Lead Instructional Designer

Summary

Join Guidewire Learning Experience!
Our team plays a critical role in developing effective learning programs that drive the adoption of our cloud solutions.
We are committed to inclusion and diversity in skills and talent, as diverse as the global clients we serve. Our success is dependent on building teams that include people from diverse backgrounds and experiences who will support and challenge each other's assumptions with fresh perspectives.
How we work at Guidewire
We build on each other's ideas. We are committed to creating synergy and allowing for 'ah-ha' moments.
Open and honest. We're a healthy workgroup that respectfully debates at times and are committed to figuring it out. #keepItPositiveAndProductive.
We like learning and are curious. There's power in knowing what you don't know and then filling in the knowledge gaps. Whether that be design or domain-related-The sky's the limit!
Confidence with humility. We value your thoughts and insights and recognize there are a lot of smart people we work with on our teams.
Coachable and teachable. A growth mindset is critical to the best performing teams. Our commitment to every team member is to provide learning opportunities that both match and stretch their skills.
About Guidewire
Guidewire serves a global community of more than 450 insurers of all sizes and lines of business in more than 32 countries. Community feedback enables us to stay at the forefront of what is happening all over the world in P&C and to incorporate insights into the design of our platform to be truly customer centric.
Guidewire exists to deliver the industry platform that P&C insurers rely upon to adapt and succeed in a time of accelerating change—and to ensure that every customer succeeds in the journey. We provide the software, services, and partner ecosystem to enable our customers to run, differentiate, and grow their business.
Guidewire Insurance Platform is the P&C industry platform that unifies software, services, and partner ecosystem to power our customers’ business. Insurance Platform provides the standard upon which insurers can engage their customers, optimize their operations, drive smart decisions, and innovate quickly. We invest heavily in R&D to build a technology platform that combines three elements—core processing, data and analytics, and digital engagement—to enhance insurers’ ability to engage and empower their customers and employees. Their primary areas of focus are to ensure alignment of that architecture with business objectives and high-level company technology direction.
If you are a seasoned professional with a passion for shaping impactful content strategies and possess the required skills, we invite you to apply for this opportunity. Please submit your resume and a cover letter outlining your relevant experience.

Job Description

What will you be doing?

We are looking for a highly motivated and innovative Instructional Designer to work on the development of our technical, self-study product training programs. This role will be pivotal to drive adoption of software used by developers by creating engaging and accessible learning experiences for our customers and partners. The ideal candidate will have a background in instructional design, a software development or architecture background, understanding of technical concepts (ideally within enterprise software), and a proven ability to create interactive and impactful learning solutions. You’ll be a self-starter, eager to take ownership, adapt quickly, and contribute to shaping the direction of our learning experiences.

Here are the key responsibilities for this role:
Content Strategy and Planning:

• Lead the development of a learning content strategy, for a product or topic area, that aligns with business objectives.

• Collaborate with stakeholders to understand product direction and translate them into actionable and impactful content plans.

• Lead the learning design effort for applications and services for a specific topic area.

• Prepare realistic content plans collaboratively with other content creators, track activities against the project schedule, and suggest viable options when demand exceeds capacity. 

Design and Develop:

• Design and implement scalable and flexible content that can be reused.

• Determine the "right content to build" including delivery method and effort, based on competency requirements in alignment with stakeholder guidance.

• Develop curriculum for one or more applications and services while following instructional design best practices and department standards.   

• Design and develop a variety of learning materials, including interactive tutorials/practical labs, videos, assessments, micro-learning modules, and e-learning courses tailored for diverse user needs and technical levels.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to ensure content aligns with brand standards and visual experience goals.

• Partner closely with writers, product managers, engineers, professional services teams, and other subject matter experts to understand technical features and align learning objectives with business goals.

Quality Assurance:

• Conduct regular audits to identify and address content gaps or inconsistencies.

• Seek and incorporate input from Subject Matter Experts, Product Managers, and Learners.

• Gather, analyze, and apply data to improve training experience, identify learner pain points, and iterate on course effectiveness and engagement.

Coaching and Mentoring:

• Provide guidance to junior instructional designers, ensuring best practices are followed in learning experience design and development.

What you need to be successful (required qualifications):

• Bachelor’s degree in instructional design, education, technical writing, or a related field and 5-8 years related experience. Alternatively, a bachelor’s degree in computer science or similar field in combination with relevant work experience in education or technical writing.

• Experience using instructional design principles and GenAI tools and resources.

• Knowledge of web application development, and cloud platform tooling. Basic understanding of HTML, XML, CSS and other web technologies.

• Ability to gather information from subject matter experts and learn by experimenting.

• Excellent written, verbal communication and collaboration skills with the ability to work across diverse teams.

• Strategic thinker with a creative and innovative approach to content development.

• Excellent organizational skills and ability to manage multiple tasks in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

• Self-starter mentality with a passion for continuous learning and a proven ability to learn on the job and work independently with minimal instruction.

• Experience with agile methodologies for project or content development and familiarity with project management tools such as JIRA.

• Fluent in English.

Preferred qualifications:

• Experience with structured authoring tools such as Madcap Xyleme.

• Experience with graphics and video tools such as Figma, Vyond, or Camtasia.

• Understanding of cloud services and familiarity with major cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, etc.

• Deep understanding of cloud development workflows and DevOps practices, such as CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, monitoring, and logging.

• Ability to read and understand commonly used programming languages like Python, Java, or JavaScript.

• Familiarity with REST APIs, SDKs, AI assisted development and an understanding of how developers interact with cloud services. 

• Basic understanding of version control systems, such as Git.

The US base salary range for this full-time position is $100,000 - $150,000 . Your base pay will depend on your experience, skills, education, training, and location among other factors. All full-time positions or part-time roles working 30 hours or more a week at Guidewire are eligible for benefits that support their health and well-being including health, dental, and vision insurance, paid time off, and a company sponsored retirement plan. In addition, some roles may be eligible for the annual company bonus plan, commissions, and/or long term incentive awards which are contingent on a variety of factors including, but not limited to, company and employee performance.

Disability Accommodations and Guidewire’s Appeals Process. Guidewire provides accommodations to the hiring process to create a fair opportunity for candidates with disabilities to contend for open positions. Accommodation requests should be directed to [email protected]. If things do not go as hoped, we invite you to use our appeals process. Guidewire promises to independently review any denied accommodation and any decision not to offer you the position. The appeals process is the same in either case. Within five business days of receiving a notice of denial of an accommodation, or receiving a notice of your non-selection for a vacancy, e-mail [email protected] to make an appeal. Guidewire will assign a new decision-maker to review the request and/or hiring decision, who will then notify you in writing of a decision within 10 business days.

About Guidewire

Guidewire is the platform P&C insurers trust to engage, innovate, and grow efficiently. We combine digital, core, analytics, and AI to deliver our platform as a cloud service. More than 540+ insurers in 40 countries, from new ventures to the largest and most complex in the world, run on Guidewire.

As a partner to our customers, we continually evolve to enable their success. We are proud of our unparalleled implementation track record with 1600+ successful projects, supported by the largest R&D team and partner ecosystem in the industry. Our Marketplace provides hundreds of applications that accelerate integration, localization, and innovation.

For more information, please visit www.guidewire.com and follow us on Twitter: @Guidewire_PandC.

Guidewire Software, Inc. is proud to be an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer. We are committed to an inclusive workplace, and believe that a diversity of perspectives, abilities, and cultures is a key to our success. Qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship, marital status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, veteran status, or disability. All offers are contingent upon passing a criminal history and other background checks where it's applicable to the position.