Senior Director, Supervision Talent & Development

Northwestern Mutual; Milwaukee (WI); Hybrid; USD 158,000 - 248,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual is seeking a Senior Director of Supervision Talent & Development to lead onboarding, training, development, and quality across the Home Office and Field. This executive role shapes an integrated talent ecosystem aligning with regulatory developments, enterprise risk, and business needs.

You will build leadership capabilities, drive scalable development journeys, and partner with senior leaders to elevate supervision practices.

Qualifications

• Proven leadership in financial services, supervision, risk management, or related disciplines.
• Experience shaping training systems, onboarding programs, and talent development strategies.
• Strong understanding of financial services products, advisor practices, and supervisory responsibilities.
• Ability to translate strategy into actionable direction and build credibility across teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute an integrated strategy for supervision onboarding, training, development, and quality across Home Office and Field.
• Design development journeys to strengthen knowledge, judgment, service orientation, leadership capability, and career growth.
• Lead Home Office and Field training, development, and onboarding programs with clear measures of success.
• Improve licensing speed, proficiency, and readiness for quality work independently.
• Oversee the Home Office quality review program and align feedback with trends, audits, and development priorities.
• Build alignment between Home Office and Field programs to address distinct needs.
• Serve as a visible thought leader for the supervision community and stakeholders.
• Lead a multidisciplinary team and set roles, priorities, and accountability in a collaborative culture.

Skills

Leadership experience

Strategic thinking

Communication

Regulatory knowledge

Influence without authority

Stakeholder management

Talent development

Coaching leaders

Education

Bachelor7s degree

Job description

About the Job:

The Senior Director, Supervision Talent & Development is a leadership role within Northwestern Mutual’s Enterprise Compliance Department responsible for leading the strategy for supervision onboarding, training, development, and quality across the Home Office and Field. This role evolves existing capabilities into an integrated talent ecosystem that accelerates proficiency, strengthens judgment, improves quality, and prepares supervision professionals for the future of the work, while leading teams and partnering with supervisors, managing partners, senior leaders, and subject matter experts to align development priorities with business needs, regulatory developments, emerging risks, and the changing nature of supervision.

What You’ll Do:

• Develop and execute an integrated strategy for supervision onboarding, training, development, and quality across the Home Office and Field.
• Design development journeys that strengthen business knowledge, judgment, service orientation, leadership capability, confidence, and long-term career growth.
• Lead Home Office and Field training, development, and onboarding programs, establishing clear priorities, measures of success, and shared learning foundations where appropriate.
• Improve the speed and effectiveness with which new employees complete licensing, build proficiency, and become prepared to perform quality work independently.
• Oversee the Home Office quality review program and establish feedback loops among quality review, training, business trends, regulatory developments, audit findings, and development priorities.
• Build stronger alignment between Home Office and Field programs while addressing the distinct needs, responsibilities, and development priorities of each population.
• Serve as a visible, credible, and relatable thought leader for the supervision community, building trusted relationships with supervisors, managing partners, senior leaders, and other key stakeholders.
• Influence stakeholders to take action, strengthen supervision practices, and invest appropriately in supervision talent and capability.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team responsible for training, onboarding, development, quality review, and program enablement. Set clear roles, priorities, performance expectations, and accountability for outcomes while building a collaborative, service-oriented culture focused on quality, sound judgment, and continuous learning.
• Lead the evolution of foundational programs into an integrated, scalable supervision talent and development model, using data, technology, and artificial intelligence to improve learning, accelerate feedback, increase capacity, and strengthen quality insights.
• Travel may be required based on business and leadership needs.

What You’ll Bring to the Role:

• Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• Significant leadership experience in financial services, supervision, compliance, risk management, field leadership, advisor support, talent development, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated success leading teams and building, scaling, or materially improving organizational capabilities.
• Experience shaping training systems, onboarding programs, talent development strategies, learning journeys, or related professional development experiences.
• Strong understanding of the financial services industry, including financial planning concepts, products, advisor practices, and supervisory responsibilities.
• Proven ability to build credibility, influence without direct authority, and drive action across organizational boundaries.
• Demonstrated ability to coach and develop leaders, teams, and stakeholders.
• Outstanding communication, presentation, and relationship-building skills, including the ability to translate strategy into engaging and actionable direction.
• Strong strategic thinking, business acumen, judgment, and execution capabilities.
• Ability to lead through ambiguity and evolve established capabilities into a more integrated and scalable operating model.
• Experience in supervision, supervisory leadership, compliance, risk, or a related financial services capacity preferred.
• Experience supporting geographically dispersed populations preferred.
• Experience leading learning, talent development, organizational effectiveness, quality programs, onboarding journeys, professional development frameworks, or coaching practices preferred.
• Certified Financial Planner, Chartered Financial Consultant, Chartered Life Underwriter, or a comparable industry designation preferred.
• Current or prior FINRA Series 7, Series 24, and Series 9/10 registrations, comparable supervisory registrations, or willingness and ability to obtain applicable registrations based on the requirements of the role preferred.

#LI-Hybrid This position has been classified as a Registered Representative under NMIS guidelines and requires fingerprinting.Series 6 - FINRA, Series 7 - FINRA Compensation Range: Pay Range - Start: $144,000.00 Pay Range - End: $216,000.00 Geographic Specific Pay Structure: Structure 110: $158,400.00 USD - $237,600.00 USD Structure 115: $165,600.00 USD - $248,400.00 USD

We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you’re living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable,

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives. At Northwestern Mutual, we believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter. These beliefs launched our company over 160 years ago.

What started in Milwaukee, WI has grown into 7,000+ home office professionals split across 3 campuses: New York City, Franklin and downtown Milwaukee (HQ) - each one bringing with it its own unique talent and culture. In a company with such a long and storied history, this may be the most exciting and important time to be a part of Northwestern Mutual as we are growing our digital and tech capabilities and are always on the lookout for bright, tech-savvy candidates.

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.