Instructional Design jobs in United States

About the Role
We are hiring a Head of Curriculum and Pedagogy for a leading educational publishing company at the forefront of EdTech innovation in school education. This role will shape the academic vision and strategic direction across curriculum, pedagogy, assessment design, and instructional excellence.

You will drive academic quality and innovation across our content portfolio, spanning print, digital, hybrid, and live learning formats, and ensure our products meet the evolving needs of schools and learners across geographies and boards.

This is a leadership role for someone with deep academic expertise, a strong orientation toward educational product thinking, and experience in translating pedagogy into scalable, impactful learning solutions.

Academic Strategy & Pedagogical Leadership

• Set the academic strategy and long-term roadmap aligned with learning science and future-ready pedagogy.

• Define an instructional framework to support learner-centric, competency-driven education.

• Embed innovations like GenAI, skill-based learning, and career readiness into academic planning.

• Establish learning outcomes, progression models, and pedagogical benchmarks across grades.

Curriculum & Content Excellence

• Lead the design of curriculum and assessment frameworks across K12, aligned with international standards (IB, Cambridge, etc.).

• Guide content development across print publications, digital platforms, and blended formats.

• Own the academic product lifecycle from ideation to rollout, ensuring contextual and scalable learning solutions.

• Drive integration of adaptive tools, differentiated instruction, and formative assessments.

Academic Team Leadership

• Lead and mentor a large academic team (100+ professionals) across content, curriculum, and instructional design.

• Build team capabilities for scale, innovation, and academic rigor.

• Establish academic review and quality assurance systems for continuous improvement.

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Work closely with editorial, product, technology, marketing, training, and implementation teams to embed academic quality across offerings.

• Ensure coherence between academic content and classroom delivery, teacher enablement, and learner experience.

• Use outcome data and customer insights to iterate on academic strategy and product design.

Quality Assurance & Learning Impact

• Define academic quality metrics, impact benchmarks, and performance review systems.

• Use feedback loops from educators and learners to improve academic offerings.

• Ensure content is inclusive and adaptable for varied school types, learner profiles, and regions.

• Minimum 18 years of experience in academic leadership, curriculum design, publishing, instructional strategy, or EdTech.

• Proven experience in leading curriculum or academic programs at scale within publishing or education-focused organizations.

• Strong understanding of pedagogical frameworks, instructional design, and content development for school education.

• Masters or PhD in Education, Curriculum Design, or a related field is preferred.

Functional

• Deep knowledge of academic planning, curriculum development, and assessment strategy.

• Familiarity with and global curricula (IB, Cambridge).

• Experience working across digital, print, and blended learning models.

• Ability to manage and grow large academic teams across functions.

Role-Based

• Strategic thinking combined with a strong bias for execution.

• Excellent collaboration and communication skills.

• High ownership, agility, and ability to manage complexity.

• Passionate about education impact at scale and quality in learning outcomes.