About Ziplines

Ziplines Education is a category-leading education company that partners with universities to deliver industry-focused certificate courses that prepare professionals for today’s digital-first workforce. Each year, we have the opportunity to help thousands of career advancers build the knowledge, skills, and credentials they need to move their careers forward. 92% of learners would recommend our programs, and our net promoter score is consistently in the excellent range. Together, we empower adult learners to confidently pursue the career they’ve always wanted.

Our Courses

Our courses are focused, pragmatic, and application-based. Our goal is to shift mindsets, teach frameworks, and give learners the confidence to move differently in their careers. Each week, learners complete:

• 6-8 hours of asynchronous content in Rise 360. Videos from industry subject matter experts lead into expository content and application-based exercises. Our subject matter experts are active practitioners in the field.
• A 2-hour live session, delivered by an industry professional and supported by a Google Slides deck with recommended demos and activities.
• An application-based capstone assignment, typically offering learners the choice of applying what they’ve learned to a scenario in their own workplace, or using a provided scenario.

All Ziplines courses are developed collaboratively with practitioner subject matter experts (SMEs) and focus on teaching learners both the fundamental concepts of the discipline and the relevant technologies, including generative AI. Core AI use cases and tools are introduced in all courses. Current Ziplines courses include:

• Digital Marketing (10 weeks, tools include Hubspot, Google Analytics)
• Business Analytics (10 weeks, tools include Excel, Tableau, SQL)
• Project Management (10 weeks, tools include Microsoft Project, Monday.com, Jira)
• AI Essentials (5 weeks, focused on how LLMs work, prompting skills, ethical use, and effective use of ChatGPT and other LLMs)
• AI Automation (5 weeks, tools include ChatGPT, Make.com, N8N, Julius.ai, NotebookLM)
• AI for HR (5 weeks, tools include ChatGPT and Zapier)
• AI for Marketing (5 weeks, tools include ChatGPT, Make.com, and Google AI Pro)
• AI for Data Analysis (currently in development, 5 weeks, learners work in ChatGPT but the focus is on tool-agnostic analytic skills)
• AI for Sales (currently in development, 5 weeks, toolset TBD)
• Future Ziplines courses will follow this model. Courses under consideration include AI for Finance, AI Strategy for Leaders, and No-Code Entrepreneurship.

The role:

The Senior LXD role straddles product ownership and core instructional design tasks and decisions. It’s your job to take a high-level product brief that outlines the learner persona, market objectives, and learning objectives, and work with a group of practitioner-SMEs to create a course that’s engaging, relevant, and transformative for learners. We need Senior LXDs who can work up and down the course value chain. You should still find joy in crafting a pointed scenario based quiz or an elegant capstone assignment, but you should also be able to shape the course as a product in the marketplace, making intentional tradeoffs based on learner needs, market demand, and business goals.

What you’ll do:

• Collaborate with our Product team to test and shape course ideas before Ziplines decides to bring a course to market.
• Own the end-to-end SME experience, ensuring SMEs are aligned to Ziplines processes, and objectives, set up for success, and positioned to deliver high-quality, relevant content.
• Lead a core group of SMEs to flesh out the product brief and move toward a course syllabus with weekly topic coverage, capstone assignments, and learning objectives.
• Onboard and coach module SMEs to design and build a module capstone assignment and then use backward design principles to outline module lessons, exercises, and video scripts.
• Coach SMEs on video scripting/outlining, video performance, and video setup.
• Review and mark up raw video and work with our graphics team to ensure that core concepts are effectively illustrated by in-video graphics.
• Storyboard in Rise 360 (Articulate).
• Build expository, illustrative, reinforcement and application elements in Rise 360.
• Design and revise capstone assignments in Google Suite.
• Design and revise live session slide decks in Google slides.
• Track and update tasks and status using existing workflows in Monday.com and Notion.
• After launch, revise and tune modules to improve learner and market performance using data and insights from learners, instructors, learner support staff, Product, and Marketing.

Ziplines courses follow specific instructional design, visual design, brand voice, accessibility, and editorial standards, and all output must align with those standards.

Our courses are marketed to launch to learners on specific dates, so time is of the essence in all our work. The ability to meet and manage deadlines is key.

Who you are

You’re a talented learner-centered instructional designer with:

• 5 to 8 years of experience
• creating asynchronous learning
• for adults
• in an ed-tech or for-profit environment
• with at least 2 years of experience creating courses offered for sale in a B2C or B2B context
• in Ziplines-aligned subject matter including AI.

In addition:

• You use and understand modern AI tools. You have a point of view on where AI contributes to instructional design, where it detracts, and the processes and mindsets necessary to get the best from it.
• You have a point of view on how to teach AI in a range of professional contexts.
• You have a strong sense of ownership and follow-through.
• You can navigate ambiguity and you’re comfortable surfacing and resolving problems.
• You are adept at working with SMEs. You can stand up to strong personalities and get the best out of reticent ones too.
• You have experience with video: coaching for it, marking edits, and ensuring that it is on target in content and tone.
• You are fluent in Rise 360.
• You have designed and built asynchronous learning in Ziplines subject matter or closely-related subject matter. You can develop click-by-click software training, and you can also teach the mindsets and the “why.”
• You can follow design standards and work from a template. When needed you can look at an example and extract the relevant editorial and instructional design standards.
• You can project-manage yourself. You prioritize well to meet deadlines, and if priorities or deadlines aren’t clear, you ask.
• You are a reliably fast, clear, and on-target writer. You can recognize and adopt brand voice.
• You have strong attention to detail.
• You are a collaborator with experience working cross-functionally.

Ziplines core values:

• Focus on outcomes — students come first, always.
• Be trustworthy — deliver, be honest, have our backs.
• Be humble — we’re in this together.
• Be curious — continuous learning drives innovation.
• Be you — diverse thinking creates opportunity.
• You value and will contribute to a transparent, no B.S. culture.

Perks and benefits at Ziplines Education (full-time employees):

• Equity: Ownership is a core value, and each full-time employee can invest in Ziplines Education via a stock option (equity) grant, which will vest across four years.
• Time off: We offer a flexible paid time off policy, in addition to 10 paid holidays.
• Flexible, remote work environment: We are a fully distributed team with folks all over the U.S. We meet as a full team at least one time per week and have in-person gatherings or team off-sites one or more times per year.
• Family health and wellness: Choose from a range of medical, dental, and vision insurance plans (premiums start at $0/month) for yourself or your family.
• 401K: We know your future self will thank you when you start contributing to your company-sponsored 401k.

Plus, we’d be happy to share additional benefits with you during the hiring process.

The salary range for this role is $85,000 – 115,000 USD annually for candidates located in the San Francisco Bay Area (this is considered the Ziplines Education virtual home base). Individual compensation packages are based on a few different factors unique to each candidate, including their skills, location, experience, qualifications, and other job-related considerations.


To ensure a fair and consistent hiring process, we kindly ask that all applicants submit their applications through our job board rather than reaching out directly via LinkedIn, phone, or email. This helps our recruitment team review every application efficiently and equitably. We truly appreciate your interest in joining our team and look forward to considering your application!

Ziplines, Inc. is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other protected characteristics under applicable law.