The selection of a Senior Coordinator for the Education Modernization Office (EMO)

Terms of Reference: Education Modernization Office – Senior Coordinator Background The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has embarked on extensive and ambitious reforms in 2022, by launching three pathways to modernization: political, economic, and administrative. Two of the three pathways, the Economic Modernization Vision (EMV) and the Public Sector Modernization (PSM), prioritize reforming the education sector to better prepare local talent to meet future skill requirements and enhance quality of life. To actualize this vision, the Public Sector Modernization Roadmap has specifically addressed restructuring the education sector under its “organizational structure and governance” pillar. The roadmap proposes centralizing educational policy-making alongside planning, programming, and educational services to support citizens’ lifelong learning trajectories across all phases - from early childhood development and education to primary and secondary education, higher education, and technical and vocational education and training (TVET). This will be done through establishing the Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development (MoEHRD), which will have a broader mandate, integrating the mandates of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and partial mandates of other stakeholders in the ecosystem. The Government of Jordan has received financing from the World Bank through “The Modernizing Education, Skills, and Administrative Reforms” (MASAR) Program, which became effective in September 2024 and will continue until 2029. MASAR is a transformative, system-wide reform initiative anchored in Jordan’s EMV, and its operation is designed to support the Ministry of Education (which is the implementing agency) in addressing foundational bottlenecks in access, quality, and relevance of education, with a dual emphasis on equity and efficiency. The operation aims to strengthen institutional capacity while enabling measurable improvements in learning outcomes and employability, particularly through early childhood education and labor-market-aligned TVET. To drive and coordinate the transition of the education ecosystem, the Education Modernization Office (EMO) has been recently launched as part of Jordan’s broader public sector reform. It is a dedicated governmental unit established to oversee, coordinate, and drive the implementation of large-scale institutional reforms within the education sector. It functions as the central engine for alignment, execution, and coordination to ensure reforms are delivered effectively and in line with Jordan’s Public Sector Modernization Roadmap. The EMO provides central oversight, coordination, and governance to support the restructuring of the education ecosystem; ensures strategic alignment across mandates and systems; oversees change management and capacity-building efforts; facilitates evidence-based decision-making; and provides technical and operational support across legal, HR, operations, and policy domains to enable effective implementation. Job Overview The Senior Coordinator will provide strategic oversight to ensure coherence, monitoring, and alignment of all education modernization/ integration activities across the various functions, ensuring that the EMO operates as a unified structure delivering on reform commitments. This role ensures interdependencies are tracked, milestones achieved, and risks escalated when needed. The position holder will oversee and coordinate the outputs of representative functions to ensure integrated and comprehensive reporting across all efforts. This role will serve as the main support to the EMO in coordinating all aspects of the integration process including legal alignment, operating model transformation, organizational change implementation, employee transfers, policy harmonization and technology system integration. The position holder will ensure all activities are being executed through third party vendors and in alignment with government regulations and procurement systems. This senior role requires political acumen, strong governance expertise, and the ability to align diverse stakeholders around complex reform priorities. Key Responsibilities Strategic Oversight & Alignment

• Support the EMO Director in managing and aligning education modernization and integration activities across all functions.
• Lead the efforts of maintaining and regularly updating the Integration Master Plan, ensuring it reflects milestones, dependencies, and deliverables.
• Coordinate and align with other functional leads on progress, and updates regularly.
• Track overall progress and ensure the master plan acts as the main document for the EMO, ministry teams, donors, and stakeholders.
• Identify and escalate misalignments, risks, or bottlenecks to EMO Director with proposed solutions.
• Lead the coordination of day-to-day operations, ensuring smooth execution of activities and timely response to ad-hoc requests from stakeholders.
• Facilitate coordination and communication across EMO committees, steering bodies, and task forces.
• Ensure the documentation of ministerial and committee meetings, track decisions, and ensure timely implementation of action items.
• Support the EMO Director in providing clear guidance to ministry teams to address concerns and promote a culture of collaboration.
• Support leadership in embedding values of change, collaboration, and motivation, acting as a role model for professional conduct.
• Lead the management of contractual and administrative aspects of external vendors (e.g., PR agency), ensuring compliance with EMO processes.
• Oversee onboarding and orientation of new EMO staff and secondees, ensuring familiarity with EMO governance, processes, and culture.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Support the EMO director as needed in engagement with ministries, development partners and the Prime Ministry.
• Lead the preparation of briefs, talking points, and reports for high level engagements as per guidance received from the EMO Director.
• Support the EMO Director in facilitating structured communication with ministries, development partners, the Prime Ministry and any other stakeholders.
• Support EMO Director in stakeholder engagement and fund management, including preparation of briefs, inputs, and follow-up actions.
• Ensure maintaining a stakeholder engagement log and drive proactive and consistent communication.
• Coordinate EMO’s participation in stakeholder meetings and forums, ensuring outcomes are documented and acted upon.

Monitoring & Reporting

• Prepare and maintain accurate and regular reports and memos that track transformation progress, stakeholders’ updates, ensuring timely delivery, data integrity, and clarity in both languages.
• Translate complex information and progress updates into PowerPoint presentations for internal and external stakeholders including the EMO Director, Steering Committees, and senior leadership on regular basis and as required.
• Ensure proper documentation of progress, risks, lessons learned, and best practices across all functions.
• Define and oversee Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for integration progress and EMO office effectiveness.
• Produce consolidated dashboards and reports to enable evidence-based decision-making by the Minister, EMO Director, and leadership committees.
• Document and continuously improve EMO processes, templates, and workflows, ensuring they are consistently applied across teams.
• Promote a culture of transparency, accountability, and continuous improvement within the EMO.
• Lead the development of knowledge-sharing systems to preserve institutional memory and sustain organizational learning.

Qualifications & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in industrial engineering, public policy and administration, business analytics, or any related field.
• Minimum 12+ years of experience in consulting and/ or program/ project management in international corporations or with donors.
• Minimum of three years of experience in large scale integration and restructuring programs, strategic coordination, or public sector reform.
• Demonstrated ability in managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects, preferably within the Jordanian government or donor-funded programs.
• Proven track record in monitoring, reporting and risk management.
• Strong leadership experience in supervising multi-disciplinary and cross functional teams.
• Familiarity with integration frameworks and methodologies.
• Strong familiarity with MS office tools.
• Ability to work in a fast paced and ambiguous environment.
• Excellent communication and facilitation skills in Arabic and English.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Certifications in Public Administration, Business Administration, Project Management, or a related field is a plus.
• Fluent in Arabic and English (spoken and written).

Key Competencies

• Strategic coordination and program management
• Stakeholder engagement and collaboration
• Diplomacy, negotiation and conflict resolution
• Monitoring, evaluation, and milestone tracking
• Risk identification and escalation
• Leadership and team supervision
• Strong communication skills
• Analytical and problem-solving skills
• Issue Resolution
• Change management

Reporting The Senior Coordinator will report directly to the EMO Director. Duration & Location The assignment is considered as a full-time job, starting in January 2026 for a duration of one year, with the possibility of renewal based on performance. The Senior Coordinator will be based in Amman, Jordan. For submission info, Please refer to: https://moe.gov.jo/ar/international-tenders Agency: Ministry of Education Procurement method: Individual Consultant Selection Notice type: Request for Expression of Interest Status: Published Value: 37250.0 USD