Lead Instructional Designer: Design Authority

Nectar; United States; On-site; USD 95,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Nectar is seeking a Lead Instructional Designer focused on quality and design authority for multiple concurrent courses. You will oversee a small team of designers, review plans and builds, and ensure alignment with client standards.

This is a contract-per-project engagement with weekly review cadence and direct client interaction. You will coach designers, manage design decisions across LMS builds (Canvas, Brightspace), and uphold accessibility and quality throughout development.

Qualifications

• Several years designing courses end-to-end.
• Experience reviewing other designers' work and giving direct, actionable feedback.
• Comfort in client-facing meetings and presenting design decisions.
• Ability to manage multiple courses in your head and meet client dates.
• Familiarity with accessibility standards and client design guidelines.

Responsibilities

• Review course plans, guides, and LMS builds against client standards and sign off before submission.
• Provide substantive feedback on outcomes, alignment, and assessability; avoid line edits.
• Bridge to the build; review the built course and ensure interactive elements render correctly in the LMS.
• Attend client, ID, and SME calls; explain trade-offs and uphold standards in discussions.
• Coach new contract designers and onboard them to templates, review processes, and timelines.
• Monitor scope, capacity, and risks; keep project status visible to PMs.

Skills

Instructional design

Quality review

Client-facing

Design authority

LMS knowledge

Project coaching

Education

Bachelor's degree in Education/Instructional Design or related field

Tools

Canvas

Brightspace

Google Workspace

Slack

Job description

Nectar is seeking a Lead Instructional Designer focused on quality and design authority for multiple concurrent courses. You will oversee a small team of designers, review plans and builds, and ensure alignment with client standards.

This is a contract-per-project engagement with weekly review cadence and direct client interaction. You will coach designers, manage design decisions across LMS builds (Canvas, Brightspace), and uphold accessibility and quality throughout development.