Senior Manager, Design & Development

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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.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Job Description

Summary

The Senior Manager, Design & Development, manages the pipeline for development and production of competency-based learning experiences for academic and professional programs and the teams of assessment developers, instructional designers and instructional technologists who create them. The successful candidate will establish and supervise teams and vendors who will develop and produce industry-driven, activity-driven, social-by-design modules, courses, and specializations that meet the provided design specifications. The Senior Manager is responsible for ensuring that the production of course and activity content results in highly engaging, goal-oriented, beautiful learning objects and fair, valid and reliable assessments, which are true to the integrity of the targeted design. The Senior Manager will be responsible for resourcing and delivering assessment and curriculum solutions and experiences respectful of timelines and budgets for new and redeveloped college programming and attending to opportunities to improve student success through continuous improvement efforts.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

• Ensure the alignment and quality of new and redeveloped curriculum and assessment products against program design and charter requirements
• Source, develop, and manage assessment development and instructional design talent
• Collaborate with program owners, development team supervisor, and project managers to resource and deliver new, redeveloped, and enhanced programs and courses
• Ensure adequate and timely maintenance of courses
• Participate in the definition of college curriculum and assessment approaches
• Assign and manage teams or select and manage vendors to develop products to realize college roadmap while maximizing value to stakeholders
• Collaboratively define, set up, manage, and document efficient and scalable development and production policies, methodologies, procedures, and development standards. Collaborate with colleagues to ensure consistency of operations across projects and colleges and continuously improve departmental efficiency
• Hire project teams and vendors, maintain relationships, manage risk, and ensure successful outcomes. Interact daily with team members and vendors to mentor, provide feedback, and build teamwork
• Responsibly manage budgets for development and production for multiple, multi-faceted, fast-paced projects with inflexible deadlines, effectively providing high-quality production values while achieving sustainability and educational affordability through scale
• Manage development and production vendors and teams to ensure timely delivery of highly engaging, goal-oriented, beautiful learning objects, which may include videos, animations, interactives, project samples, cases, assessments and social experiences
• Monitor project status and progress; identify and remove barriers to keep production on schedule and resolve production delays
• Lead or supervise the upstream review team process to ensure accuracy and quality in content and curriculum material
• Participate in the design of new instructional techniques and innovations
• Other duties as assigned

• To fulfill these responsibilities, the senior manager leads a team of high-performance assessment and curriculum design and development professionals who:
  • Oversee adherence to best practices in the development of reliable and valid competency-based assessments
  • Support multiple teams in the process of developing high-impact competency-based curricular solutions that focus relentlessly on helping students to be successful as both learners and ultimately as employees
  • Partner cross-functionally for the timely, efficient execution of high-quality new products, processes, and procedures that support college initiatives
  • Produce timely, consistent, and accurate reports for stakeholders and senior leadership
  • Are accountable for the health and quality of their college's program and assessment portfolios, using established performance management processes

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities

• Decisive management skills exemplified by a record of courage in making difficult decisions in an environment with competing demands and limited resources
• Excellent collaboration and consensus-building abilities to bring together a diverse group of constituents
• Ability to organize, coordinate, and manage team activities and results
• Ability to coach and develop direct reports
• Ability to work effectively in a highly matrixed organization
• Ability to build relationships and influence at all levels
• Ability to be an agent of change in a rapidly changing environment
• Proven ability to analyze data to identify trends and drive innovative process improvement
• Sound judgement and decision-making skills

Competencies

• Influences Others and Communicates Effectively: Communicates to improve and promote teamwork, decision making, and problem solving. Listens and responds effectively to the reactions and positions of others and encourages the expression of diverse ideas and opinions. Adjusts message and style to fit the audience. Provides timely and helpful feedback. Communicates appropriately to win support with all audiences.
• Collaborates: Works cooperatively with others across the organization to achieve shared objectives. Represents own interests while being fair to others and their areas. Partners with others to get work done. Credits others for their contributions and accomplishments. Gains buy-in, trust and support of others.
• Manages Ambiguity: Deals comfortably with the uncertainty of change. Effectively handles risk. Can decide to act without the total picture. Is calm and productive, even when things are up in the air. Deals constructively with problems that do not have clear solutions or outcomes.
• Being Resilient: Is confident under pressure. Handles and manages crises effectively. Maintains a positive attitude despite adversity. Bounces back from obstacles and setbacks. Grows from hardships and negative experiences.
• Drives for Results: Has a strong outcomes-based orientation. Persists in accomplishing objectives despite obstacles and setbacks. Has a track record of successfully succeeding goals. Pushes self and helps others achieve results. Has a continuous improvement mindset.
• Builds Effective Teams: Forms teams with appropriate and diverse mixes of styles, perspectives, and experience. Establishes common objectives and a shared mindset. Creates a feeling of belonging and strong team morale. Shares wins and rewards team efforts. Fosters open dialogue and collaboration among the team. Creates a team that works well cross-functionally.
• Organizational Learning: Learns quickly when facing new situations. Experiments to find new solutions. Takes on challenges of unfamiliar tasks. Extracts lessons learned from failures and mistakes. Expands knowledge base through ongoing curiosity.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master's degree or greater in relevant field
• Minimum of 3 years of demonstrated relevant professional experience leading and managing multiple course development or production teams
• Proven record of developing and producing quality assessment and learning experiences using established development and production processes and methodologies
• Effective project management, course development, and evaluation skills
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• High energy, enthusiasm, and creativity
• Must interact effectively on cross-organizational teams

Preferred Qualifications:

• 3+ years in leadership positions
• Experience creating cross-contextual learning experiences that are born mobile, social-by-design, gamified, or non-linear with student-driven pathways
• Demonstrated understanding of the higher education environment
• Demonstrated experience with process development and implementation
• Demonstrated success with change management, particularly stabilizing and structuring diffuse and ambiguous situations

Working Conditions
Travel up to 15-20% for college-specific business

Job Description Disclaimer: This position description provides the major duties/responsibilities, requirements and working conditions for the position. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current position, however management reserves the right to revise or change as necessary to meet organizational needs. Other responsibilities may be assigned when circumstances require.

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Position & Application Details

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

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.