Manager of Instructional Design

We are seeking a creative, self-driven individual who is passionate about developing practical, skill-based, engaging, and responsive materials for practitioners across a range of mediums (live and recorded webinars, templates, tool-kits, case studies, reports, training courses, in-person workshops, etc.).    

The Manager of Instructional Design is a brand new position within a growing education and training team at Main Street America. The team’s core focus is to provide cutting edge, responsive, and accessible training, professional development, and network building opportunities to MSA’s key audiences. These efforts tie directly to MSA’s commitment to building the capacity of its current and future network of local grassroots leaders and regional and statewide partners.   

In collaboration with the Senior Manager of Education, program staff across the organization, and external partners and end-users, the  Manager of Instructional Design will create a wide range of multi-media materials and support implementation of a comprehensive learning strategy focused on building the skills necessary to do complex, intentional community-based work.   

We are looking for someone with excellent written communication skills; ability to organize, translate, and share complex information effectively; and a passion for creating instructional materials drawing from real world examples that speak to the experiences of a diverse audience. The ideal candidate will be highly resourceful, excited to work in a dynamic and fast-paced environment, is at ease facilitating work across teams, and has a proven track record of successfully finishing projects with varieties of stakeholders.   

Knowledge and familiarity with diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility principles and attention to how they impact instructional development needs will also be crucial. The candidate must understand the ways in which race and other identities intersect with economic development and preservation in the communities we serve and be comfortable communicating directly about identities such as race, class, ethnicity, sexual orientation, ability and gender in plain and specific terms – and understands how these identities impact learning experience and instructional material needs. 

Areas of Responsibility

Instructional Design – 70%  

• Lead development of new learning materials across a range of mediums (templates, toolkits, publications, case studies, webinars, videos, blogs, graphics)  

• Support development of teaching guides and curriculum for in-person and virtual professional development programs  

• Serve as key point of contact and convener for external working group or Community of Practice to identify training needs and instructional material ideas  

• Develop and implement process for gathering and translating learnings from the field via Field Services and Research teams into educational materials   

• Work closely with the Communications and Marketing Department on editing and design of new resources   

• Work closely with Communications and Marketing Department on inbound marketing strategy for development and dissemination of new resources  

• Work closely with the Communications Team on the management and evolution of the Knowledge Hub, the current resource repository on mainstreet.org  

• Stay apprised of key issues, topical areas, and subject matter pertaining to Main Street and adjacent fields    

 
Education Team Strategy and Programming – 20%  

• Collaborate with the Senior Manager of Education and Chief Impact Officer on development of comprehensive strategy for Education Department   

• Serve on Main Street America Institute assessment team to help reimagine and relaunch the program  

• Provide programmatic support and instructional material development for new learning pathways launching as part of the new MSAI program   

 
Main Street Now Conference – 10%  

• Provide support and insight to the conference team on development of conference themes  

• Help manage external conference education committee and proposal review process  

• Support development of tailored education experiences at conference, and serve as TLMs lead on sessions as needed  

• Other duties as assigned  

Requirements

The following are MUST HAVES for qualified candidates:  

• At least 3-5 years of relevant professional experience  

• Excellent communication skills and problem-solving skills (ability to translate complex ideas into practical, applicable learnings and synthesizing lots of academic information into useful and digestible learning materials)  

• Advanced project management skills involving multiple stakeholders and quick production timelines; strong muscle in prioritization.  

• Experience having produced some our all of the following kinds of teaching and learning materials: publications, reports, blogs, video, podcast, webinars, and teaching guides/learning curriculum.  

• Proven track record creating inclusive materials, including comfort producing bilingual content in written and video form with translator, producing webinars or videos in ASL, etc.  

• Knowledge of learning design, instructional theory and/or learning experience   

• Comfortable working across teams and leading cross-functional projects 

• Knowledge and familiarity with REI/DEIA principles and attention to impact on instructional design needs  

• Desire to join a fast-paced, dynamic, entrepreneurial, passionate team that is fast-growing, primed for growth.   

• Ability to continually develop skills related to use of rapidly changing technology and communications best practices 

• Demonstrated proficiency in Microsoft Office, specifically, MS Word, Excel, and Power Point  

• Some travel required, including to the annual Main Street Now Conference, education workshops, and occasional all staff gatherings 

The following are NICE-TO-HAVES for qualified candidates: 

• Self-driven/self-starter who looks forward to strategically shaping this new role within our organization 

• Knowledge of the following fields or issue areas: community economic development, community preservation, entrepreneurship, urban and rural community development, community marketing & storytelling, capacity building, transportation, arts and community design, cultural preservation, and community disinvestment.   

• Experience developing metrics and use of tools to capture analytics and provide evaluative reports 

• Comfort interfacing and working with internal and external audiences 

• Design experience with the Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign, Adobe Express, and Canva 

How to Apply: 

To apply, please submit a cover letter, resume through workable, by the deadline of September 3. Please also include 3-4 work samples with your application that showcase your best work as an instructional designer. Samples should show:  

• Your ability to create and integrate multiple types of learning materials (e.g., a blog post, a video, a learning guide, a webinar) to deliver a cohesive message or achieve a learning objective.  

• Your ability to center diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility through instructional design.  

• Your ability to translate complex or academic information into easily digestible and practical learning materials.  

• Your ability to design learning experiences that meet a variety of learner types and needs. 

Timeline

• Wednesday, July 31: Job opens with internal circulation for one week 
• Tuesday, Sept 3: Deadline for external applicants
• Sept 4 – 13: Screening
• Sept 16 – 27: Round 1 Interviews 
• Sept 30 – Oct 11: Round 2 Interviews  
• Nov 1: Onboard/Start Date 

Benefits

The salary range for this position is $71,250-$73,500

Main Street America is a dynamic, diverse, remote-first team. We hire empathetic managers, create a fulfilling work environment, and provide excellent benefits. We strive to balance achievement, connection and rest through key structures:  

• We all organize our work annually around our six long-term objectives of our strategic plan;  

• We meet in person twice a year at team retreats, and many staff attend our annual conference; and 

• We have more than 25 paid holidays (including the last week of December and the week surrounding the fourth of July), and have meeting-free weeks (“Rejuvenation Weeks”) the last week of August and first week of January for deep focus and planning.  

We keep a 35-hour work week, and most of our team works Monday through Friday during regular business hours. Some positions require additional hours and time outside regular business hours.  

Full-time, regular employees are entitled to:   

• Health Insurance: Our group benefit plans include medical, EAP, dental and vision, life, and disability plans.  

• Paid Sick Leave: Full-time employees accrue sick leave at a rate of 3.23 hours per pay period (maximum accrual at 420 hours). 

• Vacation Accrual: In addition to the more than 25 paid holidays mentioned above, full-time employees begin with two weeks vacation, and accrue vacation at a rate of 4.85 hours per pay period for the first 3 years. At years 3-10, the accrual rate increases to 6 hours, and employees with tenures of more than 10 years accrue at a rate of 6.92 hours per pay period (for a maximum accrual at 210 hours). 

• FMLA: We follow the DC Family and Medical Leave Act, which provides 16 weeks of unpaid leave in blocks or intermittently for family leave (the birth or adoption of a child, or caring for a sick relative) and 16 weeks of unpaid leave in blocks or intermittently for medical leave (recovering from a serious illness) in a 24 month period for any employee employed for at least a year. 

• 401(a) Defined Contribution Retirement Plan: At its discretion, Main Street America makes an employer contribution typically equal to 5% of earned compensation no later than April for the prior calendar year in which you worked at least 1,000 hours. Vesting begins at 20% after two years, and increases until it reaches 100% after five years. 

• 403(b) Individual Retirement Plan: Employee pre-tax contributions are permitted up to IRS limits. For 2024, those are $23,000, plus another $7,500 in catch-up contributions for employees age 50 years and over. 

• Professional Development: At its discretion, Main Street America provides $1,500 in professional development funds to each employee annually, as well as other team-wide professional development trainings.