Director of Learning Design and Development

Learning & Development Lake Forest, Illinois


Description

Impact is hiring a Learning Content Developer to join our Nationally ranked Best and Brightest Workplace!  

As a leading member of the Impact Leadership Institute (ILI), the Director of Learning Design and Development oversees the back-end Instructional Design process, including production of ILI’s training and learning materials, such as e-learning modules, presentation materials, job aids, and other final deliverables. The goal of this position is to drive the development of best-in-class training and learning content, supporting ILI’s strategic initiatives for learning and performance outcomes.

Building a Culture of Training and Development at Impact Networking

Building a Culture of Training and Development at Impact Networking 

Drives the team’s production of high-quality project deliverables:
Overseeing course design and development, this role must strive to consistently deliver world-class course materials that affect meaningful learning outcomes.
- Deliverables show sound instructional strategies, application of adult learning theory, interactivity, and adherence to multimedia learning principles
- Deliverables show exceptional visual design and a strong understanding of UX principles
- Where applicable, deliverables show novel or creative use of instructional technology to solve problems or enhance the learning experience
 
Project deliverables achieve objectives:
This role is expected to lead the production of content that contributes to the achievement of departmental KPI’s and other metrics that objectively measure ILI’s contributions.
For content developed by the D&D team: 
- Learners report desired levels of personal satisfaction post learning
- Learners report desired levels of perceived knowledge retention
- Learners demonstrate high first-attempt pass rates · Learners demonstrate high first-attempt assessment scores
- Learners consistently demonstrate the desired behaviors OTJ when observed post training
- Learners complete optional courses at the desired rate
 
Individual contributions to course design and development:
As both a leader and an individual contributor, this position will be expected to help with instructional design tasks, such as drafting performance objectives, writing lesson content, and producing interactive course modules. As such, this role is held to the same expectations as instructional designers/developers.
- Adult learning theory, interactivity, and adherence to multimedia learning principles
- Deliverables demonstrate world-class visual design and a strong understanding of UX principles
- Where applicable, deliverables demonstrate novel or creative use of instructional technology to solve problems or enhance the learning experience
 
Managing and developing direct reports:
This role manages direct reports and must ensure employees are supported, guided, and provisioned to meet expectations.
- Performs functional management tasks (such as approving time, conducting performance reviews, tracking completion of required/compliance training, interviewing/hiring, and onboarding direct reports)
- Ensures employees have the tools and resources to perform required tasks
- Strives to make employees feel supported in their roles and valued for their contributions
- Ensures employees are aware of tasks/expectations and confident in their ability to perform
- Conducts development meetings with team on regular cadence to learn and share best practices and approaches
- Recognizes team members’ strengths and areas of opportunity to recommend focused development paths and resources 
 
Effective ID project and resource management:
Overseeing the development process, this role must manage multiple projects simultaneously.
- Ensures D&D Team consistently meets production deadlines
- Ensures projects are prioritized in line with strategic objectives
- Helps inform other areas of the instructional design process, such as analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation, as needed or when such information can improve learner outcomes
- Ensures project development tasks, including milestones and constraints, are consistently documented and reported to leadership
 
Intradepartmental collaboration:
As one part of the Impact Leadership Institute, which administers training across the organization, this role must ensure the Design and Development team effectively and meaningfully collaborates with other sub teams within ILI.
- Supports effective handoffs and transitions in the project lifecycle
- Communicates project needs and constraints effectively with other leaders and internal stakeholders
- Supports the vision and strategy of the original curricula and communicates when changes or modifications are necessary or desirable
- Provides T3’s (train-the-trainers) to facilitators or other team members who will use the content created by the D&D team
 
Leadership team collaboration:
As a member of the ILI Leadership Team, this role will often collaborate with other ILI managers and the CSO to strategize, develop or revise SOPs, address team issues, and generally work together to improve performance, learning outcomes, and the employee experience.
- Meaningfully contributes to leadership roundtable discussions
- Moves conversations forward toward strategic goals, objectives, or problem resolutions
- Communicates and collaborates effectively with reliable follow-through on calls-to-action
- Respects the contributions of other ILI leaders while effectively managing conflicts
 
Develops and manages creative assets for learning materials and platforms:
As ILI’s main content creators, the Design & Development Team has access to creative resources and talent to develop graphics and other creative collateral. This role should ensure the D&D team produces visual content in line with minimum brand standards, while acting as a resource for other ILI sub teams.
- Creative materials meet production-quality visual standards
- Manages the visual styling of the LMS platform, including web asset creation and development (HTML & CSS)
- Sources images and produces graphics for team use as requested
- Develops visual templates and for documents, team slide decks, and other resources as needed 
 
Additional Responsibilities
- This role will work collaboratively alongside our Manager, Learning Strategy & Curricula to architect and deliver innovative performance and learning solutions, with expertise in visual and instructional design and emerging technologies
- This role may be called upon to facilitate or deliver content. As such, functional training skills are required.
- Additional duties as assigned / requested
 
Required Technical Qualifications:
REQUIRED: Advanced degree in education, instructional design, training development, or talent management from an accredited university
REQUIRED: 10 or more years of experience in instructional design, course development, corporate training, or post-secondary education
REQUIRED: 3-5 years of direct experience in a management role with direct reports
REQUIRED: A strong portfolio of work demonstrating course development capabilities
 
Desired Characteristics:
The ideal candidate will demonstrate the following characteristics: 
 
Adherence to our core values: 
- Champion the customer: This role supports internal customers by leading the development of content that will help them improve performance. The work done in this role directly affects learning outcomes, leading to improved performance, job satisfaction and employee retention.
- Work Together: This role will be expected to collaborate with other members of ILI as well as learners with whom this position will interact. 
- Lead the Charge: This role will spearhead the development of best-in-class training and e-learning content. As such, this role will be responsible for exploring creative solutions and technologies that set Impact’s training content apart. 
- Reward & Recognize: Like all other members of ILI, this role is expected to recognize the efforts of peers and learners while praising their contributions and accomplishments. 
- Love Learning: Ideal candidates for this role will possess a true, intrinsic love of learning, and a commitment to drive learning through the instructional design and development process. 
- Never Stop Growing: Ideal candidates for this role will embody the spirit of a “lifelong learner,” seek out new methods to improve their workflow, and independently work to improve their own knowledge and skill as it relates to management and instructional design. 
 
Strong Communication and Leadership Ability: 
- Must be able and willing to communicate effectively to peers, stakeholders, and leadership 
 
Strong Knowledge of Instructional Design:
- Knowledge of instructional design workflows (such as ADDIE), instructional theories, strategies, and methods 
 
Strong knowledge of E-Learning Development:
- Strong knowledge of e-learning authoring tools (such as Articulate 360 and Captivate) and learning management systems (including working with SCORM objects) 
 
Strong Knowledge of Creative Content Development:
- Strong knowledge of Adobe Creative Cloud, including Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, and AfterEffects is strongly preferred. The ideal candidate will be able to oversee (and take part in) the production of assets for e-learning modules, which may include the creation of images, video, audio tracks, and animations. 
 
Functional Web Development Skills:
- A basic knowledge of web development is strongly preferred (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), as this role will oversee the visual styling of our learning management platform and potentially other intranet repositories for L&D.
 
Benefits:
- 20 days of PTO
- 12+ paid holidays
- 7 Paid Sick Days
- Paid Maternity & Paternity Leave
- Comprehensive Health, Disability Life, Dental and Vision Plans
- Discretionary 401(K) match & retirement plans
- Student Loan reimbursement
- On-going training & development opportunities 
 
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