveness, and HR Business Partners to interpret organizational signals — including talent review data, employee engagement results, leadership performance indicators, and business outcomes — and identify where leadership capability gaps are costing the organization most.
• Use the Leadership Expectations Framework as a diagnostic lens, identifying which specific are most critical to strengthen given current business priorities.
• Translate diagnosis into a clear capability priority: not a list of everything that needs to improve, but a defensible point of view on what must change first and why.
• Bring capability priorities to life for leaders and stakeholders in ways that are practical, business-relevant, and free of unnecessary jargon — making the case for why this work matters in terms the business actually cares about.

Design, Build & Bring to Life Leadership Development Experiences

This role designs development experiences that are modern, practical, and built to drive behavior change, not just awareness. Measurement is not an afterthought here. It is a design discipline. Before anything is built, this role defines what behavior change looks like, how it will be assessed, and what business outcome it is intended to move.

• Design leadership development experiences grounded in learning science and adult learning principles, with a relentless focus on practical application over theoretical knowledge.
• Build measurement architecture into every experience from the outset, defining success metrics, behavior change indicators, and business linkages before design begins, not after delivery ends.
• Rapidly prototype and pilot solutions, gathering feedback early and iterating quickly rather than waiting for perfection before launching.
• Co-create learning experiences with leaders, ensuring that what gets built reflects real leadership challenges, earns leader ownership, and lands as relevant rather than as an HR initiative.
• Ensure every experience connects to and builds upon other elements of the leadership development system — coaching, assessments, onboarding, HiPo programming — rather than functioning as a standalone event.
• Facilitate leadership development sessions, forums, and peer learning experiences when appropriate, creating conditions for honest reflection, meaningful dialogue, and behavior change that leaders can apply immediately.
• Integrate AI and learning technologies to enhance development experiences, extend learning beyond formal sessions, and scale capability building across a global, complex organization.

Measure Impact & Continuously Evolve the Work

This role takes ownership of demonstrating that leadership capability investment is moving the business forward — not through participation counts or satisfaction scores, but through evidence of behavior change and organizational outcomes.

• Track and report on the metrics defined during the design phase, assessing whether leadership behaviors are shifting and whether those shifts are connecting to the business outcomes they were designed to influence.
• Use measurement insights to continuously refine experiences — killing what is not working, strengthening what is, and evolving the portfolio over time as organizational needs shift.
• Build a body of evidence that the COE can use to demonstrate value, inform future investment decisions, and make the case for why leadership development is a business imperative, not a nice-to-have.
• Understand and actively participate in Environmental, Health & Safety responsibilities by following established UDX policy, procedures, training, and team member involvement activities.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily.  The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or abilities (KSAs) required.

• Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Consistent attendance is a job requirement.

EDUCATION:

• Bachelor’s degree in organizational development (OD), Industrial-Organizational Psychology, HR, or related field required.

EXPERIENCE:

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree in organizational development, learning and development, industrial-organizational psychology, human resources, or a related field — or equivalent demonstrated experience in leadership capability building or organizational effectiveness work.
• 7+ years of progressive experience in leadership development, organizational development, or talent management — with clear evidence of owning diagnosis and design, not just program delivery.
• Demonstrated experience diagnosing leadership capability gaps using organizational data, talent insights, or qualitative signals — and translating that diagnosis into a clear, prioritized point of view on what needs to change.
• Experience designing and building leadership development experiences from scratch, including the ability to define what behavior change looks like and how it will be measured before design begins.
• Solid facilitation skills with the ability to hold senior leader audiences, create psychologically safe environments for honest dialogue, and guide conversations that translate expectations into practical behavior change.
• Proven ability to work as a strategic partner to HR Business Partners and senior business leaders — not as a program vendor but as a trusted advisor who can challenge thinking and hold a point of view under pressure.
• Proven written and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate complex capability concepts into language that resonates with business leaders at all levels — from a frontline manager to the C-suite.
• Demonstrated comfort operating in ambiguity — building without a complete playbook, iterating quickly, and forming a point of view without waiting for perfect information.

Preferred:

• Experience building or contributing to a Leadership Expectations or Competency Framework in partnership with an external vendor or internal stakeholders.
• Familiarity with coaching governance, assessment frameworks, or HiPo programming — even if not as the primary owner.
• Experience working in a COE environment where standards and frameworks had to scale across multiple sites, geographies, or business units.
• Background in learning science, adult learning theory, or experience design — enough to have an informed point of view on what makes a development experience effective versus just well-received.
• Experience in a complex, operationally intensive industry — entertainment, hospitality, retail, or similar — where leadership development had to be practical, fast, and business-relevant rather than theoretically elegant.
• Familiarity with global mindset considerations in leadership development — designing experiences that are relevant and equitable across geographically and culturally diverse leader populations.
• Graduate degree in organizational psychology, organizational development, or a related field, or equivalent professional certifications in coaching, assessment, or leadership development.

Additional Requirements:

• Hybrid: This position currently has a hybrid schedule, which requires contributing from the office a minimum of four days per week. The Company reserves the right to change in-office requirements at any time.
• This position is eligible for company sponsored benefits, including medical, dental and vision insurance, 401(k), paid leave, tuition reimbursement, and a variety of other discounts and perks. Learn more about the benefits offered by NBCUniversal by visiting the Benefits page of the Careers website. Salary range: $110,000 to $135,000 (bonus eligible)

Additional Information

As part of our selection process, external candidates may be required to attend an in-person interview with an NBCUniversal employee at one of our locations prior to a hiring decision. NBCUniversal’s policy is to provide equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, gender identity or expression, age, national origin or ancestry, citizenship, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, pregnancy, veteran status, membership in the uniformed services, genetic information, or any other basis protected by applicable law.

NBCUniversal will consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories, or arrest or conviction records, in a manner consistent with relevant legal requirements, including the City of Los Angeles’ Fair Chance Initiative For Hiring Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act, where applicable.

If you are a qualified individual with a disability or a disabled veteran and require support throughout the application and/or recruitment process as a result of your disability, you have the right to request a reasonable accommodation. You can submit your request to [email protected].