Instructional Design Project Manager

Certification Lead / Instructional Design Project Manager | Pune or Hyderabad | Hybrid About Cornerstone At Cornerstone, we believe in AI that works in the service of people, amplifying their judgment to drive high-performing, future-ready organizations forward. Cornerstone Workforce AI™, the intelligence platform for workforce readiness, brings together workforce and labor market data into a proprietary Cornerstone People Graph™, translating signals into intelligence, targeting learning where it matters, developing critical skills, and surfacing hidden talent. Delivered as an open, enterprise platform across whatever application your people work in every day, Cornerstone Workforce AI is built for scale, security, and trust, with certified AI guardrails.

As an industry leader, Cornerstone is helping approximately 7,000 organizations, 140M+ users, across 186 countries build continuous workforce readiness. About the Role The Credentialing Team Lead owns the day-to-day operations and outcomes of Cornerstone's certification and credentialing programs across India and Costa Rica. You will set the operational rhythm for the team, hold accountability for program quality and delivery timelines, and ensure credentials are valid, current, and reaching candidates on time.

You will report to [Manager title] and directly influence the metrics that connect certification to partner and customer performance. In This Role You Will Coordinate and lead the daily work of the team, providing task prioritization, workload management, and day-to-day guidance, while fostering a collaborative environment and supporting the professional development of team members. Communicate team progress, blockers, and updates to senior leadership on a regular basis, and prepare status updates, reports, and program summaries as needed.

Oversee the execution of certification program operations, ensuring timely and consistent delivery across all initiatives, and monitor program workflows to identify opportunities to improve processes and efficiency. Own the management of certification assets, documentation, and program records, and assist with vendor coordination and platform administration as needed. Partner with the Instructional Designer (Assessment Programs) with credential development and updates, including content review, item writing support, and documentation, and coordinate exam development cycles, blueprint reviews, and content refresh activities.

Work with the Certification Platforms Specialist to support platform operations, including badge issuance, system updates, and user experience improvements; coordinate integrations between certification platforms, proctoring solutions, and the LMS; and escalate technical issues and platform needs to the appropriate stakeholders. Lead the implementation of quality assurance processes across program content and delivery, and adherence to assessment quality standards and certification best practices. Help ensure program activities align with relevant industry standards and data privacy requirements, and flag compliance concerns to senior leadership for resolution.

Serve as a reliable point of contact for internal teams on day-to-day certification questions and operational matters, collaborating with teams such as Marketing, Customer Support, and IT to support program needs. Identify, test, and implement AI-enabled automation for routine operational work; measure impact and retire unnecessary manual processes. Use AI to prepare status updates, reports, and program summaries, with human review before anything is shared with leadership.

Continuously maps the routine and repeatable tasks within this role, identifies automation opportunities using AI and workflow tools, proposes and implements solutions, and measures whether the automation delivers the expected time and quality improvement. Perform other duties as assigned What Success Looks Like Delivery: 95% or more of committed program milestones and team deliverables delivered on or before their dates each quarter. Reporting: Status updates to Sr.

Manager of Certifications delivered on schedule 100% of the time, with blockers escalated within 2 business days. Compliance: Every compliance or data privacy concern flagged to Sr. Manager of Certifications within 2 business days of being identified.

Program readiness (influenced): January 2027 launch milestones tracked weekly and on track, with every at-risk item escalated before it becomes a delay. AI transformation: Baseline hours spent on status reporting and routine coordination measured in the first 90 days, then reduced by 30% within 12 months, with review controls maintained. Candidate pass rates and renewal rates are tracked per credential and reviewed quarterly; trends are reported to program leadership with a recommended action when rates fall outside defined thresholds.

Paid exam revenue and voucher redemption revenue are reported accurately each period; discrepancies are identified and resolved within 3 business days. Certification data (pass rates, badge issuance, renewal status) is delivered to the Strategy Operations and partner performance teams on the agreed schedule with no missing records. All active exams are current within 3 weeks of each major product release.

Badges are issued within 48 business hours of a passing result being confirmed You Have Got What it Takes If You Have Experience managing or coordinating a team in a learning, certification, or program operations environment. Familiarity with certification platforms, LMS administration, and proctoring systems. Strong organizational and project management skills with the ability to prioritize across multiple workstreams.

Ability to communicate clearly and reliably with both team members and senior leadership. Detail-oriented with a commitment to quality and operational consistency. Experience working cross-functionally with stakeholders across multiple teams.

Ability to evaluate AI outputs and apply sound judgment about when a human must decide. Demonstrated experience owning program operations and outcomes, not just coordinating tasks under direction. Experience setting and reporting on operational metrics including delivery timelines, quality rates, and revenue reconciliation.

Experience working across time zones with a distributed team. Preferred Experience Experience with assessment or instructional design practices. Experience designing or improving AI-enabled workflows.

AI Continuous Learning Uses AI to streamline team coordination, status reporting, and program documentation, and guides the team in adopting AI responsibly, with human review where it matters. Uses AI tools every day in their own work and can show an example where AI changed how the work is done, not just how fast. Evaluates AI output critically for accuracy, bias, privacy and data handling, and knows when a human must decide.

Actively explores internal (Cornerstone AI) and external tools, brings recommendations to the team, and retires tools and processes that do not earn their place. Keeps skills current through communities, certifications, hands-on experimentation and industry learning, and shares what they learn with the team. Defines and enforces the team's standards for AI use in exam development, including when AI-generated items require SME review, what bias and accuracy checks must be completed before an item enters the bank, and how AI-assisted proctoring tools are evaluated and approved.

Owns the governance framework for AI in candidate support, including escalation paths when AI-assisted responses are insufficient or incorrect. How You Work Customer obsessed: Start with the learner’s and the account’s problem, not the tool. Innovate and transform: Challenge the status quo and retire systems and processes that do not earn their place.

Proactive leadership: See problems and act before being asked. Get it done: Ship, measure and iterate. Forward looking: Plan for where technology and the business are going.

AI native: Use AI daily to rethink work, not just accelerate it. Get uncomfortable to succeed: Take on hard, ambiguous problems and stay with them.