Training Specialist

Job Title: Training Specialist

Location: Midleton Cork 

Contract: Permanent Position

About the Company

Pernod Ricard’s Gold Brand Unit is the Group’s Aged Spirits & Champagne division, bringing together the prestigious portfolios of Irish Distillers, Chivas Brothers, Martell Mumm Perrier‑Jouët and North American Distillers. With a global team operating across over 40 sites, and brands spanning Irish, Scotch and American Whisk(e)y, Cognac, Champagne and wine, the division unites exceptional craftsmanship and deep expertise across iconic terroirs in Ireland, Scotland, France and North America. Its portfolio, rooted in heritage and provenance, embodies Pernod Ricard’s commitment to excellence from Premium to Ultra‑Prestige, delivering some of the world’s most celebrated and enduring spirits and champagnes.

About the Role

Irish Distillers is recruiting for a Training Specialist to join the team at Midleton Distillery. Reporting to the Health and Safety Manager, this role will support the continuous development of our people by ensuring employees have the training, skills and competencies required to perform effectively, safely and in line with site and operational requirements.

The Training Specialist will play a key role in the Quality, Safety and Environmental (QSE) Management System, partnering with teams across the site to design, implement and continuously improve training and competency frameworks that support current operations and future site expansion.

A key deliverable will be the development and embedding of competency frameworks across site functions, ensuring training is structured, measurable and aligned to business needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop the training team to ensure high-quality training delivery, trainer competence and continuous improvement.
• Design, develop and implement training and competency systems that enable employees to perform their roles to agreed operational, safety, quality and environmental standards.
• Develop and maintain competency frameworks across site functions, ensuring alignment with current operations, future site expansion and strategic business goals.
• Conduct training needs analysis in partnership with site leaders, departments, subject matter experts and support functions to identify capability requirements and learning priorities.
• Create effective learning solutions using instructional design principles, adult learning methodology, blended learning approaches and competency-based assessment.
• Review and update training materials to reflect new processes, procedures, compliance requirements and operational changes.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of training programmes, using feedback, assessment outcomes and key performance indicators to identify insights and improvement opportunities.
• Develop, communicate and implement a site assessment strategy to measure training effectiveness and support continuous improvement.
• Partner with the local HR Business Partner to identify learning and development needs and support the design and delivery of relevant training programmes.
• Own and maintain training governance systems, including reporting, KPIs and audit-readiness processes, to ensure compliance with site and business requirements.

Required Experience and Skills

• Relevant experience in training, learning and development, capability development, HR or a related field.
• Proven experience designing, implementing or maintaining competency frameworks or competency-based training systems.
• Experience working in an operational, manufacturing, production, distillery, FMCG or similar site-based environment.
• Strong understanding of training needs analysis, instructional design, adult learning principles and training evaluation.
• Experience partnering with site leaders, managers, subject matter experts and cross-functional stakeholders.
• Strong facilitation, communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, projects and continuous improvement initiatives in a busy operational environment.
• High proficiency in Microsoft Office.

Desirable Experience

• A relevant qualification in training, learning and development, HR, education or a related discipline.
• Experience using Learning Management Systems.
• Experience working within a Centre of Excellence or best-practice learning, training or capability function.
• Previous people management or team leadership experience.
• Technical writing experience, particularly in relation to procedures, training materials or controlled documents.
• Experience using AI or digital learning tools to support learning design, delivery or evaluation.

About You

• You are a collaborative learning and development professional who can build strong relationships across operational teams.
• You are confident translating business and compliance requirements into practical, engaging and measurable training solutions.
• You are organised, improvement-focused and comfortable working in a fast-paced site environment.
• You are forward-looking and able to support change by embedding consistent, effective and sustainable training practices.

What we offer

We understand our people are our special ingredient and at different points, employees require different supports at different stages of their working lives. Our benefits, perks and programmes look to support your employee journey. We want to make you feel recognised and valued for your contribution to our shared success. Some of offerings include;

• Profit share; - An annual profit share scheme to reward your contribution to the company’s success.
• Allowance; an annual allowance to spend on our portfolio of products and merchandise, for you to enjoy responsibly.
• People Development: We enable continuous development for our people at every stage of their careers through our people development, online learning, and leadership training programmes.
• Family leave: fully paid maternity, parent and paternity leave, allowing you spend precious time with your new family member
• Parental Support: Our ‘Reconnect’ programme includes access to a workplace parenting coach, a phased return to work and a supportive environment for new parents
• Health & Wellbeing; Our Wellbeing Programme “THRIVE” supports employees across the three main pillars: Life, Body and Mind
• Charity Days: up to 2 days paid leave every year to volunteer at a charity of their choice

At Irish Distillers, we know that great spirits are crafted by blending unique ingredients, and we believe the same is true for people. We actively  welcome individuals from all walks of life, and warmly welcome those with diverse religious backgrounds, ethnicities , members of the Irish Travelling community, genders, abilities, and identities. It’s the mix of our experiences, voices, and cultures that gives us our true character.”

Learn more about working with Irish Distillers, a Pernod Ricard Company – www.irishdistillers.ie/careers

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