Director of Training & Development
Location: Tri-State Area (Remote with some in-office presence + light travel)
Reports To: CEO
About the Role
Madison Davis is seeking a Director of Training & Developmentto build and lead our training function from the ground up. This is a hands-on, front-line role responsible for designing, executing, and enforcing firm-wide training standards — with a heavy focus on developing junior researchers, recruiters, and early-career sales professionals.
This is not a passive learning & development role.
This person will be in the work: training new hires directly, listening to calls, running role-plays, shadowing during ramp-up, evaluating performance at 30/60/90 days and beyond, and partnering closely with leadership to raise the bar across the firm.
The right candidate is a builder and a coach — someone who has spent meaningful time inside a staffing agency, understands what good looks like on a desk, and knows how to develop people while also identifying misalignment early.
What You’ll Own
Training Strategy & Build-Out
- Design and build Madison Davis’ entire training infrastructure from scratch — including onboarding, ramp programs, ongoing development, and performance evaluation frameworks.
- Create a structured training path with clear expectations and milestones at 30, 60, 90 days and beyond, with consistency across offices and practices.
- Establish firm-wide training standards while allowing flexibility for individual practice leaders to teach industry-specific nuance.
Front-Line Training & Coaching
- Personally train all new hires through onboarding and ramp — from junior researchers to experienced lateral hires.
- Run live training sessions, workshops, role-plays, and hands-on exercises focused on core recruiting fundamentals.
- Sit in on live recruiting and sales calls, review real outreach and conversations, and provide direct, actionable coaching.
- Shadow new hires during ramp-up to assess readiness, skill development, and execution quality.
Evaluation, Accountability & Performance
- Own 30/60/90-day evaluations and ongoing assessments, with the authority to clearly identify who is progressing and who is not.
- Partner with leadership to screen people out early when expectations are not being met.
- Track and report on training effectiveness through performance metrics including:
- Call volume and quality
- Quality of candidate and client conversations
- Speed to productivity
- Ramp consistency across teams
- Deliver monthly training and ROI updates to leadership.
Leadership Partnership & Enablement
- Work hand-in-hand with the CEO and practice leaders to align training with business priorities and growth plans.
- Coach hiring managers on how to reinforce training standards and fundamentals with their teams.
- Build foundational playbooks focused on recruiting fundamentals, while leaving specialty knowledge to practice leadership.
Infrastructure & Scaling
- Create and maintain a centralized training content hub (format and platform to be determined).
- Evaluate and recommend training tools or platforms as the function matures.
- Lay the groundwork for a scalable training organization that can eventually support additional trainers or learning leaders.
What This Role Is Not
- Not a content-only or video-library role
- Not a passive L&D or HR function
- Not focused on scripting messaging or over-engineering scorecards
- Not industry-specific technical training — fundamentals come first
This role is about execution, quality, consistency, and accountability.
Who We’re Looking For
Required
- 5+ years of experience inside a staffing agency, with strong preference for current or recent agency experience.
- Background that includes either time on a desk or deep proximity to desk-level execution.
- Experience building or helping scale training programs — not just facilitating existing ones.
- Comfortable being hands-on: coaching live calls, running role-plays, and working directly with new hires.
- Strong evaluator who can make tough calls and clearly articulate readiness, gaps, and misalignment.
- Highly organized, process-driven, and confident operating without existing infrastructure.
Preferred
- Experience training researchers, recruiters, and junior sales professionals.
- Exposure to both high-growth and structured staffing environments.
- Strong executive presence and ability to partner directly with senior leadership.
What Success Looks Like
- New hires ramp faster with greater consistency and quality.
- Clear standards exist for what “good” looks like at each stage of development.
- Underperformance is identified early and addressed decisively.
- Training becomes a competitive advantage, not an afterthought.
- The foundation is in place to scale training alongside the firm’s growth.
Why This Role Matters
This is a pillar role at Madison Davis. The person in this seat will directly shape the quality, performance, and trajectory of our people — and by extension, the future of the firm.
If you’re someone who thrives on building, coaching, and holding a high bar — and you want real ownership — this role was built for you.
