Head of Learning Assessment and Policy Data

UNESCO

15d

About The Position

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) commits the international community to ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all. Quality learning stands at the heart of this agenda, and several SDG 4 indicators are dedicated to monitor learning and the policies to achieve relevant learning outcomes. The ability to reliably measure learning outcomes—particularly foundational and functional literacy, numeracy, and job-relevant skills — and their policy determinants, is a core pillar of international monitoring of progress to inform policy action. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is the official source of internationally comparable data in education, science, culture, and communication. As UNESCO’s statistical agency, UIS leads global efforts to define standards, methodologies, and reporting mechanisms that support evidence-based decision-making at national, regional, and global levels.As the custodian agency for SDG 4, the UIS has coordinated and implemented several methodological and technical advances that have improved the monitoring of learning globally. And while there has been significant progress made to monitor learning and the policies to achieve it, assessing learning continues to pose persistent technical, institutional, and capacity challenges. Many countries face constraints in implementing sustainable, high-quality assessments aligned with global standards. And, when they exist, data from these assessments are underused in the production of policy-oriented SDG 4 indicators. In response, UIS leads global coordination efforts — most notably through the Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML), while supporting countries in strengthening national learning assessment systems. 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. At the P-5 level, the incumbent provides overall vision, leadership, and technical oversight for UIS’s global portfolio covering learning and its policy determinants, ensuring methodological rigor, international comparability, and strategic relevance to SDG 4. The position is responsible for setting the strategic direction of UIS work on learning assessment and policy data; overseeing the development, validation, and implementation of global standards and methodologies (including the Global Proficiency Framework, curriculum mapping approaches, and related technical guidance); and ensuring coverage, completeness, and quality of learning data produced by the Institute. This includes supporting the implementation of learning assessment tools, advancing estimation methods, strengthening data linking methodologies, and improving data integration so that learning assessment results and policy evidence are better streamlined into global monitoring and reporting processes. In addition, the incumbent leads the integration and harmonization of policy data derived from learning assessments and curriculum documents and steers the further development of SDG 4 policy indicators — such as curriculum-based indicators — leveraging advances in text-as-data methods. The Head represents the Institute in global technical and policy fora, builds and manages high-level partnerships, and provides authoritative advice to senior leadership, Member States, and partners to ensure that data produced and reported through UIS meets the highest standards of quality, credibility, and policy usefulness.

Requirements

Advanced university degree (Master’s or equivalent) in statistics, psychometrics, education measurement, economics, or a closely related quantitative discipline.
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.
Recognized senior expert knowledge of learning assessment methodologies, curriculum and education policy analysis.
Strong strategic leadership, people management, and decision-making skills.
Ability to operate effectively at both technical and policy levels in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
Excellent analytical, drafting, and communication skills.
High level of integrity, sound judgment, and diplomatic skills.
Fluency in either English or French and working proficiency in the other.

Nice To Haves

Doctorate degree or equivalent.
Experience working with low- and middle-income countries and familiarity with capacity constraints in national assessment systems.
Experience with innovative assessment approaches or computational methods applied to textual data.
Knowledge of another official UNESCO language (Arabic, Chinese, Russian, or Spanish).