Head of Training Department

Job role: Head of Learning & Development

Department: Human resource

Job experience: 8+ years

Location: Mumbai, HQ

About The Hosteller

The Hosteller began in 2014 with a simple vision - to create amazing, affordable & accessible backpacker hostels all around India for 'young at heart' travellers. We work towards building experiences for our community of travellers thereby creating ever lasting backpacking memories.

Our core values of being social, warm, experience driven and authentic make us Indias most preferred backpacker hostel chain.

About the role

The Learning & Development Head role owns the entire learning, capability-building, and internal talent pipeline for The Hosteller across Ground Operations (GO) and the Head Office (HO) .

This role sits at the helm of L&D and Talent Management, and ensures that the right people are proactively trained and groomed on the right skills and behaviours.

The ideal candidate shall create systems and processes to ensure that ready now talent is available for deployment in current roles and future growth, while working closely with TA, HRBPs, Ops leaders, and the CHRO.

This role also oversees the smooth functioning and success of The Hostellers Training Centre where on-ground talent is trained and groomed on all aspects of hospitality operations including behavioural training.

Responsibilities

Learning strategy

• Translate the organisations vision, growth and workforce plans into clear learning and development strategies, goals and metrics
• Own end-to-end L&D strategy for GO (Front Office, F&B, Kitchen, Ops leadership) and HO (Corporate, Functional, Leadership roles)
• Guide and oversee the design and implementation of structured learning journeys and training curricula for each role and level
• Ensure learning is practical, on-the-job, and measurable, not only theoretical

Workforce planning, forecasting & bench creation

• Work closely with TA, HRBPs, and Ops to translate workforce plans into learning and readiness plans
• Build role-based benches for frontline critical roles and supervisory & mid-management roles
• Track readiness of bench candidates and flag gaps proactively

Succession planning & talent management

• Own succession planning for critical roles across HO & GO
• Identify high-potential employees and define development paths for them
• Partner with business leaders to validate successors and readiness timelines
• Maintain a live succession and internal mobility tracker

Training institute & program ownership

• Own learning programs delivered at The Hostellers Training Centre
• Align training capacity and quality at the Training Institute with forecasted demand & performance gaps
• Ensure trainers are aligned to curriculum, delivery standards, and outcomes
• Review and continuously upgrade curricula based on on-ground feedback and industry developments
• Ensure seamless transition from training to deployment to performance tracking

Team leadership & capability building

• Lead and manage a team of L&D professional including trainers
• Hire, train, and upskill trainers and L&D specialists
• Set clear KRAs, review cadence, and quality benchmarks for the team
• Build internal capability instead of over-dependence on external vendors

Measuring effectiveness & governance

• Define and track L&D effectiveness using metrics such as training completion vs deployment, post-training performance improvement, bench utilisation rates, internal promotion ratios
• Present quarterly L&D and TM dashboards to CHRO and leadership
• Ensure learning and TM processes are standardized, documented, and scalable

Qualifications

• MBA/PGDM in HR or related field
• 8-12 years of experience in building Learning & Development frameworks for frontline and leadership roles, preferably in the hospitality industry
• Strong exposure to workforce planning, succession planning, and bench creation
• Experience managing trainers and training facilities is a strong plus
• High comfort with data, dashboards, and leadership reporting
• Ability to lead a team and work cross-functionally with TA, Ops, and HR teams

Why join us?

• Own and shape the People engine for Indias fastest-growing hospitality brand
• High visibility role working directly with the CHRO and leadership team
• Strategic role with the opportunity to own both learning and internal talent pipelines - not just training calendars
• Culture that values clarity, quick execution, ownership, and real impact