Education Consultant (Monitoring and Evaluation)

Oxford Policy Management is seeking a dynamic and highly motivated quantitative specialist to join as a Consultant in its Education Practice, within its monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) field.

This will be on a permanent basis in one of four possible locations: Pakistan, India, the UK, or Tanzania, and the role will involve occasional international travel (as required) for projects. Please note that the existing right to work is required for this role in one of these locations before you apply.

This role will focus on the management and technical delivery of consultancy projects in global education monitoring, evaluation and assessments; and supporting strategic direction and acquisition. More specific specialisms will include your involvement in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) in education; measurement of pupil learning outcomes; and education metrics and assessments.

The successful candidate will report to the leader of the Education MEL hub. We are looking for someone who is eager and proactive, and happy to contribute to (and, in some cases, lead on) the technical delivery of education consultancy projects, including project management, acquisition and sharing technical learning across monitoring, evaluation and assessment projects in Education. A key aspect of your success will be your strong grounding in research methods (particularly quantitative) and you will have the opportunity to work on a range of projects in the education sector across countries, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa.

Day to day responsibilities for this role will include (not exhaustive):

• Work with the Education MEL hub lead to expand OPM’s portfolio of education M&E and assessment projects.
• Lead or manage key education M&E projects or project workstreams, delivered to impact, timetable, and budget.
• Deliver high quality technical work on projects, including supporting the design of evaluation methodologies and monitoring frameworks; designing and developing data collection tools; working with survey teams to monitor data collection activities; analysis of primary and secondary quantitative data and writing up research findings
• Define, develop and deliver tenders and business opportunities for key M&E clients
• Represent OPM and the education practice externally on key policy questions, through writing, presenting, discussing, hosting roundtables, or meetings

Candidates must display the following minimum essential skills, knowledge and qualifications in order to be considered and shortlisted:

• Post-graduate qualification in a relevant discipline such as education, statistics, psychometrics, assessment or economics
• Demonstrable professional experience delivering monitoring, evaluation, assessment or research projects in Education M&E and working with diverse clients
• Substantial experience in analysing and interpreting quantitative data, and drawing out key themes and policy implications; strong grounding in research and evaluation methodologies combined with excellent writing skills; practical experience in the analysis of education sector data such as pupil learning outcomes; experience in managing or implementing primary research 
• Strong quantitative skills, including proficiency in analysing large and complex datasets using Stata; ability to carry out analysis with minimal supervision; and working with large-scale survey datasets
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, with high levels of attentiveness and the ability to clearly communicate complex technical issues to diverse audiences
• The ability to work in English and (preferably) at least one relevant foreign language

The following criterion would be advantageous but not essential:

• Strong sector and market knowledge of key education funders and trends in M&E
• Experience of directly working with senior donor and government counterparts in delivering technical work
• Experience of leading technical and commercial discussions with senior government officials and staff of international aid agencies.
• Experience of contributing to tenders and business development in a relevant consulting environment for key clients e.g. FCDO, USAID, UN, EU, Foundations.
• Demonstrated project and people management experience, within a consulting environment
• Experience in managing budgets and financial management of projects

If you meet the essential criteria above, we would really like to hear from you. Please submit a updated CV via the portal before the closing date. We look forward to receiving your application.