Head of Secondary Years, Career Related Programme
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Location:
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Salary:$125,999 - $210,000 / YEAR
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Job type:FULL_TIME
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Posted:3 hours ago
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Category:Education
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Deadline:23/12/2025
JOB DESCRIPTION
Job type: Fulltime, Permanent
Location: IB (International Baccalaureate®) Global Centre, The Hague (NL), Cardiff (UK), Singapore (SG) or Washington DC (US)
Salary negotiable depending on experience:
NL (HG18): EUR 99.951-124.939 annually
UK (HG18): GBP 71.820-89.775 annually
US (HG18): USD 132.758-165.948 annually
SG (HG18): SGD 163.792-204.741 annually
A relocation package and work permit sponsoring will only be offered by relocation to The Netherlands
Head of Secondary Years, Career Related Programme in the School Systems Design department of the Education Office leads the design, development and adaptation of IB’s secondary years pathways for Career-related, future applied or technical/ vocational models, without limiting learners’ post-secondary options.
This role ensures that the learners whose trajectories lead toward technical education, workforce entry, entrepreneurship, further education or university, gain meaningful and transferable competencies and skills which are supported by purposeful and context-sensitive school models. The role champions equity of opportunity by ensuring these pathways are as aspirational, respected and humanizing as university bound ones. The role is also responsible for leading the strategy and execution of (at least) one functional area of strategic importance for the Education Office. The service promise of this leader and their team is to act as a catalyst for school and school system success in implementing education reforms by providing expert guidance for and leading in the design of appropriate education solutions.
This highly experienced educational leader will lead the Secondary years (Career related/Applied/ Technical or Vocational pathway) school systems design. They will be responsible for aligning learning, teaching and assessment coherently with the other pathways for impactful learning and teaching in IB schools and school systems. The post holder must possess the ability to think about different kinds of schools, learning spaces and how they can engage with the IB.
The post holder develops and executes school systems strategies, policies and processes to ensure that the educational offer reflects the IB educational philosophy, ongoing relevance and competitiveness within the IB’s framework for international education.
Reporting to the Director of School Systems Design, the post holder contributes to the overall strategic direction of the Education Office and supports the implementation of office initiatives. This includes writing management reports and papers on both thought leadership and school systems initiatives or activities and representing the IB at external events and meetings.
The post holder also provides leadership and guidance to the team on the strategic level. This includes oversight of projects related to the educational offer, building, guiding and inspiring project teams to execute strategic plans. In addition, the role represents, communicates and collaborates with colleagues in the Education Office leadership teams and in different offices / departments across the organization as well as with external stakeholders to further growth.
The role also has financial accountability for the educational offer budgets.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the school systems design for Career related/ Applied/ Vocational/ Technical pathway
- Design school authorization and evaluation requirements for secondary years schools, for these pathways
- Reviewing existing offerings and reimagining the Career related Pathway in collaboration with the Student Learning Design department and Schools & Government Partnerships Office.
- Lead the redesign of IB’s secondary years (Career related) pathway to support:
- Adaptive formats that expand participation without compromising quality.
- Recognition across diverse national systems and national qualification frameworks
- Pathways that are responsive to both elite and under-resourced contexts
- Co-create requirements, tools and supports for schools (public, private, low-resourced, hybrid, online, emerging alternative models, etc) to adopt IB education in localized and scalable ways.
- Take feedback from local team of the Schools & Government Partnerships office to inform redesign and adaptability.
- Ensure the pathway integrates disciplinary and interdisciplinary learning, competency development, core learning experiences (e.g., inquiry, research, service), SEL, intercultural understanding, that are aligned with career or work readiness standards globally, while allowing local adaptation.
- Use school data and student outcomes to iterate and improve.
- Collaborate with Student Learning Design on secondary years frameworks (cognition, well-being)
- Embed inclusive design feature that support diverse learners.
- Prototype and Pilot innovative approaches in collaboration with Schools & Government Partnerships Office
- Line manage the Secondary Years (Career related) team
- Enhance the Career related pathways.
- Innovate modular, digital, or interdisciplinary models in alignment with career/ work-readiness expectations by partnering with Schools & Government Partnerships Office and its local team.
- Integrate coherence across disciplines, core components (Reflective Project, Community Engagement, Language & Cultural Studies; and Personal & Professional Skills), and earlier years’ learning trajectories.
- Collaborate with Schools & Government Partnerships Office and its local team to enable flexibility and mobility between academic and applied pathways.
- Support cross-program continuity in assessment philosophy, learner agency, and global contexts.
- Creates prototypes, pilots, or scalable models for systemic education reforms
Requirements and Qualifications
- Master’s degree, preferably in Education related discipline
- Significant years’ experience working in the Diploma Programme
- A proven track record of demonstrating a high level of leadership, organizational management and interpersonal skills
- Minimum 10 years of teaching and administration/ leadership experience, preferably in an international context P
- Proficiency to analyze data and present insights to deepen understanding of school needs and translate into action
- Excellent communication skills with a high level of spoken and written competence in English and preferable at least one other language ideally French or Spanish)
- Lead change and innovation in a dynamic multicultural cross-functional environment
- Strategy mindset and able to translate this into actions
- Project management
- Budget management
Applications will be accepted until 23 December 11.55pm CET 2025.
We are committed to building a working environment that values respect, diversity, and compassion. The International Baccalaureate is proud to be an equal opportunities employer and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified applicants.
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