Director, Learning Design and Innovation

Risepoint assists primarily regional universities in increasing their access and impact by making their academic programs available to students online. Founded in 2007, Risepoint's mission is to expand access to high-quality, affordable, and workforce-relevant education, especially for working and adult students. Risepoint brings single-minded dedication to student success, an integrated set of services, and data-driven performance to our collaboration with university partners.

The Product Innovation team supports the strategy and design of innovative learning solutions at the intersection of higher education, alternative credentials, employer markets and workforce development. This role works across all teams - market research, product marketing and other Risepoint units - to identify, design and grow scalable, skills-based, and career-connected learning solutions. 

Job Summary

We are seeking a forward-thinking Director, Learning Design and Innovation to drive the design, development, and early go-to-market strategies at the intersection of higher education, alternative credentials, and workforce development.

This position plays a key role in shaping and designing programs that scale to meet the needs of today’s modern learners and employers—stackable, nondegree, credit-bearing, accelerated, AI optimized and more—while ensuring they align with academic integrity, partner expectations, and evolving compliance landscapes.

While not responsible for building courses directly, this person is setting the academic direction, structure, and rationale for teams to execute against. This position delivers data intelligence to influence program offerings at our Partners.  

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Learning Experience & Product Strategy

• Design and present early programmatic high-level recommendations to university leadership, internal stakeholders and employer partners around workforce and learning solutions for the modern learner and employee (degree and non-degree).
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders in Product Innovation and across enterprise as needed to support internal awareness and move key projects forward with university partners.
• Design learning experiences and solutions that align with workforce trends, employer needs, and skills taxonomies with an understanding of the principles of adult learning, experiential learning, and human-centered design to inform product innovation. Leverage frameworks in support of business strategy and partner solutions, i.e., skills and career pathway mapping, stackable credentials space, appropriate optimization of AI in learning and non-learning functions, performance-based admissions and learning, CBE, and more.

Market Analysis, Intelligence and Innovation

• Translate learner needs, industry trends, and market insights into academic requirements and models that are feasible, scalable, and aligned with university expectations.  Identify high-impact opportunities through analysis of several data points.
• Working closely with market research, product marketing and analytics teams across the enterprise; bridge insights to inform innovative product new strategies and services.
• Serve as a knowledgeable resource for internal teams and university partners regarding compliance, academic policy, and curricular governance

Consulting & Stakeholder Engagement

• Provide consulting to university academic and administrative leadership, internal stakeholders and employer partners on the design and positioning of new learning products; serving as thought partner to internal teams and university stakeholders.
• Effectively engage with university leadership, faculty, employer partners, internal and external stakeholders etc, to collaborate with employer partners to co-develop talent-aligned learning solutions in domestic and international markets.
• Evaluate current academic portfolios for given partners to identify gaps, redundancies, or opportunities for innovation.

Additional Position Responsibilities

• Perform in accordance with Risepoint Policies
• Perform other duties as assigned

Travel Required

Yes

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum of 7 years Experience in learning design, product development, or strategy in the higher education, edtech, or workforce learning space. 

Proven successes and experiences in working with scaling skills-based, stackable, or non-traditional learning programs in higher education and or industry. 

Deep knowledge of multiple learning ecosystems: higher ed, workforce education, adult learning, and international education markets.

Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity and apply systems thinking, design thinking, and agile methodologies to new product challenges.

Strong consultative, communication, and influence skills across stakeholder groups.

Substantive understanding of a wide range and breadth of current edtech trends, state and federal policies, technologies and data sources. 

Experience with global education markets such as Australia, UK, EMEA.

Background in business modeling and revenue strategy for learning products.

Comfort with tools for market and learner research, data synthesis, learning, product experimentation etc. (e.g., Tableau, Miro, LMS platforms).

Ability to connect academic programming with learning design and talent development needs of the workforce and regional employer partners

Risepoint is an equal opportunity employer.  We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an equitable environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable state or federal laws.

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