Senior ELA Learning Designer

Job description

Level is a learning technology company dedicated to helping students build real academic and life skills with confidence and joy. We combine proven curriculum principles with world class interactive design to make meaningful practice something students want to come back to, not something they struggle through. We support what teachers, schools, and parents are already doing by increasing student engagement with high quality, standards aligned practice that reinforces classroom learning. That’s why we’re building: ***For students***: Rewarding and motivating learning experiences that meet students where they are to build real academic proficiency. ***For educators***: Tools that fit naturally into instruction and help students stay engaged while reducing teacher workload. ***For parents***: Activities that help your kid catch up or get ahead, build confidence, and minimize homework battles, whether learning at school or at home. We are committed to helping every person maximize their potential and live a life of meaning. It’s a difficult problem that requires brilliant people and tremendous effort over time. If you want to use your skills to make a difference for the world, we're seeking an experienced educator and learning designer to help build our English Language Arts (ELA) product from the ground up. As a Senior ELA Learning Designer, you'll combine deep classroom teaching expertise with digital product experience to craft engaging pedagogy, practice exercises, and assessments that bring our virtual teacher ("the Guide") to life. This role sits at the intersection of learning science, instructional design, and product development. This is a key hire for how we build ELA at Level. ## What You Will Do - **Develop High-Quality ELA Content** - Define pedagogy, write lessons and practice exercises, and craft assessments from the ground up in grades 3–6 English/Language Arts - Sequence lessons to align with cognitive development, prerequisite knowledge, and learning progressions - Anticipate common mistakes and misconceptions and build corrective pathways - Apply expertise in the science of reading to ensure content is evidence-based and standards-aligned - **Collaborate Across Disciplines** - Work within our content toolkit (interactive formats, assessment structures, pedagogical models) to design effective learning experiences - Partner with designers, behavioral scientists, technologists, and SDT experts to bring the Guide to life - Integrate motivational principles (e.g., self-determination theory, growth mindset, self-efficacy) into content design - Collaborate with product and engineering teams to translate instructional intent into scalable digital experiences - **Apply Learning Science & Instructional Design** - Leverage principles of cognitive load theory, pacing, mastery learning, and common misconception analysis - Design scaffolded instruction that supports learner-centered experiences - Apply AI and generative AI tools to accelerate content creation workflows and improve quality at scale - Evaluate and refine AI-generated content for accuracy, developmental appropriateness, and standards alignment - **Build Scalable Content Systems** - Produce high-quality modules with attention to detail and consistency across a large content library - Establish and contribute to repeatable systems for creating hundreds of modules efficiently - Translate hands-on teaching experience into effective digital pedagogy ## Qualifications - **Teaching Experience:** 5+ years of classroom teaching in grades 3–6 ELA, with demonstrated ability to explain complex concepts in accessible, engaging ways - **Product Experience:** Meaningful experience in edtech or digital content creation, including working directly on a product team - **Instructional Design Expertise:** Strong background in instructional design with a track record of designing lessons, learning sequences, and assessments for digital and interactive learning environments - **Learning Science Foundation:** Deep understanding of literacy development and the science of reading, including common misconceptions and developmental progressions, with ability to translate theory into effective teaching practices - **Collaboration Skills:** Proven ability to work effectively with multidisciplinary teams and adapt to creative and technical constraints while maintaining pedagogical quality ## Need to Have - 5+ years of classroom teaching in grades 3–6 ELA - Meaningful experience working on an edtech or digital content product team - Strong instructional design background with demonstrated lesson and assessment design - Deep knowledge of literacy development and the science of reading, including common misconceptions and developmental progressions - Excellent written communication skills and ability to produce clear, concise content for both students and educators - Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple workstreams at startup pace - Comfort working collaboratively with designers, technologists, and behavioral scientists - Comfort working with incomplete information; able to scope, prioritize, and move forward without waiting for perfect clarity - Genuine curiosity for innovation and a bias toward experimentation and action ## Nice to Have - Experience designing content for adaptive or personalized learning systems - Familiarity with self-determination theory or other motivational frameworks in education - Proficiency with AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, etc.) to support content creation and iteration - Graduate-level training in education, instructional design, or learning sciences - Experience with content production workflows and systems