Instructional Designer, Payments Operations

About the role

We are hiring a contractor Instructional Designer to lead learning initiatives for frontline agents on a live, regulated consumer fintech / payments product. The product includes debit card, ach, wires, mobile check deposit, issued checks and close loop P2P payments. Agents execute processes that banks,and regulators will audit; therefore training records, playbooks, and gated assessments are part of the control environment, not an HR extra.

This role turns SME knowledge into a versioned learning system: major curriculum redesign, a master playbook, stage-gated assessments, and a graduation / nesting path. You work independently on complex problems, mentor peers, and partner with ops SMEs, quality, trainer, product, and compliance stakeholders.

Scope & Responsibilities:

• Lead learning initiatives and major curriculum redesign projects for payments / fintech agent enablement (ecosystem baseline → product fluency → onboarding / use cases → systems → soft skills → graduation and nesting).
• Redesign CORE: compress existing SME content into teachable modules; move from a ~4-day CORE toward ~3 weeks for support and ~ 12 week for disputes of CORE plus nest.
• Build and maintain the master playbook as the source of truth for disputes, money movement, and account settings, at the depth banks and networks expect.
• Design stage-gated assessments mapped to playbook sections; use failure data to drive targeted refreshers (AI-assisted, playbook-grounded).
• Create onboarding materials, knowledge-base / SharePoint (or equivalent) structure, and advanced project documentation so curriculum, playbook versions, and evidence stay findable and change-controlled.
• Oversee implementation of academy modules and nesting; consolidate multi-source feedback (SMEs, QA, learners, trainers) and perform deeper performance and trend analysis (assessment failures, QA outcomes, trainer / training effectiveness).
• Lead high-level stakeholder discussions to align on training vision and strategy with Learning Enablement, Payments / Ops SMEs, quality, and compliance partners.
• Mentor peers and conduct peer reviews of instructional materials for accuracy, teachability, and audit readiness.
• Produce an audit-ready evidence pack (completions, scores, playbook version) within one business day for partners and regulators.
• Design soft-skills modules (de-escalation, issue resolution, personalized outreach vs. templates) and graduation / nesting criteria.

Skill / Experience Level:

• 3–5+ years of instructional design experience, ideally for operations, contact-center, or compliance-adjacent roles.
• Direct experience in payments, banking, fintech, or card-network / dispute operations.
• Familiarity with regulated environments (BSA/AML awareness, consumer complaint / error-resolution handling, or similar).
• High proficiency in content-authoring tools (Captivate, Articulate, Vyond).
• Advanced skills in photo and audio editing software.
• Works independently with minimal guidance and handles complex problems (long SME docs, regulated processes, multi-stakeholder redesign).
• Proven ability to design certification / graduation gates and assessments tied to a single source of truth — not attendance-based completion.
• Strong writing and structuring skills for procedures that must stay accurate under audit.
• Comfort partnering with ops SMEs, quality, and compliance without owning legal interpretation.
• Bias toward effectiveness measurement and trend analysis over completions alone.

Preferred

• Experience building or maintaining large operating playbooks / knowledge bases.
• Experience with LMS / assessment tooling and change-controlled documentation.