Director, Learning Design (Science)
Location: Dallas, TX
Job Type: full-time
Company: LEI LAZEL, Inc.
Job Description Apply Now
Job Overview:
The Director of Learning Experience Design leads a team responsible for developing high-quality, research-aligned learning resources that support and enhance our science products and learning experiences across the organization’s product ecosystem. This role manages and develops a team of Learning Experience Designers at multiple levels, ensuring the consistent implementation of the learning design vision and pedagogical standards.
The Director oversees day‑to‑day execution of learning experience design work, ensuring that products meet the organization's standards of rigor, usability, quality, and developmental appropriateness. This role partners closely with Product Management, Creative Services, Engineering, Project Management, and other cross‑functional teams to translate instructional intent into effective, scalable product solutions. The Director is accountable for operationalizing the pedagogical vision—building processes, guiding teams, and ensuring high‑quality delivery across projects.
Job Responsibilities:
Collaboration across Research and Development Teams
- Build high-impact partnerships with internal and external thought leaders, establishing a strategic network that shapes the organization's approach to product design. Create structures that enable teams to translate expert insights into scalable solutions that strengthen market differentiation and deepen product impact.
- Drive your team in developing forward-looking strategies that synthesize market dynamics, competitor movements, and emerging research in teaching and learning. Shape how these insights inform decision-making across R&D and GTM teams, ensuring cross-functional teams can translate trends into differentiated product vision, long-range strategy, and innovation priorities.
- Provide leadership and governance for ensuring all learning products align with state and national standards, vertical progressions, and developmental expectations.
- Provide strategic oversight of learning experience design discovery and competitor research efforts, guiding team members to synthesize complex insights into actionable product content and features.
- Partner with Learning Experience Design and Product Management leadership to set the strategic direction for discovery, proof-of-concept initiatives, user experience research, and piloting. Provide guidance to cross-functional teams in interpreting complex insights and operationalizing them into scalable, innovative learning design strategies that advance product excellence and organizational impact.
- Oversee your team's contributions to white papers, learning design briefs, logic models, and post-release efficacy research.
- Champion a collaborative, high-performance culture across Product Management, Creative Services, Engineering, and adjacent teams, shared accountability, and clear communication pathways.
- Mentor team members in aligning around product vision, strategy, and requirements.
- Provide oversight for team expertise in product functionality, architecture, and taxonomies, establishing the frameworks and knowledge systems that enable teams to design with precision and innovate with confidence.
- Provide leadership in developing the organization's capacity to navigate complex instructional, technical, and pedagogical challenges. Model effective decision-making and deliver high-quality solutions that advance product vision and organizational goals.
Collaboration with Go to Market Teams
- Partner with Marketing leadership to shape product narratives and ensure messaging reflects the organization's learning philosophy, market positioning, and strategic priorities. Cultivate a strong, ongoing exchange of expertise between teams, building organizational capacity and deepening domain knowledge to strengthen both product impact and market resonance.
- Provide oversight for collaboration with Success Relationships and Professional Learning Services, ensuring the organization consistently communicates pedagogical intent through training and implementation materials. Establish structures for ongoing insight-sharing from post-sale teams, transforming customer feedback into actionable guidance that informs R&D priorities, strengthens product quality, and drives continuous improvement across the portfolio.
- Ensure team members support Bids and Proposals with rigorous, insight-driven content, and research foundations for RFPs and adoption opportunities. Establish quality standards that elevate the credibility of submissions and position the company for sustained competitive success.
- Provide leadership in crafting and delivering high-impact presentations for internal and external stakeholders, ensuring a unified understanding of the instructional vision, strategic intent, and product direction. Mentor team members in articulating complex pedagogical and product concepts with clarity, influence, and alignment across the organization.
Content Creation
- Direct a team responsible for the creation of instructional artifacts such as outlines, scopes and sequence, and prototypes that meet high standards. Set clear expectations and provide ongoing, detailed feedback to drive high-quality, pedagogically sound, and research-based results.
- Translate the team's pedagogical vision into actionable processes, content development guidelines, and team practices.
- Oversee prototype development, ensuring the pedagogical vision is translated into effective, practical, and user-friendly digital and print resources.
- Ensure resources reflect current research, standards, and best practices.
- Maintain and evolve internal documentation, quality standards, and learning experience design processes
- Champion equity, accessibility, and culturally responsive pedagogy across all product experiences.
- Drive the planning and development of instruction and assessment, ensuring rigorous alignment with targeted standards and ExploreK12's core instructional principles. Establish review systems that empower teams to design coherent, research-aligned learning experiences and drive continuous improvement in instructional rigor and impact.
- Oversee review processes for instructional artifacts and content deliverables to ensure accuracy, rigor, and alignment with standards.
- Ensure that learning experience design decisions support usability, engagement, and learning outcomes.
Team Leadership
- Build a culture of excellence and accountability that drives and ensures content quality, accuracy, and alignment with instructional and product guidelines.
- Oversee day‑to‑day learning experience design execution, ensuring timely, high‑quality delivery of standards-aligned teacher- and student-facing content.
- Ensure processes are in place for creating content at scale that meet market and business needs.
- Support capacity planning for direct reports and provide accurate internal/external cost estimates based on scope and timelines.
- Develop initiatives to drive efficiency and effectiveness in the creation of high-quality content developed in multiple formats, including through innovative uses of AI."
- Monitor project progress, remove roadblocks, and escalate risks as needed.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure efficient workflows, clear expectations and handoffs, and adherence to timelines."
- Oversee processes for onboarding, training, and managing external vendors and contractors contributing to learning experience design work.
- Develop and evaluate contracts and help maintain relationships with new and existing external consultants, partners, and vendors.
- Ensure vendor deliverables meet the organization's pedagogical and editorial standards.
- Track costs against project budgets and escalate any risks or variances that could impact scope, timeline, or delivery."
- Lead, manage, and develop a team of Learning Experience Designers across multiple levels.
- Provide coaching, feedback, and professional development to build learning experience design/pedagogical expertise and cross‑functional effectiveness.
- Conduct performance evaluations, support career growth, and foster a collaborative, inclusive team culture.
- Manage team capacity, resourcing, and workload distribution across projects.
Job Requirements:
- Experience: 8+ years in learning experience design or educational content development.
- 3+ years leading or managing teams in an iterative, fast-paced product development environment.
- 3+ years of K-12 classroom teaching experience (or equivalent applied experience).
- The Analytical Edge: Demonstrated experience using data, analytics, and codesign to guide product iterations and design decisions.
- Creative Portfolio: A proven track record of conceptualizing and launching highly engaging, interactive digital learning experiences.
- Domain & Leadership Expertise: Deep knowledge of national/state academic standards, the K-12 competitive landscape, and experience managing external vendors or large-scale content pipelines.
- Leadership experience within an EdTech company or modern educational publishing house.
- Experience designing specifically for digital platforms
Why Work for Us
When you join ExploreK12™, you become part of a mission to help educators unlock brighter futures for every student.
As a trusted leader in educational technology, we serve more than 17 million students and educators across 150+ countries with innovative, research-backed learning solutions that truly make a difference. Our flagship products—Gizmos™, Raz-Plus®, and Reflex™—are beloved by educators and students alike for being as practical and effective as they are fun.
To learn more about our organization and the exciting work we do, visit .
Our Remote First approach gives employees the flexibility and trust they need to effectively balance work with life. It creates a culture in which all employees are valued and where success is measured in results. It allows us to work collaboratively, inclusively and for greater positive impact, regardless of our individual locations.
If you will be working remotely, either occasionally or on a permanent basis, you must have a reliable internet connection through a cable or fiber-optic broadband service with minimum speeds of 10 Mbps download and 5 Mbps upload.
The successful candidate will be expected to actively participate in video-based interviews during the recruiting process and ongoing virtual meetings with their camera on, as part of their role. To maintain confidentiality and ensure a fair evaluation process, the use of note-taking tools, reference materials, or AI-powered tools (including generative AI, language models, or similar technologies) during interviews or other selection activities is prohibited unless prior written approval has been obtained from the People Experience team. If you require an exception for medical, accessibility, or other reasons, please contact your Talent Acquisition team member to discuss accommodations in advance.
As part of our Remote-First benefits, Cambium offers reimbursement to help cover the cost of setting up your home or remote office.
An Equal Opportunity Employer
We are dedicated to fostering a culture that celebrates unique backgrounds, ideas, and experiences. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of race, color, age, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender, gender identity/expression, or sexual orientation), national origin, protected veteran status, disability, or genetic information (including family medical history).
We will provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities. You may request an accommodation during the recruiting process with your Talent Acquisition team member.