Principal Learning Designer, Life Skills

Level • Austin, TX

3d

About The Position

Level is seeking a Learning Designer to own the pedagogy behind its Life Skills curriculum, defining what each skill is, how it develops, how it is best taught, and whether the modules effectively teach it. The role works across pods with designers to bring deep skill knowledge into learning experiences and uphold rigor across cognitive, emotional, social, self, and systemic life skills, from concept through classroom pilot.

This is a high-responsibility editorial role on a small, fast-moving team building the curriculum from scratch. The work is split between shaping modules alongside designers and maintaining the quality bar as modules are built. The role requires making decisions with incomplete information, sharing early drafts, and learning through iteration. The Learning Designer will also stay current with life skills learning science, work with the research team to validate modules, and convert efficacy findings into concrete improvements.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of experience in instructional design, learning design, or curriculum development.
• Grounding in how people learn, such as learning science or child development, and interest in keeping up with research.
• Ability and enthusiasm for learning new domains deeply and quickly and applying that understanding.
• Strong product and creative judgment, including the ability to assess what is working in an experience and explain why, with care for coherence, polish, and the end-user journey.
• Comfort making decisions with incomplete information, sharing rough work early, and surfacing and correcting mistakes.
• Ability to uphold a quality bar and provide specific, supportive editorial feedback on other people's work.
• Strong project management skills and ability to oversee multiple modules across pods simultaneously.
• Strong cross-functional communication skills, including translating learning goals into actionable designer briefs and design constraints into pedagogical decisions.
• Comfort using frontier AI models and understanding where AI is insufficient.

Nice To Haves

• Background in social-emotional learning or life skills.
• K-12 classroom teaching experience.
• Experience in games, animation, or interactive media production.
• Experience incorporating research findings directly into product or content decisions.
• A portfolio or work samples demonstrating instructional design, curriculum, or interactive learning content.

Responsibilities

• Develop deep understanding of each curriculum skill, including what it is, how it develops, and how it is best taught at a given age, and translate that knowledge into clear direction for designers.
• Conceptualize learning experiences with designers, shaping games and narratives that are effective and engaging for children.
• Break skills into components and techniques, using AI to generate an initial pass and refining it with subject-matter experts and pedagogical judgment.
• Consult on concepts as they become mechanics and scripts, iterating closely with designers and subject-matter experts and maintaining pedagogical coherence.
• Provide editorial review across pods, decide what advances or needs revision, and give specific, actionable feedback early in development.
• Build fluency in the curriculum framework and learn new domains and subcategories well enough to make sound judgment calls.
• Track learning goals across pods from concept through classroom pilot, including module targets, effectiveness, and curriculum gaps.
• Work with the research team to ensure modules receive appropriate validation and turn efficacy findings into concrete changes for the team.
• Apply curriculum craft and judgment to new projects, formats, and experiments as they arise.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal
• Education Level: No Education Listed