It is a critical time for Jordan and the Middle East. Amid large turmoil and crises of unprecedented scale, it is imperative to prepare for a rebuilding stage in the region’s development. In that light, it is critical that entities focused on education and development clearly recognize and understand “what works”.
To this end, QRF is developing an evidence and evaluation strategy and have established this position to lead the formulation, operationalization, and execution of this strategy.

Position Description:
QRF is looking for a highly motivated, creative, entrepreneurial, intellectual, dynamic problem- solver to join as Director of Evidence and Evaluation. The Director will lead on refining and implementing QRF’s evidence and evaluation strategy. The role will require recruiting to and building on the existing team – meaning candidates must relish the opportunity to teach and develop staff. The role of the director will cover three main areas:

1. Piloting and evaluating education interventions
2. Supporting the national education data system in Jordan
3. Building capacity and monitoring results of QRF affiliations

1. Piloting and evaluating education interventions:
It is critical that entities focused on education and development clearly recognize and understand “what works”. QRF aims to be the principal regional resource and incubator for new and innovative ideas and initiatives in education. We seek to develop or localize evidence-based, impactful, scalable and sustainable interventions.
The Director will lead QRF’s work in piloting and evaluating educational interventions. This will involve leading a portfolio of projects using formative research, feasibility studies, process evaluation and impact evaluations using experimental and quasi-experimental methods.

2. Supporting the national education data system in Jordan:
QRF seeks to ensure that Jordan’s education system has sufficient data to assess where and why learning gaps exist and to track progress over time. High-quality data is essential for this. The Director will need to develop a strategy on how QRF can best support the Ministry of Education and the King’s office to ensure that the requisite data systems are in place and are delivering high-quality robust data.

3. Building capacity and monitoring results of QRF affiliations:
The Queen Rania Foundation plays a coordinating and oversight role for eight independent NGOs affiliated with Her Majesty Queen Rania. The Director will lead on developing the capacity of the M&E teams in QRF affiliations to assess the performance of their projects and improve performance and achieve results. It is also envisaged that the Director will oversee the setup of a centralized data system for QRF to track the results of all eight affiliations.
The role necessitates a strong focus on Jordanian capacity building and knowledge transfer. It is a full-time position and can be based in either London or Amman. If based in London, the candidate will be expected to travel to Jordan at least once a month for a period of approximately one week and to be in regular contact with the team on the ground in Jordan.

Required Qualifications, Skills and Competencies:
1. Ph.D. in Economics, Statistics, International Development, Sociology, Anthropology or any other related degree preferred. Master’s holders, MPAs, MPPs with a significant and
solid track record considered.
2. Significant professional experience of progressively increasing responsibility, including leadership and management experience in international development, business, and/or
government, experience managing a portfolio of projects, and at least 2 years living and working in a developing country
3. A good understanding of different approaches to evaluation, such as theory-based, experimental, process and mixed method evaluations.
4. A track record in managing and leading evaluation assignments for a range of scenarios within a major aid agency, consultancy, academia or NGO; educational sector experience preferred.
5. Hands on experience collecting and analyzing data and managing large-scale data collection efforts.
6. Exceptional people leadership skills and a proven track record or managing and nurturing teams of seven or more staff.
7. Demonstrated success in providing training and capacity building in data collection, analysis, and evaluation approaches.
8. Experience in low or middle-income countries required. Experience in the Arab region is preferred.
9. Strong analytical, facilitation, presentation and writing skills.
10. Good communication and interpersonal skills, e.g. proven ability to deal with staff, collaborators and partners from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures.
11. In-depth familiarity with and well-networked within the evidence and evaluation international development community, including staying abreast of development in the community and having strong relationships with organizations and individuals involved in, e.g., evidence generation, evidence synthesis, evidence dissemination, development of tools to enable more evidence-driven work, policy/advocacy and technical assistance around the use of evidence in policy making and program design.
12. Professional fluency in written and spoken English. Strong command of Arabic (dialect and modern standard Arabic) preferred but not required.