Senior Director, Education

Job Description

Sesame Workshop is looking to hire a Senior Director, Education. The Sr. Director will report to the Vice President of International Education in the ISI Department at Sesame Workshop in New York, NY. They will be responsible to lead on technical excellence, thought leadership, and visioning around improving foundational skills for children in both development and crisis contexts where Sesame Workshop works. ISI's framework of foundational skills includes early literacy, early numeracy, social and emotional skills, perspective-taking, and mutual respect and understanding. The Senior Director will collaborate with colleagues throughout the company to drive educational strategy, project curricula, and program design and learning for diverse Sesame initiatives around the world. They will also collaborate with country teams to ensure that on-the-ground programs are evidence-driven and theoretically sound. In addition, they are expected to represent Sesame Workshop in relevant senior forums, bringing their expertise to the donor, government, and NGO audiences.

Responsibilities:

Content leadership
• Develop and execute content strategy and intervention design for ISI initiatives, working collaboratively with Sesame Workshop project teams (project management, production, content research) and external partners
• Lead the development of project curriculum and multimedia learning materials, in coordination with partners and advisors
• Lead the alignment of curricula and content with intended project outcomes, working closely with the Production team and the Content Research Department to support ongoing project improvement
• Identify and/or develop platform(s) to facilitate learning across ISI projects and initiatives
• Lead and oversee the development of workshop training, facilitation, and intervention guides, and plan and deliver workshops and trainings, in partnership with the program and production teams and partners
• Serve as the focal point for in-country internal and external partners and stakeholders
• Oversee outreach program implementation, in coordination with partners.

Project direction
• Plan, implement, and track interventions that are informed by Sesame Workshop experience, desk research, and needs assessment data, and that are aligned with internal priorities, funder expectations and deliverables, and available resources, collaborating with Sesame teams and partners
• Collaborate with Philanthropic Development department and lead program design during the proposal stage
• Develop monitoring materials, develop and implement monitoring plans, and interpret stakeholder feedback in a way that informs project improvements, in partnership with Sesame teams and partners
• Lead response and course-correction for project challenges, applying collaborative, flexible, and practical thinking as need and in coordination with project teams
• Ensure the execution of administrative processes related to the above, including managing timelines and work plans, managing budgets, submitting and tracking project contracts and payments, reporting, and coordinating communication with multidisciplinary teams.

External representation
• Elevate the profile of Sesame Workshop's ISI work, both internally and externally
• Help to strategically select and participate in senior forums in ECD/ECE, international development, and other relevant areas
• Help to establish purposeful global partnerships to improve the impact and reach of Sesame programs
• Represent ISI and Sesame Workshop at external events such as conferences, stakeholder meetings, and conference calls.

Management
• Support, mentor, and manage junior staff to effectively deliver on content leadership, project direction, and new project development responsibilities
• Recruit and manage project consultants, defining their scope of work, managing quality of deliverables, and serving as their liaison with Sesame teams and partners.

Qualifications
• Doctoral degree in International Education, Early Childhood Development, or a related field; or Master's degree with significant corresponding professional experience;
• Expertise in designing programs that build pre-literacy and pre-numeracy skills for early learners in both development and crisis settings
• Minimum of 10-15 years of relevant work experience, 5 in a developing country
• Familiarity with debates, trends and evidence in ECD/ECE and media modalities in low-resource development and crisis contexts
• Familiarity with bi-lateral and multi-lateral donor policies and goals for ECD/ECE
• Willingness to travel to and work in low-resource settings, in line with evolving national and global COVID safety travel guidelines (up to 25%)
• Professional experience in designing and delivering early childhood education, parenting programs, and/or related services in development and/or humanitarian contexts
• Demonstrated cross-cultural communication skills and related competencies
• Demonstrated ability to lead and manage teams and partners
• Demonstrated ability to manage large scale projects and budgets
• Ability to work well individually and as part of a multidisciplinary team
• Ability to multitask; organized
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with excellent attention to detail
• Flexible, creative, solution-oriented thinking
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office, file transfer and sharing technology, and web-based communication and call tools required; familiarity with InDesign and/or Adobe Illustrator a plus
• Commitment to Sesame Workshop's mission and core values.

ISI Department Overview

Sesame Workshop's International Social Impact Department (ISI) develops and implements Sesame's powerful initiatives to serve children and families around the world, in both development and crisis contexts, and builds strong partnerships and coalitions to maximize reach and impact. Building upon the familiarity and appeal of the trusted, beloved Sesame Street characters – and their global counterparts – we create and disseminate unique educational resources and tools for families most in need. Sesame's research-driven initiatives reach many children who would otherwise have little or no access to early childhood education and support all aspects of children's development – including foundational skills, healthy habits, safety and protection, and positive relationships with caregivers. We reach and engage children and the important adults in their families and communities using multiple media platforms and partner strategically to provide direct services in both development and crisis contexts using innovative strategies – from television and radio to digital media, mobile technologies, books, E-books, magazines, classroom materials, teacher/provider training, social media, and more.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Minorities/Females/Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities/Sexual Orientation/Gender Identity

Jobcode: Reference SBJ-dy790k-3-129-39-55-42 in your application.