Director English and School Education for Nigeria at British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.
 
We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Director English and School Education for Nigeria

Job ID: 47611
Location: Abuja (FCT)
Pay Band: SMP
Duration: 2 year Fixed Term Contract

Purpose of Job

• To lead the English and School Education portfolio of contracts and programmes in Nigeria, to deliver a sustainable, impact driven and income-generating business.
• To ensure the achievement of required financial, impact and quality targets, in accordance with the global framework and country plans.
• To share knowledge, expertise and best practice from the country with the regional and global teams and externally, and vice versa

Accountabilities, Responsibilities and Main Duties
Strategy and planning:

• Liaise closely with leaders in the global pillar, across the region 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.

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.

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

Business development:

• Quality assure and sign-off bids/tenders/proposals appeals, within agreed corporate schedules of delegation.

Consultancy, analysis and problem solving:

• Apply advanced knowledge and technical specialism to solve a range of complex issues across English and School Education.

Commercial and/or financial management:

• Produce and communicate business performance reports, including income, cost management, results and impact of portfolio against KPIs and mitigate identified variances by working with the English and School Education team and relevant business support functions.

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) build the British Council’s corporate account management and business development capability and skill.

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.

Role Specific Knowledge and Experience
Minimum/Essential:

• Able to lead on strategy development for a varied portfolio within the English and/or school education sector.
• Able to lead on the development and implementation of quality standards for English / education.
• 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
• Experience of leading a medium to large team to deliver results against agreed targets.
• Language Requirement: English at CEFR C1/C2 level
• Undergraduate or postgraduate degree in education-related subject area.
• Experience in a leadership role which involves oversight and accountability for leading and/or developing
• 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 Nigeria which deliver outcomes for all boys and girls

Desirable:

• Master's Degree in ELT, Educational Technology, Education and International Development or similar subject area 
• English teaching qualification
• Experience of designing and leading teacher education projects, including online
• Experience of designing and working on projects related to the English language subject area.
• Project management qualification  
• Demonstrable understanding of language in education policies and issues as relevant to the country context

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply

Application Deadline 9th January, 2026.