Director - Instructional Design (US, Remote)
Summary
Leads instructional design for Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses: sets design standards, reviews blueprints, storyboards and assessments, partners with SMEs, and oversees AI-assisted course development including prompt creation and review of AI-generated content. Focus on pedagogical alignment, quality assurance, and platform-aware learning design.
Role Overview
Key Responsibilities
Instructional Design Leadership
- Lead and guide the instructional design process for CTE course development, ensuring consistency and quality across programs.
- Establish and maintain instructional design standards, templates, and best practices.
- Review course designs and instructional artifacts to ensure alignment with learning objectives, assessments, and learner experience standards.
- Provide guidance and feedback to instructional designers and other project contributors.
- Coordinate with instructional leadership and project stakeholders to support timelines, priorities, and delivery expectations.
Course Design and Development
- Oversee the development of course outlines, learning objectives, lesson structures, and instructional activities.
- Guide the creation and review of course blueprints and storyboards that support course production.
- Ensure instructional alignment between learning objectives, activities, and assessments.
- Oversee backwards design where required, particularly for certification-aligned courses, including mapping learning objectives, assessments, state standards, and learning activities to exam criteria.
SME Collaboration
- Partner with subject matter experts to translate technical content into learner-centered instructional experiences.
- Ensure that course content incorporates industry-relevant examples and applied learning opportunities.
- Facilitate collaboration between SMEs, instructional designers, and production teams to resolve content and instructional design challenges.
- Provide direction on incorporating technical subject matter into clear, structured, and engaging learning experiences.
Instructional Artifact Development and Quality Assurance
- Oversee the development and review of course blueprints, lesson structures, assessment plans, and other instructional documentation.
- Ensure instructional artifacts provide clear and actionable guidance for course production teams.
- Conduct quality reviews to identify gaps in instructional alignment, content clarity, and learner engagement.
- Establish review processes to maintain consistency across modules, lessons, and courses.
Platform-Aware Course Design
- Guide the design of learning activities and assessments based on the capabilities of the client's digital learning platform.
- Ensure course designs incorporate appropriate interaction types and learner engagement patterns.
- Collaborate with relevant teams to ensure instructional designs can be implemented effectively within the target platform.
AI-Assisted Content Development
- Lead the development and refinement of AI prompts used to support instructional content creation.
- Oversee the review and refinement of AI-generated instructional content to ensure accuracy, clarity, instructional coherence, and alignment with learning objectives.
- Collaborate with prompt engineering teams to improve AI-assisted course development workflows and outputs.
- Identify opportunities to improve instructional design efficiency while maintaining quality and consistency.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Instructional Design, Education, Educational Technology, or a related field.
- Significant experience designing digital learning experiences, curriculum, or instructional materials.
- Strong understanding of instructional design principles, learner-centered design, and curriculum development.
- Experience leading instructional design initiatives and reviewing course outlines, blueprints, storyboards, and assessments.
- Demonstrated ability to collaborate with SMEs, instructional teams, and cross-functional stakeholders.
- Strong communication, stakeholder management, and instructional quality assurance skills.
Preferred Experience
- Experience designing CTE or workforce development curriculum.
- Experience leading instructional design teams or overseeing multiple course development initiatives.
- Experience designing content for digital learning platforms or LMS environments.
- Experience supporting AI-assisted course development workflows, including prompt development and AI-generated content review.
- Experience with backwards design and certification-aligned curriculum development.