Senior Strategist - Future of Education and AI Innovation

If you’re passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you’re committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Job Description

Location: This position will be based on-site at our Salt Lake City, UT office.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

• Innovation Portfolio Ownership: Own a portfolio of Innovation initiatives end-to-end, from problem framing and hypothesis through prototype, evaluation, and handoff or sunset. Recommend which initiatives advance, scale, or stop.
• Strategy Development: Develop AI strategies that connect emerging capabilities to specific student outcomes and institutional priorities. Translate broad direction from leadership into scoped, testable workstreams.
• Prototyping and Experimentation: Design and build prototypes and experiments that test whether an approach works before the university invests in it. Define the question, the method, and the threshold for success in advance.
• Evidence and Evaluation Design: Set the evaluation design for assigned initiatives, including instrumentation, measures, comparison conditions, and analysis plan. Produce findings that partners can act on and defend.
• Data Analysis and Insight: Analyze quantitative and qualitative data to produce insights that change decisions. Distinguish signal from noise and state confidence honestly.
• Cross-Functional Partnership: Build durable working relationships with academic programs, assessment, technology, institutional research, and student-facing operations. Secure the alignment an initiative needs before it needs it.
• Responsible AI Practice: Apply the university’s Responsible AI standards throughout design and deployment. Identify ethical, legal, privacy, accessibility, and bias risks early, document them, and drive mitigation with the AI Ethicist and governance partners.
• Emerging Technology Assessment: Track the AI and learning technology landscape. Evaluate vendors, models, tools, and research, and convert what matters into clear recommendations with tradeoffs and cost.
• Knowledge Transfer and Enablement: Build the artifacts that let others use the work, including documentation, playbooks, briefings, and training.
• Mentorship: Provide guidance, review, and feedback to Strategists. Raise the quality of the team’s methods and output.
• Communication: Present complex technical work to non-technical audiences, including executive leadership and external partners, in plain language with the substance intact.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Senior Level Duties

• Lead assigned initiatives with minimal direction, setting scope, method, and sequence within strategic priorities established by leadership.
• Serve as the team’s subject matter expert on one or more AI domains and act as the primary point of contact for partner teams in those domains.
• Represent Program Experience Futures in cross-departmental working groups and governance forums.
• Identify and escalate risks, dependencies, and resource constraints before they affect delivery.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Deep understanding of AI and machine learning technologies, including current model capabilities, limitations, and failure modes.
• Working knowledge of synthetic data, evaluation methodology, and experimental design.
• Strong quantitative skills, including proficiency with data analysis tooling and the judgment to choose the right method for the question.
• Ability to frame ambiguous problems, define success criteria, and produce a plan others can follow.
• Fluency in the ethical, legal, privacy, and accessibility considerations that govern AI in education.
• Excellent written communication. Ability to produce documents that survive executive scrutiny.
• Strong interpersonal skills and credibility with technical and academic audiences alike.
• Advanced project management skills, including the ability to run several concurrent initiatives at different stages.
• Comfort with uncertainty, rapid iteration, and work that may be discontinued based on evidence.
• Ability to mentor and elevate the work of less experienced colleagues.

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of related experience with a bachelor’s degree, or 3+ years with a master’s degree, or a Doctorate or Terminal degree, in Business Administration, Education, Computer Science, or related field.
• 4+ years of experience in strategic planning, product strategy, program management, or applied research within higher education or a similar industry.
• Demonstrated experience taking an AI or emerging technology initiative from concept through evaluated implementation.
• Proficiency in data analysis and use of relevant software tools.
• Strong project management skills and experience managing complex projects from initiation to completion.

Department Specific Minimum Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in developing and refining educational programs, courses, and curricula within the higher education sector.
• Understanding of accreditation standards, regulatory requirements, and industry best practices related to program development and institutional compliance.
• Proven ability to design and assess curriculum effectiveness, learning outcomes, and student engagement strategies, particularly within a Competency-based Education model.
• Experience with online learning platforms, learning management systems (LMS), and educational technologies used in online and hybrid learning environments.
• Knowledge of adult learning theories and principles, including instructional design methodologies tailored to adult learners in diverse academic settings.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with academic departments, faculty members, subject matter experts, and instructional designers to develop and deliver high-quality educational programs.
• Experience designing and running pilots or studies in a live academic environment, including instrumentation and measurement.
• Proficiency in data analysis and interpretation to inform program development decisions, assess program efficacy, and identify areas for continuous improvement.
• Clear and concise communication skills, with the ability to articulate program objectives, outcomes, and value propositions to internal and external stakeholders.
• Willingness to explore innovative approaches to program development, incorporate emerging technologies, and adapt to evolving trends and student needs in higher education.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree or higher in Business Administration, Education, Computer Science, Learning Science, or related field.
• Hands-on experience building with large language models, including prompting, evaluation, retrieval, or agentic workflows.
• Experience with assessment design, psychometrics, or learning analytics.
• Experience contributing to AI governance, ethics review, or responsible AI standards.
• Publication, conference presentation, or other public contribution in learning technology, AI, or assessment.
• Experience working with diverse student populations in online learning environments.
• Knowledge of accessibility standards and guidelines for digital learning materials.

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.

Job Description Disclaimer: This position description provides the major duties/responsibilities, requirements, and working conditions for the position. It is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current position, however management reserves the right to revise or change as necessary to meet organizational needs. Other responsibilities may be assigned when circumstances require.

This position requires occasional travel of up to 20%, including required attendance at designated company summits (typically one to two per year). Additional travel may include conferences, visits to company locations, and other business-related events as needed. Additional travel may be assigned as needed to support business requirements.

Position & Application Details

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It’s not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at [email protected].

Equal Employment Opportunity: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any protected characteristic as required by law.