Head of Learning Assessment and Policy Data (Canada) contract

Position Number: 1CAUIS0102PA

Grade: P-5

Parent Sector: Institute for Statistics (UIS)

Duty Station: Montreal

Job Family: Education

Contract Type: Project Appointment

Duration of contract: 2 years, renewable

Recruitment open to: Internal and external candidates

Application deadline (Midnight Paris Time): 27/02/2026

UNESCO Core Values: Commitment to the Organization, Integrity, Respect for Diversity, Professionalism

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.

1. Strategic Leadership and Programme Direction

• Define and lead the strategic vision, priorities, and work programme for learning assessment and Policy Data at UIS, aligned with SDG 4, UNESCO priorities, and UIS’s Medium-Term Strategy.
• Provide senior technical and managerial leadership to the Learning Assessment and Policy Data team, ensuring coherence across methodological development, country support, research, and global coordination activities.
• Oversee planning, budgeting, performance monitoring, and reporting for the learning assessment and policy data portfolio, ensuring effective use of resources and delivery of results.

2. Global Methodological Leadership and SDG Reporting

• Provide authoritative oversight of global frameworks and standards for learning assessment, including the Global Proficiency Framework (GPF), Minimum Proficiency Levels (MPLs), and reporting methodologies for SDG learning indicators (including SDG 4.1.1 and other relevant global/thematic learning indicators).
• 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 that strengthen cross-national comparability while remaining feasible for national implementation.
• Lead the integration and streamlining of policy data relevant to learning and its determinants across SDG 4 global and thematic indicators, including curriculum, policies, and enabling conditions.

3. Quality Assurance, Validation, and Standard Setting

• Provide overall governance and oversight of validation and quality assurance mechanisms for learning and policy data, including assessment vetting processes and eligibility criteria for SDG reporting.
• Ensure consistency, transparency, and technical integrity in the application of standards related to construct validity, alignment to MPLs, statistical linking, estimation procedures, and sustainability of assessments.
• Promote harmonized terminology, classifications, and metadata standards across learning assessment initiatives and SDG reporting processes.

4. Partnership Management and Global Representation

• Lead high-level engagement with Member States, UN agencies, development partners, donors, assessment organizations, and academic institutions on learning and policy data agendas.
• Represent UIS as the global technical authority on learning assessment and policy determinants in international policy, technical, and governance forums, including GAML and the Education Data and Statistics Commission (EDSC).
• Negotiate and oversee strategic partnerships and funding arrangements, ensuring alignment with UIS standards, priorities, and accountability requirements.

5. Research, Innovation, and Capacity Development

• Set and oversee a strategic research agenda focused on the measurement of policies for learning, psychometric innovation, benchmarking methodologies, and emerging domains of skills, including methodological advances in estimation and data integration.
• Ensure the development of high-quality technical products, tools, and guidance (e.g. linking methodologies, assessment design blueprints, mapping tools, curriculum indicators, and policy-use guidance) that support national and global efforts to improve levels of learning and its measurement.
• Oversee the development of innovative approaches to learning-related SDG 4 policy indicators, including curriculum-based indicators, using state-of-the-art text-as-data methods.
• Provide strategic oversight of capacity development initiatives, including technical assistance to countries and the operationalization of funding mechanisms such as the Virtual Fund for Learning Assessments, with an increased focus on integrated learning-and-policy data systems.
• Strengthen methodologies for linking learning outcomes data with policy and curriculum evidence to support interpretable, actionable monitoring outputs.

6. Advisory and Institutional Contribution

• Advise UIS senior management and UNESCO leadership on trends, risks, and strategic opportunities in learning assessment, policy indicators, and SDG 4 monitoring.
• 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 to strengthen SDG 4 reporting and policy relevance.

• Communication (C)
• Accountability (C)
• Innovation (C)
• Knowledge sharing and continuous improvement (C)
• Planning and organizing (C)
• Results focus (C)
• Teamwork (C)
• Building partnerships (M)
• Driving and managing change (M)
• Strategic thinking (M)
• Making quality decisions (M)
• Managing performance (M)
• Leading and empowering others (M)

For detailed information, please consult the UNESCO Competency Framework.

EDUCATION

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

WORK EXPERIENCE 

• 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.

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

• 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.

LANGUAGES

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

EDUCATION

• Doctorate degree or equivalent.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• 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.

LANGUAGES 

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

UNESCO’s salaries consist of a basic salary and other benefits which may include if applicable: 30 days annual leave, family allowance, medical insurance, pension plan etc. 

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

For full information on benefits and entitlements, please consult our Guide to Staff Benefits.

Please note that all candidates must complete an on-line application and provide complete and accurate information, by the above deadline.

To apply, please visit the UNESCO Careers website. No modifications can be made to the application once submitted. 

The process may include pre-recorded video interviews and/or written assessments, interviews with a Panel, as well as reference checks. In addition, candidates may be requested to provide additional information which may be pertinent to the position’s qualifications.  

Please note that all candidates, whether selected or not, will be informed of the outcome of their application in due course. 

Short-listed candidates may also be added to Talent Pools; subject to their consent (i.e. Data Privacy Statement).

• UNESCO recalls that paramount consideration in the appointment of staff members shall be the necessity of securing the highest standards of efficiency, technical competence and integrity.
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• UNESCO is committed to achieving and sustaining equitable and diverse geographical distribution, as well as gender parity among its staff members in all categories and at all grades. Furthermore, UNESCO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Candidates from non- and under-represented Member States (last update here) are particularly welcome and strongly encouraged to apply.
• lndividuals from minority groups and indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply.
• All applications will be treated with the highest level of confidentiality.
• Geographical mobility is required for staff members appointed to UNESCO’s international posts.
• In the event that your candidature is retained for an interview, you will be required to provide, in advance, a scanned copy of the degree(s)/diploma(s)/certificate(s) required for this position. UNESCO only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU)/UNESCO. The list can be accessed through the link: https://www.whed.net
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