Skills Ontology and Learning Recognition Director

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Define the strategic direction for UMGC’s skills ontology, translation framework, and method for converting skills to academic credit.

• Lead the evaluation and institutional adoption of external taxonomies, standards, and mapping strategies.

• Establish clear, academically rigorous, auditable, and reusable methodologies for crosswalking and reviews.

• Provide executive oversight for project plans, deliverables, milestones, and dependencies.

• Assess progress, address escalated challenges, and make decisions on prioritization.

• Direct the daily coordination efforts of the Project Lead and authorize decisions on implementation, sequencing, and resource allocation.

• Facilitate faculty engagement for methodology evaluation, assurance of academic quality, and governance decisions.

• Collaborate with Academic Affairs and subject matter experts on credit recommendations, PLA alignment, accreditation expectations, and faculty review processes.

• Set expectations for AI-assisted recommendation clarity, review traceability, and academic defensibility.

• Represent UMGC in partner planning, architecture, interoperability, standards, and coordination efforts across institutions.

• Contribute thought leadership on approaches for converting skills to credit, data models, standards mappings, and dissemination outputs.

• Align UMGC contributions with ecosystem opportunities, partnership commitments, and pilot implementations.

• Supervise the Project Lead and provide performance evaluations.

• Oversee reporting inputs, budget planning, staffing decisions, and allocation of resources.

• Review internal and external reporting materials for precision, completeness, and strategic alignment.

• Monitor project risks, policy implications, accreditation standards, and implementation dependencies.

• Approve strategies for mitigating scope, timelines, staffing, compliance, AI quality assurance, and academic controls.

• Ensure that activities are in line with institutional policy, accreditation standards, academic benchmarks, and grant requirements.

• Perform additional duties as assigned.

⛳️ Requirements

• A Bachelor's degree is required.

• A Master's degree in higher education, education, learning sciences, workforce development, assessment, instructional design, public policy, or a related field is strongly preferred.

• A minimum of 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.

• Expertise in designing and governing methodologies that translate workforce, military, or other non-traditional learning into academic credit, competencies, or learning outcomes subject to faculty review.

• Familiarity with skills taxonomies, competency frameworks, credentials, and associated standards.

• Ability to interpret and align external taxonomies or ecosystem standards within an academic context.

• Experience leading cross-functional initiatives that involve faculty governance, academic affairs, technical partners, and external stakeholders.

• Experience in supervising professional staff and providing strategic direction in planning, implementation, quality assurance, risk management, and decision-making.

• Strong written, verbal, and facilitation skills.

• Experience in producing executive reports, governance materials, methodology documentation, and presentations.

• Preferred experience with military learning evaluation, workforce-aligned learning recognition, or credit recommendation frameworks.

• Familiarity with AI-assisted evaluation or recommendation tools, including considerations for explainability, traceability, quality assurance, and governance is preferred.

• Experience contributing to interoperability, learner records, digital credentials, or skills data standards initiatives is preferred.

• Prior experience with foundation-funded, grant-funded, or multi-institution initiatives is preferred.

• A cover letter and resume are required.

🏝️ Benefits

• 22 days of paid vacation.

• 15 days of sick leave.

• 3 personal days.

• 16 paid holidays (17 during general election years).

• Comprehensive health care, including medical with vision, dental, and prescription plans for individuals and families.

• Subsidized medical and prescription benefits for eligible Contingent II employees in the State of Maryland.

• Health-plan purchase stipend for eligible part-time Contingent II employees.

• Term Life Insurance.

• Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance.

• Long-Term Disability Insurance.

• Retirement stipend equal to 7.25 percent of base salary.

• Supplemental retirement account (SRA).

• Retirement options including 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), and Roth.

• Tuition remission available at UMGC or the University of Maryland College Park.

• Spouses and dependent children are eligible for undergraduate tuition remission after two years of service.

• Workplace accommodations and an inclusive working environment.