Skills Ontology and Learning Recognition Director

University of Maryland Global Campus

3d • $135,000 - $145,000 • Remote

About The Position

The University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) seeks a Skills Ontology and Learning Recognition Director to serve as the content and academic-methodology leader for a multi-institution learning-recognition initiative focused on transparent, faculty-governed academic credit recommendations. The role provides strategic leadership for UMGC’s skills-to-credit framework and oversees project structures that advance deliverables, governance, and institutional adoption.

Working closely with Academic Affairs, Sponsored Programs, and technical project staff, the Director defines UMGC’s skills ontology, translation methodology, and faculty-engaged review model for learning recognition. The Director serves as UMGC’s senior authority on academic defensibility, explainability, quality assurance, and policy alignment for the initiative.

The role provides executive oversight of project plans, deliverables, milestones, and dependencies across academic, technical, and partner workstreams; leads faculty engagement and governance; represents UMGC in external partner and ecosystem activities; and supervises the Project Lead. It also oversees reporting inputs, budget planning, staffing decisions, resource allocation, risk mitigation, and alignment with institutional policies, accreditation expectations, academic standards, and grant requirements. The position is funded through a two-year grant from The Gates Foundation, and its funding is tied to that grant. The position is stateside remote.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• Minimum 7–10 years of progressively responsible experience in higher education, prior learning assessment, learning recognition, academic affairs, workforce-aligned education, competency-based education, or a related field.
• Demonstrated expertise designing and governing methodologies that translate workforce, military, or other non-traditional learning into faculty-reviewable academic credit, competencies, or learning outcomes.
• Deep familiarity with skills taxonomies, competency frameworks, credentials, and related standards, with the ability to interpret and align external taxonomies or ecosystem standards within an academic framework.
• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives involving faculty governance, academic affairs, technical partners, and external stakeholders, and balancing methodological leadership with project oversight.
• Experience supervising professional staff and providing strategic direction across planning, implementation, quality assurance, risk management, and decision-making in environments shaped by institutional policy, accreditation expectations, and externally funded requirements.
• Strong written, verbal, and facilitation skills, including experience producing executive reports, governance materials, methodology documentation, and presentations for institutional and external audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree in higher education, education, learning sciences, workforce development, assessment, instructional design, public policy, or a related field is strongly preferred.
• Advanced degree or significant additional experience in higher education, learning sciences, assessment, workforce development, or a closely related field.
• Experience with military learning evaluation, workforce-aligned learning recognition, or credit recommendation frameworks in higher education.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted evaluation or recommendation tools, including explainability, traceability, quality assurance, and governance considerations.
• Experience contributing to interoperability, learner record, digital credential, or skills data standards efforts.
• Prior experience with a foundation-funded, grant-funded, or multi-institution initiative involving external partners, consortia, or ecosystem pilots.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategic direction for UMGC’s skills ontology, translation framework, and skills-to-credit methodology, including standards for transparent, faculty-governed, explainable recommendations.
• Lead evaluation and institutional adoption of external taxonomies, standards, and mapping approaches relevant to learning recognition.
• Define the academic-methodology framework for crosswalks, evidence use, and review traceability so translation methods are transparent, academically sound, auditable, and reusable.
• Provide executive oversight of project plans, deliverables, milestones, and dependencies across academic, technical, and partner workstreams.
• Review progress, resolve escalated barriers, and make prioritization decisions in coordination with project leadership and institutional stakeholders.
• Direct the Project Lead’s day-to-day coordination work and approve major implementation, sequencing, and resourcing decisions affecting project delivery.
• Lead faculty-engagement strategy for methodology review, academic quality assurance, and governance decisions related to learning recognition.
• Partner with Academic Affairs and subject matter experts on standards for credit recommendation, PLA alignment, accreditation expectations, and faculty review workflows.
• Establish expectations for AI-assisted recommendation explainability, review traceability, and academic defensibility within governance and quality-control processes.
• Represent UMGC in partner planning sessions, shared architecture discussions, interoperability and standards conversations, and multi-institution coordination activities.
• Contribute thought leadership on reusable skills-to-credit approaches, data models, standards mappings, and field-facing dissemination outputs.
• Align UMGC’s project contributions with broader ecosystem opportunities, partnership commitments, and implementation pilots.
• Supervise the Project Lead, provide performance feedback, and ensure effective delegation across project operations and documentation activities.
• Oversee reporting inputs, budget planning, staffing decisions, and resource allocation in partnership with Sponsored Programs and institutional leadership.
• Review internal status updates, toolkit and reporting materials, and external reporting outputs for accuracy, completeness, and strategic alignment.
• Monitor project risks, policy implications, accreditation expectations, and implementation dependencies that could affect delivery, governance, or academic acceptance.
• Approve mitigation strategies related to scope, timelines, staffing, compliance, AI quality assurance, and academic quality controls.
• Ensure project activities align with institutional policy, accreditation expectations, academic standards, and grant requirements.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Benefits

• 22 days of paid vacation, 15 days of sick leave, 3 personal days, and 16 paid holidays (17 during general election years); time off rates are prorated based on hours worked.
• Health care, medical with vision, dental, and prescription plans for individuals and families, effective from the first of the month following hire. Contingent II employees averaging 30 or more hours per week are eligible for subsidized State of Maryland medical and prescription benefits; those averaging at least 20 but fewer than 30 hours per week are eligible for a health-plan stipend.
• Term life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment insurance, and long-term disability insurance, subject to eligibility restrictions.
• Retirement stipend equal to 7.25 percent of base salary and eligibility to contribute to a supplemental retirement account.
• Supplemental retirement plans, including 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), and Roth options; the university does not provide subsidies or matching funds.
• Tuition remission at UMGC or the University of Maryland College Park. Spouses and dependent children are eligible for undergraduate tuition remission after two years of service; benefits are prorated for eligible part-time employees.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director