Manager, Curricula Design & Development - National Council for Mental Wellbeing

About Us

The vision of the National Council for Mental Wellbeing is to make mental wellbeing, including recovery from substance use challenges, a reality for everyone. Despite overwhelming need, nearly 30 million people across the U.S. do not have access to comprehensive, high-quality, affordable mental health and substance use care when they need it.

Founded in 1969, the National Council is a membership organization that drives policy and social change on behalf of nearly 3,300 mental health and substance use prevention, treatment and recovery organizations and the more than 10 million children, adults and families they serve. We advocate for policies to ensure equitable access to high-quality services and support. We build the capacity of mental health and substance use treatment organizations. And we promote greater understanding of mental wellbeing as a core component of comprehensive health and health care. Through our Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) program, we have trained more than 3 million people in the U.S. to identify, understand and respond to signs and symptoms of mental health and substance use challenges.

The National Council is growing rapidly to meet this moment; both our budget ($77M) and passionate staff (250+) have grown more than 50% since 2020. In addition, while we maintain office space in Washington, DC, we are a remote-first organization, meaning our employees work remotely from their locations across the United States.

We are an equal-opportunity employer. We embrace diversity and commit ourselves to creating an inclusive environment for everyone.

Position Summary

The Manager, Curricula Design and Development, is responsible for managing a team of curriculum developers responsible for the MHFA curricula. The individual in this role will lead efforts to continuously improve existing MHFA curricula and bring new curricula to market based on the direction set by the Director, Curricula Development and Evaluation. They are also responsible for designing and developing new components of the Mental Health First Aid curriculum and evaluating and making modifications to existing components as needed. The person in this role should be passionate about managing people and projects, and developing curricula that are results-based, learner centered and meet learning and program objectives.

This is a people manager role with direct reports. While this position can be done remotely from anywhere in the US, you must primarily work our Washington, DC business hours of 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM ET.

Responsibilities

• Provide direct supervision and support to a team of curriculum developers, eLearning developers, editors, and graphic designers responsible for creating and updating course materials for Instructors and First Aiders (participants)
• Review course development materials and provide feedback to developers.
• Ensure that all course materials meet MHFA quality and accessibility standards.
• Manage small- and large-scale instructional design projects.
• Apply pedagogical/andragogical principles and learning theories to create engaging course designs.
• Maintain awareness of best practices, emerging technologies, and new potentials in educational technology that may be adopted as new and emerging instructional media, technologies, pedagogies and practices.
• Collaborate with others in MHFA, the National Council, and external subject matter experts (SMEs) during the curriculum development process.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent work experience in Instructional Design, Educational/Instructional Technology, Adult Learning, Learning Design/Experience, or comparable field of study.
• 5+ years of experience in curriculum development or comparable role with 3+ years of people or team leadership.
• Experience developing instructor-led training content for in-person, virtual, and blended delivery models.
• Proficient in using the Microsoft Office suite, especially Word and PowerPoint.
• Strong project management skills.
• Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal skills.
• Results-oriented with a very high attention to detail.
• Able to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines in a dynamic environment.
• Technically proficient and able to navigate new learning technologies as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree.
• Fluent in Spanish, Chinese, Korean, or Khmer to support one of our translated curricula.
• Passion for or experience working in the mental health and substance use field.