Job Description

Head English & School Education

Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
Contract Type: Indefinite Contract

Pay Grade: 8

Closing date 23 July 2026 at 21:59 UK Time

Requirements: You must have the legal right to work in Ukraine at the time of application. We are unable to support with visa sponsorship and relocation.

Role Context - About The Team:

Cultural Engagement (CE) is one of two global strategic departments within the British Council. It brings together our work in Arts, Education, English & School Education and research. With a workforce of approximately 1000 globally and an income in 2024/25 of £200 million CE delivers impact through research and insight, sector engagement, policy dialogue and a mixed portfolio of commercial and Grant and Partnership Funded (GPF) work globally. CE delivers much of its work through a suite of global programmes/ programmatic frameworks aligned to the British Council’s strategic outcomes.

The aim of the English and School Education portfolio of work is to support the improvement of teaching and learning in formal and non-formal basic education systems. English and School Education’s work is organised into three globally-operating programmes, each of which has a range of projects all working towards common objectives and outcomes:

• English Connects – open and online professional development opportunities, communities, events and resources for school leaders, teacher educators, teachers and other education professionals
• School Systems – support to international basic education systems and governments, with particular focus on language policy and practice, foundational learning, professional development, equitable access to and utilisation of education technology, and supporting women and girls to access quality education
• Empowerment – building English language, digital and core skills where it empowers disadvantaged girls and young women, displaced people, economically and ethnically marginalised youth and disabled people.

The English and School Education team delivers these programmes in country through policy advice, research and insight, and the delivery of grant, co-funded and full cost recovery contracts and programmes in more than 50 countries in collaboration with UK and international partners, ministries of education, education and donor agencies.

British Council Impact Categorisation: Top 12

Cultural Engagement Income Category: Accelerate

In January 2025 the UK and Ukraine signed a 100 Year Partnership that symbolically builds the connections between the two countries in a number of priority areas for the next century, including across education, social and cultural ties. Ensuring that Ukraine survives the ongoing war as a sovereign state - and that it emerges successfully from the recovery and reconstruction phase to follow - is of vital importance to the UK and Europe’s security and prosperity.

Ukraine is an Accelerate market for our Cultural Engagement programme and the postholder is expected to enhance our grant leverage in country through new partnerships and / or new client funded opportunities. In parallel he / she will support the high-quality implementation of existing contracts and projects in their sector of responsibility. While the context is dynamic, the current needs to which the British Council responds in Arts and Culture, Education and English in Ukraine include:

English: We focus on improving the quality of learning, teaching and assessing English language skills, supporting the Ukrainian Government’s ambitious plans for English language reform. We work with British Embassy Kyiv to support for deliver high quality English language training of Ukrainian civil servants. We continue to scale up UK Examination Services and expand face to face English teaching where possible.

Education: Our work in Higher Education focuses on the development of leadership capabilities across Ukraine’s top universities, supporting the reform agenda of the Ukrainian Government, and with a particular focus on women’s leadership. With support from UK government we connect hundreds of Ukrainian schools with schools in the UK, connecting teachers and pupils (7-14 year olds) to foster cross-cultural understanding and enhance language and communication skills. We work with the Ministry of Youth and Sport and networks of youth centres to upskill young people and empower them to rebuild their communities. Our ambition is to develop new activities in schools and teacher training, significantly boost our portfolio in Non-Formal Education and increase our reach in the Higher Education Sector.

Arts and Culture: Building on the foundations laid by the UK/Ukraine Season of Culture we build relationships between individual artists and institutions across art forms and to strengthen cultural relations between the two countries. We support the continued development of Ukraine’s creative economy by sharing expertise and experience from across the UK. 2027 will mark the 35th year of bilateral relations between the UK-Ukraine, and the 35th anniversary since the British Council was established in Ukraine – the postholder will support the team in the planning and the launch of a refreshed Arts strategy in country.

Our Ukraine team operates from a new office in Kyiv, though the number of colleagues able to work there each day is capped for safety reasons. Some colleagues also work remotely from other parts of Ukraine.

Role Purpose - The Job:

The Head of English and School Education will support the development and delivery of a strategic portfolio of partnerships, programmes, and contracts across mixed funding streams and business models. They will ensure an overall balance of impact and financial sustainability, deliver country outcomes, and support the Country Director to ensure that benefit is achieved in country and for the UK and is suitably communicated.

The role holder with lead the English and School Education (ESE) portfolio of School Systems, Empowerment, and English Connects. They will lead contracts and programmes in-country, providing technical sector expertise, overseeing business development, and delivering quality, compliant implementation of programmes and contracts.

The role holder will share knowledge, expertise, and best practice from the country with the global ESE teams and externally.

Main Accountabilities:

Strategy and planning

• Liaise closely with leaders in the global team and in country to translate overarching corporate strategies into a high impact and profitable programme of activity, ensuring the plan is fully aligned to wider organisational objectives and responds appropriately to local market conditions/opportunities.
• Conduct or commission complex, comparative analyses of historic, current and projected commercial performance data across multiple markets and use this to set a profitable local, annual business plan for English and School Education.
• Translate global programme ambitions and the local business development plan into a set of targets for the English and School Education team. Closely monitor achievement against the plan and intervene to take remedial actions where necessary, liaising with leaders in the global team as appropriate to determine the most appropriate solution to protect both short and medium-term performance.
• Ensure that English and School Education projects bring demonstrable benefit to the UK through partnerships with the UK sector, leveraging grant through partnership funding.

Leadership and management

• Provide inspiring and motivational leadership that role-models the British Council’s values and behaviours, and empowers and enables staff to deliver excellence, whilst promoting equity, diversity and inclusion.
• In close conjunction with other leaders in English and School Education set the vision, direction and annual business development plan for English and School Education in country, to ensure defined business objectives are realised in accordance with the overarching British Council strategy.
• Lead the development/commissioning and implementation of high-quality programmes to build long-term business development/commercial capability and skills.
• Have a formal role in supporting the development of wider strategy within the global English and School Education sector and where appropriate for Cultural Engagement more broadly.
• Provide formal line management to members of the English and School Education team in country involved in achieving business development targets for the relevant areas of the global programme framework.
• Develop, motivate and manage the performance of the English and School Education team, to ensure it creates the right climate to achieve its objectives.

Brand and market positioning

• Build professional and personal networks with relevant opinion-formers, stakeholders and key partners and clients (including from the relevant government ministries and departments) to ensure a clear understanding of their needs. Use those insights to understand current and prospective business development opportunities for the British Council and inform planning/resourcing/investment decisions.
• Track and monitor a range of market and competitor data, to inform the development of new products, services, client groups and ways of working that will maintain the British Council’s competitive edge in the medium-term.
• Collaborate with the marketing and communications team to define the marketing and communications strategy for the English and School Education operation in country, and ensure its effective implementation, to build brand consistency, quality and visibility across the country, the wider region and globally where relevant.

Business development

• Quality assure and sign-off bids/tenders/proposals appeals, within agreed corporate schedules of delegation.
• Within agreed schedules of delegation, take pursuit and contracting decisions based on robust analysis of potential costs/benefits/risks and personal business experience, in consultation with English and School Education global leadership and within country structures.
• Commission expert advice from internal and external specialists as required to enable informed decision-making.
• Lead complex or strategically/commercially important bid presentations/contract or partnership negotiations, as required, ensuring a high-quality approach is taken and an appropriate wider team is in play to support such activity, thereby maximising the chances of success.
• Ensure alignment of opportunities with global English and School Education strategy.

Relationship and stakeholder management

• Lead key account/partner relationships to support the achievement of agreed commercial and impact targets over both the short- to medium-term.
• Monitor, evaluate and report on the effectiveness of account management strategies over time and adapt approaches as necessary to achieve required targets. Proactively share experience and insights (e.g. case studies, R.O.I analyses etc) to build the British Council’s corporate account management and business development capability and skill.
• Coach and mentor more junior colleagues to build their account management effectiveness.
• Build and maintain excellent relationships with internal partners and stakeholders within and across the English and School Education sector, to ensure effective, integrated and joined-up delivery of agreed business objectives as well as pursuit of new opportunities.
• Proactively build and maintain relationships with specific external stakeholders in the UK and in-country English language teaching and education sectors, and develop professional networks.

Professional services / sector expertise

• Oversee the development of a bank of English and School Education data for the country, including trends in the field of English in education systems and data on competitor and partner landscapes. Participate in the insight analysis process associated with this and make recommendations from this which informs and supports discussion on country strategy.
• Oversee the collection and learning from monitoring and evaluation data in line with the theories of change and frameworks set out for each global programme that is active in country.
• Use sector expertise to represent the British Council’s perspective and demonstrate the UK’s capabilities and thought leadership in relevant external forums such as government, NGO and funder led technical working groups and task forces.

Requirements Of The Role:

Minimum/essential

• Experience in a leadership role which involves oversight and accountability for leading and/or developing and delivering capacity building education programmes
• Proven track record and strong experience in designing and managing education-focused programmes in the country where this role is based which deliver outcomes for all boys and girls
• Experience of leading proposals/bids for international development education programmes which deliver results in partnership with national / federal Ministries of Education.
• Good evidence of designing and implementing stakeholder engagement strategies and stakeholder management of diverse groups of stakeholders (including multilateral agencies, donors, government officials, partners, academics)
• Established credibility in the field of education including evidence of thought leadership within the sector

Desirable:

• Demonstrable understanding of language in education policies and issues as relevant to the country context
• Experience of designing and leading teacher education projects, including online
• Experience of designing and working on projects related to the English language subject area

Education

Minimum

• Undergraduate or postgraduate degree in education-related subject area

Desirable

• Master's in ELT, Educational Technology, Education and International Development or similar subject area

Professional qualification and certification

Desirable

• English teaching qualification
• Project management qualification