Learning Consultant - Freelance
SweetRush has an exciting opportunity for a talented professional to join our team!
Who We Are
At SweetRush, we believe that when you put people at the center of business, magic happens. As a global leader in learning and development, we blend high-end storytelling, emerging tech like AI and VR, and deep psychological insights to help organizations—from iconic global brands to essential nonprofits—flourish. We are a remote-first, tight-knit community built on a foundation of radical empathy and creative excellence. Our work isn’t just about the awards we win with incredible partners such as Hilton, Google, Bridgestone, Adidas, SHRM, and numerous others; it’s about balancing profit with a genuine desire to spread good in the world. If you are a caring innovator who believes work should be life-centered and impactful, then this is where you come in…
About the Opportunity
Our client, a large consulting company, is looking for a partner to design an adaptive assessment so that learners can skip training they don't need. For example, a learner with certain knowledge or skills might spend about 2 hours on a program that would otherwise take 8 hours.
We are looking for a Learning Consultant to guide this high-level engagement. The successful candidate will lead the discovery and design work with our client's senior Learning & Development leaders and line-of-business leaders. You will create a Solution Blueprint that the client will then use to create the learning solution.
Location: Chicago, IL metropolitan area (United States). Mostly work from home, with some travel to the Chicago-based client.
Engagement type: 1099 Freelance
Duration: 12 weeks, expected to start in November 2026
Hours: Typically 20–30 hours per week, but will vary. Some weeks could be zero hours, with busier weeks when traveling.
What You'll Do
Lead and facilitate working sessions, on-site and virtual, with senior L&D leaders and line-of-business professionals.
Hold the room with senior and C-suite stakeholders: steer toward decisions, push back with credibility, and keep scope from drifting.
Translate findings into the assessment strategy, personalized learning pathways, and implementation roadmap.
Own the Solution Blueprint and co-author the build specification with the Psychometrician and the client's build team.
Work with the Psychometrician to map the assessment and content and to design the learning journeys.
Collaborate with SweetRush's Solution Architect and, possibly, a Creative Director.
Deliver a blueprint that will define the assessment strategy, personalized learning pathways, technology requirements, and implementation roadmap, with Psychometrician review to support assessment validity.
What You Bring
10+ years in instructional design or learning strategy, with clear ownership of discovery, design thinking, or leading facilitated workshops
Strong instructional and learning experience design skills
Strong facilitation skills and executive presence
Experience designing assessments that measure performance, not just recall, using scenarios, simulations, and judgment-based items
Excellent writing skills, with the ability to produce blueprints and specs a build team can use
Credibility with executives: you can hold the room, ask the questions that get the information you need, and push back constructively
A collaborative approach with learning, assessment, and technical teams
Nice to have:
Working knowledge of assurance or accounting professional learning, such as CPE rules, NASBA, mandatory training, and competency frameworks
Experience with adaptive learning, test-out or competency-based programs, or skills taxonomies
Experience working with a Psychometrician
Comfort with AI in learning
A CPA background, or prior work with large consulting firms
This is not a pure instructional design role. We are looking for learning consultants who can both design curriculum and facilitate. Experience in a consulting environment or…