Director of Programmes

Employment Type: Full-time, permanent
Work Arrangement: Fully remote
Location: UK and eligible countries in the Global South
Salary: Location-based, with country-specific salary bands
Application Deadline: Friday, 6 November 2026 — applications reviewed on a rolling basis
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

Global Schools Forum (GSF) is an international community of more than 200 non-state education organisations across over 70 countries. Established in 2017, GSF has grown into a leading accelerator for locally led education innovation in Africa, Asia and Latin America, supporting education organisations to innovate, strengthen their impact and scale successful approaches.

GSF operates as a global learning community, innovation accelerator and partnership builder. It connects local education leaders, shares knowledge and evidence, supports promising education solutions, and engages governments, funders and policymakers to strengthen education systems.

Its community collectively reaches approximately 135 million children, while its Labs and Impact Accelerator programmes have supported innovations reaching an additional one million children with improved education and care.

GSF is entering an ambitious new phase following five-fold growth over the past five years. Its 2025–2028 strategy focuses on strengthening community, knowledge, funding and partnerships, with particular attention to early years education, foundational learning, secondary education and technology.

The organisation works to address three major education challenges:

• Ensuring every child develops strong foundations in literacy and numeracy.
• Expanding access to high-quality early childhood care and education.
• Supporting successful transitions into secondary education and employment.

Three cross-cutting priorities—learning differences, innovative financing and artificial intelligence (AI) in education—inform how GSF develops and delivers its programmes.

GSF is a small, fully remote international organisation with colleagues based in the UK, Africa and Asia. It values collaboration, locally led solutions, inclusion, continuous learning and meaningful partnerships.

Global Schools Forum is seeking an experienced and strategic Director of Programmes to lead its programme portfolio and strengthen the systems, people and processes that enable its work to deliver greater impact.

As a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT), the Director of Programmes will take strategic responsibility for GSF’s three principal programme areas: foundational learning, early years education, and secondary education and employment pathways.

The successful candidate will work closely with Associate Directors and technical specialists to ensure programmes are evidence-based, responsive to the needs of local education organisations and capable of delivering measurable improvements for children.

This is more than a traditional programme management position. GSF is looking for a leader who understands how to connect programme delivery with community engagement, knowledge sharing, policy influence and fundraising. The Director will ensure that insights from member organisations shape programme design and that successful practices are shared across the education sector.

The role also involves leading GSF’s largest team, improving operational systems, allocating staff effectively across projects, developing future leaders and ensuring that lessons learned from individual programmes inform the wider portfolio.

1. Programme Leadership and Delivery – 40%

• Provide strategic oversight of GSF’s programme portfolio across foundational learning, early years education and secondary education and employment pathways.
• Lead programme design, implementation, quality assurance and performance monitoring.
• Work closely with Associate Directors and technical teams to ensure programmes are evidence-based, well implemented and deliver meaningful outcomes for children and partner organisations.
• Establish clear standards for programme design, delivery, monitoring, evaluation and learning.
• Prioritise investments and programme activities according to their potential to improve educational outcomes.
• Ensure that programme strategies respond to the needs and priorities of locally led education organisations.
• Strengthen the connections between direct programme support, evidence generation, sector-wide learning and policy influence.
• Identify opportunities to replicate and scale successful education innovations across different countries and contexts.

2. Operational Excellence – 25%

• Identify opportunities to improve operational delivery across the programme portfolio, including planning, budgeting, resource allocation and reporting.
• Develop and implement standard operating procedures that promote consistency, efficiency and accountability.
• Establish systems for documenting and sharing lessons learned across projects and programme teams.
• Ensure that successful practices and evidence are shared across the organisation rather than remaining isolated within individual projects.
• Strengthen coordination between programme teams and specialist functions, including operations, technology, evidence and programme design.
• Improve organisational processes to support GSF’s growth and ensure its programme portfolio remains effective as new opportunities emerge.
• Promote a culture of continuous improvement, practical problem-solving and evidence-informed decision-making.

3. Team Leadership – 20%

• Lead and manage GSF’s largest team, providing clear direction, accountability and support for professional development.
• Supervise two Associate Directors and one manager, supporting them to lead their respective teams and programme areas effectively.
• Mentor senior programme leaders and strengthen their technical, strategic and management capabilities.
• Develop systems for allocating staff across projects according to organisational priorities, expertise and workload.
• Ensure the right people and specialist skills are available at the right time to support programme delivery.
• Work with functional leads across programme design, operations, technology and evidence to coordinate specialist support.
• Build a collaborative team culture that encourages learning, innovation, accountability and high-quality delivery.
• Establish clear processes for performance management, professional growth and cross-team collaboration.

4. Organisational Leadership – 15%

• Serve as an active member of the Senior Management Team, contributing to organisation-wide strategy and decision-making.
• Lead the Programmes team’s contribution to GSF’s community engagement strategy in partnership with External Affairs.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with senior leaders across member organisations, understanding their priorities and challenges.
• Organise and participate in community-focused events, including activities alongside major international education conferences.
• Ensure that insights from member organisations inform programme development and that programme lessons are shared in accessible, practical formats.
• Strengthen the exchange of promising practices across GSF’s international network and the wider education sector.
• Build and manage relationships with key funders and support fundraising for major programme initiatives.
• Lead the development of funding proposals in collaboration with the CEO, Senior Management Team and wider programme teams.
• Help translate community trust and collaboration into collective action that improves education practices and influences policy.

Programme Areas

The Director of Programmes will oversee work across three major portfolios.

Foundational Learning

This portfolio focuses on foundational literacy and numeracy, helping children develop the ability to read with understanding, write and perform basic mathematical calculations. Activities include supporting education organisations to improve learning outcomes, sharing effective practices, generating evidence and influencing education systems.

Early Years Education

This portfolio covers childcare and early childhood education and development (ECED). It includes organisational support, evidence generation and engagement with governments, funders and global policymakers. Examples include the Impact at Scale Labs and the Early Childhood in Emergencies Evidence Hub.

Secondary Education and Employment Pathways

This growing portfolio supports locally led organisations as children transition into secondary education and subsequently into employment. The Director will help strengthen the portfolio and identify opportunities to expand its reach and impact.

Across all three areas, community engagement is essential. The role requires sustained collaboration with education organisations, practitioners, technical experts, funders and other stakeholders.

GSF is seeking a purpose-driven programme leader who combines strategic judgement, strong operational management and a commitment to locally led education initiatives.

Essential Requirements

Applicants should demonstrate:

• Significant senior-level experience leading large-scale education programmes, with a strong understanding of education implementation in low- and middle-income countries.
• Knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing locally led education organisations.
• Experience building trusted relationships with partner organisations and using community insights to inform programme development.
• A strong commitment to genuine partnerships that respond to local priorities rather than imposing external agendas.
• A proven track record of managing complex programme portfolios involving multiple workstreams, teams, funders and delivery contexts.
• Significant experience leading large, geographically distributed teams and allocating people effectively across projects.
• Experience collaborating with technical experts to translate technical knowledge into high-quality programme delivery.
• Demonstrated success improving operational systems, developing standard operating procedures and embedding learning across projects.
• Strong strategic judgement and the ability to prioritise competing demands across a broad programme portfolio.
• Experience working at senior leadership level or preparing materials for senior management and Board discussions.
• A track record of securing substantial funding for education programmes, managing funder relationships and developing successful funding proposals.
• A genuine commitment to GSF’s mission, values and work to improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged children.

Desirable Qualifications and Experience

The following would be advantageous:

• Direct experience implementing foundational literacy and numeracy or early years programmes, including childcare and ECED, in low-resource or emergency-affected settings.
• Experience working in a membership organisation or international network.
• Experience with AI in education, including programme design and delivery, or an understanding of how AI tools can strengthen organisational effectiveness.

Salary and Employee Benefits

GSF uses location-based salary bands to support fair and equitable compensation across different regions. Salaries are benchmarked against the UK market and adjusted according to local market data in the successful candidate’s country of residence.

Illustrative annual salary ranges are:

• United Kingdom: £80,080–£86,320
• Kenya: £60,060–£64,740
• India: INR 7,095,922–INR 7,645,157

The final salary will depend on the candidate’s location. The final package for the Kenya and India examples includes health insurance.

Additional benefits include:

• 35 fully flexible holiday days, including flexible national holidays, with additional leave increasing with tenure.
• Generous family-friendly policies.
• A generous employee pension scheme.
• Flexible working arrangements.
• A co-working space allowance.
• A personal learning and development budget.
• Access to GSF events.
• Access to the iHasco learning platform.
• An annual in-person team retreat.

The position offers the opportunity to join a senior leadership team and directly influence the development and effectiveness of a growing international education organisation.

Location and Working Arrangements

This is a fully remote position. GSF welcomes applications from candidates based in the UK and the Global South, with a preference for applicants working within the GMT-2 to GMT+5:30 time-zone range.

The position is full-time, with working hours typically running from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the employee’s local time zone. Flexibility is required to accommodate collaboration across international time zones, including occasional early-morning or evening calls.

Some international travel may be required.

• Contract: Permanent
• Working hours: Full-time, with flexible arrangements
• Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
• Direct reports: Two Associate Directors and one manager
• Anticipated start date: As soon as possible, subject to notice periods

Important eligibility requirement: Candidates must have the legal right to work in their country of residence. GSF is unable to offer visa sponsorship.

How to Apply

Interested and qualified candidates should submit their application through the official Global Schools Forum recruitment portal.

Applicants are required to provide:

1. An up-to-date CV outlining relevant qualifications, professional experience, programme leadership achievements, team management experience and fundraising successes.
2. A supporting statement of no more than two pages explaining how their skills, experience and professional achievements meet the essential criteria for the Director of Programmes position.

Applicants should clearly demonstrate their experience leading complex education programmes, managing distributed teams, building partnerships with locally led organisations, improving operational systems and securing funding for major initiatives.

GSF is reviewing applications on a rolling basis and may close the vacancy early if a suitable candidate is identified. Interviews will also be scheduled on a rolling basis.

Application deadline: Friday, 6 November 2026.

Candidates are strongly encouraged to apply as soon as possible rather than wait until the closing date.

For reasonable adjustments or assistance during recruitment, contact info@globalschoolsforum.org.

GSF is committed to inclusive recruitment and processes applicants’ personal data for recruitment purposes in accordance with its Data Privacy Policy.

Apply here: Submit your application for Director of Programmes at Global Schools Forum

Deadline: Friday, 6 November 2026. Early applications are strongly encouraged.

Equal Opportunities

Global Schools Forum is committed to building a fair and inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. Applications are welcomed from candidates of diverse backgrounds, without discrimination based on age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, gender identity, or marriage and civil partnership.