Senior Learning Engineer – Simon Initiative

RISE is a new strategic initiative funded by the Mastercard Foundation to transform access to secondary education across Africa through high-quality, data-informed digital learning. This project aims to provide flexible, accredited pathways for out-of-school youth by combining CMU’s learning engineering expertise with local capacity-building and open digital infrastructure. Through collaboration with ministries of education, national curriculum bodies, and regional partners, RISE will develop scalable courseware, strengthen digital ecosystems, and generate evidence on effective learning at scale to enable millions of learners to reach their full potential.

Carnegie Mellon University seeks a Senior Learning Engineer to play a pivotal role in translating Carnegie Mellon University’s learning engineering approach into practice within the RISE Initiative. Working as part of an interdisciplinary team, the Senior Learning Engineer will lead the design, development, and continuous improvement of digital courseware aligned to RISE’s competency-based framework and educational goals. The position combines hands-on design expertise with leadership in coordinating and mentoring a distributed team of instructional designers and learning engineers responsible for developing the courseware. The Senior Learning Engineer will collaborate closely with partner organizations to ensure that every course embodies sound pedagogy, strong alignment to learning outcomes, and meaningful use of data to drive improvement.

This is a remote position based in Pittsburgh, with frequent international travel to partner sites across Africa to support collaboration, training, and implementation activities.

Core responsibilities include:

Learning Design and Development

• Lead the design, adaptation, and refinement of digital learning materials aligned with RISE’s competency-based framework.
• Collaborate with curriculum developers and subject-matter experts to ensure pedagogically sound and culturally relevant course design.
• Oversee and coordinate the work of instructional designers and learning engineers to ensure consistency and adherence to learning engineering principles.
• Apply CMU’s learning engineering practices to define measurable learning outcomes and structure feedback-rich learner experiences.

Process Leadership and Quality Assurance

• Build and oversee design and production workflows to ensure timely delivery, quality, and adherence to CMU’s standards for accessibility and learning efficacy.
• Mentor and guide instructional designers and learning engineers in applying best practices in digital pedagogy, usability, and assessment.
• Partner with engineering and data teams to ensure learning data is structured for analysis and improvement cycles.

Capacity Building and Collaboration

• Support national and institutional partners in strengthening local capacity for online course design and improvement.
• Lead workshops, design sprints, and collaborative design sessions to build shared understanding of effective online learning.
• Contribute to the development of documentation, templates, and toolkits that codify RISE’s learning design practices.

Adaptability, excellence, and passion are vital qualities within Carnegie Mellon University. We are in search of a team member who can effectively interact with a varied population of internal and external partners at a high level of integrity. We are looking for someone who shares our values and who will support the mission of the university through their work.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in education, instructional design, or related field (master’s preferred), or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience in digital learning design and development, including leadership of large or distributed teams.
• Proven success managing the full course development lifecycle from concept to launch.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor designers and improve design operations.
• A combination of education and relevant experience from which comparable knowledge Is demonstrated may be considered.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience applying data-driven or iterative improvement cycles in learning design.
• Familiarity with CMU’s Open Learning Initiative, Torus, or comparable adaptive learning platforms.
• Knowledge of competency-based education and learning analytics.
• Experience working in cross-cultural or international education settings.

Requirements:

• Successful pre-employment background check

Additional Information:

• This is a fixed-term position

Joining the CMU team opens the door to an array of excepti