Contract Instructional Designer

About Ziplines

Ziplines Education is a category-leading education company that partners with universities to deliver industry-focused certificate courses that prepare professionals for today’s digital-first workforce. Each year, we have the opportunity to help thousands of career advancers build the knowledge, skills, and credentials they need to move their careers forward. 92% of learners would recommend our programs, and our net promoter score is consistently in the excellent range. Together, we empower adult learners to confidently pursue the career they’ve always wanted.

Our Courses

Our Format

Our courses are focused, pragmatic, and application-based. Our goal is to shift mindsets, teach frameworks, and give learners the confidence to move differently in their careers. Each week, learners complete:

• 6-8 hours of asynchronous content in Articulate Rise. Videos from subject matter experts lead into expository content and application-based exercises.

• A 2-hour live session, delivered by an industry professional and supported by a Google Slides deck with recommended demos and activities.

• An application-based capstone assignment, typically offering learners the choice of applying what they’ve learned to a scenario in their own workplace, or using a provided scenario.

Our Subject Matter

All Ziplines courses focus on teaching learners both the fundamental concepts of the discipline and the relevant technologies, including generative AI. Core AI use cases and tools are introduced in all courses. Currently we offer courses in:

• Digital Marketing (10 weeks, tools include Hubspot, Google Analytics)

• Business Analytics (10 weeks, tools include Excel, Tableau, SQL)

• Project Management (10 weeks, tools include Microsoft Project, Monday.com, Jira)

• AI Prompting (5 weeks, focused on prompting skills, ethical use, and effective use of ChatGPT)

• AI Automation (5 weeks, tools include ChatGPT, Make.com, N8N, Julius.ai, NotebookLM)

What You’ll Do:

The Contract Instructional Designer will help our in-house Learning Experience Designers with the core development phase of course creation and maintenance. You will be provided with learning objectives, lesson outlines, design standards, and examples. Tasks are anticipated to include:

• Building expository, illustrative, and reinforcement elements in Articulate Rise.

• Building application exercises in Articulate Rise.

• Building quizzes and assessments in Articulate Rise.

• Reviewing raw SME video and suggesting and marking edits.

• Designing and revising live session slide decks in Google slides.

• Creating study guides in Google docs.

• QA using a provided QA checklist.

• As directed, monitoring the bug queue for existing courses and making minor updates.

• Other course build and production tasks as directed.

Ziplines courses follow specific instructional design, visual design, brand voice, and editorial standards, and all output must align with those standards. For all standards, we will give you a written standards document, a template, an example to follow, or all three.

Our courses are marketed to launch to learners on specific dates, so time is of the essence in all our work. The ability to meet and manage deadlines is key.

Who You Are

You’re a skilled, self-directed instructional designer with at least 3 years of experience creating asynchronous learning content for adult learners in a corporate or ed tech environment.

In addition:

• You are fluent in Articulate Rise.

• You have designed and built asynchronous learning in Ziplines subject matter or closely-related subject matter. You can develop click-by-click software training, and you can also teach the mindsets and the “why.”

• You can follow design standards and work from a template. When needed you can look at an example and extract the relevant visual and instructional design standards.

• You can navigate ambiguity. You’re able to ask the right questions to clarify unclear situations. You can quickly produce an example or prototype to make sure you’re heading in the right direction.

• You can project-manage yourself. You prioritize well to meet deadlines, and if priorities or deadlines aren’t clear, you ask.

• You are a reliably fast, clear, and on-target writer. You can recognize and adopt brand voice.

• You have strong attention to detail.

• You are a collaborator with strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative team environment.

• You have at least 20 hours/week available starting in December 2025.

Ziplines Core Values

• Focus on outcomes: We prioritize student satisfaction and outcomes above all.

• Be trustworthy: We act with integrity and follow through on our commitments.

• Be humble: We’re in this together, and every team member’s perspective matters.

• Be curious: Continuous learning drives us forward.

• Be you: Diverse thinking is essential for opportunity and innovation.

The contract rate for this role: $30 - $50 per hour, based on factors unique to each candidate, including their skills, location, experience, qualifications, and other job-related considerations. This is a part-time contract role.

Interested? Please visit our careers page https://www.ziplines.com/careers to apply.

To ensure a fair and consistent hiring process, we kindly ask that all applicants submit their applications through our job board rather than reaching out directly via LinkedIn, phone, or email. This helps our recruitment team review every application efficiently and equitably. We truly appreciate your interest in joining our team and look forward to considering your application!

Ziplines, Inc. is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other protected characteristics under applicable law.