Senior E-Learning Designer - Fixed Term Contract in Sydney

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.

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.

Key Capabilities

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration, Mentorship and Standards Mastery: Align cross-functional stakeholders and learning initiatives to drive measurable performance outcomes and manage dependencies and risks.

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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.
• Your work lands with real learners and shows up in real performance data.
• There's room to experiment with AI in learning design.
• You'll have a clear say in the standards and patterns the team builds on.
• 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 of the 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.