Senior Director, Academic Design Science

Build the Future
At McGraw Hill, we are dedicated to delivering digital learning experiences that transform education for learners and educators. Our focus is on creating seamless, impactful products that truly benefit our users while supporting growth and collaboration across teams. We foster a culture that values innovation, teamwork, and a balance between career growth and personal well-being.

How can you make an impact?

McGraw Hill, the leading provider of digital and print educational solutions, is looking for Senior Director, Science Academic Design within our K-12 division who will be responsible for creating market-leading science instructional materials that are embraced by teachers and enjoyed by students. The Senior Director will report directly to the Chief Academic Officer and will manage and inspire a team of academic designers to create efficient and effective materials for educators that optimize student learning. In this role, the Senior Director must collaborate across product management, product marketing, product design, user experience, and technology to develop and deliver engaging teaching and learning experiences in both print and digital formats. As part of this role you will:

The Senior Director is part of the Science Product Development leadership team and is accountable for delivering programs on time and on budget. You will be part of driving innovation, and you will proactively propose changes and improvements in process, people, and products to propel us forward. You will operate in an environment that requires excellent problem-solving skills and exceptional team collaboration, facilitation, and communication skills. You must be energized by collaboration with cross-functional teams, including product managers, project managers, designers, software engineers, and product marketing managers and strive to enable streamlined collaboration across teams at scale.

This position can work remotely within the continental United States but can also be based in one of our McGraw Hill offices.

What You'll Do:

• Apply your expertise in science, pedagogy, content standards, and instructional design to understand and create products that meet the needs of our customers and provide competitive differentiators.
• Collaborate with other departments in researching, designing, and developing product concepts. Analyze, summarize, and synthesize multiple inputs and viewpoints into a cohesive, cost-effective, accessible, and engaging solution.
• Develop deep cross-functional and stakeholder partnerships to set portfolio-level strategy, priorities, and resourcing.
• Effectively prioritize work and assign resources across internal staff and external vendors, including clear goal setting and performance management, to deliver accurate, error-free, high-quality work in a fast-paced and fluid environment.
• Participate in industry events, customer research and advisory boards, and educational product reviews. Stay up to date on emerging educational, pedagogical, curricular, and technological advances relevant to science and adjacent fields.
• Develop metrics related to quality, efficiency, and impact to drive continuous improvements.

What you bring:

• Bachelor's Degree required, advanced degree (Masters or Doctorate) is preferred
• 10+ years of K-12 science educational product development experience
• 5+ years of increasing managerial experience
• Experience managing vendors, independent contractors, and other third-party relationships
• Proven ability to build and lead strong teams; to inspire, influence, and negotiate at all levels of an organization
• Experience with core instructional adoption process preferred
• Experience working in agile environments preferred

• Content and Pedagogical Expertise: You can communicate a vision and rationale for science product design including the instructional model, included components, use of digital and print resources, and educator and student experience. You translate first-hand knowledge of customers into product strategy, goals, and direction.

• Communication: You are a thought leader within and outside the organization. You represent McGraw Hill to key groups within the industry, maintain a strong network within the science community, and build relationships with current and prospective program authors and thought leaders in the field. Internally, you translate both the McGraw Hill School and learning design strategies, as well as the science portfolio goals, to effectively impact the team's activities, behaviors, and mindsets. You have excellent written and oral communication, inspiring others to understand why our solutions are best positioned to help solve market needs.

• Leadership and Organization: You envision the long-term strategic capabilities and talent mix needed within the department, and you architect your organizational design to best align with business needs, structure, and people. You model and actively build a climate of trust, appreciation, and openness to different thoughts, styles, and backgrounds. You build commitment, foster confidence, and develop people to achieve our goals. You champion change initiatives in ways that help employees understand, appreciate, and support them. You create a culture of innovation and learning that drives individual and team development.

• Business and Financial Acumen: You understand how business value is created through our products, and you help develop compelling business cases to fund new development. You build industry best practices into the work to gain efficiency and productivity. You take a strategic view of resource planning and budgeting, balancing short-term and long-term needs, and you build a team that can execute multiple projects simultaneously.

Why work for us?

The work you do at McGraw Hill will be work that matters. We are collectively designing content that will build the future of education. Play your part and experience a sense of fulfilment that will inspire you to even greater heights.

The pay range for this position is between $108,175-$150,000 annually, however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and location. Click here to learn more about our benefit offerings.

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