Director of learning design, assessment, and emerging technology

Job Details:

Job Location: San Francisco - San Francisco, CA

Salary Range: $140000.00 - $140000.00 Salary/year

Job Summary

The Director of Learning Design, Assessment, and Emerging Technology leads the learning design and assessment function for the university’s online, hybrid and AI-enabled courses across every school and program, reporting to the Vice Provost for Digital Innovation. The Director is responsible for the standards courses are held to, the readiness review every course passes before students see it, the validity and reliability of course assessment, and the design methodology behind the university’s course model. The Director manages a team of instructional designers and learning technologists, directs their work against the university’s course development process, and advises programs and academic leadership on curriculum, evaluation and faculty development.

The ideal candidate is an experienced learning designer and people manager with formal training in assessment and measurement, a record of quality assurance at program scale, experience working with external development partners, and sound judgment about where generative AI should and should not be used in teaching and learning.

Responsibilities

• Course quality, design and readiness (35%): Define the quality standard for digital courses: content accuracy, alignment of outcomes, activities and assessments, assignment and rubric quality, and accessibility. Maintain the instruments that test for it and report conformance. Lead launch readiness: the standard, the pre-launch review, and the determination that a course is ready for students, with problems identified early and a remedy or hold recommended. Lead design delivery: the course design documentation behind each course, the work of the design staff against it, and acceptance of developed courses against specification. Serve as the primary design liaison to programs and faculty, and carry a personal design load on complex, novel and research-driven courses. Contribute to the institutional course standard and the design methodology behind it, and report what implementation shows about where a standard is not working.
• Team and standards (25%): Recruit, hire, direct, develop and evaluate the learning design and technology staff, and set clear ownership for each role. Carry the design and quality standards into practice: write the review instruments and guides, train the staff who apply them, and report conformance. Standards cover regular and substantive interaction, accessibility, assessment design, AI use and disclosure, and the evidence retained for accreditation. Direct the team against the course development process, allocate design capacity, specify contracted work and review deliverables, and raise capacity or schedule risk early. Partner with the registrar, accessibility services, the library, information technology and student services on the requirements that reach courses. Manage the department’s professional development and learning technology budget within approved allocations.
• Assessment quality and measurement (20%): Lead the university’s approach to assuring the validity and reliability of course assessment, including assessment scored with automated and AI-assisted tools. Set the standards for assessment design, rubric quality and scoring consistency. Apply educational measurement methods, including rubric calibration, inter-rater reliability, item analysis and monitoring for drift; design the measurement and interpret the results, with analyses run by learning technology staff. Set the responsible-use requirements for AI in assessment, and produce the assessment evidence relied on for accreditation, coordinating with the Director of Assessment and Evaluation on program-level outcomes.
• Research, evaluation and learning technology (10%): Investigate open design questions in the course model and deliver options with recommendations for the Vice Provost’s decision. Evaluate what courses produce: outcomes, grade and completion patterns, engagement and student experience. Run experiments in live courses and report findings. Conduct applied research on AI-enabled learning with the Vice Provost and external partners toward publication, support faculty research on their own teaching, and represent the university’s work externally with institutional endorsement. Evaluate emerging tools against the course model and recommend adoption; maintain the department’s AI-assisted design tools and faculty guidance.
• Academic consultation (10%): Advise programs, deans and academic leadership on curriculum and program design, program revision, and outcomes mapping. Lead course and program evaluation for academic partners, including formative student feedback during a term. Maintain intake and prioritization so requests are scoped and sequenced against production commitments, with anything that would move a production date raised before it is accepted.

Qualifications:

Required: Master’s degree in instructional design, education, educational measurement, learning science or a related field. Seven or more years in instructional or learning design in higher education, including three or more supervising designers or learning technologists. Demonstrated expertise in course design and instructional design models, learning management systems, and course design documentation at program scale. Experience with assessment design, rubric development and the validation of scoring, including inter-rater reliability. Experience applying generative AI to course design, assessment or faculty support, with sound judgment about its limits. Working knowledge of accessibility standards, regular and substantive interaction requirements, student privacy law, and accreditation expectations for learning outcomes evidence. Experience teaching online or hybrid courses. Experience setting standards that others apply, and reporting on quality to academic leadership.

Preferred: Graduate training in measurement, evaluation or research methods. Experience building programs with an external education partner, including setting the standards the partner must meet. Learning analytics experience; Quality Matters, OLC or comparable credentials; a record of conference presentation or publication.

Additional Information

Full-time, exempt. Remote. Reports to the Vice Provost for Digital Innovation. Direct reports as staffed. Compensation commensurate with experience at the director band. Golden Gate University is an equal opportunity employer.

Supplemental Information

To apply: Please go to http://www.ggu.edu/jobs to submit an application, letter of interest, and a resume. In applying for a position, candidates sign a consent authorizing a broader inquiry which may include reference checks, a motor vehicle check, and a third-party background check. Golden Gate University is an equal employment opportunity employer. We support inclusive excellence and are committed to creating a safe and welcoming community for all. University policy prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion/creed, national origin, ancestry, age, sex/gender, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, physical or mental disability, gender stereotyping, and gender identity, gender expression, military or veteran status, taking a protected leave (e.g., family medical or pregnancy leave), or on any other basis protected by applicable laws. The University has a strong commitment to the principles of diversity and inclusion, and to maintaining working and learning environments that reinforces these practices. The University welcomes and encourages applications from all demographics.