IRC: MEL Lead for the FCDO GOAL education programme (Pakistan)

About this opportunity

The IRC is preparing a bid for FCDO's Girls and Out-of-School Children: Action for Learning (GOAL) Long-Term Technical Assistance contract in Pakistan. The contract runs up to 38 months (December 2026 to January 2030) with a budget of up to £13 million. It strengthens provincial education systems in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, with a limited scope in Sindh.

The MEL Lead is a proposed core team position responsible for the programme's MEL strategy: data systems, evidence use, logframe management, Value for Money tracking, baselines, and building government MEL capacity.

Important: this position is contingent on IRC winning the bid.

Requirements

• Advanced degree in M&E, statistics, social science, education or a related field
• Senior MEL leadership experience (about 8–10+ years) on FCDO-funded or similar complex programmes
• Expertise in adaptive and developmental MEL (e.g. Developmental Evaluation, outcome mapping, process tracing)
• Strong experience with logframes, Theories of Change and VfM frameworks
• Experience with KPI-linked payment structures and FCDO reporting
• Experience with education data such as EMIS, the Annual School Census and ASER (strongly preferred)
• Excellent English; Urdu or regional languages are an advantage

How to apply

Apply through IRC Careers (Workday) using the link below. Deadline: 30 November 2026.

Prime Horizon tip

This is a rare senior MEAL role in Pakistan's education sector. Bid roles are judged on your CV as it will appear in the proposal, so make your FCDO experience, adaptive MEL methods and Punjab/KP education data experience obvious on page one.