Data and Policy Analyst - Writer/Coordinator
+Acumen is seeking an Associate with 1 – 2 years of professional experience who is fluent in both Spanish and English to help with the ongoing design and operations of our growing curriculum both on and offline. This is a great opportunity for a strong writer and communicator seeking to work on a fast moving global team.
Acumen
Acumen is changing the way the world tackles poverty by investing in companies, leaders, and ideas. We invest patient capital in businesses whose products and services help people living in poverty to transform their lives. To date, Acumen has positively impacted 270 million lives by investing $120M in 119 innovative, early-stage companies in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and the United States. But investment isn’t just about capital, we’ve been investing in relationships for years, connecting with emerging leaders in their own countries and engaging them in extended collective dialogue, moral inquiry, and skill building.
About +Acumen
+Acumen is building the world’s school for social change. +Acumen began in 2013 to make the knowledge, expertise, and resources of Acumen and its trusted community widely available so that anyone, anywhere can step up to build a more inclusive and sustainable world. To date, +Acumen has reached over 450,000 people from 192 countries through its various programs. More information at https://plusacumen.org.
About the role
You will help design and produce new courses and immersive learning experiences and support the ongoing improvements to existing on and offline curriculum. Success in this role will be defined by your ability to effectively synthesize information and create engaging curriculum materials. You should be a strong writer and structured thinker with the ability to pay attention to the large and small details of building courses on a variety of platforms, gain a deep understanding of the learner experience, and identify areas for ongoing improvement. You will also help to coordinate curriculum updates and distill best practices for Acumen’s Fellows Program across multiple geographies, including working with our programs in Colombia and Spain. Strong interpersonal skills and fluency in both English and Spanish are must haves.
More specifically, you will have the opportunity to:
- Understand the needs of our learners, draw upon extensive user research that has already been documented by our team and add new insights specific to the courses you build
- Research course topics and synthesize information from a range of sources including books, articles, expert interviews, learner interviews, and multimedia to define learning objectives and develop curricula
- Develop and update learning materials including but not limited to instructional videos, readings, case studies, workshop guides, practical assignments and facilitator guides
- Manage film shoots and the editing process
- Build courses across a range of online learning platforms: Teachable, Thinkific, Udemy, NovoEd, edX, etc.
- Support design of blended learning experiences, including the existing Fellowship Programs and new programs yet to be developed
- Monitor activity and learning in the course to identify some of our best students and identify areas where the learning design could be improved
- Help us develop new online learning formats including virtual accelerator models, closed cohort leadership development programs, and other new ideas
- Contribute to content marketing by producing blog pieces, webinars, and other resources to share ideas from our courses more broadly
- Support the ongoing updates to our existing courses and Fellowship curriculum
Skills and qualifications
You have 1 - 2 years of experience in instructional design and facilitating learning experiences. You thrive in an environment of constant learning where you are producing courses on new topics and experimenting with new formats. You’re collaborative and willing to pitch in with other cross-functional projects (we’re a small team!) and you’re also comfortable working independently to research and write curriculum. You tolerate ambiguity and create your own solutions and structure as needed. You’re unafraid to pick up the phone to interview individuals learners or Acumen fellows and portfolio companies and you also thrive “behind-the-scenes” where you get to interact with students virtually and at scale, rather than teaching them face-to-face. Above all, you’re a team player who shares Acumen’s values and is committed to our work of changing the way the world tackles poverty.
Preferred qualifications:
- Fluent in both English and Spanish
- A strong writer with minimum of 1-2 years of relevant professional experience
- Experience with learning design, pedagogy, curriculum development, course production or facilitation
- A degree in English, Comparative Literature, Journalism, History, Political Science has also previously proven successful in this role (but it is not required!)
- Detail-oriented project manager
- Critical thinker accustomed to working, problem solving, and collaborating thoughtfully in a fast-paced environment
- Ability to collaborate effectively with different colleagues and personalities, at all levels both externally and internally, and across a variety of functions and geographies
- Native “digital thinker” with a track record of developing digital content
- BONUS: knowledge of HTML and CSS
- BONUS: experience with video production
- BONUS: experience working with online learning platforms (NovoEd, Teachable, EdX, Udemy, etc.)
- Permanently authorized to work in the U.S.
Additional characteristics we look for in all roles at Acumen:
- Commitment to and enthusiasm for the organization’s mission to change the way the world tackles poverty, and respect for our core values: generosity, accountability, humility, audacity, listening, leadership, integrity and respect
- Ability to thrive when there is ambiguity, remain cool-headed when there are curve balls, and withstand the tests of a rapidly changing environment
- A sense of humor
Location
New York, NY or San Francisco, CA
Deadline
The deadline to apply for this position is Tuesday, December 12, 2019. Candidates are encouraged to apply early, as applications will be reviewed and interviews will be scheduled on a rolling basis.