Senior Consultant - Education

Job Type: Permanent

Reference: OPM/US/EDU/SNRCON

Country: US

Location: Washington DC or Remote East Coast US

Closing Date: 15/Jul/2022

Background

In the Education Practice, we are committed to high-quality, lifelong learning opportunities for all in low- and middle-income countries. We help education systems become adaptive, self-improving, and focused on building the skills, values, and attitudes needed to achieve development goals. The teamworks in the following technical areas:

·        Transforming education systems to ensure learning keeps pace with a changing world, including managing ‘Research on Improving Systems of Education’ (RISE);

·        Developing education assessments and metrics to better measure teaching and learning, including for our many complex impact evaluations of education programmes in Nigeria, Tanzania and elsewhere.

·        Improving education financing to ensure education resources are appropriate, efficient, effective and equitable,including delivering training on public finance for children;

·        Supporting governments in harnessing non-state actors in education and reforming early childhood development to ensure children are well prepared for later life, including a systematic review of what interventions work; and

·        Improving education equality to ensure no children are left behind, including building evidence on out of school children in the MENA and East Asia and the Pacific regions.

This role will join the Education Practice, but will be based in Washington DC in OPM’s US office. She/he will work in close collaboration with the OPM US office director, while being directly linemanaged by the Education Practice Lead. 

Responsibilities of the Senior Consultant, Education

Main Accountabilities

·        Contribute to the company's success by a. developing new work, b. delivering projects to agreed standards, c. contributing to the thought leadership in education, d. supporting learning and knowledge transfer within the Practice and wider at the company level, and e. Cultivating OPM’s reputation within one or more education technical areas

·        Deliver work under the direction of the Education Practice Lead and the Director of OPM US office in accordance with anagreed annual performance agreement including associated financial andnon-financial targets.

Specific responsibilities

Deliver Technical Assistance (TA) and consulting services inthe field of international education, with a special focus on one or morethe following areas:

·        Monitoring, Evaluation and Assessments

·        Education Finance and Planning

·        Early Childhood Education

·        Inclusive Education

·        Skills, Livelihoods and Labour Market

Lead on or contribute to the acquisition and bidding for medium / large education projects, by effectively collaborating with OPM’s Bid, Finance, Legal, HR and Implementation Teams. Specifically,

·        Work with the Business Development Manager in the US office to develop, track, and priorities a pipeline of education opportunities from US based clients.

·        Act as a focal point for US contracted opportunities, and work across the Education practice to bring to bear the best of OPM staff to our business development and project engagements.

·        Lead on proposal writing/inputs, and coordinate with other members of the Education practice

·        Manage medium to large-scale projects delivered by the Education Practice, in accordance to OPM systems and procedures.

·        Work with the US Country Director and Education Practice lead to define and operationalize an Education strategy for US based clients, including USAID as well as foundations.

·        Participating in the practice’s external influencing activities, such as delivering seminars, both internally and externally, publishing in peer reviewed journals, and presenting in conferences.

·        Supporting the market development initiatives, including fostering good relationships with lead / prime organizations, clients including donor agencies and partner government ministries, taking an active role in developing new areas of work and potential new relationships through existing or new networks and contacts.

·        Ensuring effective collaboration with other teams across the Consulting Function and at the company level;  

·        Comply with all internal policies, processes and procedures including reporting, HR and financial management systems.

Undertaking other duties reasonably required by the Education Practice lead and the US Country Director.

Qualifications & Experience

·        Post-graduate degree in a relevant discipline;

·        Proven expertise and consulting skills in international education, especially in one or more areas: e.g. educationfinance and planning, monitoring and evaluation, early childhood education,girls’ education, education in emergencies, and technical and vocationaleducation.

·        Demonstrated success in acquisition of competitively-procured donor-funded development projects;

·        Experience with technical delivery and acquisition for USAID, US Foundations, UN agencies, Global Partnership for Education (GPE) and the World Bank

·        Experience of project management, including the management of medium to large project teams.

·        Experience in low and middle income countries.

·        Strong communication skills with excellent spoken English, and excellent report writing skills.

·        Excellent inter-personal skills, with acollegiate approach to team work.

Desirable:

·        Ability to work in at least one relevant foreignlanguage is an advantage; 

This is a full-time position. The successful candidate willbe based in Washington DC, US, but applicants based in other states in US willbe considered. The role requires overseas travel. 

‍