Position Summary
Teach For All is looking for a strategic, proactive, and highly organised individual to join the Asia Pacific team as our regional Chief of Staff. This role sits at the centre of our programmatic operations in Asia Pacific, and is responsible for managing the systems, communications, and administrative tasks that support the Head of Region and the Asia Pacific regional team in their work with Teach For All partners and prospective partners across the region, and in their collaboration with Teach For Al’s global teams. This position works very closely with the Asia Pacific Head of Region and Senior Director of Program to enable effective coordination . The right candidate will demonstrate exceptional organization, communication, problem-solving, and project management skills.
The core responsibilities of this position involve designing and managing the operational and programmatic systems that support the work, progress, and collaborations of the Asia Pacific Head of Region, regional team, and partners. The Chief of Staff maintains an overall picture of progress across the region towards Teach For All’s vision and intended outcomes, and drives all the back-end coordination, communication, and collaboration routines and systems that enable learning and adaptation along the way. Overall, this is a critical support role, central to enabling the Asia Pacific Head of Region, team and region to work effectively together through exceptional strategic planning and operational delivery, organizational management, and collaboration within and across teams.
The Asia Pacific Regional Team
The Teach For All Asia Pacific team is a regionally distributed team with team members located across different countries in the region, currently including Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Singapore and New Zealand. The team works across one of the largest, most diverse and dynamic regions in the Teach For All global network, with 15 partner organizations in the following countries (in addition to several more prospective partner organizations in the pipeline): Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, India, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. In the regional Chief of Staff role, you will be at the centre of a team that is working to grow and accelerate the impact of this community of partners, and generate awareness and support for Teach For All’s vision and mission in the wider region.
Outcomes
The Chief of Staff, Asia Pacific will work towards the following:
- Progress towards Teach For All’s vision, intended outcomes, and priorities in the Asia Pacific Region (with ownership over the systems and tools we use to reflect on this progress and make adjustments to address opportunities and gaps).
- Successful delivery of operational and communications systems that support the regional team to plan and execute high impact engagements with Teach For All partners and other key stakeholders across the region, including systems for stewarding effective cross-team collaboration with other Teach For All regional and global teams.
- Complete and updated team knowledge management systems, currently including Google drive and documentation, Salesforce, and related integrated tools to ensure team, colleagues, and partners have access to accurate, current information about our shared work.
- Positive partner survey outcomes and qualitative indicators that demonstrate overall baseline partner awareness, partnership plans, and complete access to Teach For All network information and opportunities across the region.
- Positive team culture outcomes as measured by staff survey results with a particular emphasis on the extent to which staff feel they have the tools and systems they need to be successful, and the extent to which they feel connected to and supported by their peers.
- Accuracy in forecasting and management of the regional team budget that allow for informed budget allocation decisions that are strategic and resourceful given the teams’ goals, priorities and context and avoids significant under/overspend.
Responsibilities
The Chief of Staff is responsible for:
Strategic Support & Project Delivery (30%)
- Serves as the ‘centre’ of the Asia Pacific team, working closely with the Head of Region to develop and execute strategy in alignment with regional and global priorities
- Works closely with the Head of Region to track overall regional progress, team and regional planning, and to coordinate between global and regional priorities and plans
- Supports the Head of Region to align the Head of Region & the APAC team’s time and resourcing with regional priorities, needs, and one-off events and activities
- Supports the Head of Region in setting and tracking progress towards regional and global priorities, managing up and out to the rest of the team to support the region in making progress towards objectives and goals
- Collaborates closely with the Senior Director, Program to ensure effective alignment and coordination in programmatic work-streams between regional and global teams
- Serves as a liaison between the Asia Pacific regional team, internal regional and global teams, and partners where necessary for streamlining and coordination
- Supports budget planning and management, monitors and analyses regional spend and supports the Head of Region in making decisions and recommendations on budget allocations when faced with competing priorities
- Supports the Head of Region to align the Head of Region & the APAC team’s time and resourcing with regional priorities, needs, and one-off events and activities
Systems & Operations Management (20%)
- Designs and maintains systems that support effective and smooth operations of the regional team, shared knowledge, information and data management
- Develops and delivers on team communication systems to steward alignment and project coordination (e.g. scope & sequence of team calls, asynchronous tools for communication and project coordination)
- Supports team-wide administrative needs and develops systems for streamlining and improving efficiency and alignment
- Maintains visibility across projects, engagements, and communications happening across the team and region, proactively stewarding opportunities for integration
- Builds and maintains systems that support knowledge and resource sharing within the Asia Pacific team, with partners and with other teams in the Teach For All organization
- Responds to requests for information and proactively shares information strategically with team members and partners
Data Analysis & Integration (20%)
- Analyses regional data, reports trends and collaborates with the Head of Region and regional team to make data driven adjustments to regional strategy
- Maintains big picture view of Asia Pacific regional needs, data, short and long term plans of support and evidence of impact
- Leverages global and regional data and surveys to inform regional and partner engagement priorities and planning
- Drives analysis of regional team data on organizational strength and works closely with the Head of Region and team to adjust internal strategy accordingly
Culture & Communication (20%)
- Supports the Head of Region with team hiring, and leads on the planning process for onboarding new Asia Pacific team members
- Leads on development and execution of culture building strategies and activities for the team and region, integrated into team calls, communications and gatherings
- Manages regional team calls and the regional team calendar, developing and delivering on a scope and sequence to support team learning and collaboration
- Supports the Head of Region & Senior Director, Program to draft and send regional communications to the Asia Pacific community (internal, partner-facing, and external)
- Elevates the Asia Pacific team and region’s voice and stories of progress in cross-team and in global communications and engagements
- Works closely with other regional and global team operational leads, proactively contributing learnings from the Asia Pacific region for cross-team learning and collaboration globally
Special Projects & Events (10%)
- Provides support on an as-needed basis for Teach For All events and activities taking place in the Asia Pacific region and for Asia Pacific regional participation in global Teach For All events, including but not limited to vendor management (e.g. interpretation and technology needs specific to the region), support with flights and visas, inter-team and inter-regional coordination and communication
- Provides support for special projects such as presentation development and prep for one-off speaking engagements, support and coordination related to visits and events taking place in the region.
The Chief of Staff reports to the Head of the Asia Pacific Region, and collaborates closely with members of the Asia Pacific regional team and with other regional and global teams at Teach For All.
As the ideal candidate, you will bring:
- At least five years of progressively responsible and relevant professional experience
- Passion and strong belief in Teach For All’s mission and approach
- Strong project management skills, including the ability to handle and effectively prioritize, multi-task, and build systems to increase efficiency and meet deadlines
- Strong experience in providing strategic support including the ability to think critically, anticipate and manage challenges, identify trends, analyze data and problem solve effectively
- Proactive, highly independent and responsible, even when confronted with ambiguity
- A team player with strong ability to build relationship amongst diverse stakeholders with different working styles, orientations and preferences, and to communicate effectively in a way that is sensitive to cultural and ideological diversity
- Ability to demonstrate sound judgement, taking into consideration data, relationships, and context
- Excellent writing and communication skills. English fluency required. Fluency in other regional languages is a plus.
- Ability to work in a highly virtual & global setting, flexible in thinking, and adapt to new information and open to change
- Ability to work in diverse global environments with cross-cultural competence, commitment to equity and building inclusive practices and culture
What Teach For All Offers:
- Commitment to cultivating a culture in which all staff members feel they belong, are valued for their contributions, and have an impact on our organization’s progress
- Professional and personal enriching experiences that will allow ample opportunities to make a positive impact to the work of Teach For All and beyond
- Comprehensive benefits package designed for your well-being and work-life needs
- All roles are 100% remote, in some locations we offer the option for in-office collaboration
- Generous time off and flexible work arrangements
- And much more!
Compensation
Salary for this position is competitive and dependent on country of hire and prior work experience and includes a comprehensive benefits package.
Work authorization
This position is not eligible for employment visa sponsorship. All candidates must possess permanent local work authorization/permit in order to be considered.
Travel and Hours
All work is delivered virtually. Some travel expected, roughly 5-10%, mostly within the region with occasional travel out-of-region to attend Teach For All global conferences. Given that we work across different time zones, some non-traditional hours for early or later calls are an expectation of this role.
Application Instructions
If this opportunity sounds like the next best step in your career, please submit your resume or curriculum vitae and a one-page letter of motivation (in English) directly online. Your letter should summarize motivations for your application and how your skills and experience align with the terms of this opportunity. We look forward to learning about you and your passion for ensuring educational opportunity for all!
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Therefore, candidates are encouraged to apply at their earliest convenience.
About Teach For All
Teach For All is a global network of independent, locally led and governed partner organizations and a global organization that works to accelerate the progress of the network. Each network partner recruits and develops promising future leaders to teach in their nations’ under-resourced schools and communities and, with this foundation, to work with others, inside and outside of education, to ensure all children are able to fulfill their potential.
Teach For All’s global organization works to increase the network’s impact by supporting the development of new organizations; fostering network connectivity and learning; providing coaching and consulting; and enabling access to global resources for the benefit of the network.
Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusiveness
We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organization that inspires individuals of all backgrounds – across nationalities, races, ethnicity, religions, political views, economic backgrounds, sexual orientations, physical disabilities, languages, ages, genders and prior experiences – to bring their full selves to the work of ensuring educational opportunity for all.
In order to maximize our effectiveness in fulfilling Teach For All’s mission, we also feel it is important to focus on increasing representation and inclusiveness with respect to two dimensions in particular: we prioritize diversity of geography because this can help us quickly understand and connect with the diverse cultures and geographies of the world. We also prioritize increasing the representation and inclusiveness of team members who themselves have experienced the inequities we’re working to address by nature of sharing the background (e.g., economic, racial, and ethnic, religious) of the most disadvantaged groups in their countries.
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