We believe in the power and joy of learning
At Cengage Group, our employees have a direct impact in helping students around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose - driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.
Our culture values diversity, engagement, and discovery
Our business is driven by our strong culture, and we know that creating an inclusive and diverse workplace is absolutely essential to the success of our company and our learners, as well as our individual well-being. We recognize the value of diverse perspectives in everything we do, and strive to ensure employees of all levels and backgrounds feel empowered to voice their ideas and bring their authentic selves to work. We achieve these priorities through inclusive programs, benefits, and initiatives that are integrated into the fabric of how we work every day. To learn more, please see https://www.cengagegroup.com/about/inclusion-and-diversity/.
As a fast growing, profitable standalone business within Cengage, Workforce Skills has empowered millions of learners looking to improve their skills, get employed, and build a career. Within the Ed2go brand, the Workforce Skills division provides a catalog of more than 1,000 online courses across a wide variety of topics and industries to Continuing Education Departments within US Colleges and Universities and workforce development organizations. These non-credit offerings enable our partners to upskill their local community, enabling people to return to employment, make career transitions, and increase their earning power.
What You'll Do Here:
The Director of Content Development leads our course design strategy, our course development processes, and the execution of our roadmap for content delivery. This includes leading a team of Managers who in-turn lead our team of Learning Designers, Multi-Media Designers, Content Development Managers, and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Perhaps most importantly, this leader deeply understands our business models, how we reach customers, and the needs of users and buyers. The ideal candidate is a business leader who also has significant expertise in learning design for online programs and adult learning.
This role encompasses 4 major areas of responsibility:
Deeply understand the business, the different sales channels, our growth strategies and priorities
Lead the Learning Design Insights Agenda: As learning designers, we are always curious about what is working and how to continuously improve what we are doing. At our current stage of life, we are unlikely to start developing courses in a materially different way or dream up ways to revolutionized online learning. We are more likely thinking about how to develop more insights around our users, what impacts user satisfaction, and what drives learning outcomes
Lead the content development plan that enables us to meet our goals (production management, resourcing and org design, agility)
Own our Content Development Frameworks, Processes, Standards/Best Practices Alignment, and Thought Leadership tied to our development processes
Skills You Will Need Here:
You will have demonstrated success at leading and aligning teams around company goals to meet or exceed business targets, having a track record of success and a solid reputation for supporting and coaching a team to meet these goals. You will have a deep understanding of our learners to ensure our products engage them, while understanding the needs of the ecosystem and making appropriate trade-offs. Your team supports a broad, market leading portfolio of products while also developing new offerings to expand our catalog.
Essential Duties/Responsibilities:
Seasoned relationship builder with high integrity who successfully influences others and empowers team to creatively develop differentiated features
Structures operational and strategic work by developing plans, gathering, and synthesizing relevant data, leading analyses, and executing recommendations
An effective coach and mentor by having the experience an ability to do the critical work you oversee
Able to create OKRs/KPIs/Goals for the team, and manage to these goals
Sets clear objectives and timelines for achieving results within this role, and for all direct reports
Responsible for forecasting, tracking, and analyzing costs
Utilizes excellent project management skills, organization, and clear communication to drive decision-making and progress throughout product development lifecycle
Accountable to the team and the company to achieve results
Basic Skills:
Required
Bachelor's Degree: Advanced degree preferred
7+ years of leadership experience managing teams of 25+ resources (individual contributors and people managers)
10+ years of instructional design experience. You have strong abilities in and experience with learner-centered design.
Experience building and delivering online training programs within the adult learning space is strongly desired
A background in building programs in B2B and B2C business models, preferred
Experience building programs that generate more than $50M/year, preferred
Experience bringing new products to market, and managing products across their lifecycle (cradle to grave)
Strong financial analysis and modeling skills and an understanding of business metrics
Able to lead progress against deliverables with a high degree of accountability and personal urgency
Consistent record of creating and implementing strategy, developing business cases for investment, and leading cross-functional teams to solve complex problems
Deep understanding in creating and carrying out customer feedback models and using customer data to make product, platform, and/or service model enhancement
Interpersonal savvy with exceptional communication and negotiation skills, engaging presentation abilities, and an ease in partnering with and influencing colleagues and executives
What This Role is Not:
Candidates who have significant background in traditional publishing (HED/K-12), course development in for-credit markets, or large-scale development projects (multi-year, million-dollar projects), should be prepared to highlight how their background and experience meets the requirements of this opportunity (eye for business, high agility, lead many smaller projects on a faster schedule and lower cost model vs traditional digital publishing). It is presumed most applicants will have impressive credentials and background in digital course development-applicants should include a cover letter that highlights the business and strategy aspects of their experience that align to these job requirements, in addition to their experience leading content development teams.
Cengage Group is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status, marital status, parental status, cultural background, organizational level, work styles, tenure and life experiences. Or for any other reason. You may view Cengage's EEO/Affirmative Action Policy signed by CEO Michael Hansen (https://p.widencdn.net/pdvq6j/EEO_Policy_Statement_January_2017) and Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law notice (http://embed.widencdn.net/pdf/plus/cengage/ybs5gt19ik/eeopost-merged.pdf) by visiting their corresponding links.
Cengage Group is committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at accommodations.ta@cengage.com or you may call us at +1 (617) 289-7917.
If you are a Colorado state resident, please email jobpostinginquiries@cengage.com to receive compensation information for this role. Please be sure to include this posting's job ID in the subject line of the email to help ensure a timely response.
About Cengage Group
Cengage Group, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.
