Manager, Leadership Curriculum & Learning

Organization Description 

Vital Voices Global Partnership is a leading international non-profit organization. We invest in women leaders who are tackling the world’s greatest challenges – from gender-based violence to the climate crisis, economic inequities, and more. We are “venture catalysts,” identifying leaders with a daring vision for change and partnering with them to make that vision a reality. What sets Vital Voices apart is that we make long-term, holistic investments in leaders with bold ideas for change — providing them connections, capacity, a network of their peers, financial support, and visibility for their work. We have provided early support for leaders who went on to become Nobel Peace Laureates, US Youth Poet Laureates, Prime Ministers, award winning innovators and breakthrough social entrepreneurs. Over the past 27 years, we have directly invested in more than 47,000 change-makers across 188 countries, who in turn have improved the lives of millions of people in their communities and countries. 

Vital Voices’ staff is headquartered in Washington, DC. In the coming years we have a bold vision to dramatically scale our impact. In early 2022, we opened the first ever Global Headquarters for Women’s Leadership, a 30,000+ sq. ft. historic building just blocks from the White House on 16th Street. It is a hub of activity, events, and collaborations — bringing together women leaders and their allies to tackle the world’s greatest challenges.

Mission

Vital Voices invests in women leaders taking on the world’s greatest challenges and accelerates collective action towards an equitable and sustainable world. 

Position Summary 

The Manager, Leadership Curriculum & Learning is responsible for the strategy, development, implementation, and continuous improvement of the organization's program leadership curriculum. This role ensures the curriculum remains evidence-based, human-centered, gender-responsive, culturally relevant, impactful, and consistently delivered across the organization's portfolio of leadership programs. Working closely with program teams, facilitators, and impact measurement staff, the Manager oversees curriculum quality, learning outcomes, facilitator readiness, and knowledge management.

This position is based in Washington, DC with the option of a hybrid work schedule. Remote candidates are not being considered.

Key Responsibilities: 

Curriculum Strategy & Governance 

• Serve as the organization's primary steward of the leadership curriculum and learning framework. 

• Maintain curriculum standards, learning objectives, competencies, design principles, and quality assurance processes. 

• Develop and manage the curriculum roadmap and annual review process. 

• Maintain version control and curriculum documentation. 

Curriculum Development & Continuous Improvement 

• Review and update curriculum based on research, participant feedback, facilitator observations, and evaluation findings. 

• Apply design thinking and human-centered design approaches, test new concepts, and refine learning experiences.  

• Integrate emerging research and best practices in leadership development, adult learning, and women's leadership. 

• Develop new modules, learning activities, case studies, and participant resources. 

• Introduce improvements that strengthen participant engagement and learning outcomes. 

Program Integration & Adaptation 

• Partner with program teams to adapt curriculum for different audiences, geographies, cultures, and delivery models. 

• Ensure curriculum maintains consistency while allowing contextualization. 

• Apply a gender-responsive and intersectional lens to curriculum development and adaptation.  

• Support integration across virtual, hybrid, and in-person learning experiences. 

Learning Measurement & Quality Assurance 

• Manage learning outcomes and success indicators. 

• Partner with impact measurement staff to develop curriculum-specific evaluation tools. 

• Analyze learning data and participant outcomes. 

• Produce recommendations to strengthen curriculum effectiveness. 

Facilitator Excellence 

• Lead program staff training and preparation and ensure organizational awareness and alignment.

• Lead facilitator onboarding and curriculum orientation. 

• Coordinate facilitator preparation before each program. 

• Manage and develop curriculum implementation guides, facilitator guides, toolkits, and training resources. 

• Coach facilitators and support continuous improvement. 

Research & Knowledge Management 

• Monitor and incorporate research and trends in women’s leadership development. 

• Maintain curriculum repositories and knowledge management systems. 

• Carry out curriculum assessments including debriefs and capture lessons learned and best practices. 

Cross-Functional Collaboration 

• Work closely with Program Teams, Impact Measurement, Communications, Development, and external consultants. 

• Support proposal development with curriculum expertise. 

• Contribute to organizational learning strategy. 

Qualifications 

• 6–8 years of experience in curriculum development, instructional design, adult learning, leadership development, or learning experience design. 

• Demonstrated experience applying design thinking, human-centered design, participatory design, or co-creation methodologies to develop engaging learner-centered programs. 

• Experience managing learning and leadership development programs in nonprofit, international development, philanthropic, educational, or mission-driven organizations. 

• Experience designing, facilitating, and evaluating adult learning experiences including applying trauma-informed, participant-centered and culturally responsive learning practices.   

• Experience using qualitative and quantitative data to improve programs. 

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across diverse cultural, geographic, and organizational contexts, with sensitivity to varying cultural norms and lived experiences. 

• Excellent project management, communication, collaboration, partner and knowledge management skills with the ability to manage multiple curriculum development projects simultaneously.  

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience designing leadership development programs for women leaders. 

• Experience working with global cohorts, multilingual audiences, and locally led organizations across multiple regions. 

• Experience facilitating onboarding, coaching, training and quality assurance for program delivery.  

• Familiarity with learning management systems, digital learning platforms and tools, learning analytics, AI-assisted instructional design, virtual facilitation tools and emerging technologies that support learning design, facilitation and delivery. 

• Experience with impact measurement to assess learning outcomes and program effectiveness. 

This position is a full-time, exempt hybrid position based in Washington, DC with two days of required in person attendance at the Vital Voices Headquarters. If and when it is safe to travel, domestic and international travel up to 10% may be required for the position. 

The anticipated starting salary for this role is $108,900 with flexibility up to $119,400 for candidates who bring additional experience, skills or qualifications beyond the core requirements of the position.

Benefits:

At Vital Voices, we value our employees and their well-being. That's why we offer a competitive and comprehensive compensation package that includes medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401k match, short and long-term disability, life insurance, HSA, EAP, and more. But that's not all. We believe in giving our employees the flexibility and support they need to thrive in their work and life. That's why we provide generous PTO including wellness flex Fridays, parental leave, earned sabbatical time, and volunteer leave as well as a professional development stipend to support continuous improvement. Join us and be part of a global team that empowers women leaders to transform the world. 

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Vital Voices provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetics. In addition to federal law requirements, Vital Voices complies with applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.  

Vital Voices expressly prohibits any form of workplace harassment based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status. Improper interference with the ability of Vital Voices’ employees to perform their job duties may result in discipline up to and including discharge.