Oxford Policy Management is seeking a pool of highly experienced national and international experts who can be rapidly mobilised to support the anticipated Girls and Out-of-School Children: Action for Learning Programme (GOAL) in Pakistan. Appointments will be made on a fixed-term or short-term consultancy basis and are contingent upon the successful outcome of the procurement.

GOAL is expected to provide politically informed technical assistance to provincial education systems, with a focus on Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and more limited scoping and engagement in Sindh. The programme will support sustained improvements in inclusive, quality education by strengthening early and inclusive foundational learning, teacher professionalisation systems, and the governance and accountability of education financing.

We are particularly interested in experts with experience in one or more of the following areas:

• Foundational learning, curriculum reform, teaching and learning materials, and targeted instruction
• Teacher professionalisation, teacher licensing, professional standards, CPD, coaching, classroom observation, and teacher management systems
• Education finance, public financial management, budget execution, fiscal transparency, innovative financing, and resource mobilisation for education
• Education governance, institutional strengthening, accountability, decentralisation, and provincial or district-level delivery systems
• Education data systems, EMIS, learning assessment, performance management, monitoring, evaluation, and use of evidence for decision-making
• Political economy analysis, thinking and working politically, adaptive technical assistance, reform coalitions, and stakeholder engagement
• Public-private partnerships, non-state provision, and regulation or accountability of education service delivery
• Girls’ education, out-of-school children, inclusion, disability, safeguarding, VAWG prevention, and gender equality and social inclusion

Successful candidates will join a pool of experts who may be called upon to provide strategic advice, technical leadership, policy support, reform implementation assistance, capacity strengthening, political economy analysis, and evidence-informed problem solving across provincial education institutions and related stakeholders.

We are an international development consultancy working to improve lives through sustainable policy change in low- and middle-income countries. Our vision is for fair public policy that benefits both people and the planet.

We are an international development consultancy working to improve lives through sustainable policy change in low- and middle-income countries. Our vision is for fair public policy that benefits both people and the planet.

Through our global network of offices, we work in partnership with national stakeholders and decision makers to research, design, implement, and evaluate impactful public policy. We draw on our local and international sector experts to provide the very best evidence-based support. We deliver projects with expert knowledge and experience and can be relied upon for excellence in all aspects of project delivery. We work collaboratively, with ambition, to help deliver impactful public policy that will bring about lasting change.

Position Summary

Depending on the assignment, responsibilities may include:

• Providing high-quality technical advice to provincial education departments, attached agencies, and reform bodies.
• Supporting the design, implementation, and course correction of education reform plans, policy roadmaps, and institutional transformation initiatives.
• Advising on foundational learning, teacher professionalisation, education financing, governance, accountability, and inclusion reforms.
• Conducting rapid diagnostics, institutional assessments, political economy analyses, and evidence reviews within tight timeframes.
• Supporting practical implementation planning, change management, capacity strengthening, and knowledge transfer to government counterparts.
• Helping strengthen data use, monitoring routines, learning loops, and performance management systems for education reform.
• Supporting stakeholder engagement, consensus-building, and coalitions for change across government, development partners, civil society, and non-state education actors.
• Collaborating effectively with local and international experts within multidisciplinary teams and contributing to high-quality written outputs.

Key Qualifications / Experience / Skills / Behaviours

We are seeking experts with the following qualifications and experience:

Essential Requirements

Relevant advanced qualifications

• Postgraduate degree, preferably at Master’s level or above, in education, public policy, economics, public administration, governance, social sciences, development studies, finance, or another discipline relevant to the proposed area of expertise.

Strong domain expertise

• Demonstrated technical experience, typically 10–15+ years for senior experts, in the relevant education reform, governance, finance, inclusion, data, or systems strengthening area.
• Strong understanding of education sector reform challenges in Pakistan, particularly in Punjab and/or Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; experience in Sindh or comparable provincial contexts is desirable.
• Experience working with senior government counterparts, provincial education institutions, finance or planning departments, development partners, and reform delivery structures.
• Deep understanding of how policy, financing, institutions, incentives, data, and classroom-level implementation interact in education systems.

Proven reform experience

• Strong track record of contributing to education policy development, sector strategies, teacher reforms, foundational learning initiatives, financing reforms, governance improvements, or institutional transformation initiatives.
• Experience supporting governments on the design and implementation of politically feasible, evidence-informed reforms.
• Ability to translate analysis into practical recommendations, implementation plans, tools, guidance, and capacity-strengthening approaches.

 Understanding of Pakistan’s education and governance context

• Strong knowledge of Pakistan’s federal and provincial education governance arrangements, with specific familiarity with Punjab and/or KP education institutions, reform processes, and implementation constraints.
• Understanding of political economy dynamics, stakeholder incentives, system bottlenecks, and the institutional conditions needed for sustainable reform.
• Experience applying systems thinking, adaptive management, and thinking and working politically approaches in education or public sector reform contexts.
• Experience working in comparable devolved, low- or middle-income country contexts is desirable.

Collaboration and mobilisation

• Experience working in multidisciplinary teams with both national and international experts.
• Excellent writing, communication, stakeholder engagement, facilitation, and relationship-management skills.
• Ability to mobilise rapidly, work flexibly, and deliver high-quality outputs under tight timelines.
• Commitment to safeguarding, inclusion, gender equality, disability inclusion, and ethical ways of working.

Desirable Requirements

• • Internationally or nationally recognised expertise in one or more GOAL-relevant technical areas.
  • Experience advising senior government officials, ministers, secretaries, development partners, or executive-level decision-makers.
  • Publications, research, policy contributions, tools, training materials, or reform guidance in education systems strengthening, teacher reform, foundational learning, education finance, inclusion, or governance.
  • Experience working with FCDO, the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO, GPE, British Council, or other major development partners.
  • Fluency in English is required. Urdu and/or relevant provincial languages, including Punjabi or Pashto, are desirable for Pakistan-based assignments.

Whether you join us in a corporate position, as a project delivery colleague, or as an independent contractor driving programme management - at OPM you will find a company that places equal value on excellence and integrity. As a leading international development consulting firm, we strive to enable and empower everyone who works with us to do their best work in an environment that welcomes ambition, creativity and passion for positive change.

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion

We strongly believe in a fairer distribution of power between all stakeholders, and we commit to reflecting this in our organisational structures and in the design and delivery of our projects. We proactively work to evolve ourselves and our stakeholders to shape inclusive and fair programming, implementation, and policies. Our recruitment and procurement processes reflect our ambition to make the international development sector more diverse and inclusive.

If you share our vision for fair public policy that benefits both people and planet, we would love to hear from you. Please submit your application through our careers’ site by the closing date .  We review and interview applicants on a rolling basis and encourage you to apply by way of CV via our careers site at the earliest.