Head of Design and Training

Role: Program Duta Guru, Head of Design and Training

Start Date: Immediate

Employment Type: Full time, 2-Year Contract (Renewable)

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

OBJECTIVE OF THE ROLE

Program Duta Guru enables TFM to scale our student impact in every district across Malaysia by building on existing leadership within the system. The Head of Design and Training oversees the Program Duta Guru curriculum and ensures alignment between various components of the programme as well as overall alignment of the programme to Teach For Malaysia’s Theory of Change and leadership frameworks. 

MISSION FOR THE ROLE

The Head of Design and Training leads PDG’s Design and Training Team in developing and continuously improving the Program Duta Guru curriculum in order to develop highly competent and committed educators, serving as role models to enhance higher order thinking skills (HOTS) through STEM education.

As part of the PDG leadership team, this individual will also work closely with other managers to ensure that Program Duta Guru is able to cultivate STEM leaders within the Malaysian education system while driving towards transformational student impact. This role is also a part of Teach For Malaysia’s Extended Leadership team, contributing to shaping organisation-wide strategy.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

Ensure Excellence of the PDG Programme

• Design and Strategy: Develop and align the Training and Support team on the programmatic strategy, encompassing program direction, goals, priorities, team structure, and budget.
• Program Impact: Monitor and evaluate the program's impact, ensuring alignment with the delivery of Program Duta Guru's goals.
• Communication: Provide strategic updates to participants and address issues in a manner that builds and maintains trust in the program and organisation.
• Collaboration: Work with the Leadership team to ensure the program strategy and implementation are relevant to participants’ context and needs.

Managing the Design and Training Team

• Team Leadership: Manage and coach Design and Training Managers to collaborate effectively with Program Coordinators, Pembimbing Duta Guru, teachers, and other subject matter experts.
• Needs Identification: Empower Design and Training Managers to take a data-driven approach to identify the learning and development needs of participants.
• Training Design & Facilitation: Empower Design and Training Managers to design and facilitate high-impact, participant-centred, and contextualised training for participants, that translates into mindset shifts and improvements in classroom practice.
• Continuous Improvement: Partner with Design and Training Managers and the Coaching and Support Team to rigorously use data and research to analyse and refine training and support approaches to make evidence-based improvements that will increase programme effectiveness to ensure that program outcomes are achieved.

PDG Team Leadership

• Budget Management: Collaborate with cross-functional managers to oversee and monitor the budget for training events and team activities, ensuring efficient use of resources.
• Cross-functional Alignment: Partner with the Head of Program Duta Guru, Coaching and Support Managers, and the Stakeholder Engagement and Recruitment Manager to ensure strong alignment on key decisions and programmatic approaches, focusing on achieving transformational impact on student outcomes.
• Team Culture: Foster a collaborative, sustainable, and high-performing team culture that drives both PDG-specific objectives and broader organisational goals.
• Continuous Improvement: Lead internal and external impact review cycles to continuously enhance program implementation and refine approaches based on data-driven insights.
• Additional Duties: Take on other responsibilities as needed to support the objectives of the PDG team and contribute to the overall success of the organisation.

Organisational Wide Extended Leadership

• Strategic Contribution: Actively contribute to the achievement of the organisation’s long-term and short-term strategies, bringing forward ideas and initiatives that align with the overall mission and vision.
• Cross-departmental Collaboration: Engage with leaders across the organisation to ensure alignment of PDG initiatives with broader organisational priorities, fostering a unified approach to achieving impact.
• Leadership and Influence: As a member of the extended leadership team, provide thought leadership, drive innovation, and influence decision-making across the organisation, representing the interests of the PDG team while contributing to organisational-wide success.
• Organisational Culture and Values: Champion and model the organisation's culture, values, and commitment to its mission, promoting collaboration and excellence across departments.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Brand Ambassadorship: Act as a strong brand ambassador for Program Duta Guru and the organisation.
• Partnerships: Develop and maintain effective relationships with external stakeholders, including those from the Ministry of Education, Yayasan PETRONAS, and other private sectors, to ensure smooth program implementation.
• Broad Engagement: Engage with external stakeholders to foster investment in the organisation’s vision and goals.

KEY MEASURES OF SUCCESS

• Evidence of programmatic impact through growth in teacher competencies and student learning
• Participant satisfaction, loyalty and retention targets
• Design and Training team is engaged, resourced and equipped to deliver PDG’s key measures of success
• Efficiency and Effectiveness of Cross functional Collaboration
• Evidence of effective budget utilisation
• Connectedness of PDG team to the wider organisation’s strategy and direction

REQUIRED COMPETENCIES

Role-Specific Competencies

• Strong alignment with Teach For Malaysia’s mission, core values, and movement.
• Strong problem-solving, reasoning, and process-oriented thinking.
• Highly adaptable and able to thrive in an entrepreneurial, fast-paced, deadline-driven, and VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment.
• Clear, confident communicator with strong written and verbal skills.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate across all levels of employees and stakeholders.
• Demonstrates strategic planning and execution, with strong organisational and managerial skills to proactively manage multiple tasks, monitor progress systematically, and meet deadlines.
• Ability to use impact data to analyse and refine training approaches to make evidence-based improvements that will increase programme effectiveness.
• Exceptional relationship-building skills, fostering effective internal teamwork and external partnerships.
• Ability to foster a team culture that prioritises development and achieving ambitious goals.
• Ability to inspire and motivate others towards ambitious goals.
• Ability to design and implement staff development pathways.
• Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders of diverse backgrounds, especially stakeholders from the Ministry of Education
• Effective management of operational budgets.

Experience & Qualifications

• At least 5 - 7 years of experience in education, with a preference for expertise in teacher leadership development and STEM education.
• Experience with national or regional teacher training initiatives.
• Expertise in education with knowledge of the latest trends.
• Proven experience in effectively leading high-performing teams.
• Bachelor’s Degree in any field, with an advantage in Education, Instructional Design, Educational Leadership or STEM-related fields.
• Additional desirable skills/experiences (not required):
• Familiarity with Teach For Malaysia or the Teach For All network
• Prior experience as a teacher in a Malaysian public school

Language & Technical Proficiency

• Excellent proficiency in English and Bahasa Malaysia.
• Proficient in MS Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
• Able to adopt and utilise TFM’s technological platforms (e.g., Google Workspace, Confluence, Salesforce, Zoom).