Head of Learning Assessment and Policy Data

Overview

The Head of Learning Assessment and Policy Data serves as the Institute’s senior authority and strategic lead on the measurement of learning outcomes and of the policies to achieve them, providing overall vision, leadership, and technical oversight for UIS’s global portfolio covering learning and its policy determinants.

Tasks Summary

• Define and lead the strategic vision, priorities, and work programme for learning assessment and Policy Data at UIS.
• Provide senior technical and managerial leadership to the Learning Assessment and Policy Data team.
• Oversee planning, budgeting, performance monitoring, and reporting for the learning assessment and policy data portfolio.
• Provide authoritative oversight of global frameworks and standards for learning assessment.
• Ensure the continued relevance, technical robustness, and global acceptance of UIS learning assessment methodologies and reporting tools.
• Guide the development of innovative statistical and psychometric approaches.
• Lead the integration and streamlining of policy data relevant to learning and its determinants.
• Provide overall governance and oversight of validation and quality assurance mechanisms for learning and policy data.
• Ensure consistency, transparency, and technical integrity in the application of standards.
• Promote harmonized terminology, classifications, and metadata standards.
• Lead high-level engagement with Member States, UN agencies, development partners, donors, assessment organizations, and academic institutions.
• Represent UIS as the global technical authority on learning assessment and policy determinants in international policy, technical, and governance forums.
• Negotiate and oversee strategic partnerships and funding arrangements.
• Set and oversee a strategic research agenda focused on the measurement of policies for learning, psychometric innovation, benchmarking methodologies, and emerging domains of skills.
• Ensure the development of high-quality technical products, tools, and guidance.
• Oversee the development of innovative approaches to learning-related SDG 4 policy indicators.
• Provide strategic oversight of capacity development initiatives.
• Strengthen methodologies for linking learning outcomes data with policy and curriculum evidence.
• Advise UIS senior management and UNESCO leadership on trends, risks, and strategic opportunities.
• Contribute to broader UIS and UNESCO initiatives related to education data, monitoring, foresight, and innovation.
• Promote collaboration and integration between learning assessment, policy/curriculum evidence, and other statistical domains.

Experience Requirements

• A minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible professional experience in learning assessment, education measurement, or related fields, including leadership of complex international programmes.
• Extensive experience across the full learning assessment cycle, including framework development, standard setting, psychometric analysis, reporting, and policy use.
• Proven experience in leading global or multi-country initiatives involving diverse stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to translate advanced technical concepts into strategic guidance, policy-relevant outputs, and operational tools.
• Demonstrated ability to engage with text-as-data statistical methods.
• Experience in resource mobilization, donor engagement, and programme governance.

Qualification Requirements

• Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in statistics, psychometrics, education measurement, economics, or a closely related quantitative discipline.

Other Details

Languages Required: • Fluency in either English or French and working proficiency in the other.

Languages Preferred: • Knowledge of another official UNESCO language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian, or Spanish).

Contract Duration: • 2 years, renewable

Work Modality:

Remuneration: • The approximate starting gross annual salary for this post is USD 139,479.