Job description
If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country—and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future—consider WGU as the next step in your career.
Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.
Location: This position will be located in our Salt Lake City, UT office.
Essential Functions and Responsibilities:
Accountable for the design of products that deliver on the promise of competency-based education to provide efficiency, flexibility, personalization, achievement of goals, and fit with industry expectations.
Resolve program design problems requiring broad-based consideration of variables at the program and college level, and collaborate with discipline and practice leadership on implementing ideas for new and revised programs.
Lead cross-university coordination of program development, academic, operations, and other stakeholders in educational product design.
Champion product designs that promote social mobility and equity.
Ensure that product designs maximize broad access, including for underserved students, industry relevance, learning, and financial sustainability.
Apply expert-level skill and experience in best practices in educational product design to the context of CBE (Competency-based Education) programs.
Break down complex problems and delight users with tools that solve their problems efficiently and effectively.
Anticipate, weigh, and document the cost, scope, and implementation effort of competing design options.
Plan systems-thinking approaches that consider all elements of product design, such as enrolment, learner engagement, curriculum, instruction, evaluation, assessment, etc.
Collaborate on the identification of student personas and ensure pathways efficiently meet their needs
Conduct industry and outside standards research and align product designs to industry and outside standard needs.
Exercises independent judgment and creativity to redefine policies and procedures at the program and college level to meet key results.
Assess and maximize the sustainability of a product design at scale over its lifecycle.
Serve as an expert advisor on tools and technologies that achieve scale while maintaining quality programming.
Leads highly complex initiatives to improve key results and sets success metrics.
Deliver thorough and beautiful documentation of the resulting product design to guide development decisions that uphold the integrity of the design, as well as provide a historical record for decisions that were made
Innovate through thought leadership in program design and have industry-level impact with measurable results.
Establish a model for training/education for faculty, mentors, enrolment counselors, and all other stakeholders
Manage change and communication about solutions to stakeholders in a manner that simplifies complexity and generates excitement
Lead and promote exceptional change management around new program initiatives with senior stakeholders.
Plan and facilitate meetings and brainstorming sessions that are organized and productive
Advocate for high standards of excellence in providing delightful and rewarding user experiences, and proactively lead the design team in achieving them
Provide thought leadership for new and emerging techniques for competency-based education
Performs other related duties as assigned.
Knowledge, Skill, and Abilities:
Senior-level experience designing products or solutions that benefit end users and society
Extensive experience leading design thinking and product design sprints in person and with remote teams. Can demonstrate an extensive “bag of tricks” for empathetic design and facilitation challenges.
Proven track record of accountability, devising and designing high-quality web and/or mobile products in collaboration with product management and engineering partners
Good listener – weighs input from multiple perspectives when forming opinions and recommendations
Collaborative, team-oriented, and change management work approach
Excellent written, oral, presentation, and interpersonal skills
Proficiency in technology-driven document and collaboration tools, including Microsoft Office suite, and web conferencing and cloud-based tools
Competencies:
Organizational or Student Impact:
Accountable for decisions that impact the college or program cluster.
Leads complex college/cluster initiatives to improve Key Results.
Is a go-to person at the college/cluster level; is well networked in the college and (perhaps) in the university & nationally.
May actively contribute to initiatives at the university level.
Problem Solving & Decision Making:
Resolves problems that require broad-based consideration of variables at the program/course level.
Implements and supports the creation of new educational methodologies at the college level.
Supports implementation and assessment of processes that reflect learning outcome achievement indicators at the college and cluster level.
Works with minimal supervision and operates collaboratively with management in developing goals and objectives at the college level.
Communication & Influence:
Communicates with students if/as appropriate to the teaching practice area.
Communicates and collaborates with fellow senior stakeholders and colleges members within and across discipline, practice(s) and academics.
This individual contributes to scholarly presentations and publications within content areas and disciplines.
Represents program design at professional conferences and association meetings and engages in discourse with fellow attendees.
Shares ideas for new and revised curriculum, learning resources, and assessments with content area and discipline leadership.
Ability to drive scholarly presentations and publications within program design.
Participates in the national dialogue around program design discipline initiatives and special projects
Contributes to WGU and college brand development.
Leadership & Talent Management
A college leader and a source of advice, mentoring, and counsel across the college /cluster.
An innovative thought leader in discipline or practice with college-level impact and measurable results.
Innovates to ensure coverage within and between teams, enabling teams to meet field or practice service level agreements.
Leads and promotes exceptional change management.
Job Qualifications:
Minimum Qualifications:
Master’s degree in related or equivalent work experience or a compatible field.
Five or more years of experience within the fields of product, interaction, and visual design/development.
Three years of experience in online learning and/or development of educational products.
Portfolio or work samples showcasing product design prowess, creativity, and depth of thought, coupled with fluency in best practices for interaction design, visual design, and prototyping.
Experience working effectively on cross-organizational teams.
Three years of experience contributing to the management of P&L budget.
Preferred Qualifications:
Terminal degree in applicable discipline with preference for the fields of Education, Business, IT, or Health Professions.
Background in metrics-driven, evidence-based decision making.
Experience creating cross-contextual learning experiences that are born mobile, social-by-design, gamified, or non-linear with student-driven pathways.
Proven record of developing and producing quality assessment and learning experiences using established development and production processes and methodologies.
Experience using Design Thinking methodologies.
Demonstrated understanding of the higher education environment.
Demonstrated success with change management, particularly stabilizing and structuring diffuse and ambiguous situations.
Physical Requirements:
Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.
Travel up to 15-20% for college-specific business.
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Additional Information
- Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.
- Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.
- Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.