About the Role
At Pressed Cafe, we believe exceptional food and drink start with quality ingredients and a passion for hospitality. Our all-day menu features Mediterranean-inspired dishes made with fresh, local ingredients, paired with great coffee and fast, friendly service.
Pressed Cafe is an emerging, high-growth premium quick-casual restaurant company with a strong regional presence and an aggressive development pipeline. As a founder-led organization, we remain deeply committed to hospitality, culture, and delivering exceptional guest experiences- and we know that scaling with excellence starts with how we train and develop our people.
We’re looking for a forward-thinking, hands-on Director of Learning & Development to lead the charge in building a best-in-class learning culture across our restaurants and support teams. This is a high-impact leadership role responsible for designing and executing a company-wide learning strategy that fuels operational consistency, leadership growth, and team engagement -and for architecting our first Learning Management System, Echo360 (LMS) from the ground up.
At the heart of everything we do is our mission: Great People, Great Food, Great Coffee.
Key Responsibilities
The Director of Learning & Development owns the learning strategy, the training experience for every new and existing team member, and the technology platform that delivers both - across every corporate function and every restaurant location.
LEARNING STRATEGY & EXECUTION
- Build and implement a scalable learning and development strategy aligned with our business goals and growth trajectory.
- Partner with cross-functional leaders to ensure training supports performance, consistency, and culture across all locations.
TRAINING FOR GROWTH
- Lead all training efforts for new restaurant openings, ensuring teams are fully equipped from day one.
- Design and deliver engaging, high-retention training programs across multiple formats- self-paced, instructor-led, blended, and social learning.
AI-DRIVEN LEARNING INNOVATION
- Champion the use of AI and gamification to create dynamic, personalized learning experiences.
- Evaluate and implement a modern LMS that supports our evolving training needs and enhances the employee experience.
LEADERSHIP & TALENT DEVELOPMENT
- Identify skill gaps and build programs that support leadership readiness, succession planning, and career growth.
- Integrate learning into key talent processes like onboarding, performance reviews, and development planning.
CULTURE & CHANGE ENABLEMENT
- Be a culture carrier -embed learning into the DNA of our organization and help shift mindsets toward curiosity, growth, and innovation.
- Act as a change leader, helping teams adapt to new tools, systems, and ways of working.
MEASUREMENT & IMPACT
- Develop metrics to track training effectiveness, adoption, and business impact.
- Use data to continuously improve programs and demonstrate ROI to senior leadership.
Qualifications
- 7+ years of experience in Learning & Development, Talent Management, or Operations, ideally in a fast-paced, multi-unit restaurant or hospitality environment.
- Proven success designing and scaling training programs that drive business results.
- Strong understanding of adult learning principles, change management, and learning technologies.
- Experience with AI-enabled learning tools, digital platforms, and analytics.
- Strategic mindset with the ability to execute and influence across all levels of the organization.
- Excellent facilitation, storytelling, and communication skills.
- Passion for building people, systems, and culture from the ground up.
- Bachelor’s degree preferred.
- Experience in a privately owned or founder-led company strongly preferred.
What Success Looks Like
- A fully built, well-adopted first-generation LMS, Echo360 supporting every role and every location.
- New restaurant openings run on a repeatable, high-retention training playbook.
- A clear leadership pipeline with defined succession paths for key roles.
- Learning embedded into onboarding, performance reviews, and career development company-wide.
- Measurable, data-backed proof of training’s impact on operations, engagement, and retention.
- A learning culture that scales as fast as the unit count does.
Compensation & Location
This role is based in Nashua, NH, with regular travel to restaurant locations across the portfolio to support new openings and ongoing training rollouts. Compensation includes a competitive base salary and performance-based bonus, commensurate with experience.
Pressed Cafe is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law.
