Senior Manager, International Education Policy & Systems
RTI's International Education Division supports education development around the world by strengthening education policy, management, and practice in order to achieve measurable improvement in teaching and learning. From our well-established reputation in education system strengthening, to innovative work in early grade assessment and learning, RTI is improving education quality, relevance, and efficiency through implementation of projects funded by USAID, The LEGO Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other donors and clients.
RTI is seeking a Senior Manager, International Education Policy & Systems to support the IE Division’s portfolio of education improvement projects and business development efforts. The Senior Manager will be responsible for technical work for IE’s portfolio of projects and for our proposals and business development needs. The position will focus on addressing issues related to government education policies, strategies, plans and implementation and school support capacity. The Senior Manager will also play a lead role in new business development, including leading the writing of and contributing to proposals, and capture/scoping work for new business opportunities. They may also manage projects and/or activities for IE’s field-based projects.
This position will require close collaboration within RTI’s IE Division and across RTI’s International Development Group (IDG) and will be based in Washington, DC, Research Triangle Park, NC (RTI headquarters), or remotely. It will report to the Senior Director, Policy, Systems & Governance, in RTI’s IE Division and require international travel (up to 20%).
Role and Responsibilities:
- Lead and contribute to business development activities in support of the broader IE Division, specifically writing and contributing to technical proposals as well as planning and carrying out scoping/capture work, partner identification and development, and other related tasks (50% time anticipated).
- Serve as a technical specialist in International Education Policy & Systems, providing technical assistance across the division’s portfolio of diverse projects. Technical work would include a focus on assessing and addressing institutional capacity needs of education systems; conducting and supporting in-country counterparts to conduct policy analysis; and advising on and supporting policy development and effective implementation.
- Provide project implementation support to RTI field-based project teams and/or Ministry of Education counterparts in the areas of policy analysis; policy development; policy dialogue; institutional capacity assessment; institutional capacity development; tools development for systems support; education reform planning and management, building education system resilience
- As assigned, manage projects, task orders, and/or activities within projects; oversee desk/field research and pilot activities; and/or contribute to sector assessments and program evaluations.
- Contribute to education sector assessments and evaluations and, as appropriate, serve as principal investigator on research activities. Design, conduct and publish education policy & systems research in collaboration with project teams and field-based researchers. Contribute to the development of published technical articles, papers, reports.
- Present RTI’s work in in conference, seminars and workshops.
Minimum Requirements:
- Bachelor’s Degree in education or related field with 12 years of relevant work experience; Master’s Degree in education or related field with 10 years of related work experience; or Ph.D. in education and 6 years of relevant work experience.
- Experience designing, managing, and providing technical assistance for education policy and systems in education improvement programs in low- and middle-income country settings.
- Experience working with Ministry of Education political and technical leadership, especially in the context of USAID and/or other donor-funded programming.
- Experience addressing issues of education system and community/family resilience to socio-economic disadvantage as well as to crises and conflict.
- Demonstrated capacity to write and contribute to successful technical proposals for international education, including serving as the lead proposal writer, performing capture/scoping work, partnership development, and reviewing proposals.
- Must be eligible to work in the United States without sponsorship.
Preferred Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Experience and expertise in girls education, gender-based programming and addressing issues of inequities in education
- Experience in Africa, Asia and the Middle East and North Africa
- Proficiency in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and/or French a plus.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
- Excellent interpersonal and collaboration skills.
- Excellent knowledge of MS Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel.
- Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and meet deadlines under pressure.
- Ability to work independently and within matrix teams.
- Attention to detail and accuracy.