Instructional Design Associate Jobs in California

Easterseals Southern California transforms lives every day. For over a century, Easterseals has championed inclusion and independence-delivering essential services like early childhood programs, autism services, employment and independent living support to more than 29,000 people each year. Through advocacy and education, we break barriers and create opportunities for the one-in-four Americans with disabilities.

OVERVIEW OF POSITION:

The Senior Regional VP (SRVP), Training & Development serves as the senior service-line leader responsible for establishing and executing a comprehensive Training & Development strategy for Autism Services. This role owns the vision, roadmap, and operating model for training and professional development across clinical, operational, and support staff, ensuring training efforts are cohesive, scalable, and aligned with the evolving needs of Autism Services and broader organizational priorities. This position provides strategic oversight for the full training lifecycle, including new hire onboarding, ongoing training, and longterm development. The role integrates training design, delivery systems, communication, and evaluation to ensure training is effective, sustainable, and consistently implemented across the enterprise. In all responsibilities, the position demonstrates a strong commitment to ESSC's mission and values by supporting a high-quality, person-centered service environment.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Develops and leads a long-term learning and development strategy for Autism Services, aligning onboarding, ongoing learning, professional development, and workforce capability with service line priorities, growth, and future needs while informing executive decision-making and long-range planning.
• Establishes a service line-wide framework that differentiates role readiness training from professional and leadership development, ensuring associates perform effectively in their current roles while building mastery, leadership capability, and readiness for advancement through a clearly defined talent pipeline.
• Builds, leads, and scales a high-performing learning organization, including direct leadership and supervision of senior training leaders, ensuring clear structure, accountability, and consistent execution across departments and regions with a strong focus on succession readiness and leader capability.
• Establishes and governs standards for how learning is designed, delivered, and reinforced across Autism Services, overseeing the development and evolution of cohesive, evidence-informed curricula, instructional materials, and learning pathways that are scalable and consistent across roles and departments and aligned to enterprise standards.
• Evaluates, selects, and advances learning technologies and infrastructure, including LMS platforms, digital learning tools, instructional design approaches, and SOP frameworks, to enhance accessibility, consistency, and effectiveness at scale.
• Defines and leads a comprehensive framework for measuring learning quality and effectiveness, evaluating skill acquisition, readiness, and performance through application-based assessments, in-field observations, and performance data, and using those insights to continuously refine content, delivery methods, pacing, and reinforcement strategies and to inform leadership reporting and operational decisions.
• Establishes clear learning outcomes tied to service excellence, staff retention, and confidence in role, ensuring learning efforts support high quality service delivery, reduce preventable turnover, and build associate competence and confidence in performing their jobs while advancing organizational performance.
• Partners cross-functionally with enterprise and service line leaders to align learning priorities, support organizational initiatives and change efforts, and ensure consistent adoption of learning standards and enterprise expectations.
• Regularly evaluates organizational structure, capacity, and team performance, adjusting resources and team composition to meet evolving service line needs and support sustainable growth.
• Maintains deep awareness of industry standards, best practices, and emerging trends in training, professional development, and healthcare services, applying external insights to strengthen internal learning strategies and position Autism Services as a leader in workforce development and innovation.
• Ensures training programs, curricula, and related processes align with applicable regulatory, accreditation, payer, and organizational compliance requirements, and partners with operational and clinical leaders to address gaps and maintain readiness.
• Performs other duties as assigned in support of Autism Services strategy, workforce capability, and organizational effectiveness.

EDUCATION:

• Master's degree required in organizational development, education, psychology, business, healthcare administration, instructional design, behavior analysis, or a related field.
• Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA/BCBA-D), or licensed Occupational Therapist, Speech-Language Pathologist, or Physical Therapist.
• Professional certifications related to learning, development, or organizational effectiveness strongly preferred, such as Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) certification, Instructional Design or Learning Experience Design (LXD/LX) certification, and learning and development, talent development, or adult learning certifications (e.g., ATD or equivalent).
• Equivalent combinations of education, certifications, and progressive leadership experience may be considered.

EXPERIENCE:

• Minimum of fifteen (15) years including eight (8) years of progressive experience in learning and development, workforce development, organizational effectiveness, or a related field, including leadership of large-scale or enterprise learning initiatives.
• Minimum of seven (7) years in leadership roles, with demonstrated experience leading managers or senior leaders and translating long-term strategy into execution and measurable outcomes.
• Proven experience designing and governing learning systems across onboarding, ongoing training, leadership development, and competency-based development frameworks.
• Experience establishing standards and consistency for learning design and delivery across departments, regions, or complex service-line environments.
• Demonstrated experience measuring learning effectiveness, including use of performance data, application-based assessments, and in-field skill validation to drive continuous improvement.
• Experience leveraging learning technologies and infrastructure, including learning management systems, instructional design methodologies, and scalable frameworks to support effectiveness and growth.

EXPECTED NUMBER OF DIRECT REPORTS: Up to 8; expected to include managerial associates.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, ABILITIES:

• Demonstrated ability to develop and lead enterprise-level learning and development strategies, including creating long-term roadmaps aligned to service line priorities, growth, workforce capability, and service excellence within healthcare or human services environments.

• Strong operational and financial acumen, with the ability to align learning and development investments to performance outcomes, efficiency, staff retention, and high-quality service delivery across a multi-region organization.
• Proven ability to lead, develop, and supervise senior leaders, including building and scaling high-performing teams, executing strategy through others, and managing performance across departments and regions.
• Demonstrated capability to execute strategy and manage complex operations across multiple regions, ensuring consistency, accountability, and effective implementation in distributed service models.
• Advanced knowledge of adult learning principles, instructional design, and professional development frameworks, with the ability to establish and govern standards ensuring learning is cohesive, scalable, and consistently delivered.
• Demonstrated ability to design, govern, and evaluate learning systems, including onboarding, ongoing training, leadership development, and competency-based development models.
• Proven experience measuring learning effectiveness and skill application, including use of application-based assessments, in-field observation of skills, performance data, and continuous feedback loops to address complex operational and service delivery challenges.
• Demonstrated ability to lead change initiatives and drive cultural and operational transformation, using collaboration, stakeholder engagement, and data-informed decision making to achieve sustained results.
• Strong strategic thinking and problem-solving capabilities, including the ability to identify root causes, develop efficient solutions, and guide teams through successful execution in evolving and high-pressure environments.
• Excellent executive communication, interpersonal, and stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to build and maintain strong relationships across internal teams, external partners, community agencies, and families to support collaboration and service excellence.
• Strong interest and commitment to working in multicultural settings.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a criminal record/fingerprint clearance from the Department of Justice and Federal Bureau of Investigation per Easterseals Southern California and/or program requirements.
• Ability to travel throughout Southern California with reliable transportation, maintain a driving record in compliance with Transportation Safety Standards, and maintain proper auto insurance and vehicle registration.
• Ability to pass post-offer medical examination.
• Must pass all drug testing required by ESSC.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH ADA:

• Carrying/Lifting:

Occasional / 0-10 lbs.

• Standing:

Occasional / Up to 3 hours per day.

• Sitting:

Constant / Up to 8 hours per day.

• Walking:

Occasional / Up to 3 hours per day.

• Travel:

At least 50% of the time.

• Repetitive Motion/Activity:

Keyboard activity, telephone use, writing.

• Visual Acuity:

Ability to view computer monitor and read newsprint.

• Environmental Exposure:

Regular duties do or do not involve exposure to blood, body fluids, or tissues; however, employment may require performing unplanned tasks that do involve such exposure.