Aspen Dental Management Inc

Director, Learning and Development, Learning Design and Innovation

Aspen Dental Management Inc$153K — $180K *
US-AnywhereRemote in Illinois, US
Education, Government & Non-Profit
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree required; Master’s Degree preferred
  • 7+ years of learning design experience in a fast-paced organization
  • 5+ years of experience leading L&D teams
  • Advanced understanding and application of adult learning theory
  • Exceptional project management skills
  • Experience influencing stakeholders across various functions
  • Proven design experience in multiple learning modalities

Responsibilities

  • Lead and develop the instructional design function and teams
  • Own the execution and quality governance of learning design
  • Set and drive the learning design strategy in collaboration with L&D leadership
  • Champion innovative learning approaches significantly through various methods
  • Sponsor and oversee pilots and proofs of concept for new initiatives
  • Institutionalize successful innovations and ensure organization-wide adoption
  • Measure and communicate the impact of learning design and innovations

Benefits

  • Comprehensive benefits package
  • Flexible working environment
  • Opportunities for professional development
  • Access to advanced learning tools and technologies
  • Engagement with innovative educational practices
Full Job Description

As a reflection of our current needs and planned growth, we are pleased to offer a new opportunity to join our dedicated L&D team at TAG as a Director, Learning Design & Innovation.

Job Summary:

The Director of Learning Design & Innovation is responsible for setting the strategic direction of the Instructional Design function while driving innovative, scalable approaches that improve the quality, speed, and impact of learning solutions across TAG. Reporting to the VP of Learning & Development, this role provides senior leadership, coaching, and development to Senior Managers, Instructional Design leads, and their teams, and holds ultimate accountability for execution across the design and development lifecycle.

This role defines and owns the Learning Design strategy, translating it into team practices, quality standards, and measurable business outcomes. The Director oversees design capacity planning, portfolio-level project execution, development standards, and quality governance, ensuring solutions remain aligned to business priorities, learner needs, and adult learning principles at scale.

The Director also serves as the senior leader for learning innovation across L&D. This includes setting the innovation agenda and identifying opportunities to apply AI-enabled solutions, rapid-development methods, simulations, gamification, practice-based learning, emerging authoring approaches, and new platform capabilities to real business and learner needs.

The role owns the full innovation lifecycle across the organization—from opportunity identification through implementation and scale—defining strategic priorities, sponsoring pilots and proofs of concept, establishing success measures, evaluating results, and institutionalizing successful approaches across L&D. This ensures innovation remains grounded in practical application and produces reusable tools, standards, and methods that elevate team capability and learning outcomes organization-wide.

As a senior leader within the Learning and Development organization, the Director partners closely with Learning Technology, Learning Optimization and Continuous Improvement, senior business stakeholders, and other L&D leaders. This role connects learning strategy, design excellence, emerging capabilities, and day-to-day execution at an enterprise level.

The Director is a strong people leader, learning strategist, and seasoned design practitioner who is comfortable balancing organizational leadership with direct involvement in complex, high-visibility learning initiatives. Operating in a fast-paced, growth-oriented environment, this role ensures learning solutions are engaging, scalable, innovative, and aligned to measurable business outcomes across the enterprise.

Essential Responsibilities:

Lead and Develop the Instructional Design Function
Provide senior leadership, coaching, and performance management to Senior Managers, Instructional Design leads, and their teams. Establish clear expectations, build leadership bench strength, strengthen organizational engagement, and cultivate the capabilities needed to deliver high-quality and increasingly innovative learning solutions at scale.

Own Learning Design Execution and Quality Governance
Set the standards and operating model for how learning solutions move from discovery through implementation across the function. Maintain enterprise-level visibility into capacity, priorities, timelines, risks, and deliverables, and hold the organization accountable to standards for instructional effectiveness, learner experience, accessibility, accuracy, and brand alignment.

Set and Drive Learning Design Strategy
Define the Learning Design strategy in partnership with L&D leadership, and translate it into functional priorities, standards, operating practices, and development expectations across teams. Ensure organizational goals are directly connected to design execution and that all work remains aligned to business priorities and learner needs.

Lead the AI-Enabled Learning Agenda
Set the direction for responsible use of AI across learning design, development, evaluation, and learner experience. Sponsor the development of scalable workflows, tools, resources, and standards that increase efficiency, ensure quality, and enable consistent, effective AI adoption across the function.

Champion Innovative Learning Approaches
Set the vision for how simulations, scenario-based learning, practice experiences, gamification, rapid-development methods, interactive solutions, and learning embedded in the flow of work are applied across L&D. Ensure innovation decisions are grounded in performance need rather than novelty and hold teams accountable to that standard.

Sponsor Pilots and Proofs of Concept
Oversee a portfolio of structured pilots tied to defined learner or business needs. Set expectations for hypotheses, success measures, timelines, stakeholder engagement, and evaluation plans, and make final calls on whether solutions scale, get refined, or are discontinued.

Institutionalize Successful Innovations Across L&D
Own the organization-wide adoption of successful pilots and emerging practices, ensuring they become reusable tools, templates, standards, playbooks, training, and implementation guidance. Sponsor adoption plans and drive change management that enables consistent, sustainable use across L&D.

Shape Emerging Authoring Approaches and Platform Strategy
Partner with Learning Technology leadership and other senior stakeholders to evaluate and prioritize new authoring methods, tools, and platform capabilities. Define enterprise use cases, assess strategic value, sponsor testing, and make recommendations grounded in learner experience, scalability, efficiency, and organizational readiness.

Establish Learning Design Standards and Resources
Set the framework for reusable design resources, templates, quality standards, and development guidance across the function. Drive consistency organization-wide while empowering teams to select approaches appropriate to audience, business need, modality, and desired performance outcome.

Measure and Communicate Learning Design and Innovation Impact
Establish the measurement framework for learning design and innovation effectiveness, drawing on project data, learner feedback, quality indicators, adoption measures, and business inputs. Translate findings into strategic recommendations and report outcomes, impact, and lessons learned to senior L&D and business leadership.

Lead Cross-Functional and Business Partnership
Serve as the senior point of partnership with Learning Technology, Learning Optimization and Continuous Improvement, Leadership Development, Learning Experience, HR, and business leaders to align learning strategy, innovation priorities, technology capabilities, and operational practices at the enterprise level.

Requirements/Qualifications:

  • Education Level: Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s Degree preferred.
  • A minimum of 7+ years of relevant learning design experience in a fast-paced organization with a distributed workforce.
  • A minimum of 5+ years leading a team of L&D professionals.
  • Advanced understanding of adult learning theory and principles demonstrated application of instructional design and human performance improvement principles.
  • Strong ability to create process, organizational systems, and operating procedures.
  • Exceptional project management skills and proven experience partnering in large-scale organizations.
  • Advanced problem solving, decision-making, and critical thinking skills.
  • Proven experience influencing stakeholders across a variety of functions and levels.
  • Proven design experience across learning modalities (ILT, eLearning, Virtual, Performance Support, Mobile, Social).
  • Well versed in digital learning, just-in-time / micro-learning, and blended learning strategies and advanced understanding of design and delivery methods.
  • Strong proficiency with AI enabled design tools and high learning agility for new and emerging technologies.
  • Experience with HTML, Captivate, Articulate or comparable software development tools.
  • Experience with Adobe (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) or comparable tools.
  • Graphic design or visual design skills preferred.
  • Experience with LMS preferred.
  • Flexibility and agility to be proactive in a fast paced, ever changing environment.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
  • Excellent collaboration and influencing skills; ability to work with multiple internal and external customers and subject matter experts.
  • Proven experience managing design vendors.
  • Ability to travel as needed.

Salary Range: $153,000 ~ $180,000 + 25% bonus

About Aspen Dental Management Inc

Aspen Dental Management Inc is a dental support organization that provides business services to independently owned and operated dental practices in the United States. The company's services include marketing, human resources, accounting, and information technology. Aspen Dental Management's affiliated practices offer a range of dental services, including general dentistry, orthodontics, and oral surgery. The company was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in East Syracuse, New York.
Learn more about Aspen Dental Management Inc
Size
30,000 employees
Industry
Founded
1998

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Aspen Dental Management Inc

More Education, Government & Non-Profit Jobs

Find similar Director, Learning and Development, Learning Design and Innovation jobs: