Secondary Education Specialist, MCC Belize Secondary Education Activity

About IREX:  
IREX is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to building a more just, prosperous, and inclusive world by empowering youth, cultivating leaders, strengthening institutions, and extending access to quality education and information. Founded in 1968, IREX has an annual portfolio of over $100 million, work in more than 100 countries worldwide with offices in 20 countries, and a global staff of 600. 

Summary of Position: 
IREX seeks a Secondary Education Specialist for the anticipated five-year, approximate $25-45M, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)-funded Secondary Education Activity in Belize. This Education Project aims to improve the quality of educational leadership and teaching through capacity building and providing teaching and learning resources. The Education Project will cover both transforming teaching and learning at the secondary level and supporting interventions to increase access and retention for all students.  The MCC Compact will be managed by the Millennium Challenge Account-Belize (MCA.) 

Based in Belize, the Secondary Education Specialist will be responsible for coordinating the overall strategic direction and development of secondary education interventions.   

**This position is contingent on funding.  Citizens of Belize are strongly encouraged to apply** 

Primary Responsibilities: 

• Lead the design and implementation of all trainings for current secondary teachers aimed to improve the quality of teaching in the areas of numeracy, literacy, and soft skills.  

• Lead the design and implementation of trainings for candidate secondary school teachers focused on the development of teacher trainees’ approaches to the instruction (pedagogy) that will improve secondary students’ performance in the areas of numeracy, literacy, and soft skills.  

• Lead the design and delivery of curriculum and training materials for school leaders and prospective school leaders.  

• Manage and supervise a team of technical and operations support staff. 

• Contribute to monitoring, evaluation, and learning; program communications; and program reporting. 

• Other duties, as assigned. 

Primary Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in the field of education, education administration/management, public administration, business administration, or a closely related or relevant discipline.  

• Minimum 8 years of progressive experience in program design, implementation, management, and evaluation of education projects in Belize and/or the Latin America region 

• Experience working on programs focused on teacher professional development (pre-service and/or in-service training)  

• Experience designing and implementing projects in one or more of the following areas: establishing a new teacher training institution (including staffing, governance, legal, financial and other organizational frameworks and policies); establishing/updating teacher certification/qualifications; developing teacher training curricula and materials (especially targeting literacy, numeracy, student assessments, and inclusive/gender-sensitive education); training teacher trainers; designing and managing teacher practicum experiences in real classrooms; teacher supportive supervision,  

• Experience designing and/or delivering remote or hybrid teacher and/or school leader training programs desirable. 

• Experience working on programs focused on supporting the management and governance of teacher and school leader professional development and promoting/implementing policy reforms related to teacher certification, career paths, supportive supervision and other areas related to managing teacher and school leader performance desirable. 

• Demonstrated experience successfully interacting with Ministry of Education officials and with education stakeholders. 

• Strong leadership, political acumen, communication skills and experience building and maintaining working relationships with a wide network of institutional stakeholders including host-country government at all levels.  

• Advanced proficiency in English, required. Proficiency in Spanish preferred.