Remote Director: Skills Ontology & Learning Recognition

Maryland Connect; United States; Remote; USD 135,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous Time Off

Comprehensive Health Coverage

Retirement Stipends

Tuition Remission

Job summary

The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) seeks a Skills Ontology and Learning Recognition Director to lead the content and academic-methodology efforts for a multi-institution initiative focused on transparent, faculty-governed credit recommendations. You will guide the framework for translation, ontology, and review models, driving governance and institutional adoption.

You will work with Academic Affairs, Sponsored Programs, and technical teams to define standards for credential

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree in higher education, education, learning sciences, workforce development, assessment, instructional design, public policy, or a related field strongly preferred.
• Minimum 7–10 years of progressively responsible experience in higher education, prior learning assessment, learning recognition, academic affairs, workforce-aligned education, competency-based education, or a related field.
• Demonstrated expertise designing and governing methodologies that translate workforce, military, or other non-traditional learning into faculty-reviewable academic credit, competencies, or learning outcomes.
• Deep familiarity with skills taxonomies, competency frameworks, credentials, and related standards; ability to interpret and align external taxonomies or ecosystem standards within an academic framework.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives that involve faculty governance, academic affairs, technical partners, and external stakeholders; ability to balance methodological leadership with project oversight.
• Experience supervising professional staff and providing strategic direction across planning, implementation, quality assurance, risk management, and decision-making in environments shaped by institutional policy, accreditation expectations, and externally funded requirements.
• Strong written, verbal, and facilitation skills, including experience producing executive reports, governance materials, methodology documentation, and presentations for institutional and external audiences.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategic direction for UMGC’s skills ontology, translation framework, and skills-to-credit methodology, including standards for transparent, faculty-governed, and explainable recommendations.
• Lead evaluation and institutional adoption of external taxonomies, standards, and mapping approaches relevant to learning recognition.
• Define the academic-methodology framework for crosswalks, evidence use, and review traceability so translation methods are transparent, academically sound, auditable, and reusable.
• Provide executive oversight of project plans, deliverables, milestones, and dependencies across academic, technical, and partner workstreams.
• Review progress, resolve escalated barriers, and make prioritization decisions in coordination with project leadership and institutional stakeholders.
• Direct the Project Lead’s day-to-day coordination work and approve major implementation, sequencing, and resourcing decisions affecting project delivery.
• Lead faculty-engagement strategy for methodology review, academic quality assurance, and governance decisions related to learning recognition.
• Partner with Academic Affairs and subject matter experts on standards for credit recommendation, PLA alignment, accreditation expectations, and faculty review workflows.
• Establish expectations for AI-assisted recommendation explainability, review traceability, and academic defensibility within governance and quality-control processes.
• Represent UMGC in partner planning sessions, shared architecture discussions, interoperability and standards conversations, and multi-institution coordination activities.
• Contribute thought leadership on reusable skills-to-credit approaches, data models, standards mappings, and field-facing dissemination outputs.
• Align UMGC’s project contributions with broader ecosystem opportunities, partnership commitments, and implementation pilots.
• Supervise the Project Lead, provide performance feedback, and ensure effective delegation across project operations and documentation activities.
• Oversee reporting inputs, budget planning, staffing decisions, and resource allocation in partnership with Sponsored Programs and institutional leadership.
• Review internal status updates, toolkit/reporting materials, and external reporting outputs for accuracy, completeness, and strategic alignment.
• Monitor key project risks, policy implications, accreditation expectations, and implementation dependencies that could affect delivery, governance, or academic acceptance.
• Approve mitigation strategies related to scope, timelines, staffing, compliance, AI quality assurance, and academic quality controls.
• Ensure project activities align with institutional policy, accreditation expectations, academic standards, and grant requirements.
• Other duties as assigned.

Skills

Leadership

Strategic thinking

Cross-functional collaboration

Executive communication

Policy alignment

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s degree preferred

Job description

The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) seeks a Skills Ontology and Learning Recognition Director to lead the content and academic-methodology efforts for a multi-institution initiative focused on transparent, faculty-governed credit recommendations. You will guide the framework for translation, ontology, and review models, driving governance and institutional adoption.

You will work with Academic Affairs, Sponsored Programs, and technical teams to define standards for credential