Who We Are

At IREX we strive for a more just, prosperous, and inclusive world—where individuals reach their full potential, governments serve their people and communities thrive.

But around the globe, persistent poverty, repression, and injustice prevent too many people form achieving their full potential. To address these problems, we focus on people, not on vaccines, roads, or wells. We support individuals and institutions to create change in their own communities—and to create person to person bridges between nations.

IREX works with partners in more than 100 countries in four areas essential to progress: cultivating leaders, empowering youth, strengthening institutions, and increasing access to quality education and information.

IREX is seeking a Director for its Information and Media (I&M) Practice. The Director will be responsible for overseeing or directly managing Learn to Discern (L2D) programs and activities to ensure objectives are met, partner and donor satisfaction is high, and a data and evidence mindset drives innovation and implementation.

They will be responsible for generating lessons learned, gathering evidence of impact, and other data that is needed to ensure the effective tracking and measurement of IREX’s global L2D strategy and program outcomes, adjusting and updating the L2D monitoring, evaluation, and learning framework, and producing timely communications of impact and relevance in the community of donors and organizations that fight disinformation. In this role, they will collaborate closely with and support the efforts of the IREX Center for Applied Learning and Impact.

They will collaborate with all portfolio programs to accelerate learning from all activities and to develop a common framework of metrics and robust impact assessment for their progress and success. They will work across IREX Groups and Units to integrate essential ingredients of Learn to Discern and promising new approaches into other relevant programs and activities at IREX. They will work with professionals across IREX to cultivate a spirit of entrepreneurship and support colleagues in developing new information literacy initiatives in areas of priority to IREX.

We are doers. Our decades of on-the-ground experience help us create greater impact, practical recommend dations, and lasting partnerships.

Are you the next member of our team?

Your Background & Skills

• 15+ years of relevant experience
• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s preferred
• Demonstrated experience in ensuring the successful execution of complex programs that lead to measurable impact
• Demonstrated experience with tools and techniques, including digital ones that help build skills to check the veracity of information and to detect hate speech, emotional manipulation, fake or misleading information
• Demonstrated thought leadership in combating disinformation
• Demonstrated experience in supporting business development efforts, writing proposals for funding, and growing initiatives that promote information literacy and counter disinformation
• Demonstrated experience with developing and implementing metrics for major organizational initiatives
• Demonstrated experience in raising funds from multiple sources –foundations, governmental donors, or others to support initiatives that advance information literacy and counter disinformation
• A record of success as a forward-leaning, entrepreneurial, and adaptive leader within organizations
• Successful record of supervising, designing, and implementing donor-funded technical assistance programs, with strong preference for US government-funded program management experience.
• Proven leadership qualities and excellent management skills
• Experience with financial planning and management of complex, multi-year, overlapping budgets.
• Ability to think and plan strategically in the context of broad organizational goals
• Superb writing, presentation, and communications skills
• Ability to translate strategy into concrete initiatives with the people, revenue, and partners necessary to achieve results
• Demonstrated skills in methodically solving problems in fast-paced environments

Your Daily Tasks

• Accountable for overall workplan development and implementation of L2D programs in their portfolio
• Provide technical and management leadership for L2D projects management framework
• Provide resources for L2D regional and country specific research within the framework for L2D
• Develop program communication protocols.
• Supervise the development of L2D activities, deliverables and interventions.
• Supervise the work of L2D country staff of select projects. Maintain a high-resolution situational awareness and assessment of the risk landscape covering Political, Economy, Social situation, Technology development, Legal situation, and Environment issues.
• Supervise the L2D project technical working groups and expand the research and technical skills within IREX and externally, promotes innovations, generates new learnings, new research fields.
• Ensures high quality team/program deliverables and results are being met, including as necessary participating in monitoring and evaluation efforts.
• Contributes to training components, ensuring cross-pollination between those and result and impact data.
• Develops operational plans and related tracking and assessment tools for the global expansion of the Learn to Discern Initiative.
• Works closely with the Strategy and Development Group to raise awareness of the Learn to Discern Initiative, identifies opportunities for scaling up or replicating the initiative, and helps generate donor support for the efforts to scale it up or expand it.
• Cultivates and grows relationships with government, corporate and foundation donors that are interested in advancing Learn to Discern initiatives nationally and globally, planning at least quarterly visits to, or engagements with, identified donors/markets/locations.
• Develops, manages and grows relationships with thought leaders and trend influencers in initiatives to advance information literacy and counter disinformation.
• Proactively shapes new business opportunities by initiating, creating or co-creating together and marketing new services and products in the Learn to Discern portfolio of activities, establishing new strategic relationships/partnerships, and by building on existing relationships/partnerships/programs.
• Leads and/or authors complex proposal efforts which reflect global best practices, cutting edge approaches, research, and relevant insight; mentors other staff in leading and designing high quality proposals and concept notes.
• Guides the development of a common framework of metrics for all Learn to Discern activities.
• Serves as a focal point for external communications related to information and media literacy, countering disinformation, and effective global responses, including providing high-level representation and support for prominent communications and outreach events and related to the Learn to Discern Initiative.
• Captures lessons and best practices and organizes and manages knowledge management processes and systems related to Learn to Discern initiatives.

IREX will make reasonable accommodations in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments of 2008.

Successful candidates are subject to background screenings

This position is eligible for Telework. The eligible employee is a regular, full-time DC-based staff who works from a worksite outside the DC office for one or more days a week.

This position is/is not ineligible for Immigration Sponsorship

NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE

EOE – Equal Opportunity Employer

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, including disability/vets.