INOVASI 3 - School Ecosystem Development Manager

Background:
Indonesia’s Vision 2045 sets the goal for Indonesia to transition from a resource-based economy towards an advanced service, technology, and knowledge-based economy by the centenary of its independence (2045). The 2025-2045 National Long Term Development Plan emphasises the urgency of Indonesia’s human resource development to fully realise 2045 goals.

Faced however with persistent low student performance that is emblematic of a learning crisis, significant improvement in student learning will be required to reach Indonesia’s 2045 goals. Government of Indonesia (GoI) has started an ambitious program of education reforms. Successive education ministers have set out to modernise the education system through reforming the national curriculum and teaching and assessment approaches, to produce citizens with strong foundational skills, open minds, and inclusive values. 

Australia is a long-term supporter of the Indonesian basic education sector, with continuous investments supporting education quality improvements for the past two decades, including through the INOVASI program (Phase 1 2016-2020; Phase 2 2020-2023) that focused on supporting acquisition of literacy and numeracy foundational skills in early grades classrooms; exploring local problems and solutions; and generating evidence to inform government policy development and practices.

This third phase of INOVASI (2024-2027) builds upon the existing program’s approach and lessons learned and takes the focus on the development of foundational skills through to the end of the primary grades. Phase 3 will engage with priority issues of Australia’s development policy: gender equality, effective inclusion of children with a disability, responses to the climate change challenge in education. It will focus on the challenge of policy implementation and the gaps that exist between national policies and practices at district and school levels, and use the well attested-success of INOVASI’s local problem-based approach to continuously support policy development for effective fit between policy and implementation context.

INOVASI Phase 3 is implemented in 25 districts and cities across Indonesia, in the provinces of West Nusa Tenggara, East Nusa Tenggara, North Kalimantan, East Java, West Java, and Maluku. The program also works in Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN).

The Program is implemented by Palladium on behalf of DFAT.

Purpose of the Position:
Strengthening schools as learner-centered, inclusive, and safe institutions requires coherent support across multiple levels of the education ecosystem. INOVASI’s work at the district ecosystem level engages district governments, supervisory systems, education offices, and local institutions to create enabling conditions that support schools. The School Ecosystem Development Manager plays a critical role in ensuring that technical assistance to schools is well-integrated with broader district-level system strengthening efforts.

The School Ecosystem Development Manager is responsible for leading and coordinating INOVASI’s technical specialists to ensure a coherent, integrated approach to strengthening schools as the central focus of Indonesia’s education reform efforts. The Manager will oversee the design, delivery, and monitoring of technical assistance to ensure national frameworks are translated into practice, supports schools in improving teaching, leadership, school culture, and inclusive learning environments, and ensures learning from implementation informs broader education system strengthening efforts. The Manager will ensure that technical assistance to schools is coherently aligned with INOVASI’s district ecosystem strengthening work, recognizing that sustainable school improvement depends on supportive district-level policies, leadership, supervision, and capacity.

Working with children
Is this position likely to come into contact with children?   ☒ Yes                          ☐ No

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the Deputy Program Director – Education Ecosystem and Subnational Management, and technical direction and oversight of the Program Director, the School Ecosystem Development Manager will:

Provide strategic leadership and coordination to INOVASI’s team of technical specialists (Literacy, Digital Solution and Numeracy, Character Education, and Educational Leadership).As directed by Deputy Director Educational Ecosystems and Subnational Implementation, ensure that technical support to provincial teams especially the education coordinators, subnational partners is coherent, responsive, and aligned with program priorities and guiding notes, and evolving government policies.Foster cross-specialist collaboration and joint problem solving to address complex school-level challenge to inform policy dialogue, national engagement, and program-wide strategy.Oversee the development, adaptation, and quality assurance of technical frameworks, tools, training packages, facilitation approaches, and learning materials developed by the specialists.Ensure that technical interventions reflect INOVASI’s adaptive, locally led, problem-driven approach and are informed by evidence, context realities, and government priorities, and led by INOVASI’s Guiding Notes and other relevant strategies.Facilitate the integration of cross-cutting themes, including GEDSI and climate change responsiveness, into all technical areas of school ecosystem strengthening.Support the Program Director and Deputy Directors in national level engagement processes related to curriculum reform, teacher development, leadership strengthening, and character education.Maintain strong working relationships with key government counterparts (MoE, MoRA, LPTKs, BGPs, Pusbangkom, and others), ensuring that INOVASI’s technical assistance is aligned, relevant, and demand-driven.Work closely with the Performance and Learning team to ensure appropriate monitoring and learning frameworks are in place to capture school-level implementation progress and outcomes.Contribute to six-monthly reporting, DFAT reporting, and documentation of lessons learned and emerging evidence.Maintain strong internal coordination and communication with national and subnational teams.Support capacity development of technical specialists and broader program staff in school ecosystem approaches and corresponding topics such as foundational skills, leadership, and character education.Represent INOVASI in relevant meetings, forums, and technical discussions.Other tasks as reasonably required by the Deputy Program Director – Education Ecosystems and Subnational Management

Qualifications and Experience:
The School Ecosystem Development Manager will possess the following qualifications and experience:

An advanced degree in education, education leadership, or a relevant field. Substantial direct experience working in primary-level schools is highly desirable.At least 7 years of demonstrated successful experiences in managing and implementing education development programStrong expertise in one or more of the following: school leadership, literacy/numeracy/character education teaching, whole-school development, curriculum development, or digital learning.Solid understanding of Indonesia’s education system, policies, institutional architecture, and reform agendas.Demonstrated ability to integrate multiple thematic areas into coherent programmatic strategies to improve school-level practice.Experience working collaboratively with Indonesian government ministries (MoE and MoRA), subnational governments, schools, and teacher training institutions.Strong facilitation, mentoring, and capacity development skills.Demonstrated ability to navigate policy-practice gaps and support system actors to keep school-level outcomes as the central focus.Strong interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills.Fluency in Bahasa Indonesia and strong working proficiency in English.

INOVASI encourages applications from individuals of all backgrounds, including persons with disabilities, and others from underrepresented groups.

Application closes 30 July at 23:59, Jakarta Time

INOVASI has zero tolerance for child abuse and exploitation. All successful candidates will be required to adhere to our Child Protection Policy and will be subject to background checks as a condition of employment.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.
Women are encouraged to apply