Senior Instructional Designer

The Team

At Edovo, our mission is to help everyone connected to incarceration build better lives. We’ve created a secure digital platform to expand education behind bars, reduce recidivism and to support the vocational, rehabilitation and communication needs of the 2.2 million people in jails and prisons. Users have access to thousands of hours of self-guided learning materials. Upon release, our learners have the option to continue their progress on the outside. Edovo offers courses in subjects ranging from basic literacy and GED to career exploration and cognitive behavioral therapy. We’re also building tools to keep people in touch with jobs, social services, friends, and family. Our team is committed to supporting opportunities for justice-involved people.

Don’t take it just from us. Awards, publications, grants, and partnerships all around the country are recognizing the momentum and impact of Edovo. A select few: Global EdTech Startup Champion in London out of 1,000+ competitors; GIIRS Platinum Rating for social impact; MacArthur Foundation Grant Award Winner; Forbes article feature; Chicago Community Trust grant award winner; Impact Engine portfolio member; SXSW Civic Tech Innovation Pitch Competition runner-up; Chicago Innovation “Up and Comer” Award winner; and so much more.

Check out a brief picture of our program from the perspective of the people who use it. Visit Edovo on Vimeo for more.

The Role

As a Senior Instructional Designer at Edovo, you will design, evaluate, and elevate learning experiences for incarcerated individuals — working closely with content partners, product teams, and Edovo’s content strategy lead to build courses, frameworks, and processes that meet learners where they are and prepare them for the lives they want to live. You will also play a key role in content management- making sure that all of the content on our platform is discoverable and easily accessible by our learners. 

What You’ll Do

• Screen and review incoming content submissions — confirming metadata completeness, assigning visibility tags, and managing content through the publishing pipeline to ensure every item on the platform is accurately and appropriately represented

• Conduct regular content catalog audits: reviewing series structure, reranking and surfacing featured items, verifying transcript completion on video content, assessing nav map coverage and category health, and logging findings for Product review

• Support with partner content upload 

• Evaluate, classify, and tag content using Edovo’s taxonomy to support content discoverability for learners and facility staff

• Supervise and quality-review work produced by contractors and content partners, and identify opportunities to build scalable processes that reduce manual review burden over time

• Design and develop original course content for Edovo’s platform, spanning criminogenic risk factors, vocational skills, reentry preparation, life skills, recovery, and holistic personal development

• Evaluate content quality using Edovo’s rubrics and standards, making clear, constructive recommendations to partners and internal stakeholders who are not instructional design professionals

• Provide consultative professional services to content partners — helping them improve the instructional quality of their materials, structure content for a digital learning environment, and meet Edovo’s quality standards

• Contribute to the development of Edovo’s instructional design quality standards, including their integration into content management workflows and the partner-facing content submission experience

• Consult with product managers and designers to embed instructional design thinking directly into platform features and learner experience decisions

• Apply trauma-informed and adult learning principles across all content you create, review, and advise on

• Use AI-assisted tools to accelerate and improve content development — and apply instructional judgment to evaluate AI-generated content for quality, appropriateness, and alignment with Edovo’s learner-centered values

• Contribute to Edovo’s partner webinar series, knowledge base, and instructional design training and capacity-building initiatives for content partners

Qualifications

MUST-HAVES

• A genuine passion for Edovo’s mission, and curiosity about the incarcerated individuals we serve — including a willingness to engage with and learn from this population and those connected to incarceration

• 4+ years of instructional design experience, with a portfolio demonstrating strong curriculum architecture and learning experience design for adult learners

• Deep fluency in adult learning theory, including trauma-informed approaches to instructional design and Science of Learning

• Experience working in a consultative or professional services capacity — translating a client’s content goals into structured, learner-centered experiences

• Ability to assess content for instructional quality and communicate feedback constructively to non-ID professionals across a range of technical comfort levels

• Excellent written communication skills, with demonstrated ability to produce learning objectives, course outlines, assessment items, and instructional copy

• Strong independent prioritization across multiple projects at varying stages simultaneously

• Genuine curiosity about AI-assisted tools for content development, quality review, and process improvement — and the judgment to apply them critically

• Collaborative problem-solver who works effectively with peers, product managers, and external content partners

• A builder’s mindset: interest in developing and documenting repeatable processes and quality frameworks that go beyond your own individual output

NICE-TO-HAVES

• Direct experience with incarcerated or justice-involved populations, whether professional or through volunteer or lived experience

• Experience with content management systems, learning management systems, or digital course authoring tools

• Familiarity with content taxonomy, metadata strategy, or information architecture

• Experience designing or evaluating learner assessments, pre/post tests, or outcome measurement instruments

• Background in research, program evaluation, or evidence-based content development

• Comfort with data — ability to read engagement metrics, identify patterns, and make content recommendations based on them

• Experience supervising instructional design contractors, interns, or content partners, or building instructional quality processes for others to use

Other Details

Location: Remote

Salary: Commensurate with experience

Department: Role reports to VP of Product

Travel Requirements: Up to 15%. Travel includes bi-annual company retreats, partner and facility visits, and relevant industry events. The amount of travel required for this position may vary over time.

Physical Demands: No excessive physical demands required.

Edovo is an impact-driven non-profit organization. We offer our employees a collaborative culture in a remote working environment, unlimited PTO, and paid benefits for team members and their families. We hire tenacious, innovative and passionate people and give them opportunities to grow and succeed.

Teams with bold missions need diverse ideas to generate the most impact. For that reason, Edovo is committed to building diverse and inclusive work spaces. We don’t discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. And yes, we believe in second chances.