Director, Learning & Development

About GAINSCO

Founded in 1978, GAINSCO offers property and casualty insurance with an emphasis on non-standard personal auto policies. It serves drivers nationwide by providing minimum-limits personal auto coverage, making insurance more accessible to a broader market. In 2020, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company acquired GAINSCO, Inc. and its subsidiaries, making a significant milestone that strengthened GAINSCO’s ability to grow and expand its reach in the personal auto industry market while continuing to build on its decades of specialized expertise.

Join a team that is dedicated to supporting your professional growth and long-term success.

Who We Are

At GAINSCO, we are a team driven by passion, creativity, and a commitment to excellence. We celebrate achievements, encourage innovative thinking, and recognize the unique strengths each person brings. Our people truly set us apart.

GAINSCO is seeking a Director, Learning and Development to lead enterprise-wide learning strategy and execution in support of our business goals, culture, and future workforce needs. This strategic leadership role is responsible for designing, implementing, and overseeing skill-based leadership, functional, and organizational development programs that drive performance, engagement, and growth. The Director will serve as a trusted advisor to senior leadership and champion a culture of continuous learning across the organization.

This role also leads a multidisciplinary L&D team, including professionals focused on leadership development, organizational development, and functional training, including support for specialty operational areas such as Claims and Customer Operations/Customer Service. Deep subject matter expertise in those functions is helpful, but the primary need is a leader who can build effective learning strategies, coach teams, and partner closely with business leaders and subject matter experts to deliver impactful training solutions.

What does the Director, Leadership Development do at GAINSCO?

•  Define and execute GAINSCO’s enterprise-wide skills and talent development strategy aligned to business priorities.
• Partner with leaders to identify capability gaps and design targeted development solutions that accelerate performance and growth.
• Leverage assessment tools, skills taxonomy, and digital learning platforms to create scalable, high-impact development journeys.
• Drive adoption of a skills-first culture through change management and learning initiatives.
• Advise senior leaders on talent strategy, leadership capability, and organizational readiness.
• Lead enterprise leadership development initiatives that strengthen succession readiness, executive effectiveness, and leadership pipelines.
• Partner with HR Business Partners and business leaders on career pathing, role design, and succession planning informed by skills and competency insights.
• Serve as a thought leader in change management, culture development, and organizational effectiveness.
• Lead, coach, and develop a team of L&D professionals across leadership development, organizational development, and functional training.
• Provide leadership to trainers and learning professionals supporting specialty business areas, including operational teams such as Claims and Customer Service/Customer Operations.
• Set clear priorities, goals, and success metrics across the L&D function to align with organizational strategy and business outcomes.
• Oversee the design and deployment of leadership, technical, and functional learning programs with measurable outcomes.
• Build team capability through coaching, feedback, development, and career pathing.
• Drive consistent standards for instructional design, facilitation, delivery excellence, and innovation in learning methodologies.
• Measure learning effectiveness through metrics, analytics, and reporting, using insights to improve strategy and program performance.
• Ensure compliance with corporate learning requirements, including annual compliance training.
• Oversee communication of learning opportunities and development initiatives across the company.
• Manage external vendors, consultants, and content providers.
• Own the L&D budget, ensuring cost-effective delivery, resource allocation, and planning.

What is required?

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in Organizational Development, Human Resources, Business, or a related field.

Certifications:

• Certifications in leadership coaching, facilitation, or assessments is preferred, instructional design, change management, or learning technologies are a plus.

Experience:

• 12+ years of progressive experience in Learning & Development.
• 5+ years of experience leading, managing, and developing teams.
• Proven experience using talent assessment instruments such as Korn Ferry, 360 assessments, or similar tools.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise-wide skills transformation initiatives, embedding learning into business strategy, and driving leadership capability across an organization.
• Proven track record in executive-level facilitation, leadership development, and delivering measurable business impact through learning initiatives.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary L&D teams that support both enterprise leadership development and function-specific training is strongly preferred.

Other skills and abilities:

• Strategic thinker with strong business acumen and the ability to align learning initiatives with organizational goals.
  Expertise in skills architecture, adult learning principles, instructional design, and delivery methods.
• Strong leadership and team development capabilities.
• Polished executive presence and ability to influence leaders at all levels.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills. 
• Proficiency with LMS platforms such as Absorb or Percipio, e-learning tools, and collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams
  
  

What else do you need to know?

• Hybrid
• Excellent benefits package: medical & dental, vision insurance, life insurance, short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Parental Leave Policy
• 401K + Company Match
• PTO Plan + Paid Company determined Holidays

**Applicants are required to be eligible to lawfully work in the U.S. immediately; employer will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work authorization (e.g. H-1B visa) for this opportunity**

All offers are contingent upon a successful background investigation (including employment, education, criminal and DMV verification- when applicable) and a pre-employment drug test with results satisfactory to GAINSCO.

GAINSCO is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer