Instructional Designer

Job Description

Who We AreThinkful is a new type of school that brings high-growth tech careers to ambitious people everywhere. The company provides 1-on-1 learning through its network of industry experts, hiring partners, and online platform to deliver a structured and flexible education. Thinkful offers programs in web development and data science, with in-person communities in up-and-coming tech hubs around the U.S. To join the Thinkful network visit Thinkful.com. The PositionAs Instructional Designer you will create learning experiences that change people's lives. You'll set learning objectives and create material to help students achieve those objectives. You'll manage and review the work of subject matter expert authors, and you'll jump in to author material yourself when appropriate. You'll collaborate with other instructional designers, product managers, and subject matter experts to produce and maintain the core of the student experience.You should be passionate about education and the possibilities cutting-edge technology unlocks. A successful candidate will be effective both as an individual contributor and in managing others to deliver on a larger vision. That includes setting learning objectives, designing and writing lessons to achieve those learning objectives, designing formative and summative assessments to measure student mastery, managing contract subject matter experts where you lack domain expertise, and monitoring and addressing feedback from students and educators.Within 1 month you will:

• Work with an onboarding buddy to push improvements to content your first week
• Collaborate with Product Managers to understand program goals, performance, and opportunities for improvement
• Use our documentation to learn our tooling and infrastructure
• Update existing assets like assessment rubrics and interview scripts to better measure student mastery of curriculum topics
• Take part in team planning and retrospective meetings
• Spend time getting to know your remote peers over video calls

Within 3 months you will:

• Collaborate with product managers and other stakeholders to identify new program opportunities and high-level outcomes
• Design learning experiences and draft content to achieve outcomes and learning objectives
• Design and implement assessments to measure student mastery
• Recruit (with the help of our recruiting team) and manage subject matter experts to deliver on your vision
• Monitor and address feedback from students and educators
• Improve mastery and satisfaction metrics for your program(s)
• Receive regular performance feedback from your manager and peers
• Develop a career growth plan and goals with your manager

Within 12 months you will:

• Influence Thinkful's program roadmap and education platform
• Launch new programs and / or new domains from scratch
• Act as the team expert on pedagogy, instructional strategies, and your focus domain
• Standardize and document operating procedures.
• Invest in junior instructional designers through mentoring relationships
• Make progress through your career growth plan and goals with your manager
• Invest in a culture of accountability by holding yourself and your peers to high standards
• Meet your peers face-to-face at "Weekful", our annual all-company retreat

Responsibilities

• Design learning content and assessment materials for Thinkful programs
• Manage subject matter experts to produce learning content on time and on budget
• Review and provide feedback on learning content written by others
• Monitor and address student and educator feedback on learning content
• Formulate a data-driven strategy for maintaining and improving instructional materials for a program, drawing on existing metrics like student satisfaction, pacing, and mastery
• Use Thinkful's custom learning platform to publish and manage content
• Work with Education Product Managers to design new programs with research-supported approaches to instructional design
• Work with Digital Product Managers to implement new features to improve instructional design across all Thinkful programs

Requirements

• Masters degree in education or equivalent experience
• 2+ years designing learning experiences for an online education platform
• Excellent writing and editing skills
• Experience managing others, formally or informally, to deliver on your vision
• Fluency in technical topics like programming, data science, or design
• Proven ability to learn new domains quickly
• Demonstrated compassion for students & educators
• Detail-oriented

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive base salary and significant equity
• Healthcare, dental, and vision insurance are 100% covered for individual and meaningfully covered for families
• 401k plan options
• Unlimited vacation policy
• Learn to code with Thinkful courses and a Mentor
• Commuter Benefits Card via WageWorks
• Paid Parental Leave

Apply
If you are interested in this position please provide your resume and a cover letter explaining your interest in the role.Thinkful can only hire candidates who are eligible to work in the United States. At this time, we are unable to consider applicants from the following states: Alaska, Delaware, Idaho, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Wyoming.We stand against any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status. Thinkful provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants. If you're talented and driven, please apply.