Upwork ($UPWK) is the world’s work marketplace. We help connect companies large and small with top independent talent from around the world. Simply put, our mission is to create economic opportunities so people have better lives.

Every year, more than $2 billion of work is done through Upwork by skilled independent professionals who want the freedom of working anytime, anywhere.

The Upwork Community’s vision is to be the world’s work Community. Our mission is to enable, elevate and amplify our amazing Community of talent. We know great, well-served talent will drive the most success for our clients. 

As the Director, Upwork Academy  you will be at the heart of defining the strategy for a new way of engaging and enabling our Talent. The Upwork Academy will be the place the Community goes, to level-up and broaden their category skills, and understand how to build their expertise and career as the world changes how it works.

This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in redefining how millions of people learn new skills, develop their existing talent and level-up their career. Come help us change how the world works.

Your Responsibilities:

• Academy Strategy - You will be responsible for defining our Academy strategy in collaboration with the VP, Talent Success and Community. This will involve a high degree of cross-functional partnership in order to effectively drive success.
• People leadership - A major part of your role will be to hire, lead and develop  a varied and distributed  team, including Coaches, operations, and learning and development designers.
• Team defining - This is a completely new team, with a couple of existing functions. You will be redefining how those current functions operate (coaches and certification operations), and introducing learning and development design and exploring diversity and social impact partnership opportunities.
• Content design and management - A major thread through the whole Community is content. For our Academy you will not only have a team that is designing and developing learning and development content, but you will also be responsible for the content that fills the Academy and acquires new learners.
• Certifications and partnerships - Defining what our owned certifications could be, and how to build the right strategic partnerships with 3rd party certifications. In addition, exploring what other learning partnerships make sense for the program. 
• Technology - Creating a great experience requires leveraging the right technology. You will be working with the Director, Community and our Senior Events manager to ensure that we can create the right experience for our users across the Academy, our learning events, and how everything feels a simple and connected experience.
• Measurement - You will be responsible for defining and developing the right mix of objective and success metrics for different functions in the Academy.

 What it takes to catch our eye:

• Proven experience building digital training, education or learning programs.
• Experience with multiple, varied and leading edge content design 
• Progressive people management, with a proven track record of building and developing high-performing teams.
• Experience defining and measuring value against specific business objectives and sharing those key results with a variety of stakeholders.
• Exceptional communication skills: You are well versed in collaborating with peers, customers, executives, and tailoring your message accordingly. You can take various input and ideas and distill them to a cohesive and measurable strategic message.
• Experience building/owning certification initiatives both in-house and 3rd party partnerships.
• The spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship: you are not afraid to take risks, think bigger, and never settle. 

Come change how the world works.

At Upwork, you’ll shape talent solutions for how the world works today. We are a remote-first organization working together to create exciting remote work opportunities for a global community of professionals.  While we have physical offices in San Francisco and Chicago, currently we also support hiring of corporate full-time employees in 15 states in the United States. Please speak with a member of our recruitment team to determine whether you are located in a state in which we are hiring corporate full-time employees. 

Our vibrant culture is built on shared values and our mission to create economic opportunities so that people have better lives. We foster amazing teams, put our community first, and have a bias toward action. We encourage everyone to bring their whole selves to work and grow together through development opportunities, mentorship, and employee resource groups. Oh yeah, we’ve also got amazing benefits.

Check out our Life at Upwork page to learn more about the employee experience.   

Upwork is proudly committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse and inclusive workforce. As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we never discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical condition), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics.

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