Vice President, Curriculum Design & Development

United States

ABOUT PER SCHOLAS:

For 30 years, Per Scholas has been on a mission to drive mobility and opportunity in the ever-advancing technology landscape by unlocking the untapped potential of individuals, uplifting communities, and meeting the needs of employers through rigorous tech training. By teaming up with dynamic employer partners, ranging from Fortune 500 companies to innovative startups, we're forging inclusive tech talent pipelines, fulfilling an ever-increasing need for skilled talent. With national remote training and campuses in 20+ cities and counting, Per Scholas offers no-cost training programs in the most sought-after tech skills, spanning Cloud, Cybersecurity, Data Engineering, IT Support, Software Engineering, and more. To date, 30,000+ individuals have been trained through Per Scholas, propelling their professional trajectories into high-growth tech careers with salaries three times higher than their pre-training earnings. Learn more by visiting PerScholas.org and follow us on LinkedIn , X , Facebook , Instagram , and YouTube .

Per Scholas candidates must reside in one of the following states, provided the position does not carry a specific office location requirement: AZ, CA, CO, FL, GA, IL, IN, KS, MD, MA, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TX, WA.

Department: Curriculum Solutions
Position Title: Vice President, Product Design & Development
Reports To: Executive Vice President, Curriculum Solutions
Employment Status: Full-Time, Exempt
Modality: Remote; must comply with Per Scholas’ office and remote-work policies
Travel: 0–10%, as needed and with prior approval

Who We Are Looking For

Per Scholas is seeking a strategic, innovative and outcomes-oriented Vice President of Product Design & Development to lead the design and development of high-quality, market-responsive curriculum products. This leader will oversee the full product-design lifecycle—from discovery and requirements definition through curriculum design, development, quality assurance and launch readiness.

The Vice President will ensure that Per Scholas’ curriculum portfolio responds to labor-market intelligence, employer demand, learner needs and emerging industry trends. This individual will lead a multidisciplinary team that may include product managers, product owners, learning-experience designers, curriculum developers, technical subject-matter experts and contractors.

The ideal candidate is an experienced product and curriculum leader who understands technical training, workforce development and adult learning. This person must be able to translate organizational strategy into clear roadmaps, measurable product outcomes and scalable learning experiences that support job placement, credential attainment and economic mobility.

What You’ll Do

Product Strategy and Portfolio Leadership

• Lead the strategy, design and development of Per Scholas’ curriculum portfolio across technology, infrastructure, professional development and Career Accelerator offerings.
• Translate organizational priorities, employer demand and labor-market intelligence into actionable product roadmaps and investment recommendations.
• Establish clear portfolio priorities across new course development, customization, refresh, redesign, scaling, deferral and retirement.
• Present data-informed recommendations, risks and tradeoffs to executive leadership and governance bodies.
• Ensure product decisions are grounded in employer relevance, learner outcomes, organizational capacity and financial sustainability.
• Establish clear success measures for curriculum quality, development speed, credential attainment, learner completion and placement relevance.

Curriculum Discovery, Design and Development

• Provide executive leadership for the end-to-end discovery, design and development process.
• Ensure that new and refreshed products are informed by learner personas, job-task analyses, competency maps, employer requirements and relevant industry certifications.
• Oversee the development of course outlines, sequencing documents, learning objectives, assessments, labs, instructor resources and learner-facing materials.
• Ensure technical requirements are translated into clear, measurable and instructionally sound learning experiences.
• Establish consistent definitions of design readiness, development readiness, quality assurance and launch readiness.
• Ensure products incorporate appropriate applications of artificial intelligence, security, human skills and emerging technologies.
• Promote responsible, ethical and employer-aligned uses of AI within curriculum and technical learning experiences.
• Balance customization requirements with the need to maintain scalable, repeatable and sustainable curriculum products.

Team and Talent Leadership

• Lead, coach and develop a multidisciplinary Product Design and Development team.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, performance expectations and decision-making authority across the team.
• Build a culture of collaboration, innovation, accountability, psychological safety and continuous improvement.
• Assess team capacity and align internal staff, contractors and subject-matter experts with portfolio priorities.
• Develop internal talent pipelines and strengthen the team’s capabilities in product management, learning design, technical curriculum development and quality assurance.
• Ensure team members receive appropriate professional development, tools and support.
• Manage performance, succession planning, staffing recommendations and resource allocation for the department.

Quality, Standards and Governance

• Establish and uphold curriculum-product standards for quality, consistency, accessibility, assessment rigor, credential alignment and employer relevance.
• Ensure learning objectives, instructional activities, labs and assessments are aligned and traceable to job competencies.
• Develop and monitor quality gates that reduce rework and protect the integrity of curriculum products.
• Ensure curriculum changes follow established governance, version-control and pilot-evaluation processes.
• Maintain clear standards for when courses should be refreshed, redesigned, scaled, deferred or retired.
• Partner with Evaluation and Learning teams to incorporate pilot findings, learner-performance data, instructor feedback and placement outcomes into product decisions.
• Protect appropriate curriculum-development timelines and ensure that significant changes are supported by evidence, capacity and organizational priorities.

Cross-Functional Leadership and Launch Readiness

• Partner with Training Delivery, Product Delivery, Instructor Development, Evaluation, Professional Development, Employer Engagement, Marketing and Operations to ensure successful product implementation.
• Ensure curriculum-design decisions reflect instructor readiness, scheduling requirements, learner-support needs, technology constraints and market capacity.
• Establish effective handoffs between discovery, design, development, quality assurance and implementation.
• Provide stakeholders with accurate product documentation, including course profiles, learner exit profiles, curriculum maps, product outlines and skills summaries.
• Support employer and market conversations by ensuring teams understand the occupations, skills and career pathways connected to each training product.
• Address cross-functional risks and dependencies that may affect quality, launch timelines, learner experience or product adoption.
• Serve as a senior advisor to organizational leaders on curriculum strategy, technical-training trends and product-development decisions.

Measurement and Continuous Improvement

• Partner with Evaluation and Product Operations to establish key performance indicators for curriculum quality and effectiveness.
• Use learner data, instructor feedback, credential outcomes, completion rates and placement information to inform product improvements.
• Monitor portfolio performance and recommend targeted refreshes, redesigns or retirement decisions.
• Ensure pilots include clear evaluation questions, defined data-collection plans and post-pilot review periods.
• Track and improve curriculum-development timelines while maintaining quality and stakeholder alignment.
• Communicate portfolio progress, risks, capacity and outcomes through executive-level dashboards and reports.

Systems and Operational Excellence

• Partner with Product Operations to maintain reliable systems of record for curriculum artifacts, product decisions, version histories and portfolio status.
• Establish repeatable workflows, templates, governance structures and documentation standards.
• Ensure curriculum requirements account for enterprise systems and platforms, including the LMS, content repositories, CRM, cloud environments and instructional technologies.
• Identify and resolve process gaps that affect curriculum quality, development speed, adoption or scalability.
• Support annual planning, budgeting, vendor management and resource forecasting for Product Design and Development.
• Ensure grant, contract and partner requirements are translated into realistic product deliverables, measurement expectations and timelines.

What You’ll Bring to Us

Professional Qualifications

• Ten or more years of progressively responsible experience in curriculum product development, learning design, technical training, education technology, workforce development or a related field.
• At least five years of experience leading multidisciplinary teams and managing senior-level professionals.
• Demonstrated success overseeing the design and development of complex learning products from discovery through implementation.
• Experience developing or managing technology-focused curriculum in areas such as software engineering, cloud computing, cybersecurity, data, artificial intelligence, IT support, infrastructure or advanced manufacturing.
• Strong understanding of adult-learning principles, competency-based education, assessment design and performance-based learning.
• Demonstrated ability to translate employer needs, labor-market information and technical requirements into scalable curriculum products.
• Experience managing product roadmaps, competing priorities, organizational capacity and cross-functional dependencies.
• Strong executive communication skills, including the ability to present complex information, risks and recommendations clearly.
• Experience using data to evaluate product performance and inform investment, refresh, redesign or retirement decisions.
• Demonstrated experience improving systems, processes, documentation and quality standards.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced degree in education, instructional design, organizational leadership, technology, business or a related field.
• Experience in workforce development, nonprofit education or multi-market training environments.
• Experience with learning-management systems, curriculum-authoring tools, product-management platforms and digital-content repositories.
• Familiarity with industry-recognized certifications and credentialing organizations.
• Experience leading AI-enabled curriculum development or integrating AI into technical-learning experiences.
• Experience managing external vendors, contractors and subject-matter experts.
• Experience supporting grant-funded, employer-sponsored or customized training initiatives.

Per Scholas offers a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your health, financial well-being, and overall quality of life!

Holidays & PTO: Full-TimePer Scholas team members enjoy over 40 days of paid time off each year through a mix of holidays, vacation, and sick/personal time! All employees are eligible for Holiday pay upon hire (a total of 22 holidays annually, including a week off for Independence day and a week before the New Year ). Full-Time Benefits Eligible employees also receive 80 Wellness Hours to use for Sick, Safe, or Personal reasons and accrue Vacation at a rate of 8 hours at the beginning of every month, supporting rest, recharge, and work-life balance. Vacation accruals increase with tenure. Part-time employees are afforded time off on a prorated basis and in accordance with local requirements.

Comprehensive Medical Coverage : Benefit eligible employees can choose from multiple medical plans through Cigna or Kaiser Permanente (where available), with options to fit your needs. Eligible employees also have access to a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) that reimburses eligible out-of-pocket expenses, up to $4,000 for individuals and $8,000 for families.

Dental and Vision Insurance : Eligible employees can select from two dental plan options and a vision plan. Employees who waive medical coverage receive employer paid dental and vision premiums.

Retirement Savings: 401(k) plan with a current 100% employer match on contributions up to 6%, eligible employees are offered entry and full vesting after 90 days with the company.

Employee Assistance Program (EAP) : Free, confidential, 24/7 access to counseling, legal support, and financial resources for employees and their household members

Parental Leave: Eligible employees are offered up to 6 weeks of 100% paid parental leave to support employees as they welcome a new child and bond with their family.

Additional Benefits & Perks: Eligible employees have access to employer-paid life and AD&D Insurance, as well as employer-paid short-term disability coverage, with the option to elect additional life coverage and long-term disability insurance. Flexible Spending accounts are available for healthcare, dependent care, and commuting expenses. Per Scholas also offers a range of voluntary benefits, including: Accident, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity, Legal Services, and Pet Insurance. Additional resources include healthcare concierge support, financial wellness tools, and employee discount programs.

We're proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin.

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