Director of Conversational Content Design

Embodied, Inc. is a high-profile technology startup founded by veteran entrepreneur and robotics luminary Paolo Pirjanian with the conviction that Artificial Intelligence can close the gap in providing care for mental health disorders which impacts 17% of the US population in any given year.

Embodied’s veteran team has created a world-changing technology platform for Social Emotional AI that enables fluid and social interaction with users to provide life coaching and therapy for mental health, loneliness, anxiety and depression.

Embodied’s team of technologists, neuroscientists, child development specialists, and creative storytellers have been entirely reinventing human-machine interaction to enable realistic and intuitive interactions similar to humans. Through extensive research, they developed a breakthrough technology platform, SocialX™, that incorporates advanced AI and machine-learning to support fluid conversation, body language, eye contact, and emotions.

The first iteration of this technology is Moxie™, an AI Robot Friend for children developed to help promote social, emotional, and cognitive learning. Recognized by TIME magazine as one of the Best Inventions of 2020, Moxie™ has been called “the robot pal you dreamed of as a kid” (Wired Magazine), “the robot that could be your child’s or parent’s new best friend” (Fast Company), and “a technically impressive childhood robot” (TechCrunch). You can learn all about Moxie™ and see how Embodied (one of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2021) works at: embodied.com

Embodied is backed by prominent investors including Intel, Amazon, Toyota, Sony and other institutional investors from Silicon Valley and Los Angeles.

Position Summary

Embodied is looking for a highly accomplished Director of Conversational Content Design who is inspired by technology and driven by products that have the potential to transform lives. We are searching for someone that is excited about working with cutting-edge AI technology and thrives on working with high-performing, mission-driven teams of creators and builders.

If you have a burning desire to change the world, if you think outside the box, if you thrive on execution as much as idea generation, and can deliver functional, creative content solutions within challenging timelines, then we want to meet you.

You will harness and drive creative direction, and oversee planning, development, and production of authored and generative AI conversational content, that expands Moxie’s social-emotional user experience.

The ideal candidate has experience leading and scaling high-performing content development teams and is intimately familiar with all creative and technical aspects of content development for interactive conversation design. The candidate also has a proven track record for publishing highly creative, deeply engaging, character-based interactive experiences, for children under 10-years old.

Experience with leading digital learning publishing, health-tech publishing, interactive entertainment-tech, AAA video games studios, or content subscription services is preferred.

You will report directly to the Chief Product Officer but will work closely with other team leads across the organization.

What You'll Do Here:

• Lead and growth of a high-performance, multi-disciplinary content design team.
• Oversee and contribute to the design of engaging, play-based, interactive learning modules for Moxie, that deliver key lessons from our Social-Emotional Learning curriculum.
• Guide content creation through all stages of development, from ideation to refinement, to production and release, and coordinate development with multiple creative and technical teams across the organization.
• Create an environment to foster, harness and focus team creativity, and develop strategies that enable content creation to scale rapidly.
• Lead project scheduling, resource allocation, prioritization, task tracking, and problem solving to meet strategic targets.
• Work closely with software Tools Team to identify new tools needs, track tool development and help implement new tool usage and training when launched.
• Build, maintain and evolve a creative team environment and foster a culture of continuous design exploration and rapid testing, to drive user experience improvements.
• Work closely with the Exec Team to develop long-term content expansion plans
• Have fun and change the world at a startup with a great team and an incredible mission!

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree (or higher) in Interactive Writing/Design, Game Design, UX Design, Communication, or a related field.
• 5+ years’ experience creating highly engaging interactive content for children.
• Outstanding team leadership skills and a proven track record for leading and growing high performance creative/technical content development teams.
• As a Player-Coach, you're able to roll up your sleeves and deliver new content personally while also leading and developing team members' contributions.
• Exceptional writing skills with a focus on immersive interactive dialogue, plus deep experience with character and persona development is essential.
• Prior experience designing and writing non-linear dialog flows for conversational interaction is a distinct advantage.
• Demonstrated flair for inspirational storytelling and strong oral and written presentation skills.
• Comfortable working in a sprint-based Agile software development environment.
• Working knowledge of Jira and Confluence project management platforms is essential.
• Strong organizational planning skills with the ability to forecast workloads and plan resources by Sprint period, as well as expand plans across quarterly and annual timelines.
• Comfortable working with highly technical interactive content development tools.
• Collaborative team player with high Emotional Intelligence, strong interpersonal skills and able to connect well with others.
• Thrive in high-velocity, results-oriented environments, and is comfortable managing multiple priorities amidst challenging deadlines.

Preferred Experience:

• Experience or interest in AI, machine learning, robotics, and similar technologies
• Experience with generative conversational AI
• Experience with healthcare, mental health or related products or technologies
• Experience scaling content teams and content support tools
• Experience in a high-growth technology startup

At Embodied, we support diversity, and we are an equal opportunity workplace.

Seniority Level: Mid to Senior

Reports to: Chief Product Officer

Employment Type: Full-time

Contact us at: [email protected]