Senior Curriculum Developer - Community for Rigor - Kording Lab

Upenn; United States; On-site; USD 85,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Pennsylvania seeks a Senior Curriculum Developer for the Community for Rigor (C4R) to design, develop, deploy, and revise educational content for scientists at all levels. You will work with the Kording Lab and partner institutions to advance rigorous research education.

The role emphasizes collaboration, inclusive pedagogy, and professional development, with opportunities to present at conferences and contribute to multi-institution projects within an NIH-funded center.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree and at least three years of higher-education teaching or equivalent.
• Preference for background in statistics, life sciences, neuroscience, or related fields.
• Familiarity with rigor and reproducibility issues in biomedical sciences.
• Experience with evidence-based pedagogy and instructional design.
• Empathy with learners and ability to meet them where they are.
• Strong writing and documentation skills, including feedback and KB maintenance.
• Ability to craft instructional copy, scripts, and materials.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with subject matter experts and educators to create engaging educational content.
• Contribute to shared projects, provide design feedback, and improve user experience of interactive components.
• Work with internal teams and external partners across multiple entities.
• Communicate effectively across teams and provide actionable guidance.
• Support C4R values and processes in daily work.
• Present content to test audiences and travel to conferences as needed.

Skills

Higher-education teaching

Instructional design

Technical writing

Stakeholder collaboration

Education

Master's degree in a related field

Doctoral degree

Tools

Monday.com

Trello

Asana

Jira

Job description

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn's distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America's Best Large Employers in 2023.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title

Senior Curriculum Developer - Community for Rigor - Kording Lab

Job Profile Title

Manager Research Project B

Job Description Summary

The Community for Rigor (C4R - https://c4r.io/ ) is a growing and innovative team at the University of Pennsylvania with the goal of making science more rigorous through leading‑thinking educational materials. There is a growing recognition that science could be made more efficient and impactful, by addressing research problems such as: failure to replicate, poor documentation, non-open or gatekeeping of data, and ineffective research questions. Community for Rigor is a 6-year funded project from NIH NINDS, and operates as a hub that coordinates the efforts of partner institutions from many leading universities. Our vision is to empower scientists to do reliable, rigorous research, through inclusive pedagogy, and in collaboration with a vibrant global community.

We are seeking a Senior Curriculum Developer that will be responsible for collaborative creation of training materials, suitable for scientists of all levels and career stages. As part of the Curriculum Team at C4R, you will work alongside internal teams and our external partners to design, develop, deploy, assess, and revise educational content. In addition to empowering scientists, we also aim to empower every member of our team, through a supportive, inclusive, and open working environment. C4R fosters the success of each individual and team through a variety of professional development and peer learning opportunities.

Job Description

Job Responsibilities

• Work alongside leading subject matter experts, professional educators, rigor champions, technologists, and more, to create the next generation of engaging and effective educational content.
• Contribute to shared projects as part of C4R's overall mission (e.g. provide feedback on design and user experience of web-based interactive components, evaluate existing educational units, and integrate feedback in future versions).
• Be a flexible and adaptive team player, and work alongside different entities at C4R, the Kording Lab, Penn, and our partners.
• Communicate effectively across different teams and individuals, including giving and receiving constructive feedback and actionable guidance.
• Support C4R in implementing its values throughout our work and our processes.
• Present C4R content to audiences when needed (including instruction to test audiences) and travel to conferences to represent C4R ( travel requirement)

Qualifications

• Master's degree and a minimum of three years of experience teaching in a higher-education setting or an equivalent combination of education and experience (e.g. Doctoral degree and 0 years of experience).
• Preference for background in statistics, the life sciences, neuroscience, or related fields.
• Awareness of rigor and reproducibility issues, especially in the biomedical sciences.
• Familiarity with evidence-based pedagogy and instructional design.
• Empathy with our learner audience and meeting them "where they're at".
• Strong writing and documentation skills, including providing written feedback and updating internal knowledge base documents.
• Ability to write effective copy, instructional text, audio/visual scripts, etc.

Preferred / Nice-to-Have

• Certified Instructor for The Carpentries or similar certification.
• Familiarity with explicit teaching / explicit instruction.
• Familiarity with project management tools or systems (Monday.com, Trello, Asana, Jira, etc.).
• Experience creating educational multimedia (grap