Country MEL Support Manager

Job description

**The Role:** The primary purpose of the role is to oversee and manage a portfolio of countries, providing professional MEL support and guidance across the three British Council Cultural Engagement Sectors (Education; English and Schools Education; and Arts). The postholder will be the point of contact for MEL advice for programmes within a portfolio of countries which align, as best as possible, with your own time-zone. The postholder will be the “go-to authority” on MEL approaches, methods, resourcing, standards and quality. They will recommend when evaluation activity is needed, when a programme is evaluable and will help to plan annual evaluation needs. They will hand-hold the end-to-end process of commissioning evaluation suppliers, including when to commission via the Evaluation team’s Global Framework of suppliers. They will support the provision of insights within their portfolio of countries for stakeholder engagement and business development purposes, alongside colleagues in the Research and Insight team. The postholder will support MEL capability and capacity development within their portfolio of countries, particularly in relation to impact monitoring. They will ensure that impact monitoring asks designed centrally for global programmes are understood and adhered to. They will provide technical support on monitoring and evaluation to teams delivering partnership and contract-funded work, and will support any contract-funded MEL managers within their portfolio of countries. The secondary purpose is to support the Senior Evaluation Alignment and Standardisation leads with other ad hoc MEL support requests and enable the Strategic MEL managers to access data and participants to inform cross-cutting studies and deep-dives. **Accountabilities:** Strategy and planning - Supports the development of monitoring and evaluation plans for grant, partnership and contract-funded programmes, ensuring they are strategically aligned, appropriately designed, appropriately resourced, and timed to have greatest impact on stakeholders. - Supports the development of evaluation plans and priorities for your portfolio of countries Leadership & management - Plays a lead role in the design and implementation of high-quality evaluations to articulate and drive organisational impact - Plays a key role in supporting the development of wider evidence within the EEL team and for the portfolio of countries under your responsibility Programme Management - Makes authoritative professional recommendations about the focus and content of evaluation plans and programmes. - Identifies new approaches and/or techniques which enhance the efficiency, quality and wider impact of monitoring, evaluation and learning processes Subject expertise - Represents the British Council as a recognised, credible authority in monitoring, evaluation and learning, including with key external stakeholders - Builds and maintains external networks to access, absorb and apply professional best practice back into the area of responsibility Business Development - Drafts monitoring and evaluation components of programme proposals within agreed corporate schedules of delegation. Relationship & stakeholder management - Supports complex or key stakeholder/partner relationships, particularly with global programme and country leadership, to support the achievement of agreed targets over both the short- to medium-term. - Monitors, evaluates and reports on the effectiveness of stakeholder management strategies over time and adapts approaches as necessary to achieve required targets. Proactively shares experience and insights. **Role-specific knowledge and experience:** **Essential:** - Experience of design and delivery of independent evaluations within a programme delivery organisation and/or as part of an agency delivering for clients. - Experience with different methodological approaches applied in the design and delivery of evaluation projects. - Operational experience of implementing the collection of monitoring data, assessing data quality characteristics and resolving challenges to quality. - Understanding of MEL standards of major funders of British Council programmes, particularly the FCDO (or other UK Government departments) and the EU and/or equivalent overseas donors and funders - Experience in providing extensive input to the design of MEL strategies for new business proposals. - Experience in procurement and managing suppliers of evaluation consultancy work. - Experience designing theories of change, outcomes, results frameworks and indicators. - Experience designing data collection tools, including impact monitoring surveys **Desirable:** - Delivery of work across different international contexts and working with and through diverse international teams. - Competence in the use of a data management/ analysis software (SPSS; Stata; SAS; Excel; Power Bi/ Power Apps) - Operational experience in digital survey platforms and digital data collection. - Operational experience of data quality assurance processes. **Role Specific Skills:** **Language Requirements:** The British Council systems and global processes operate in English. Written and verbal proficiency in English is required. **Education:** - First degree or Master's Degree in a social science or equivalent subject is desirable. ***Closing Date:****Applications will close on **26th October 2026**at 21:59 UK Time* *You must have the legal right to work in Malaysia at the time of application.* **Important Information:** - **Pay Band: 8** - **Remuneration: MYR 12,821 Monthly Gross** - **Country/Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia** - **Contract Type:** Indefinite (Permanent) **Requirements:** Please note that candidates must have the pre-existing, legal right to work in Malaysia. Mobility/relocation/visa sponsoring support will not be provided. British Council supports working in new ways, such as hybrid working, subject to full approval by line management and conditional upon our ability to provide the appropriate level of service. This may not be appropriate for all roles, but can be explored at the interview.