Senior Learning Designer

Socket.dev; New York (NY); Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

BrainPOP is seeking a Senior Learning Designer to drive learning design within content initiatives from brief to launch. You will model craft, upskill designers, and partner on AI-enabled content workflows, ensuring instructional quality and scalability.

This role is based in NY or remote in the US, with hybrid work flexibility and occasional travel. The ideal candidate has 7+ years designing K–8 curriculum, strong assessment item writing experience, and a track record of leading design

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s preferred in Education, Instructional Design, or Curriculum & Instruction.
• Strong portfolio of K–8 formative assessment items for digital learning products.

Responsibilities

• Own the learning design work within assigned content initiatives—from brief through launch with PM and Senior Director of Learning Design.
• Translate strategic direction into design frameworks, item blueprints, and content specs.
• Maintain quality and coherence across a collection, ensuring grade-band differentiation and instructional alignment.
• Write and review formative assessment items; set distractor logic standards; address quality gaps.
• Provide feedback to others and model design thinking; develop shared resources and workshops.
• Partner on AI content pipelines, including prompt design and quality rubrics.
• Represent learning design in product discovery and cross-functional collaboration.

Skills

Design decision-making

Craft model and guidance

Team development

Analytical rigor

Initiative partnership

Digital fluency

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Master’s preferred

Tools

CMS

AI tools

Job description

For over two decades, BrainPOP has been trusted by educators and parents worldwide as a source of engaging and impactful learning experiences for all kids. With a presence in over two-thirds of U.S. districts through school and district subscriptions and an estimated annual reach of 25 million students, BrainPOP is empowering kids to take agency over their learning and excel in and out of the classroom.

The company was acquired in 2022 by KIRKBI, the family-owned holding and investment company of the LEGO brand, marking a significant milestone as their first acquisition in the digital learning realm. We are thrilled to continue making learning fun and accessible with the strategic guidance and support of KIRKBI.

About the Role

Reporting to the Senior Director of Learning Design, the Senior Learning Designer is a senior individual contributor who drives the learning design work within content initiatives from brief to launch.

The Senior Learning Designer translates strategic direction into coherent design decisions, models craft for the team, and actively upskills other learning designers through feedback. They are a go-to expert in assessment design and instructional quality and a key partner in building scalable AI-assisted content workflows.

This role will be based in NY, NY at the BrainPOP HQ, or remote in the US (Eastern time zone strongly preferred). Occasional travel may be required.

What You'll Do

Initiative Leadership

• Own the learning design work within assigned content initiatives—making and documenting key design decisions from brief through launch in partnership with the PM and Senior Director of Learning Design.
• Translate strategic direction into design frameworks, item blueprints, and content specs that the broader team can execute against.
• Maintain quality and coherence across a collection or initiative, catching inconsistencies in grade-band differentiation, cognitive demand, and instructional alignment.

Assessment Design & Item Writing

• Write and review formative assessment items at a level that models craft for the team.
• Set the distractor logic standard for an initiative; identify systemic quality gaps and address them through specs or direct feedback.
• Ensure grade-band differentiation is applied consistently across an initiative

Team Development & Upskilling

• Provide direct feedback on assessment items and learning design decisions, and model the design thinking rationale in a way that builds others’ judgment over time.
• Build shared resourceswhen a quality gap reveals a systemic need: guidelines, worked examples, rubrics, or short workshops.

AI-Enabled Content Development

• Partner on AI content pipelines, contributing to prompt design, output evaluation frameworks, and quality rubrics for AI-generated content.
• Identify where AI tooling can improve initiative workflows and bring concrete proposals to the Senior Manager of Learning Design.

Product & Cross-Functional Partnership

• Represent learning design in product discovery and development within assigned initiative squads.
• Support on-time delivery by proactively flagging scope, quality, or resourcing risks to the Senior Manager of Learning Design.

You Are

• A design decision-maker: comfortable making and defending instructional design calls with clarity and rationale, not just executing direction.
• A craft model: the kind of writer and assessment designer others want to learn from; sets a visible standard.
• A developer of others: gets satisfaction from building team capacity, not just personal output.
• Analytically rigorous: can articulate what “good” looks like in reproducible terms and apply that standard consistently across a collection.
• A strong initiative partner: works fluidly with PMs, editorial, and product without needing constant direction.
• Digitally fluent: designs for interactive digital environments and is comfortable in CMS and AI-assisted content workflows.

On Your Resume

• Education: Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s preferred in Education, Instructional Design, or Curriculum & Instruction.
• Assessment item writing: Strong portfolio of K–8 formative assessment items for digital learning products, with evidence of quality ownership across a collection.
• Curriculum design: 7+ years designing K–8 curriculum and learning experiences for edtech; deep knowledge of learning research and classroom application.
• MLL: Experience in K-8 instructional design and assessment development for multilingual learners for a technology-based product strongly preferred.
• Standards fluency: Deep knowledge of K–8 standards in at least one core subject area (Science or Math preferred); uses standards as design inputs. Demonstrated understanding of WIDA framework and standards, as well as national (i.e., NGSS, CCSS, etc.) and state-specific ELD standards (CA, TX, AZ) strongly preferred.
• Initiative or project leadership: Demonstrated experience leading the design work within a content initiative—making decisions, managing quality, and coordinating with cross-functional partners.
• AI content pipeline experience:Demonstrated experience with prompt design, output evaluation, or rubric design for AI-generated content. Systematic workflow experience required.

Location

The BrainPOP team operates in a hybrid work environment: Each role has remote flexibility and an in-person component at our New York headquarters or other meeting locations. Based on the requirements of a specific role, we may prioritize hiring within a commutable distance of our New York headquarters or in another region relevant to that role.

We can employ individuals residing in the following approved hiring states. States not listed below may be considered based on factors including the needs of the specific role.

• Arizona
• California
• Connecticut
• Florida
• Georgia
• Illinois
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• Missouri
• New Jersey
• New York
• North Carolina
• Ohio
• Oregon
• Pennsylvania
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas
• Washington

We take a geo-neutral approach to compensation within the US, meaning that we pay based on job function and level, not location. We have competitive pay bands for all other countries based on market standards. Individual compensation decisions are based on a number of factors, including experience level, skill set, and balancing internal equity relative to peers at the company. Based on these factors, we expect most of the candidates offered roles at our company to fall healthily throughout the range. We recognize that the person we hire may be less experienced (or more senior) than this job description, as posted. If so, the updated salary range will be communicated to you as a candidate.

USA Pay Scale

$80,000 — $95,000 USD

Life at BrainPOP

At BrainPOP, our work directly impacts how teachers teach and students learn. They inspire us to build solutions that facilitate joy and meaningful learning outcomes. Our commitment to educators and kids is reflected in our dedication to the BrainPOP team: ensuring their experience is empowering, creative, collaborative, playful, and anchored in learning and growth.

Our team is made up of educators, data scientists, published authors, engineers, artists, bakers, film buffs, cyclists, dual citizens, and so much more. We value diversity and inclusion, collaboration, and learning from multiple perspectives.

We believe that a diverse organization is a more effective organization. BrainPOP is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.