Join our community of growth stage businesses

Do you love turning messy subject matter into learning people actually finish, remember and use on the job? We'd love to hear from you!

This is a fixed Term Contract role until May 2027, with the possibility of an extension

About Acorn

At Acorn PLMS, we are on a mission to transform the corporate learning experience. Our cutting-edge Performance Learning Management System (PLMS) software is powered by AI and designed to ensure that what people learn directly contributes to their exceptional performance in business. Corporate performance and learning needs a revolution, and Acorn PLMS is the antidote. We are the only solution that guides learners step by step to master the specific capabilities required for their roles, ultimately accelerating organisational performance.

We are open to individuals based in Sydney - this is an in-office role.

The Role

As our Senior Learning Designer, you'll be the go-to person for designing digital learning that's tied to real performance outcomes, not just completions. You'll own complex learning projects from brief to launch, set the bar on quality and accessibility, and help the designers around you level up along the way. It's a hands-on senior role in our Learning Design team, with plenty of room to shape how we build learning at scale (AI included).

5 Key Capabilities

The best part… we use our Acorn software at Acorn. We believe in the power of our Managers and Staff being aligned on the 5 capabilities needed for each role, and the level that we expect for any given role, using our Acorn AI tool to streamline this consistently across our business. The 5 levels comprise Foundational, Developing, Proficient, Advanced and Expert.

Here are the 5 key capabilities for the role and the level expected to give you an idea of what the role entails

1. Learning Experience Strategy and Systems Thinking

Design and align coherent, scalable learning experience strategies with a systems perspective to strengthen capability and drive measurable business performance. Level — Proficient: At the proficient stage, you design learning strategies with systems thinking and data. You manage dependencies, standardise patterns, and coach peers to streamline pipelines. This improves adoption and business outcomes.

2. Learning Analytics and Performance Impact Measurement

Define, measure, and interpret learning impact against business outcomes to evidence value, inform stakeholder decisions, and improve organisational performance. Level — Proficient: At the proficient stage, you own measurement frameworks tied to business KPIs. You instrument experiences, set indicators, ensure data quality, and coach juniors. Your insights guide decisions and prove impact.

3. AI-Enhanced Personalisation and Content Automation

Design, automate, and optimise AI‑enabled personalised learning to measurably improve performance outcomes at scale while ensuring ethical and accessible delivery. Level — Proficient: At the proficient stage, you automate personalised learning journeys linked to performance goals. You build pipelines, run experiments, refine prompts and rules, optimise models, scale content ethically, and coach designers.

4. Accessibility, Compliance and Quality Assurance

Define, apply, and assure accessibility, compliance, and quality standards to deliver inclusive, reliable digital learning that reduces risk, protects reputation, and improves learner outcomes. Level — Proficient: At the proficient stage, you lead accessibility, compliance and quality assurance. You set standards, automate checks, run audits and testing, document evidence. Your work reduces risk and speeds inclusive releases.

5. Cross-Functional Collaboration, Mentorship and Standards Mastery

Align cross-functional stakeholders and learning initiatives to drive measurable performance outcomes and manage dependencies and risks. Mentor designers and set and uphold standards to ensure accessible, consistent, and scalable learning. Level — Proficient: At the proficient stage, you align product, SMEs, engineering and compliance, managing risks and dependencies. You mentor designers and evolve WCAG/xAPI standards. This delivers accessible, interoperable learning with measurable impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end design of complex learning programmes — from needs analysis and capability mapping through to storyboards, build, launch and iteration
• Translate role capabilities and business goals into learning journeys that change what people do on the job
• Work with subject matter experts, Product, Engineering and Customer Experience to scope projects, manage dependencies and keep delivery on track
• Set up measurement for the programmes you design, track impact against agreed KPIs, and use the data to make the next version better
• Lead accessibility and quality assurance across your work, applying WCAG standards and running reviews before anything goes live
• Use AI tools to speed up content production and personalise learning pathways, while keeping quality and ethics front of mind
• Mentor E-Learning Designers through feedback, design reviews and pairing, and help shape the team's templates, patterns and standards
• Spot opportunities to improve how we design and deliver learning, and bring practical recommendations to the Director of Learning Design

Required Experience

• 5+ years in instructional design, learning experience design or e-learning development, with a portfolio that shows it
• A track record of owning complex learning projects end to end, ideally in a corporate, SaaS or consulting setting
• Strong grasp of adult learning principles and performance-focused design (think capability frameworks, not just content)
• Hands-on experience with authoring tools such as Articulate 360, Rise or similar, plus familiarity with SCORM/xAPI and LMS environments
• Solid working knowledge of WCAG accessibility standards and how to apply them in practice
• Experience measuring learning impact and using data to inform design decisions
• Confidence working with SMEs and senior stakeholders — you can push back kindly and keep things moving
• Experience mentoring or guiding other designers (formally or informally)

AI Fluency

At Acorn, we use AI across everything we do, and are actively building our AI fluency across the business. We are genuinely excited about what AI makes possible in learning design, and we want someone who feels the same way.

In this role, that looks like:

• Using AI to speed up needs analysis, draft storyboards and scripts, and turn SME input into first-cut content faster
• Building AI-assisted workflows that personalise learning pathways and automate repeatable production and QA steps, without sacrificing quality or accessibility
• Using AI to analyse learner data and feedback, surface patterns, and sharpen your hypotheses on what to improve next

We are not looking for someone who can talk about AI in the abstract. During the interview process, we will ask you to talk us through what you have actually built, the tools you use daily, and the results you have seen - we love seeing how people are evolving and enhancing the ways they work with AI.

Who you are?

• Judgement: knows when to speak up and when to listen, with clients and in the team
• Temperament: steady through volume and deadlines, takes feedback well, raises problems early
• Valuing the role: proud of the craft of building, not just the title
• Motivation: energised by learning that changes behaviour, and curious about AI

Why Join Acorn PLMS?

• You'll be designing learning inside a learning company — the people around you care about this stuff as much as you do
• Your work lands with real learners and shows up in real performance data, so you'll see the impact
• There's room to experiment with AI in learning design and help set how we do it at scale
• You'll have a clear say in the standards and patterns the team builds on, and a chance to grow the designers around you
• We're a fast-moving scale-up, which means plenty of variety and plenty to learn

Location

We are open to individuals based in Sydney, Australia. We are an office-first company, meaning we work from our local offices the majority (if not all) of the time. We want to create cool stuff with great people, and we know from experience that is best done through daily moments like the coffee run, walk to grab lunch, or quick huddles.

Being able to capitalise on this is key to our ongoing success and a large part of the reason we can work at the pace we do. Please note candidates will need to be in commuting distance to our offices based in Sydney CBD.

Applicants must have full working rights in Australia to be considered for this role. Unfortunately we are unable to provide visa sponsorship at this time.

Our Recruitment Process

Acorn is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and respected. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all qualified candidates. We aim to ensure that our recruitment process is fair and accessible to everyone and encourage candidates to request any accommodations needed during the application or interview stages.

There's still so much more to do, and we need people who are keen to help us journey into the next phase on board! And since we're still growing, there's so much you can learn on that journey with us. To find out more about life at Acorn, our Values and working with us, check out our website at https://acorn.works and see our Life At Acorn video here! https://youtu.be/2BGUk-n3FrQ?si=U_sS1Y5ZSP0tNtZW

If this sounds like your next challenge, we’d love to hear from you — apply today and help us shape the future of learning at Acorn.