Senior Manager, Leadership & Performance Development

Patagonia; Ventura (CA); Hybrid; USD 163,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

Dental coverage

Vision coverage

Retirement plan

Paid leave

Hybrid work schedule

Job summary

Patagonia seeks a Senior Manager, Leadership & Performance Development to build leadership, performance, and core learning foundations that help employees grow, contribute, and perform at their best. The role focuses on embedding clear leadership expectations, meaningful performance practices, and shared learning rooted in The Patagonia Way.

Reporting to the Chief People & Culture Officer, you will partner with senior leaders to translate priorities into practical development priorities, scale

Qualifications

• 8+ years of progressive experience in leadership development, talent development, organizational effectiveness, learning strategy, performance management, or related disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Define strategy and direction for leadership, performance, and core learning experiences.
• Lead leadership development to build manager capability and accountability.
• Shape performance development to drive clarity, growth, and meaningful contribution.
• Oversee scalable, in‑flow learning experiences aligned with Patagonia's values and goals.
• Lead and develop a high‑performing team responsible for leadership, performance, and learning initiatives.

Skills

Leadership development

Executive coaching

Stakeholder management

Strategic planning

Learning strategy

Job description

Role: Senior Manager, Leadership & Performance Development Team: People, Culture & Impact (PCI) / Talent & Workforce Development Scope: Team Leader, M4 Years of Experience: 8+ years Location: Ventura, CA or Reno, NV (Hybrid)

Overview

Patagonia believes growth happens through meaningful work, strong leadership, continuous learning, and shared accountability. The Senior Manager, Leadership & Performance Development is responsible for building the leadership, performance, and learning foundations that help employees and leaders grow, contribute, and perform at their best across the company. The immediate focus for this role is establishing and embedding clear leadership expectations, meaningful performance practices, stronger manager capability, and shared learning experiences rooted in The Patagonia Way. From that foundation, this leader and their team will use feedback, data, and experimentation to continuously improve and scale what works. This role reports to the Chief People & Culture Officer and Global Head of Justice & Belonging.

What You’ll Do

Define Strategy and Direction

Define and evolve Patagonia's approach to leadership development, performance development, and core learning experiences. Translate company priorities, workforce needs, and leadership expectations into practical, high-impact development priorities. Build strong foundations, learn through experimentation, and use insights to guide what evolves next. Set priorities, make tradeoffs, and focus team resources on the work that will have the greatest impact.

Lead Leadership Development

Define and embed Patagonia's leadership expectations across the moments that shape culture, performance, and employee growth. Build leader and manager capability in coaching, feedback, accountability, decision‑making, and leading through change. Partner with senior leaders and PCBPs to identify critical leadership needs and create practical solutions to address them. Strengthen leadership pipelines through leader transitions, peer learning, communities, and development experiences.

Lead Performance Development

Own and evolve Patagonia's approach to performance development. Build performance practices that create clarity, accountability, growth, and meaningful contribution. Equip managers to lead effective coaching, feedback, development, and recognition conversations. Integrate leadership expectations into goal setting, performance conversations, calibration, and talent review processes. Build performance practices that are fair, practical, and embedded in the flow of work, reinforcing the behaviors and outcomes most critical to Patagonia's success.

Shape Core Learning Experiences

Define the core learning experiences every Patagonia employee should have throughout their career journey, ensuring learning experiences reinforce Patagonia’s purpose, values, culture, leadership expectations, and performance foundations. Establish a practical learning-in-the-flow-of-work approach so development is not experienced as separate from the real work leaders and employees are doing every day. Oversee onboarding, foundational employee learning, leadership capability experiences, communications capability, AI readiness, and future enterprise learning initiatives. Use technology, AI, learning platforms, internal expertise, leader-led learning, communities of practice, curated content, and feedback loops to create scalable learning experiences that are accessible, useful, and continuously improving.

Build Practical, Scalable Solutions

Create practical tools, resources, and experiences that leaders and employees can apply in the flow of work. Bring a creative, solutions-oriented approach to leadership, performance, and learning challenges. Leverage technology, AI, data, and feedback to improve effectiveness, adoption, and scale. Use experimentation and continuous improvement to determine what should be expanded, evolved, simplified, or retired.

Lead and Develop the Team

Lead and develop a high-performing team responsible for leadership development, performance development, and core learning experiences. Achieve results through others by setting direction, clarifying priorities, coaching team members, and creating accountability for outcomes. Operate as a player-coach, staying close enough to the work to solve problems, support critical initiatives, and maintain quality. Foster a culture of learning, experimentation, collaboration, and continuous improvement. Conduct your work in alignment with Patagonia’s Leadership Expectations – Leading Teams principles: Build People + Teams, Drive Results, Demonstrate Good Judgement, Champion Vision + Purpose.

Who You Are

Curious, adaptable, and comfortable operating in ambiguity. Pragmatic builder who balances strategic thinking with execution. Strong learner who embraces experimentation and continuous improvement. Strong product mindset: able to understand user needs, test solutions, gather feedback, simplify complexity, and improve experiences over time. Highly collaborative, influential, and people-centered. Passionate about helping leaders and employees grow through meaningful work. Deep alignment with Patagonia’s values, purpose, and culture.

Experience You Bring

Required Experience

• 8+ years of progressive experience in leadership development, talent development, organizational effectiveness, learning strategy, performance management, or related disciplines.
• Experience leading through a lean team, balancing strategic direction, coaching, prioritization, and hands‑on contribution.
• Experience designing and scaling practical, technology‑enabled learning, leadership, or performance solutions that are embedded in the flow of work.
• Experience using experimentation, feedback, data, and iteration to improve programs, practices, tools, or employee experiences over time.
• Experience influencing and partnering with senior leaders and cross‑functional stakeholders to translate business strategy into leadership, performance, and capability‑building priorities.

Knowledge & Skills

• Expertise in leadership development, manager effectiveness, and adult learning principles.
• Strong understanding of performance development, behavior change, and organizational effectiveness.
• Ability to connect business strategy, culture, employee experience, and capability development.
• Systems‑thinking mindset with the ability to simplify complexity and create integrated solutions.
• Exceptional facilitation, communication, and stakeholder management skills.
• Strong strategic planning, prioritization, and execution capabilities.
• Technology‑forward mindset and demonstrated ability to use technology, AI, data, learning platforms, and analytics to improve access, adoption, learning effectiveness, and scale.

Success in This Role

The successful leader will help Patagonia create:

• Stronger leaders and more effective managers.
• Better coaching, feedback, and accountability practices.
• More consistent and meaningful performance conversations.
• Shared learning experiences rooted in The Patagonia Way.
• Clearer expectations for leadership, growth, and contribution.
• Scalable systems that support continuous employee development.
• Greater organizational capability, readiness, and business impact.

Hiring Range

Ventura, CA: $163,170 - $185,000 USD Annual. Reno, NV: $155,340 - $181,230 USD Annual.

At Patagonia, pay ranges are assigned to a job based on the location specific market median of similar jobs according to 3rd party salary benchmark surveys. Individual pay within that range can vary for several reasons including skills/capabilities, experience, and available budget.

Benefits

Patagonia offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, retirement and leave of absence plans. Benefit plans may vary slightly depending on the nature of your employment.

Workplace Location Overview

This position is Hybrid, with a standard schedule of Tuesday - Thursday on-site and remote work on other days. Occasional travel and additional office visits may be required for team events or critical meetings.

Employee Conduct

It is the responsibility of every employee to contribute to a positive, inclusive work environment through cooperative and professional interactions with co-workers, customers and vendors.

Equal Employment Opportunity

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or any other factors prohibited by law.

Patagonia’s Mission Statement

Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. Our Reason for Being Patagonia grew out of a small company that made tools for climbers. Alpinism remains at the heart of a worldwide business that still makes clothes for climbing – as well as for skiing, snowboarding, surfing, fly fishing, paddling and trail running. These are all silent sports. None requires a motor; none delivers the cheers of a crowd. In each sport, reward comes in the form of hard‑won grace and moments of connection between us and nature. Our values reflect those of a business started by a band of climbers and surfers, and the minimalist style they promoted. The approach we take towards product design demonstrates a bias for simplicity and utility. For us at Patagonia, a love of wild and beautiful places demands participation in the fight to save them, and to help