Industry: Education Technology, AI-Enabled Learning Platforms, Digital Higher Education, Workforce Learning, Academic Innovation, and Enterprise Learning Solutions
Location: USA Remote
Compensation Package: $449K – $505K
About the Organization
We are a large, enterprise-scale education technology, AI-enabled learning platform, digital higher education, workforce learning, academic innovation, and enterprise learning solutions organization serving learners, educators, institutions, employers, workforce partners, and academic stakeholders across the United States. The company operates in a highly dynamic education environment where academic quality, learner outcomes, curriculum innovation, instructional design, faculty excellence, compliance discipline, digital learning experience, and workforce relevance directly influence long-term institutional credibility and student success.
This is not a traditional academic leadership role focused only on curriculum approval, faculty administration, or academic policy oversight. The Chief Academic Officer will serve as a strategic executive responsible for shaping the academic vision, learning strategy, instructional quality, program innovation, learner outcomes, academic governance, and education delivery model across a modern digital learning organization. This role will connect academic excellence with technology, workforce needs, student experience, data analytics, accreditation standards, and scalable learning design.
The organization is continuing to invest in AI-supported learning, digital course design, competency-based education, workforce-aligned programs, learner analytics, faculty development, academic quality systems, assessment strategy, student success models, curriculum modernization, and flexible learning pathways. As the organization grows, leadership is seeking a Chief Academic Officer who can bring academic credibility, executive judgment, instructional innovation, data-informed decision-making, and strong institutional leadership to a highly visible enterprise role.
The Chief Academic Officer will lead the full academic agenda across curriculum strategy, academic program development, faculty standards, instructional design, learner outcomes, academic quality, assessment frameworks, accreditation support, academic operations, learning innovation, and student success partnership. This executive will work closely with the CEO, Board, President, Provost-level leaders, Product, Technology, Student Success, Compliance, Legal, Data Analytics, Marketing, Partnerships, Finance, HR, and Executive Leadership to ensure academic priorities support institutional mission, learner outcomes, and business sustainability.
This role requires a leader who understands both academic integrity and modern education delivery. The ideal candidate will know how to build rigorous programs, improve course quality, develop faculty capability, support accreditation readiness, use learner data responsibly, guide digital learning innovation, and ensure academic decisions remain aligned with student success and workforce relevance.
The selected candidate will help define how the organization delivers high-quality learning at scale. This includes strengthening academic governance, modernizing curriculum, improving learner engagement, supporting faculty excellence, advancing AI-enabled learning tools, improving assessment practices, and creating stronger alignment between academic strategy, student outcomes, employer demand, and institutional growth.
This is a high-impact executive opportunity for an academic leader who wants to shape the future of digital education, improve learner outcomes, build trusted academic systems, and help a large education organization deliver meaningful learning experiences with quality, credibility, and measurable impact.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
• Lead the organization’s academic strategy across curriculum design, program development, instructional quality, learner outcomes, faculty excellence, academic governance, assessment, and digital learning innovation.
• Build and execute an academic roadmap that supports learner success, academic quality, workforce relevance, accreditation readiness, scalable learning delivery, and institutional growth.
• Oversee curriculum strategy for existing and new academic programs, ensuring alignment with learner needs, employer demand, academic standards, market relevance, and measurable outcomes.
• Lead academic program development, including program design, course sequencing, learning objectives, competency frameworks, assessment models, instructional materials, and approval processes.
• Establish academic quality standards across course design, faculty engagement, learner experience, assessment consistency, academic integrity, instructional effectiveness, and program performance.
• Partner with Product and Technology teams to support digital learning platforms, AI-enabled learning tools, student engagement systems, accessibility, learning analytics, and platform-based academic experiences.
• Partner with Student Success and Operations teams to improve learner retention, progression, completion, satisfaction, academic support, and intervention strategies.
• Lead faculty strategy, including recruitment standards, onboarding, training, evaluation, performance expectations, professional development, and instructional coaching.
• Support accreditation, compliance, and regulatory readiness by ensuring academic programs, policies, documentation, outcomes, and governance practices meet applicable expectations.
• Develop and monitor academic performance dashboards covering enrollment progression, course completion, learner outcomes, assessment results, faculty effectiveness, retention, satisfaction, and program quality.
• Lead assessment strategy to ensure learning outcomes are measurable, consistent, rigorous, and aligned with academic and workforce expectations.
• Partner with Marketing and Partnerships to ensure program messaging, employer alignment, learning outcomes, and academic value propositions are accurate and credible.
• Advise executive leadership on academic risk, program opportunities, learner outcome trends, faculty needs, academic investments, and innovation priorities.
• Build, mentor, and lead academic teams while creating a culture of academic excellence, accountability, learner focus, innovation, and continuous improvement.
Job Qualifications and Requirements
• Doctorate in Education, Academic Leadership, Curriculum and Instruction, Educational Technology, Higher Education Administration, Learning Sciences, or a related academic field strongly preferred.
• Master’s degree required.
• 15+ years of progressive academic leadership experience in higher education, education technology, digital learning, workforce education, academic operations, curriculum leadership, instructional design, or learner success.
• 8+ years of senior leadership experience managing academic teams, faculty organizations, curriculum functions, academic operations, instructional design teams, or education programs at scale.
• Experience within education technology, online higher education, workforce learning, digital credentialing, enterprise learning, professional education, academic institutions, or large learning organizations strongly preferred.
• Proven success in building academic strategy, improving learner outcomes, developing programs, leading faculty teams, supporting accreditation, and modernizing curriculum or learning delivery.
• Strong understanding of academic governance, curriculum design, instructional quality, assessment strategy, accreditation standards, faculty development, student success, and learning analytics.
• Experience with digital learning models, online education platforms, AI-enabled learning tools, learning management systems, competency-based education, and adult learner engagement preferred.
• Familiarity with systems such as Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, Coursera, edX, Udemy Business, Degreed, Workday Learning, Salesforce, Tableau, Power BI, or similar platforms preferred.
• Strong ability to interpret learner data, academic performance metrics, assessment results, faculty outcomes, and program-level indicators to guide academic decisions.
• Experience working with CEOs, Boards, presidents, provosts, compliance leaders, faculty leaders, technology teams, student success teams, finance leaders, and external academic partners.
• Excellent executive communication, academic judgment, stakeholder management, change leadership, faculty leadership, and presentation skills.
Personal Capabilities and Qualifications
• Strategic academic executive with the ability to connect academic quality, learner outcomes, digital learning, workforce relevance, and institutional growth.
• Strong academic credibility with the confidence to advise executive leaders, faculty stakeholders, partners, and Board-level audiences on academic priorities and education strategy.
• Learner-centered and outcomes-focused, with a deep commitment to improving student experience, retention, progression, completion, and long-term learning value.
• Innovative but academically disciplined, with the ability to adopt new tools and learning models while protecting rigor, quality, accessibility, and integrity.
• Data-informed with the ability to use learning analytics, academic quality indicators, assessment results, and student success trends to guide decisions.
• Strong people leader who can build high-performing academic teams, support faculty excellence, and develop leadership capability across the academic function.
• Collaborative and able to align Product, Technology, Student Success, Compliance, Legal, Marketing, Partnerships, Finance, HR, and Executive Leadership around shared academic priorities.
• Operationally mature with the ability to create scalable academic processes, governance routines, documentation standards, and quality assurance systems.
• Comfortable leading through change, especially during curriculum modernization, platform transitions, AI adoption, academic policy updates, or organizational growth.
• High integrity and discretion when handling learner data, faculty matters, academic performance, compliance topics, accreditation materials, and executive-level decisions.
Strategic Support
The Chief Academic Officer will provide strategic leadership by ensuring academic strategy supports learner success, institutional credibility, program quality, workforce relevance, and scalable education delivery.
This role will help leadership make better decisions about academic investments, program expansion, curriculum modernization, digital learning tools, student success initiatives, faculty strategy, accreditation readiness, and learning outcomes. The CAO will ensure academic priorities are not managed as disconnected programs, but as an integrated education system built around quality, outcomes, innovation, and accountability.
Key areas of strategic support may include:
• Enterprise academic strategy and learning roadmap development.
• Curriculum modernization and program portfolio planning.
• Academic governance and quality assurance systems.
• Faculty strategy, development, and performance standards.
• Student success partnership and learner outcome improvement.
• AI-enabled learning innovation and digital education design.
• Assessment strategy and learning outcome measurement.
• Accreditation readiness and academic compliance support.
• Workforce-aligned program development and employer relevance.
• Learning analytics and academic performance reporting.
• Academic policy development and instructional standards.
• Course design quality and learner experience improvement.
• Academic risk identification and mitigation planning.
• Executive and Board-level academic reporting.
The Chief Academic Officer will help ensure the organization delivers learning experiences that are credible, scalable, accessible, innovative, and aligned with the needs of learners and the future workforce.
Working Conditions
• Location: USA Remote.
• Primarily remote executive leadership environment with regular academic strategy meetings, curriculum reviews, faculty leadership sessions, learner outcome reviews, compliance discussions, executive updates, and cross-functional planning.
• Flexibility required during accreditation activity, academic calendar milestones, program launches, student success escalations, faculty matters, executive reviews, policy updates, or urgent academic decisions.
• Occasional travel may be required for Board meetings, academic partner meetings, faculty gatherings, leadership off-sites, education conferences, accreditation-related sessions, employer partnership events, or company meetings.
• Regular collaboration with the CEO, Board, Academic Leadership, Product, Technology, Student Success, Compliance, Legal, Marketing, Partnerships, Finance, HR, Data Analytics, faculty leaders, and external education partners.
• Fast-paced education technology environment with high visibility around academic quality, learner outcomes, program credibility, student experience, faculty effectiveness, and institutional growth.
• Role requires handling confidential learner information, faculty records, academic performance data, compliance materials, accreditation documents, program strategy, and executive communications with discretion.
Job Function
• Executive Academic Leadership
• Academic Strategy
• Curriculum Development
• Digital Learning Leadership
• Instructional Quality
• Faculty Leadership
• Academic Governance
• Student Success Strategy
• Learning Outcomes Assessment
• Education Technology Strategy
• Workforce Learning
• Accreditation Support
• Academic Operations
• Learning Analytics
• Executive Academic Reporting
Compensation & Benefits
Compensation Package: $449K – $505K
The total compensation package may include base salary, an executive performance bonus, academic performance incentives, learner outcome incentives, long-term incentives, equity participation, where applicable, and additional executive-level benefits, depending on experience, qualifications, and final role alignment.
Benefits may include:
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Executive performance bonus eligibility.
• Academic quality and learner outcome incentive opportunities.
• Long-term incentive opportunities.
• Equity or ownership-aligned compensation where applicable.
• Retirement savings plan with company contribution.
• Paid time off and company holidays.
• USA remote work flexibility.
• Board-level visibility and enterprise academic leadership authority.
• Executive coaching, academic leadership development, and professional growth support.
• Support for education technology, AI-enabled learning, academic innovation, curriculum leadership, accreditation, and executive education programs.
• Wellness, employee assistance, and work-life support programs.
• Access to modern learning platforms, academic analytics, LMS tools, digital content systems, collaboration tools, and enterprise education technology platforms.
Why Join Us
This is an opportunity to join a large education technology organization where academic leadership directly influences learner success, program quality, institutional credibility, workforce readiness, and long-term growth.
The Chief Academic Officer will have the authority and visibility to shape academic strategy, modernize curriculum, strengthen learning outcomes, improve faculty excellence, support digital education innovation, and build a scalable academic operating model for a remote-first organization.
You will work in an environment that values academic rigor, learner success, responsible innovation, data-driven decisions, workforce relevance, and strong governance. The company is investing in AI-enabled learning, digital platforms, academic analytics, student success systems, curriculum modernization, and scalable education delivery.
For a senior academic executive who enjoys building strong learning systems, advising leadership, improving learner outcomes, guiding faculty excellence, and turning academic strategy into measurable education impact, this role offers the scope, influence, and leadership platform to make a major contribution.