Assistant Design Manager

As the Assistant Design Manager at the National Center for Construction Education and Research (NCCER), you play a key role in our fast-moving Product Development team. Your knowledge, skills, and expertise help you transform highly technical content into an approachable, visually engaging learning experience. You quickly build rapport, incorporate stakeholder input, and easily communicate your vision to a highly collaborative and supportive team. You are a creative problem-solver who can envision multiple paths to success given time and budget constraints. 

NCCER is looking for a committed, smart, creative, tech-savvy graphic designer with experience developing educational materials for high school and adult learners, as well as managing direct reports. As the NCCER Assistant Design Manager, your leadership will help us develop materials used around the world to train construction craft professionals at high schools, vocational schools, colleges, and construction training centers. 

Key Responsibilities 

1. Provide hands-on design support and guidance to the design team to produce NCCER educational materials according to current specifications, layout standards, style guides, and best practices for print and electronic publication, in collaboration with the Art & Design Manager. 
2. Assist in managing day-to-day design operations, including scheduling, task assignments, resource allocation, and quality control. 
3. Supervise, train, and develop line reports to grow each person on their professional journey with NCCER and help them be successful in their respective roles. 
4. Collaborate with the internal cross-functional teams, including editorial, technical writers, artists, permissions, and project managers to ensure materials are ready on time and meet for the specifications for publication. 
5. Liaise with stakeholders in other departments and external partnerships to ensure fluid communication and establish a clear understanding of requirements. 
6. Utilize XML and a CSS to create, structure, and style content for automated workflows and digital publishing platforms, ensuring consistency, compliance, and interoperability. 
7. Collaborate to plan, develop, test, and troubleshoot our XML-based processes against the, ensuring that our applications of these tools are being used most optimally for our products.  
8. Perform quality control (QC) checks of the team’s work to ensure quality standards are met throughout production cycle, offering constructive feedback and assistance to improve when needed. 
9. Develop and improve design templates, graphic elements, and styles, in collaboration with the Art & Design Manager.  
10. Assist with cover design and cover photo selection. 
11. Contribute to in-progress workflow project by suggesting adjustments to improve efficiencies and to ensure content quality.   
12. Stay current with design trends, publishing technologies, and accessibility standards. 
13. Develop a thorough knowledge of and work in accordance with NCCER’s production processes and specifications. 
14. Other duties as assigned; as this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee. 

• B.A. in Graphic Design or related  
• 3+ years of graphic design experience in a book publishing context 
• 1+ years of line management experience 
• Thorough knowledge of the Adobe Creative Suite, particularly InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator 
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite (including Word and Teams)  
• Working knowledge of print and ePub production workflows  
• Knowledge of DAM systems, such as Aprimo, preferred 
• Experience with Oxygen XML and employing XML-based publishing workflows 
• Effectively organize, manage, and maintain multiple concurrent projects 
• Work independently and collaboratively 
• Excellent communication and time management skills  
• Dependable in attendance and performance 

NCCER is an equal opportunity employer. No one shall be denied employment or opportunity based on race or color, sex, age, national origin, religion, physical or mental disability, veteran’s status, marital status, gender identity or sexual orientation. NCCER also provides reasonable accommodations to individuals with disabilities and bona fide religious beliefs, provided that such accommodation does not constitute an undue hardship on the Company.