Team Leader, Syria Education Programme III (SEP III)

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.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is a leading humanitarian and development organization working in more than 40 countries and 26 U.S. cities to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future.

The IRC has worked in Syria since 2012 and is one of the largest providers of humanitarian and early recovery assistance in the country, delivering health, protection, economic recovery, water and sanitation, and education programming, including as a partner to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).

SYRIA EDUCATION PROGRAMME III (SEP III)

Building on SEP I (2018–2022) and SEP II (2022–2027), which supported primary educatio in Idleb and Aleppo, FCDO plans to procure a new Technical Assistance (TA) contract, SEP III, to support the Syrian Ministry of Education (MoE) in implementing its nationally-led reform agenda, complementing the Ministry's wider reform programme, including support provided through the Global Partnership for Education (GPE). Since December 2024, the MoE has begun to reunify a fragmented education system, but progress has been constrained by limited institutional capacity, a lack of data, weak policy development processes and the absence of a clear long-term strategy for recovery. Unlike earlier phases, which focused primarily on service delivery in northwest Syria, SEP III will work directly with the MoE and local Education Directorates, generally at national level and directorate level, in partnership with Ministry officials, to help the Ministry translate its policy and process reforms into practice through technical advice, capacity building, coaching and support to implementation.

SEP III has two components. The first, which is the subject of this contract, is politically informed TA to the MoE and Education Directorates to strengthen inclusive, effective and evidence-based policy making. The second is non-formal education (NFE) for returning refugees and internally displaced persons, which is outside the scope of this contract and will be delivered by a separate provider. The TA supplier will be required to work collaboratively with the NFE component.

The exact scope of the TA work will be determined jointly with FCDO and the MoE through a demand-led, co-designed and flexible approach. No reform priorities are set in advance; they will be identified with the Ministry during inception. The work is expected to focus on strengthening the education system to improve foundational learning outcomes for primary-school-aged children across Syria, delivered through: 1) Services and Analysis to inform TA and policy decisions; 2) Foundational Learning thematic TA (for example teacher development, coaching and supervision, safeguarding, learning data generation and use, and inclusive education); and 3) Education Systems Strengthening TA (sector planning and prioritisation, policy development, financial management, and monitoring and accountability). Given the difficult fiscal choices likely to shape the sector over the coming years, the programme is also expected to support the Ministry's public finance and value-for-money decision-making. Illustrative technical priorities include: supporting policy reform and Ministry-led coordination, standard-setting, and system strengthening; supporting the roll-out of child safeguarding and Codes of Conduct; improving the quality and consistency of teaching through professional development and a national Teacher Competency Framework; and data-driven planning, including through education management information systems (EMIS/SIMIS).

Given the fluid transition context, the programme will need to operate flexibly, respond quickly to changes, and seize windows of opportunity for reform as they arise. FCDO expects a politically informed, 'test, learn, adapt' approach rather than a fixed blueprint. Delivery must be aligned with government systems, avoiding parallel platforms and the substitution of government functions, and must be underpinned by gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI) and conflict sensitivity. This requires strong political judgement, including a clear understanding of how decisions are made within the Ministry and government and where opportunities for reform are most likely to emerge, an in-depth understanding of the Syrian education system and its institutional actors, and the ability to sustain trusted relationships with the Ministry, FCDO, and other sector stakeholders, including UNICEF, GPE, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), and the World Bank.

The anticipated delivery model comprises i) a Core Delivery Team responsible for overall leadership, technical oversight, coordination, MEAL, governance and quality assurance, which should be predominantly Syrian and mostly based in Syria; and ii) a demand-led TA Pool of experts with education and governance backgrounds. The contract is expected to begin on 1 July 2027 with a six-month inception period, during which the supplier must mobilise rapidly, establish a presence in Damascus and operationalise its delivery systems. Details are indicative and will be confirmed in FCDO's Tender Notice.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Team Leader holds overall accountability for the design, rapid mobilisation, and delivery of SEP III, including leading the Core Delivery Team and overseeing the TA Pool, ensuring the programme is implemented in accordance with the contract, FCDO requirements, IRC policies and principles, and internationally recognised quality of assistance standards. The Team Leader is the primary point of contact with FCDO and, working closely with the ESS Technical Director and senior Ministry counterparts, provides strategic direction to support the Ministry's implementation of its reform priorities.

The Team Leader is responsible for the programme's overall management, including budget oversight and value for money, performance against contractual KPIs, and risk management (including fiduciary and reputational risk in a sensitive political environment), with the technical quality of the programme's workstreams assured by the ESS Technical Director. The postholder ensures the programme operates adaptively — using political analysis, evidence, monitoring data, and regular review points to prioritise, test, learn and adapt in response to a fast-moving political and institutional context — while maintaining the flexibility needed to respond to emerging windows of opportunity for reform.

The Team Leader maintains strong working relationships with the implementing team, consortium/delivery partners (if applicable), the MoE and Education Directorates, FCDO, the provider of the NFE component, and other education sector stakeholders, and represents the programme and IRC in relevant coordination fora, technical working groups, and policy dialogues. The postholder also oversees programme staffing, procurement, and administrative functions, and ensures robust communications and knowledge management, both internally and with external stakeholders, to share progress, evidence, and lessons learned.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Strategic Leadership

●      Provide overall strategic leadership for SEP III, ensuring the programme's support to the MoE and Education Directorates, led technically by the ESS Technical Director, is relevant to, and aligned with, the Ministry's evolving reform priorities and helps translate these priorities into practice.

●      Lead the six-month inception period (July –December 2027), including establishing the Damascus presence, mobilising the Core Delivery Team and TA Pool, operationalising delivery systems, formalising ways of working with the MoE, developing the screening and prioritisation framework and Tasking Order criteria, and delivering inception milestones to FCDO's standard and timetable.

●      Provide strategic oversight of the ESS Technical Director's technical leadership, ensuring the programme's technical direction remains aligned with strategic priorities and senior-level MoE relations.

●      Ensure the programme operates flexibly and applies a 'test, learn, adapt' approach: agreeing clear reform objectives and decision criteria with the Ministry, co-designing and trialling options, using evidence and learning to decide whether to continue, scale, adapt, pause or pivot workstreams, and documenting adaptation decisions.

●      Think and work politically, with a strong understanding of how decisions are made within the Ministry and government and where opportunities for reform are most likely to emerge, drawing on strong contextual and institutional analysis to ensure these opportunities are identified early and acted upon in a timely way.

●      Take explicit responsibility for reform sequencing, political economy analysis, and navigating institutional constraints, ensuring a regularly updated PEA and periodic political reviews inform programme design, prioritisation and delivery, and that support is prioritised and paced in line with the Ministry's capacity and the political space available for reform.

●      Ensure delivery remains aligned with government systems, avoids parallel platforms and substituting for government functions, and is designed for sustainability and capacity transfer, while supporting coalitions of reform-minded actors within and beyond government.

●      Champion evidence-based, gender-responsive, and inclusive approaches throughout programme design and delivery, including dedicated attention to the needs of girls and children with disabilities, and ensure conflict sensitivity is embedded throughout.

●      Provide leadership on GEDSI, ensuring diversity and inclusion are reflected in team and partner selection, programme design and implementation, and programme reporting.

Donor, Government and Stakeholder Relations

●      Serve as the primary point of contact and representational link with FCDO, ensuring high-quality, timely reporting through formal and informal debriefings, and annual and semi-annual reports.

●      Build and maintain a trusted, politically informed working relationship with senior officials in the MoE and other relevant government counterparts, supporting the Ministry's stewardship of the education sector and complementing the ESS Technical Director's ongoing technical-level engagement with MoE and Education Directorate representatives at all levels to identify technical assistance needs and design and implement ESS interventions.

●      Coordinate with sector stakeholders, including UNICEF, GPE, ECW, the World Bank, and other donors and implementing partners, to support coordinated reform efforts across government and development partners, and to ensure the programme complements ongoing initiatives and other TA investments and adheres to national and global standards.

●      Ensure close coherence and collaboration with the provider of the separate NFE component of SEP III, including joint planning, information sharing and coordination of engagement with the Ministry.

●      Represent the programme and IRC at national and international forums, including technical conferences and policy dialogues, sharing programme achievements and lessons learned.

●      Champion accountability to affected populations, partners, and diverse stakeholders, ensuring that feedback and complaints mechanisms, transparent communication, and participatory approaches inform programme design, delivery, and adaptive management.

Programme, Risk and Financial Management

●      Oversee overall programme and budget management, ensuring value for money across all components, informed by a sound understanding of the Ministry's public finance context, and robust compliance with FCDO and IRC financial and procurement requirements.

●      Oversee the Tasking Order mechanism for the TA Pool, ensuring requests are screened and prioritised against agreed criteria, co-created with the Ministry and Education Directorates, approved by FCDO, costed transparently against the agreed rate card with clear milestones, and delivered to a high-quality standard.

●      Lead on identification and management of programme risks, including fiduciary, safeguarding, political, and reputational risks associated with operating within Syrian government structures during a period of political transition.

●      Develop, review, and monitor, in coordination with key programme staff, the annual work plan (updated quarterly) and performance plans, and ensure quarterly and annual reports are submitted in the agreed format and to the required standard, so that long-term and short-term priorities remain on track.

●      Take responsibility for contractual performance against FCDO's KPIs (indicatively covering reporting, work planning, expenditure variance, risk, safeguarding and fraud notification compliance, political analysis, timely delivery of TA outputs, Ministry adoption of TA outputs, and evidence of adaptive management), taking early corrective action where performance is at risk.

●      Ensure monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) data systematically feed into adaptive management processes, including regular reviews of cost-effectiveness and progress against outcomes.

People and Operations Management

●      Manage programme staff, including through direct line management of the ESS Technical Director and other senior team members, and, where applicable, consortium or delivery partners, ensuring proper reporting, financial management, and compliance with donor and organisational requirements.

●      Build a Core Delivery Team and TA Pool, drawing on national and international expertise only, and ensure all consortium or delivery partners can deploy Syrian expertise, with at least one member registered in Syria.

●      Create and maintain a work environment that promotes teamwork, trust, mutual respect, and empowers staff to take responsibility.

●      Oversee procurement, logistical, and administrative functions in support of programme delivery.

●      Ensure appropriate internal and external communications and knowledge management, sharing achievements and lessons learned with diverse audiences.

PROFILE AND QUALIFICATIONS

●      Advanced degree (Master's or equivalent) in education, public administration, international development, or a related field; equivalent experience may be substituted for a graduate degree.

●      Minimum of 10 years' experience managing large-scale, complex, donor-funded technical assistance or education programmes, ideally including experience with FCDO-funded contracts and performance-based or KPI-linked payment mechanisms.

●      Significant prior experience working directly with government ministries or line departments on system-level policy and process reform, ideally within the education sector.

●      Substantial experience working in conflict, crisis, or politically sensitive transition contexts; experience in Syria or the broader MENA region strongly preferred.

●      Sound understanding of public finance and value-for-money principles, with the ability to support the Ministry in navigating the fiscal choices shaping education sector reform.

●      Proven ability to provide strategic leadership while harnessing the multi-disciplinary skills of technical personnel, consortium or delivery partners, and government counterparts.

●      Demonstrated ability to create and nurture strong, trusted working relationships with Ministry of Education representatives and other relevant government, donor, and sector stakeholders.

●      Strong political judgement, including a sound understanding of how decisions are made within government and where opportunities for reform are most likely to emerge, and demonstrated ability to apply thinking and working politically, using PEA to inform decisions, and to operate flexibly and adaptively in a fast-moving, sensitive institutional environment, responding to windows of opportunity as they arise.

●      Demonstrated ability to build and sustain effective, trusted relationships with senior government officials, donors, and a broad range of stakeholders, including civil society and multilateral partners.

●      Familiarity with the Syrian education system, or comparable fragile/post-conflict education systems, and with the priorities of foundational learning, safeguarding, and inclusion, including for girls and children with disabilities.

●      Experience with adaptive management approaches and evidence-based programming, ideally including leading demand-led technical assistance facilities that use tasking orders or similar call-down mechanisms.

●      Experience rapidly mobilising a programme team and establishing an operational presence in a new or complex setting, ideally Syria or a comparable context.

●      Demonstrated commitment to localisation, including experience leading predominantly national teams and working in partnership with national and sub-national organisations.

●      Strong analytical, communication, and writing skills, with the ability to articulate evidence-based positions to influence sector and government stakeholders.

●      Demonstrated ability to apply safeguarding, ethics, and do-no-harm principles throughout programme delivery, particularly when working with or on behalf of children.

●      Fluency in English required; Arabic language skills strongly preferred.

Please note that this position is contingent on the outcome of the FCDO procurement and award of SEP III (tender publication currently anticipated for January 2027 and award for May 2027). Programme details are indicative and remain subject to FCDO approval and the final Tender Notice.

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