Lead, Learning Design

If you’re excited about building systems that empower others to lead and want to help shape Canada’s next generation of entrepreneurial, AI-ready talent for the future of work, we’d love to hear from you!

Venture for Canada is a national registered charity equipping talent across Canada with the entrepreneurial skills, mindset, and opportunities to succeed in a 21st-century economy increasingly shaped by rapid change and emerging technology. We believe that to be entrepreneurial is to act upon opportunities to create value for others.

The resourcefulness and creativity of people across Canada are essential to addressing our country’s greatest challenges. Venture for Canada serves as a catalyst by empowering individuals to create a more prosperous, inclusive, and innovative society.

Since 2013, Venture for Canada has grown in meaningful ways, and we’re excited to expand our team with values-aligned individuals who can contribute to what we’re building. To learn more about our hiring process and workplace philosophy, visit our Careers page.

About the Role

The Lead, Learning Design plays a critical role in shaping and delivering the learning experience for Venture for Canada’s Student Programs, including our Internship and Intrapreneurship Programs. This role leads the design of curriculum, learning materials, live sessions, and multi-day participant events that help post-secondary students across Canada build entrepreneurial skills, mindsets, and confidence.

Reporting to the Program Manager, Student Programs, the Lead, Learning Design is a strong curriculum designer, facilitator, and project lead. They understand how to turn learning goals into practical, engaging experiences for young adult learners. They are collaborative, organized, audience-focused, and comfortable working across programs, teams, facilitators, and external partners.

This role owns the full cycle of identifying, vetting, and onboarding subject matter experts to co-create and deliver learning experiences. It also includes supporting the student programs team with the setup and maintenance of admissions and matching workflows, including via HubSpot (approximately 20% of the role).

Key Role Responsibilities

Curriculum Strategy & Learning Experience Design

• Collaborate with the Manager of Student Programs to design, articulate, and deliver the curriculum strategy and learning experiences for each cohort of our Student Programs
• Support the Leadership Team to ideate and design training curriculum for future program offerings targeting post-secondary students
• Contribute to current and future Student Programs curriculum strategy by:
  • Maintaining expertise on post-secondary students in Canada as the target audience for Student Programs training
  • Staying current on relevant trends, reports, research, and learner needs that should inform curriculum changes
  • Identifying opportunities to improve the participant learning experience across self-paced, live, virtual, and in-person formats

Learning Materials, Resources & Participant Communications

• Lead the design and delivery of materials, resources, communications, and sessions for current and future Student Programs training
• Scope, design, and deliver self-paced learning materials for Student Programs participants during their participation in the program
• Develop participant-facing resources, facilitator guides, session materials, learning activities, and related training assets
• Support the broader VFC team to understand and communicate the Internship and Intrapreneurship Program curricula to participants, employers, funders, and other stakeholders

Live Learning Sessions & Facilitation

• Scope, design, and deliver live learning sessions for Student Programs participants during their participation in the program
• Serve as a trainer and facilitator across VFC programs when needed
• Own the process of sourcing, vetting, onboarding, briefing, and supporting external facilitators, speakers, and subject matter experts who contribute to Student Programs learning experiences. 
• Act as the main contact for external facilitators, speakers, and learning partners connected to Student Programs training and events

Bilingual Delivery & Accessibility

• Work with staff, translators, and external partners to ensure all Student Programs training is delivered in French and English
• Ensure learning materials and participant communications are clear, inclusive, accessible, and appropriate for VFC’s target audiences
• Review translated or adapted learning materials to support consistency, quality, and alignment across English and French program delivery

Participant Events & Summits

• Lead the learning design for in-person and virtual multi-day participant events, with a particular focus on designing and delivering the Internship Program Summits
• Collaborate closely with the Events and Logistics Lead to support the planning and delivery of live events
• Design event learning arcs, session flows, participant activities, facilitator materials, and supporting communications for multi-day learning experiences

Program Operations, Budget & Targets

• Support the Programs Manager to manage and monitor Student Programs training budgets, deliverables, and training targets
• Track learning-related deliverables, timelines, facilitator requirements, participant communications, and resource needs
• Coordinate with internal teams to ensure training materials, sessions, and events are delivered on time and aligned with program goals

Evaluation & Continuous Improvement

• Use participant feedback, program data, research, and team insights to continuously improve curriculum quality, learner engagement, and program outcomes
• Identify patterns in learner needs and participant experience, and recommend updates to curriculum, session design, resources, or delivery methods
• Contribute to post-program reflection, reporting, and curriculum planning for future cohorts

What You’ll Bring

We care as much about how you work as what you know. The following qualities matter deeply to us for this role:

How You Work

• You take real ownership. You do not wait to be told how to start. You see what needs to be done and you move on it. You follow through without being chased
• You communicate clearly across teams. You can synthesize complex information and present it in ways that are easy for colleagues, stakeholders, and learners to act on
• You're comfortable working independently, managing competing priorities, and staying calm when timelines shift or unexpected challenges arise

What You Know

• You design learning with purpose: You can translate program goals, learner needs, and organizational priorities into clear curriculum, learning arcs, and training experiences
• You understand learners, not just content: You think carefully about the audience, especially post-secondary students and early-career talent, and design learning that feels relevant, practical, and engaging
• You can build self-paced and live learning experiences: You know how to design resources, activities, facilitator guides, participant materials, and live sessions that support different learning formats
• You facilitate with confidence: You’re comfortable leading live sessions, supporting group learning, and creating an environment where participants feel engaged and able to contribute
• You manage external contributors well: You can source, brief, coordinate, and support facilitators, speakers, translators, and learning partners so they deliver a strong participant experience
• You design for inclusion and accessibility: You care about creating learning experiences that are clear, inclusive, accessible, and appropriate for diverse learners across Canada
• You use feedback to improve: You gather participant feedback, review program insights, and make thoughtful improvements to curriculum, materials, and delivery
• You can manage moving pieces: You’re organized, detail-oriented, and able to manage timelines, deliverables, facilitators, materials, events, and communications without losing sight of the learner experience

Who You Are

• 4+ years of professional experience, including at least 3 years focused on learning design, curriculum development, training, facilitation, education, program design, or related work.
• Experienced designing learning experiences for post-secondary students, young adults, early-career talent, or career development programs
• A strong writer who can create clear, engaging, participant-facing learning materials and communications
• A confident facilitator who can deliver live sessions in virtual and/or in-person environments
• Comfortable owning outcomes and working with a high degree of autonomy
• Fluency in French and English is strongly preferred and will be considered a significant asset
• Familiar with tools such as Google Workspace, Zoom, Slack, Canva, learning management systems, survey tools, or other learning/content platforms
• Legally authorized to work in Canada

Job Location: Preference will be given to candidates located in British Columbia. Candidates located in Ontario are also encouraged to apply.

Arrangement: Remote work with VFC offices based in Toronto and Vancouver. Participation in occasional in-person events is required, and some travel may be necessary.

Commitment to Diversity and Accessibility

Venture for Canada is dedicated to creating a workplace that fits your needs. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds and provide accommodations for accessibility. Please send accommodation requests to hiring@ventureforcanada.ca. 

The purpose of this job posting is to fill an existing vacancy. Venture for Canada may use artificial intelligence-enabled tools to support certain aspects of the recruitment process; all hiring decisions are made by our talent acquisition stakeholders. Only selected applicants will be contacted for an interview. In accordance with applicable laws, candidates who are interviewed will be notified of the hiring decision within 45 days of their final interview.