Education Technology Project Manager

Imagine a community of students taking action toward their dreams and living happier lives. In this world, people are so fulfilled they reach out and positively contribute to the lives of others. That’s who we impact, and that’s what we are building. Want to be a part of it?

To determine whether you'd be a good fit, ask yourself…

• Would you like to go to work each day knowing that you are using your talents to help others and better the world?

• Are you inspired by the thought of positively impacting tens of thousands of students?

• Are you ready to work in an organization that is rapidly growing and embraces change?

• Would you like to work with people whom you respect and can learn from every day?

• Do you desire to work for an organization that cares about your growth, where your own drive and interests help you create your own future?

• Do you live within commuting distance of Jersey City, NJ?

Our guiding question is: “Are we helping the greatest number of people in the greatest possible way?" Are you inspired? Let’s change the world together.

Overview:

The Education Technology Project Manager will join a team of 60 purpose-driven staff members in a friendly, focused, fast-paced, entrepreneurial office environment. The National Society of Leadership and Success is the largest collegiate leadership honor society in the United States, with over 670 chapters and more than a million members, who collectively have completed over 282,000 hours of community service.

Under the supervision of the Director of Education, the Education Technology Project Manager will be part of an expanding team of instructional designers, course developers, digital specialists, and other education specialists. S/he will assist the team in documenting work and processes towards building engaging and high-quality online learning (e-learning + m-learning) systems. This role will engage in capacity planning, including the balancing of workloads to ensure that resources are fully utilized towards technological and educational design to standardize milestones wherever possible. This individual is responsible for making high-quality online learning happen for a diverse learner population. Because our learner platform is Moodle, our ideal candidate will not only have a passion for this learning management system, but extensive knowledge and capacity to create, develop and build engaging education within this platform. 

This role requires strong communication skills because s/he will be responsible for project managing the execution of the program build of the educational experiences from start to end (and work/coordinate across several departments to do so). Our learning environments may contain gamification elements, badges, activities and assessments, and dynamic CRM functionalities that allow our users to become more motivated to complete their work and reward them for taking ownership in their membership in our organization. In this role, s/he will need to have recent and extensive working experience with complex, modern and feature-rich web applications, a deep understanding of different interaction models and game mechanics. We have a goal to make our product intuitive, educational, fun, and engaging. To accomplish this goal, this role will act as a user advocate and work to evolve our student environments with new lessons, ongoing lesson improvements, and other features that affect the overall student experience.

Responsibilities:

• Coordinate work by multiple teams to successfully create assets for all online learning experiences (e-learning and m-learning environments)

• Lead the architecture, design, and creation of the full learning experience online (e-learning + m-learning environments)

• Document and communicate critical status updates and risks with project teams

• Support project progress through tasks including on-platform planning and implementation, reviews for accessibility, and others as they arise

• Contribute to the overall student experience primarily through the learning environment and app but also through lesson design, and lesson improvements

• Work with the broader design team to support improved UX across our entire education portfolio

• Support the asset creation of lesson assets when needed

• Lead user feedback (e.g. usability studies) sessions

• Create and promote deep empathy with learners of all ages and abilities

• Develop purposeful animations to support engagement and understanding of interactions

• Write detailed user stories and create and design detailed product road maps

General Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in a related field (education, project/product management, programming, etc.)

• 5+ years in professional training or instructional design for online learning; managing client-facing deliverables for enterprise-level clients; and transferable professional experience as a project manager in a fast-paced environment in which many people were involved in complex projects

• Knowledge of and aptitude for learning new technologies (e.g., Adobe Acrobat, Articulate Storyline, Airtable, Jira, Microsoft Office suite, etc.)

• Be a ‘thinker’ but also a ‘doer.’ Work well under time and budget constraints and able to set clear expectations and always meet deadlines

• Usability and Interaction Design- a designer position, but with a particular skill set of usability, interactions, and flow.

• Game Design: Experience in working with games and gamification elements such as levels, badges, certificates, mini-games, virtual economies, etc.; preference is given for candidates with experience creating online games and mobile interfaces and/or consumer or edutainment brand experience

• Understanding of special considerations in designing for Gen Z or even Alpha Gen students (attention span, academic level, instructions, comprehension, etc.) and well as educators

• Proficient in early-process techniques such as wireframing and flowcharts

• Proficient in creating highly interactive and engaging prototypes

• Strong ability to incorporate purposeful animations to support engagement and understanding of interactions

• Experience writing detailed user stories, handling a backlog and product roadmap

• Effective collaboration experience across teams and organizations

• Experience in obtaining and synthesizing user feedback from various sources, assessing root needs, and integrating that information into a cohesive design

• Ability to understand and communicate architectural requirements, preferences, and limitations

• Certifications such as PMP is highly desirable, but not essential

• Certification in teaching highly desirable, but not required

• Travel Requirements: 5% as needed

Software Skills Required:

• 3+ years of experience with Moodle

• Proficient with design tools such as Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.).

• Experience with Animate/Flash, HTML5.

• Proficient with prototyping software such as Articulate Storyline, Invision, Axure, etc.

• Familiar with front-end web development (HTML, JavaScript, and CSS) – at a minimum, you will understand web constraints.

Future Hiring Stages:

Looking ahead, candidates selected to participate in the interview stage will be asked to provide the following additional materials:

• Samples of instructional design work they have performed.

• A copy of a start-to-finish project plan for an instructional design project they have overseen, including original (planned) delivery dates for each stage as well as actual (delivered) dates.

• These additional materials will serve as the foundation for a discussion of the candidate's instructional design experience as well as lessons learned as a successful education project manager. 

Benefits You Receive While Working at The NSLS Include:

• Healthcare Benefits (medical, vision, and dental) 

• 401K with employer contribution

• Working daily with a team of positive people

• Opportunities for advancement as we expand into new markets

• Flexibility to work 1 day/week from home (after 12 months), if you’re reaching goals

• Feeling good knowing you are using your talents to better the world

• 1.5hr lunch to work out at a local gym with the cost of membership subsidized

• Bonus based on the achievement of company-wide metrics

• A company that believes and invests in your personal and professional growth

• Paid time off (PTO) days, holidays, PLUS week between Christmas and New Year’s Day

The National Society of Leadership and Success is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to diversity, equality, and inclusion.

Visit www.nsls.org to learn more about our organization.

To apply for this role, please email your resume and salary requirements to careers@nsls.org