Fast Facts

Achieving the Dream is seeking a visionary Director of Learning Innovation to lead a national initiative aimed at expanding accelerated course formats for equitable student success. This role involves strategic leadership, faculty development, and collaboration with educational institutions.

Responsibilities: Oversee the Scaling Shortened Academic Terms initiative, lead the development of academic and digital learning strategies, design faculty-centered professional learning experiences, provide coaching to colleges, and contribute to thought leadership.

Skills: Master's degree in education or related field, at least 7 years of higher education experience, expertise in curriculum design and digital pedagogy, strong project and people management skills, and exceptional communication abilities.

Qualifications: Experience designing online courses and familiarity with community college structures, change management expertise, and ability to foster cross-functional collaboration.

Location: This position is hybrid, based in Silver Spring, MD, with occasional travel required.

Compensation: $130000 - $140000 / Annually

Director of Learning Innovation 

Position Details:

Position Type:

Full Time, Exempt

Reports To:

Executive Director, Teaching and Learning

Work Location:

Silver Spring, MD (Hybrid) Remote possible based on role and organizational needs

Level of Travel Required:

Occasional travel per department and organizational needs 

Job Overview:

Reporting to the Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, Achieving the Dream (ATD) seeks a dynamic and visionary Director of Academic Innovation and Digital Learning to lead the Scaling Shortened Academic Terms (SAT) initiative, a multi-year national effort to expand 8-week and other accelerated course formats as a strategy for improving equitable student success and credential completion. This initiative is supported by a $7.9 million grant from Ascendium Education Group and will engage 3–4 state systems and up to 16 colleges over four years.

This newly created role is ideal for a former full-time faculty member with a deep understanding of community college culture, advanced experience in digital pedagogy (including artificial intelligence), and a demonstrated ability to lead academic transformation efforts. The Director will also contribute to ATD’s national teaching and learning portfolio by designing and scaling professional learning opportunities, developing tools and frameworks for faculty engagement, and advancing field-facing thought leadership on the future of teaching and learning.

Duties and Responsibilities: 

 Strategic Leadership and Project Direction (40%)  

• Serve as ATD’s lead for the Scaling Shortened Academic Terms initiative, overseeing strategy, implementation, and outcomes across participating states and colleges.
• Lead the development of academic and digital learning strategies to support the institutionalization of shortened terms, including academic scheduling redesign, course mapping, and faculty engagement.
• Collaborate with project partners (e.g., CCRC) to align implementation with research and evaluation strands.
• Supervise project staff, consultants, and coaches supporting the SAT initiative.
• Manage project budgets, deliverables, and reporting requirements with excellence and timeliness.

Faculty and Digital Pedagogy Innovation (25%)

• Design and implement faculty-centered professional learning experiences focused on teaching in shortened terms, AI integration, and evidence-based digital pedagogy.
• Advance ATD’s digital learning strategy, ensuring AI, generative tools, and other technologies are embedded into scalable instructional models.
• Support faculty and midlevel leaders at colleges in redesigning curriculum, aligning teaching practices, and building digital fluency.

Coaching and Institutional Capacity-Building (20%)

• Provide direct coaching to selected colleges on course redesign, academic leadership, and change management in the context of shortened terms.
• Contribute to ATD’s Foundations of Transformation and other college engagement services by adapting tools and insights from the SAT initiative.
• Co-design and co-deliver training for coaches and practitioners in academic innovation and digital teaching practices.

Thought Leadership and Dissemination (10%)

• Work with teaching and learning leadership and team to develop field-facing coaching and Institutional Capacity-Building. 
• Provide direct coaching to selected colleges on course redesign, academic leadership, and change management in the context of shortened terms.
• Contribute to ATD’s Foundations of Transformation and other college engagement services by adapting tools and insights from the SAT initiative.
• Co-design and co-deliver training for coaches and practitioners in academic innovation and digital teaching practices.

Business Development (5%) 

• Work with organizational leadership to identify and pursue potential funding and partnership opportunities that support teaching and learning program development. 
• Contribute to the development of grant proposals and grant budgets. 

Required Skills/Qualifications/Experience: 

• Master’s degree in education, instructional design, instructional technology, or a related field.
• Minimum 7 years of experience in higher education, including experience as a full-time faculty member at a two- or four-year institution.
• Demonstrated expertise in curriculum design and instructional delivery in shortened academic terms (e.g., 8-week models).
• Advanced knowledge of digital pedagogy, including applied use of AI in teaching, learning assessment, and student engagement.
• Strong project and people management skills, including experience overseeing grant-funded initiatives and supervising staff or consultants.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and presentation skills, with a proven ability to communicate across faculty, administrators, and technical teams.
• Commitment to advancing equity, particularly in the context of underserved and nontraditional learners.

 Preferred Skills/Qualifications/Experience: 

• Experience designing and implementing online, hybrid, or HyFlex courses.
• Familiarity with community college structures, academic leadership, and student success strategies.
• Experience applying change management or institutional transformation frameworks.
• Expertise in faculty development, digital fluency initiatives, or leading communities of practice.
• Familiarity with data-informed instructional improvement and continuous learning cycles.
• Demonstrated ability to form strong internal cross-functional working relationships to deliver results. 

Core Competencies:

Collaboration: Demonstrates respect, humility, and willingness to collaborate when seeking to understand others and making decisions. 

Equity Mindset: Demonstrates capacity to recognize and address racialized structures, policies, and practices that produce and sustain racial inequities. 

Learning Orientation: Embraces challenges, new ideas and different perspectives as an opportunity to learn; continually seeks out and applies new learning to activate change or improvements. 

Systems Thinking: Defines the system and one’s role in the system. Sees relationships and the dynamic elements of the holistic system and executes work accordingly. Influences the system and maps connections to ATD’s external landscape.

Physical Demands: 

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, use hands to finger, handle, or feel; reach with hands and arms; and talk or hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, color vision, and ability to adjust focus. 

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Achieving the Dream is committed to creating and maintaining a diverse work environment.Employment policies and decisions are based upon merit, qualifications, performance, and business needs. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or medical conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth), gender identity or expression, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, legally- protected genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or sexual orientation.