TRAINING FACILITATOR

About the role
Hybrid: Microsoft Teams and Alexandria VA, San Jose CA, Dallas TX, or Detroit MI | Contract | Contingent on federal award

McGarity Consulting Group is preparing to potentially staff instructor coverage for a federal training academy that prepares new hires to become patent examiners. The role is contingent on federal award and does not currently exist. The program runs approximately ten weeks per cohort, with roughly eight cohorts a year, cohorts of 100 to 150 learners, and two sessions running concurrently. Delivery happens in person at the client's headquarters and regional offices and virtually through Microsoft Teams.

Prior patent experience is not required. The client's stated expectation is that trainers are proficient in the materials they train on, and structured preparation is provided. What is required is that you can hold a room of 150 professionals for a nine-hour day on technical content and have them leave able to do something they could not do that morning.

Required qualifications

1. Professional classroom facilitation experience with adult learners. You have taught working professionals, not students, on content where getting it wrong at work has consequences. State the audiences, the subjects, and the group sizes.

2. Experience with large cohorts. You have run rooms of fifty or more. Cohorts here run to 150.

3. Technical, regulated, or procedural subject matter. You have taught content governed by rules rather than opinion, whether that is law, compliance, engineering, clinical practice, finance, or a comparable domain.

4. Virtual delivery capability. You facilitate through Microsoft Teams and keep a remote room engaged rather than talking at a screen.

5. Availability for a full ten-week cohort. The published schedule runs eight-hour days in the first two weeks and nine-hour days thereafter, starting as early as 7:30 AM Eastern, with some Fridays off and some full. Classes are not canceled. You must be able to commit to a cohort once you accept it.

6. Location. You live within commuting distance of Alexandria, Virginia; San Jose, California; Dallas, Texas; or Detroit, Michigan, or you can relocate for the duration of a cohort. We source locally at each site rather than flying instructors in.

7. Eligibility for a Public Trust determination and a Federal background investigation. No security clearance is required. Onboarding typically runs two to four weeks.

What you will do

• Deliver instructor-led training to new examiner cohorts in person and through Microsoft Teams

• Run small group lab sessions in which learners apply what was taught rather than watch it demonstrated

• Complete structured preparation on each module and pass a teach-back assessed against the standard the learner will be held to, before you deliver it

• Escalate questions you cannot answer with certainty, record them, and return the confirmed answer to the full cohort. Improvising on examination procedure is not acceptable in this role.

• Serve as named backup on cohorts you are not leading, so that no session depends on one person

• Report recurring learner questions, because a question that keeps coming back identifies a defect in the course rather than in the learner

• Give the design team specific feedback on what is and is not working in the room

Preferred qualifications

• Any exposure to intellectual property, patent examination, patent prosecution, or legal training

• A technical or scientific background in the fields where patent applications concentrate

• Train-the-trainer certification, or experience qualifying other instructors

• Experience teaching software and tool use, where learners must operate the system rather than describe it

• Prior delivery under a Federal contract

• Experience teaching to a fixed curriculum you did not write

• Bachelor's degree at minimum

Engagement terms

Structure. Contract engagement, scheduled by cohort. Multiple cohorts a year are anticipated.

Location. On-site at one of the four client locations, with virtual sessions from your own workspace.

Compensation. $68 per hour

What to send

10. Your facilitation history, with subject, audience, typical group size, and month and year dates.

11. The largest group you have taught, and for how long.

12. Your virtual delivery experience, with the platform and the format.

13. Which of the four locations you can serve, and whether you would relocate for a cohort.

14. Your availability across a ten-week block.

15. Education and any relevant technical background.

A short video of you facilitating is welcome but not required.

Flexible work from home options available.