Educational Design Specialist

Books for Asia-Educational Design Specialist

San Leandro, CA ( Remote or Hybrid position) 

Full Time

In an increasingly complex and changing world, The Asia Foundation believes that a peaceful and engaged Asia is of critical global importance. We work with innovative leaders and communities to build effective institutions and advance path-breaking reforms. Informed by six decades of experience and deep local expertise, The Asia Foundation’s programs address critical issues affecting Asia and the Pacific in the 21st century: governance and law, economic development, women’s empowerment, environment, and regional cooperation. These are just some of the ways we, together with our partners, encourage Asia’s continued development as a peaceful, just, and thriving region of the world.

The Asia Foundation’s Books for Asia unit seeks an equally ambitious and creative team member to advance the Let’s Read program’s literacy, educational, and equality objectives through the use of technology, reaching hundreds of thousands of kids, families, and educators across Asia and the Pacific. In the five years since its launch, Let’s Read has created meaningful reading opportunities for children in local languages, supported professional development for storybook creatives throughout the region, and built a rapidly growing open license digital library platform with more than 9,500 titles in 53 languages. Let’s Read seeks to build upon these successes by utilizing technology to better deliver impactful and fun reading experiences, both online and offline, to our audience. 

Position Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead the project management of Let’s Read’s technology development team, develop strategy, and contribute to the development of the program’s educational design through the use of technology.
• Set priorities for agile workflows, communicate with stakeholders and effectively integrate feedback into the development process.
• Contribute to the creation of learning objectives and the design of content based on best practices around the confluence of education, non-classroom settings, and technology.
• Manage Let’s Read’s internal and external technical support system (Zendesk) to ensure a high-quality user experience.
• Support Let’s Read’s analytics and data analysis functions to provide insights for leadership and country staff to base decision-making.
• Support Let’s Read’s growing accessibility features, including training and supporting staff with:
  • Creating alternative image descriptions for storybooks
  • Recording and encoding audio for Let’s Read’s audio-text synchronization, Listen and Learn
• Guiding sign language storybook video process
• Provide support to select the country program(s) during Asia business hours and in person when travel is permissible.

Relationship 

External:  

• Engage with Let’s Read’s technology development team. 
•  Engage with existing and potential funders in countries of responsibility. 
•  Engage with current and potential implementing partners in countries of responsibility.
•  Represent Let’s Read and The Asia Foundation at conferences and events. 

Internal: 

• Collaborate with the Let’s Read team based in the San Francisco Bay Area to support the implementation of all initiative components and contribute to the overall strategy.
• Work with Let’s Read leadership and in-country program managers and staff to advance Let’s Read strategy and implementation.
• Collaborate with other Asia Foundation teams, such as Global Communications, Finance, and Resource Development, as needed for project implementation.

The Ideal Candidate: 

The ideal candidate has a strong understanding of early childhood literacy, extensive project management experience with technology projects, and expertise with customer-facing products. They are passionate about creating meaningful reading opportunities for all children. The candidate is a collaborative leader with a passion for education technology who seeks to empower others to successfully execute their work and who thrives using teamwork and creative thinking to achieve a shared vision. 

Requirements:

Education: 

Bachelor’s degree in education, Instructional design, international development, or related fields or an equivalent combination of education and relevant experience. 

Experience:

•  5 years experience in Instructional Design or e-learning instructional design, including analysis, development, and evaluation. 
•  Prior experience in early education and learning principles and robust pedagogy techniques. 
•  Experienced in designing and delivering highly interactive, experiential blended learning solutions utilizing various platforms.
•  Experienced with instructional design tools such as learning project plans, design documents, learning hierarchies, storyboards, prototypes, etc. 
•  Excellent verbal and written communication skills. 
•  Strategic thinker and problem solver with the ability to quickly assess and summarize information and effectively identify issues or risks and potential resolutions.
•  Experience working in Asia, Africa, Latin America, or other international contexts. 
•  Aptitude for digital technology. 
•  Preferable: experience in primary education, community-based education programs, education technology, accessibility within education, and/or creation of children’s content. 

Why work at The Asia Foundation? 

At a critical moment in history, you will have the opportunity to contribute to the development, stability, and growth of the Asia region. You will help promote a more constructive engagement between government and citizens and advance learning and awareness about The Asia Foundation. You will work with and learn from dedicated, intelligent, and accomplished colleagues and local partners and, in the process, improve your skills and expertise.

How To Apply:

Applications should be submitted by visiting our website, www.asiafoundation.org. To be considered, please upload your cover letter and resume/CV in one document. You can also upload both in separate documents, but please note to do so, you will have to sign out of the system and go back into your record for additional documents.

The Asia Foundation offers excellent salaries commensurate with experience. We are an equal opportunity employer. Women and people of color are encouraged to apply.

*Remote Work- We allow employees to work remotely from CA, CO, DC, IL, MD, NV, NJ, NY, OR, TX, VA, WA

**For non us domestic candidates, we can consider those working in countries where TAF has an active presence.

No phone calls, please.

Salary Range $82,500- $110,000

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)

About Organization

The Asia Foundation is a nonprofit international development organization committed to improving lives across a dynamic and developing Asia. Informed by six decades of experience and deep local expertise, our work across the region addresses five overarching goals—strengthen governance, empower women, expand economic opportunity, increase environmental resilience, and promote international cooperation.

Learn more at http://asiafoundation.org