Executive Project Director in Washington, District of Columbia at IREX

Job Announcement

Location: Guatemala

Who We Are

IREX is a global solutions provider that partners with communities and institutions in the United States and around the world to cultivate leaders, expand access to education, and create economic opportunity. With deep expertise, a forward-looking vision, and world-class practices in AI for Education, Future-Ready Workforce, Higher Education Solutions, Leadership Development, and Online Safety, IREX delivers innovative and proven solutions that help people, institutions, and communities thrive in a rapidly changing world.

IREX seeks an Executive Project Director to provide strategic, technical, operational, and representational leadership for assigned programming in Guatemala around digital transformation and information landscapes. The Executive Project Director will oversee selected country-office staff, coordinate program implementation across partners and technical contributors, support monitoring, evaluation, and learning, and work closely with the U.S.-based team on financial and compliance monitoring.

Job Summary

The Executive Project Director will provide strategic and technical leadership for assigned IREX programming in Guatemala. This role is responsible for leading program implementation, ensuring activities and deliverables remain aligned with donor objectives and IREX standards, overseeing partner and grant processes, monitoring programmatic, compliance, financial, operational, security, and contextual risks, and supporting high-quality donor-facing reporting and adaptive management. The Executive Project Director will serve as a senior liaison with donors, partners, stakeholders, and internal teams while representing IREX with discretion and safeguarding partner confidentiality and security.

We're looking for our next team member—could it be you?

What You’ll Do

• Strategic Program Leadership: Provide overall leadership and accountability for assigned program results, ensuring activities, deliverables, staffing, partner support, budgets, and timelines remain aligned with donor-approved objectives and IREX standards. Monitor the implementation context and recommend adaptations that protect partners, staff, program integrity, and results.
• Donor, Partner & Stakeholder Coordination: Serve as a senior program liaison with donors, partners, relevant stakeholders, and internal teams on assigned technical, operational, and strategic matters. Coordinate communications, resolve implementation issues, support timely follow-up, and represent IREX with credibility, discretion, and nonpartisanship.
• Budget, Compliance, Risk & Reporting: Monitor expenditure trends, budget forecasts, partner spending, resource needs, and implementation risks. Work with finance and program teams to identify risks, recommend corrective actions, and ensure donor-facing reporting inputs, workplans, progress updates, monitoring, evaluation, and learning evidence, and risk analysis are timely, accurate, and useful for decision-making.
• Partner, Grant & Rapid Response Fund Oversight: Manage and monitor grant implementation processes, including partner relationship management, milestone review, technical verification of deliverables, supporting documentation, and Rapid Response Fund processes such as emergency intake, eligibility screening, selection committee support, safety and security considerations, and risk mitigation.
• Team Leadership, Technical Guidance & Adaptive Management: Guide coordinated work across partners, subawardees, consultants, and technical contributors so they operate from shared workplans, clear decision-making processes, and a common understanding of donor and IREX requirements. Provide strategic and technical guidance on digital transformation, security and business model management, and adaptive implementation of partner activities.
• Learning, Transition & Organizational Support: Strengthen learning and adaptive management by using MEL evidence, partner feedback, and contextual analysis to inform decisions and document lessons. Support continuity, closeout, transition, sustainability planning, start-up of new program activities, and proposal development as required.

Our Culture is Our People:

At IREX, our culture is built on our people—and on how we work together to create meaningful impact every day. We look for colleagues who bring purpose, intellectual curiosity, collaborative problem solving, and a results driven, bias for action to help strengthen communities and advance our mission.

Successful candidates build trust across differences, move ideas into action, seek new perspectives, embrace change, and represent IREX with authenticity and professionalism. We value people who bring strong expertise and a generous team spirit to work that advances our mission.

Skills & Experience

• Minimum of 15 years of relevant experience leading complex donor-funded programs, including responsibility for program implementation, supervision, partner support, resource management, and delivery of results in Latin America.
• Successful track record supervising, designing, managing, and implementing complex donor-funded technical assistance projects.
• Demonstrated ability to track and manage budgets, monitor expenditure trends, assess financial and operational risks, and support compliance with U.S. Government regulations, donor requirements, and IREX standards.
• Demonstrated ability to build and sustain strong working relationships with senior government officials, education institutions, civil society organizations, international donors, private sector actors, local partners, and other key stakeholders.
• Proven leadership qualities and demonstrated experience building, supervising, and supporting diverse teams, partners, consultants, and technical contributors.
• Strong ability to identify, assess, escalate, and mitigate programmatic, compliance, operational, security, reputational, and contextual risks.
• Demonstrated ability to lead or contribute to donor-facing reporting, work planning, progress updates, monitoring, evaluation, learning documentation, and programmatic risk analysis.
• Experience managing partner and grant processes, including technical assistance, partner deliverables, milestone review, supporting documentation, and risk-sensitive partner support.
• Experience in Guatemala preferred.
• Professional fluency in Spanish and English, including speaking and writing at a professional level, is required.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in education, economics, public administration, business administration, international development, or a related field. Master’s degree highly preferred.
• Must demonstrate valid proof of unrestricted work authorization in Guatemala.

Candidates must have unrestricted authorization to work in Guatemala.

What We Offer

At IREX, you’ll work alongside committed, passionate, and collaborative colleagues who are united by a shared mission—making it a truly rewarding place to work. We offer learning, development, and growth opportunities, along with a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your overall well-being.

If you are excited by IREX’s mission and see yourself contributing to this work, we encourage you to apply—even if your experience does not align with every preferred qualification. We value a range of backgrounds and experiences and are especially interested in candidates who bring curiosity, initiative, strong collaboration skills, and a commitment to meaningful global impact.

Please note: While we aim to offer competitive compensation, not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range.

Disability Specifications

IREX will make reasonable accommodations in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, and the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments of 2008.

Equal Opportunity Employer

IREX seeks to attract the best-qualified candidates who support IREX’s mission and who respect and promote excellence through diversity. IREX is committed to equal opportunity and follows recruitment and selection practices that comply with all applicable employment laws. To this end, IREX recruits, hires, trains, and promotes individuals based on merit and experience.

We conduct background checks on all successful candidates.

This position is not eligible for immigration sponsorship. Candidates must have unrestricted authorization to work in Guatemala. NO PHONE CALLS PLEASE