Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Writing Program Officer

🎯 Role Definition

The Writing Program Officer is a program management and content leadership role responsible for designing, implementing, and optimizing high-quality writing programs across audiences and geographies. This role combines curriculum and instructional design, grant and budget oversight, donor and partner management, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and content production to ensure measurable improvements in writing skills and program impact. The ideal candidate brings strong experience in program lifecycle management, excellent writing and editorial judgement, data-driven decision making, and proven ability to manage multiple stakeholders in fast-paced, donor-funded environments.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Program Coordinator (Writing, Literacy, or Communications)
Curriculum Developer or Instructional Designer with a writing focus
Grants Officer or Grants Administrator in education or nonprofit sectors

Advancement To:

Senior Program Officer, Writing & Literacy
Program Manager / Head of Writing Initiatives
Director of Programs or Director of Literacy and Content Strategy

Lateral Moves:

Communications or Content Strategy Manager
Curriculum and Instruction Specialist
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Lead the full program lifecycle for city- or country-level writing programs, including needs assessment, theory of change development, program design, workplan creation, and phased implementation to deliver measurable improvements in learner writing outcomes.
Develop and continuously refine writing curricula and instructional materials—lesson plans, rubrics, facilitator guides, assessments, and digital modules—ensuring alignment with learning objectives, standards, and evidence-based pedagogy.
Manage grant compliance and donor reporting by preparing timely, accurate donor deliverables (narrative reports, budget justifications, success stories, and KPI dashboards) that meet funding agreements and contribute to sustained funding pipelines.
Oversee program budgets and financial tracking, including preparing detailed budgets, monitoring expenditures against forecasts, identifying variances, and recommending corrective actions to meet financial targets and donor restrictions.
Design and implement monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) frameworks for writing programs using quantitative and qualitative indicators, ensuring robust baseline, midline, and endline data collection, analysis, and dissemination of findings.
Lead the recruitment, onboarding, supervision, and professional development of program staff, trainers, and consultants—setting performance objectives, conducting regular coaching, and ensuring high-quality delivery and accountability.
Build and maintain strategic partnerships with schools, universities, community organizations, government agencies, and publishing partners to expand program reach, enable scaling, and integrate writing initiatives into broader education systems.
Draft, edit, and approve high-quality written outputs including curriculum documents, technical briefs, research summaries, grant proposals, promotional copy, and case studies that communicate program impact and learning to technical and non-technical audiences.
Coordinate and manage competitive procurement, contracting, and sub-grant management processes for vendors and implementing partners, ensuring compliance with organizational procurement policies and donor regulations.
Implement teacher/facilitator training and capacity-building programs that use adult-learning principles and coaching models to improve instructional practice and classroom implementation of writing instruction.
Conduct rigorous quality assurance and field monitoring, including classroom observations, content reviews, and performance audits, to ensure fidelity to program models and to capture good practices for replication.
Lead data-driven program improvement cycles by synthesizing assessment data, stakeholder feedback, and research evidence to iterate on curriculum, training, and delivery modalities for better outcomes.
Develop and execute communication and dissemination strategies—writing program newsletters, blog posts, policy briefs, and presentations—to share results, build credibility, and influence practice and policy in writing education.
Coordinate cross-functional project teams (MEL, communications, operations, finance) to align timelines, deliverables, and resources and to resolve risks and dependencies across the program lifecycle.
Manage complex logistics for program activities, including workshops, regional trainings, conferences, and large-scale assessments, ensuring on-time delivery, resource allocation, and participant coordination.
Lead proposal development and business development activities by contributing program narratives, budgets, M&E plans, and supporting documents to secure new funding and expand program scope.
Ensure program-level safeguarding, data privacy, and ethical research protocols are in place and enforced for participants, particularly minors, and that informed consent and confidentiality standards are adhered to.
Facilitate stakeholder engagement and consultation workshops with teachers, school leaders, parents, and local authorities to co-design culturally-relevant writing curricula and to secure buy-in and sustainability.
Conduct and/or manage applied research and evidence-generation activities—pilots, randomized control trials, qualitative case studies—to test instructional approaches and to publish learnings that inform practice.
Lead risk identification and mitigation planning for program activities, proactively surfacing project risks (financial, operational, reputational) and implementing contingency plans to maintain program continuity.
Ensure digital content and learning management system (LMS) integration for blended learning programs, coordinating with technologists to upload content, track learner progress, and analyze platform usage metrics.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Provide editorial oversight and final sign-off for marketing and external communications related to the writing program.
Mentor junior staff and interns in program management best practices, instructional design, and evidence-based writing pedagogy.
Represent the organization at external conferences, policy forums, and donor meetings to advocate for evidence-based writing instruction and program scale-up strategies.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Program design and management: demonstrated ability to build program plans, theory of change, logical frameworks (logframes), and detailed workplans for multi-year writing initiatives.
Grant and donor management: experience preparing donor reports, budget narratives, compliance documentation, and managing sub-awards and contracts (USAID, GPE, foundations preferred).
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL): proficiency designing M&E frameworks, indicators, assessment instruments, and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data to demonstrate outcomes and impact.
Curriculum and instructional design: strong expertise in developing writing curricula, learner assessments, rubrics, and teacher guides grounded in best-practice pedagogy.
Proposal writing and fundraising: proven track record contributing to winning proposals, writing technical narratives, and developing realistic budgets and project timelines.
Data analysis and visualization: ability to use Excel, Google Sheets, and basic statistical tools (Stata, R, or Python preferred) to analyze program data and create dashboards.
Financial and budget management: experience developing and monitoring budgets, forecasting costs, and producing budget variance analysis for program portfolios.
Project management tools: working knowledge of Asana, Trello, MS Project, or similar tools to manage tasks, timelines, and cross-functional dependencies.
Digital content and LMS management: familiarity with uploading course materials, managing learner tracks, and analyzing learner engagement through an LMS or CMS.
Research and evidence synthesis: ability to conduct literature reviews, synthesize research findings, and translate evidence into actionable program improvements.
Compliance and safeguarding: understanding of child protection, data privacy regulations (GDPR-like principles), and donor-specific compliance requirements.
Advanced writing and editorial skills: exceptional ability to create clear, compelling, and audience-appropriate written materials for donors, practitioners, and public audiences.

Soft Skills

Strong communication and stakeholder management: ability to build rapport with teachers, partners, donors, and government actors and to present complex information clearly.
Strategic thinking: capacity to translate organizational strategy into programmatic priorities and long-term plans for scale and sustainability.
Leadership and team development: proven ability to lead distributed teams, coach staff, and foster a culture of continuous learning and accountability.
Problem-solving and adaptability: comfort working in dynamic environments and iterating program approaches based on data and contextual constraints.
Attention to detail and quality orientation: rigorous editorial standards and insistence on program fidelity and data accuracy.
Cultural sensitivity and partnership orientation: ability to co-design with local partners and adapt materials to diverse cultural and linguistic contexts.
Time management and prioritization: strong organizational skills to balance competing deadlines and multiple program streams.
Facilitation and workshop design: experienced in designing and delivering adult-learning workshops and stakeholder consultations.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in English, Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Communications, Journalism, International Development, or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree (MA, MEd, MSc) in Education, Curriculum Design, Literacy Studies, International Development, Applied Linguistics, or similar.

Relevant Fields of Study:

English, Literature, or Creative Writing
Education and Curriculum Development
International Development or Public Policy
Communications, Journalism, or Media Studies
Applied Linguistics or TESOL

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–7 years of progressively responsible experience in program design, management, or curriculum development related to writing, literacy, or communications.

Preferred:

5+ years managing donor-funded writing or literacy programs, with direct experience in MEL, budget management, and staff supervision.
Demonstrated success in securing funding through proposal contributions and maintaining strong donor relationships.
Experience working in low-resource contexts, government partnerships, or international education systems is highly desirable.