Global Practice Lead, Foundational Learning Full Time NEW

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

We aim to make our programs a model for the highest global standards and to cultivate power and lasting change not just for our clients but for all people affected by humanitarian crises. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence (TE) group, located within the Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department, provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice.

IRC’s Technical Excellence team is comprised of five teams or sector “Units” which have deep expertise in their respective fields: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health, and Violence Prevention and Response, as well as teams which provide measurement and finance/grant management support. Technical teams are also matrixed with a team that focuses on the quality and content of cross-sectoral programming in emergency responses.

IRC’s Technical Excellence teams offer five core services to IRC country programs and the wider organization:

**1. Program Design:**We support country and regional teams to design state of the art programming, incorporating the best available evidence, cost data, and expertise of what has worked elsewhere, with the knowledge that country teams, partner organizations and our clients bring to the table.

**2. Quality Assurance:**We partner with our measurement teams to design and drive the use of indicators to measure progress towards outcomes; we partner with regional and country teams to review program delivery progress and help address implementation challenges and adapt interventions to changed circumstances.

3. Business Development: We partner within and outside the IRC to design winning bids and identify winning consortia; we deploy technical expertise in public events and private meetings to position IRC as a partner of choice.

**4. Research & Learning:**We partner with our research lab to design cutting edge research to fill evidence gaps, and with country teams to learn from implementation such that we continuously improve our future design and delivery.

**5. External Influence:**We showcase the IRC’s programs, technical insights and learning in order to influence and improve the humanitarian sector’s policy and practice.

Technical Excellence is currently going through a change process called “Regional and Technical Alignment.” We are doing this to ensure that the impact of our programs and the influence of our ideas create meaningful change for people affected by crisis. This next phase of IRC’s commitment to program quality will more deliberately resource and link global thought leadership with practice on the ground. Updated Technical Unit structures will have new roles with clearer mandates. The Global Practice Lead is a new leadership role introduced by this change process.

Education Technical Unit (EDU TU)

Education is one of five core sectors for the IRC and is essential to both IRC emergency response and long-term programming worldwide. The EDU TU is a dynamic team of approximately 30 professionals in early childhood, primary, secondary education, Social Emotional Learning and more. Together they provide the IRC’s 40 plus country offices and emergency response team with technical expertise, capacity building and a cross-country view of what works to achieve outcomes in terms of both evidence and practical experience. They also lead focused research agenda, influencing donor policy to support interventions and innovations proven cost effective to achieve positive change in people’s lives. In 2023, the IRC reached over 1.6m children and youth directly with education services in over 20 countries and tens of millions indirectly.

Job Overview

The Global Practice Lead in Foundational Learning (FL) is the organizational leader for Foundational Learning for the Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) department and is a core member of the Educational Technical Unit’s leadership team. They are responsible for devising and leading strategies to raise the quality, impact, and scale of IRC’s Foundational Learning programming.

The FL Global Practice Lead will ensure the scope, quality and relevance of global technical standards, including the generation and promotion of evidence in their technical area. Global Practice Lead will closely collaborate with Regional Technical Advisors, Specialists and ECD Advisors, and Technical Coordinators in promoting technical best practice in CRRD programming. They will facilitate Technical Unit-led and high impact strategic business development by providing excellent technical insights and developing and maintaining strategic relationships and networks. In line with IRC’s Education Strategy, the Global Practice Lead will lead strategic planning for the Foundational Learning practice area, combining all core strands of our education work and OEF outcomes. The FL Global Practice Lead reports into the Senior Director, Education and will manage specialists in Social Emotional Learning (SEL), literacy and numeracy and EdTech. As a member of the leadership team, the Global Practice Lead will involve in leading department-wide initiatives, providing strategic guidance, and driving key projects aligned with the department’s objectives.

Major Responsibilities

Strategy, Program Design and Business Development

• Act as the organizational leader for CRRD in Foundational Learning internally and externally

• Lead strategic direction and delivery planning for Foundational Learning in line with the organizational global strategy (both S100 and Education Strategy)

• Responsible for identifying global areas of programmatic risk in Foundational Learning and elevating issues to Education TAs and Education Unit leadership.

• Collaborate with other Global Practice Leads, including Early Childhood Development, to promote integrated program designs within the education portfolio and across all IRC sectors that increase scale and deepen impact.

• Lead Technical Unit led global business development for Foundational Learning and support strategic project level proposals.

• Lead coordination with AMU to drive fundraising from Public and Institutional donors and with ER to drive fundraising from Private donors to meet Education Unit’s strategic priorities related to Foundational Learning.

Global Practice Implementation Support

• Responsible for drawing on evidence-based best practice to provide technical oversight of IRC’s global technical standards, methodologies, and tools for Foundational Learning.

• Accountable for the development of a limited number of high-value tools and methodologies to better integrate cross-cutting issues into education programs (e.g., gender equality, diversity and inclusion, climate adaptation).

• Accountable for establishing information and knowledge management systems that support Regional Leads and Technical Advisors stay up to date on global technical standards, methodologies, and tools.

• Establish competency framework for Foundational Learning and work closely with Education TAs to identify competency gaps and drive capacity strengthening.

• Accountable for ensuring Technical Advisors and Technical Coordinators have the tools and resources that are needed to measure programs in FL.

• Oversee Technical Unit-led strategic awards in Foundational Learning, working closely with regional Technical Advisors as applicable and the Grant Operations and Analytics Team.

• Line manage global specialists, as applicable.

• Support Technical Advisors and Technical Coordinators with thorny technical problems, career planning support, and mentorship, as appropriate.

Research, Data, Knowledge Management, and Organizational Learning

• Accountable for establishing and maintaining a Community of Practice and other channels for the Foundational Learning practice area to ensure pro-active and inclusive management with sustained learning, development, innovation, and best practice sharing.

• Coordinate with Specialists and Technical Advisors to lift up program learning for cross-sharing and incorporation into global best practice.

• Guide research and evidence use efforts in Foundational Learning, working closely with colleagues and leaders in Airbel, the Education Unit, other technical units, and regional colleagues.

• Provide technical inputs to FL-specific MEAL tools and methodologies, and support data interpretation in learning routines.

External Influence, Relationships and Representation

• Act as a key strategic advisor to Policy & Advocacy, Research & Innovation, and External Relations teams on advocacy campaigns and priority policy and practice shifts related to Foundational Learning.

• Responsible for identification, development, and maintenance of strategic relationships and global partnerships with relevant stakeholders (e.g. donors, UN agencies, NGOs, research and educational institutions, private sector actors) in the Foundational Learning area.

• Represent IRC in external forums as relevant.

Key Working Relationships

**• Position Reports to:**Senior Director, Education Unit, CRRD Technical Excellence

• Member of Education Leadership Team

• Direct Reports: 3 Technical Experts/Specialists, TU-led Project Directors as appropriate.

Key Internal Relationships:

• Education Leadership Team (ELT)

• Education Deputy Director and other Global Practice Leads

• Regional Technical Advisors

• Policy Solutions, Advocacy Influence, and Systems Change Global Teams

• CRRD Senior Management Team and Leadership Group; Regional Leadership Teams

• Global leaders in the areas of Governance, VPRU, ERD, Health,

• Global HQ and AMU, Airbel, EHAU, IPP

• Key External Relationships: INGO counterparts; UN Agencies, Public and Private Donors

Desired Experience and Skills

• Established or growing recognition as an expert in education, at regional or global level, with a minimum of 12+ years of progressive experience of designing, leading and implementing programs with 7+ years in Foundational Learning.

• Demonstrated experience leading programs in fragile/humanitarian settings and across the humanitarian development nexus.

• Experience of working on projects funded by major donors in the area, showcasing good understanding of donor priorities and requirements.

• Demonstrated ability to influence across a wide range of diverse stakeholders internally and externally.

• Strong track record of driving uptake of evidence-based practice.

• Demonstrated experience in sectoral strategy design and planning.

• Excellent management and leadership skills including coaching, mentoring, and performance management.

• Demonstrated ability to identify and convert business development opportunities.

• Demonstrated ability to shape the vision and agenda within the domain area they are working.

• Ability to work, manage, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment; outstanding business acumen, critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills required.

• Superb inter-personal, written and verbal communication skills with ability to collaborate across countries, cultures, and departments.

• Track record of scaled innovations preferred, ideally including experience working on both digital and analog solutions.

• Fluency in English required; Arabic, French and/or Spanish also strongly preferred.

• Ability to travel globally up to 25% of the time, occasionally on short notice.

Education: Master’s degree in education and/or related fields or an equivalent professional experience background is required. Sound training on the use of data and research evidence for programmatic decisions and rigorous analytic skills are an advantage.

Compensation:

Posted pay ranges apply to US-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

US Benefits:

We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.

**Standard of Professional Conduct:**The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.

Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.

Tagged as: International Rescue Committee, Kenya