The Council of International Schools seeks a International Accreditation Advisor

Full-time, serving primarily central and eastern Asia

Effective June 2026

 

Who are we?

We are a not-for-profit membership community committed to developing socially responsible leadership through international education. We support our global community of schools and higher education institutions in developing effective practices to foster healthy, interculturally competent global citizens.

We serve a diverse and global learning community and believe it is important to seek and include people who bring a variety of backgrounds and experiences within our team. We are committed to attracting, hiring, supporting, and developing a diverse, high-quality team. We believe our success is dependent on the distinctive perspectives, capabilities and commitment of our people.

Learn more about our mission and what it’s like to work at CIS. 

 

What does this role entail?

Within the CIS membership, many schools are working towards and achieving CIS International Accreditation. This accreditation process illustrates an ongoing commitment to school improvement and an achievement of standards grounded in pursuit of continuous growth and high-quality education.

As an International Accreditation Advisor, you will draw on your experience as an educational leader to guide schools through a rigorous, evidence-informed improvement process, ensuring the integrity, credibility, and developmental intent of CIS International Accreditation. By applying professional judgement, fostering collaborative partnerships, and ensuring the quality of insights and evaluations, you will strengthen CIS’s ability to support organizational learning across its membership and contribute to the ongoing evolution and reliability of CIS accreditation frameworks and practices.

International Accreditation Advisors are part of a global School Support and Evaluation (SSE) team which includes a Director, Associate Directors, educational leaders and professional staff based at the CIS office in Leiden, The Netherlands, and in regional locations around the world.

 

What will you be doing?

Competencies and Responsibilities

Stewardship of the CIS Accreditation Protocol

• Ensure fidelity to the CIS International Accreditation Protocol, safeguarding its purpose, coherence, and credibility across all engagements:
  • Uphold the integrity of the accreditation process, ensuring all school engagements align with CIS standards, Cornerstone Expectations, and the Innovation Cycle.
  • Serve as the authoritative interpreter of protocol expectations for schools, peers, and partner agencies.
  • Maintain a developmental, evidence informed approach that centres organizational learning over compliance.

Strategic Guidance for School Development

• Guide schools in constructing, implementing, and refining development plans that reflect meaningful, standards referenced growth:
  • Co create an Accreditation Plan with every school in your portfolio, ensuring its goals are aspirational, achievable, aligned with school context, and rooted in the CIS International Accreditation Framework.
  • Support schools to identify, evidence, and monitor progress on Development Initiatives.
  • Provide strategic insights that help school leaders interpret data, reflect on priorities, and adjust course responsibly over the self study period.
  • Offer developmental challenge and principled questioning that elevates schools’ organizational learning.

Quality Assurance of Evidence, Insight, and Evaluative Judgement

• Ensure quality, credibility, and coherence in the evidence reviewed and the insights produced at each stage of accreditation:
  • Evaluate the school’s evidence of Cornerstone Expectations, ensuring authenticity, sufficiency, and impact—not just documentation.
  • Offer professional judgement on a school’s readiness for evaluation stages.
  • Contribute evaluative insight that supports clarity, fairness, and accuracy at the Team Evaluation stage.
  • Safeguard the credibility of CIS decisions by acting as a key assurance step between volunteer evaluators and CIS leadership.

Partnership Centred Relationship Building

• Cultivate trusting, professional relationships that position the International Accreditation Advisor as a long term partner in a school’s improvement journey:
  • Provide ongoing, responsive support to schools across the multi year cycle.
  • Build rapport with diverse school communities, adapting communication and interaction styles to different cultural and organizational contexts.
  • Guide partner agencies and peers to work in aligned, cohesive, and respectful ways by modelling collaborative behaviours within joint accreditation models.
  • Model CIS values through culturally-responsive and ethically-grounded engagement.

Facilitation of Dialogue that Elevates Community Voice

• Champion inclusive, reflective, and evidence rich dialogue across school communities:
  • Facilitate conversations around schools’ core strategic and operational systems, milestone check ins, and learning dialogues that surfacetech meaningful narratives and community perspectives.
  • Support leaders to create psychologically safe spaces for honest reflection and collective sense making.
  • Encourage diverse groups, including learners and families, to contribute authentically to accreditation.

Cross Team Collaboration and Organizational Learning

• Contribute to CIS’s internal improvement efforts by sharing insights from the field and modelling high professional standards:
  • Provide constructive, evidence-based feedback to the leadership of the School Support and Evaluation team and cross functional teams that informs framework evolution, resource refinement, and protocol updates.
  • Participate actively in the upskilling of International Accreditation Advisors, evaluator training, and cross agency collaboration, sharing practices and supporting peer learning.
  • Use patterns from school engagements to inform CIS-wide learning, sharing insights and contributing to collective reflection around accreditation, safeguarding, evaluation practice, and strategic initiatives.

Ethical Leadership and Safeguarding Oversight

• Prioritize student and community safety, well being, and ethical practice throughout all engagements:
  • Identify and escalate safeguarding concerns appropriately.
  • Model ethical judgment, transparency, and responsible use of emerging technologies.
  • Ensure that all accreditation advice strengthens conditions for safe, inclusive learning communities.

Model Professional Communication and Documentation

• Produce clear, constructive, and professionally-sound written and verbal communications in English that support schools and evaluators:
  • Provide developmental commentary to support schools’ development through accreditation.
  • Communicate expectations, timelines, and feedback with clarity, consistency, and care.
  • Ensure that documentation produced and reviewed contributes to schools’ long term learning and improvement.
  • Use technology effectively to support report-writing, record-keeping, collaboration and sharing feedback, adapting quickly to new digital tools and platforms that enhance the accreditation process.

Professional Resilience and Self-Management

• Sustain high professional standards through effective workload management, reflective practice, and adaptive work habits:
  • Manage a global portfolio of schools with flexibility and resilience to meet business objectives and shifting demands.
  • Demonstrate effective self-management by balancing periods of intensive engagement with schools, evaluators, and partner agencies across time zones.
  • Maintain personal well-being and reflective professional habits that support sound judgement, ethical practice, and consistency in accreditation work.
     

Are you eligible?

You are welcome to apply, regardless of your background, if you meet the following criteria.

Residency

• You are a legal resident in a country that provides reasonable ease of access to central and eastern Asia, with authorization to work as an independent contractor; OR your residence and work permits will be in place by the time you start your engagement with CIS, at your expense, including all relocation expenses.
• Your residence has convenient access to an international airport.
   

Educational Qualifications

Master’s degree including a specialised credential in education (Education, Educational Leadership, International Education, Curriculum & Instruction, Quality Assurance, or a closely related field).
 

Professional Experience

• Broad educational experience, including experience at one or more international schools.
• 10+ years of experience in school leadership and/or system leadership.
• Experience of school improvement, accreditation, inspection, evaluation, or quality assurance processes in an advisory/evaluative capacity, preferably beyond a single school.
• Substantial experience facilitating professional dialogue with school leaders, governing bodies, or cross-functional teams.
• Experience collaborating with external agencies, ministries, or accreditation organizations.
• International and intercultural working experience in educational environments.
   

Technical Skills

• Knowledge and understanding of international school environments and networks.
• Knowledge of educational concepts, frameworks and diverse models and programmes used around the world. 
• Ability to critically review and validate evidence: examining documentation, including financial statements, for clarity, accuracy, coherence, and alignment with protocol expectations.
• Skills to elicit, triage, and synthesize multi‑source evidence into evaluative judgements aligned to standards.
• Ability to produce clear, structured, and professionally-crafted reports and written communications, using succinct, evidence‑anchored, developmental commentary in line with CIS writing guidelines.
• Ability to apply meeting facilitation tools and practices, such as agenda structuring, prompting protocols, and stakeholder mapping.
• Strong proficiency in MS Office Suite, including the appropriate use of MS Office AI technologies. 
• Experience using CRM systems (e.g. Salesforce) to access data dashboards, track progress, retrieve information, and update records.
• Comfortable working in cloud-based environments (e.g. SharePoint, Teams, Google Workspace) with an ability to work collaboratively, manage documents, and manage access for collaborators.
• Strong command of virtual conferencing tools (e.g. Zoom, Teams) for joining/scheduling online meetings, facilitating participation and delivering presentations.
• Ability to independently manage scheduling, travel logistics, and required documentation, maintaining an accurate calendar, arranging travel, and ensuring compliance with all travel‑readiness requirements.
• Fluency in English, both spoken and written.

It would be a plus if you have:

• Excellent command of a language in addition to English.
   

Core Competencies for all CIS staff

• Instilling trust: gaining the confidence and trust of others through honesty, integrity, and authenticity; an ability to guide, manage and motivate a team using an accessible servant leadership approach.
• Valuing differences: recognizing the value that different perspectives and cultures bring to an organization.
• A global perspective: taking a broad view when approaching issues, using a global lens; a strong service orientation, working across multiple time zones, applying interpersonal communication and collaboration skills.
• Self-development orientation: actively seeking new ways to grow and be challenged using both formal and informal development channels; a learning orientation.

 

What can you expect from CIS?

You will be engaged as a full-time consultant, initially on a one-year agreement, subject to renewal. It is CIS’s intent that contracts are renewed if performance meets expectations so that colleagues stay with us for as long as possible.

Your remuneration will align with the qualifications and experience required for the role. You will receive an agreed-upon annual fee which will be inclusive of value-added tax (if applicable in your country of residence). You will submit invoices to CIS for reimbursement on a monthly basis for work completed as part of the scope of professional services. 

You will receive specific assignments and provide ongoing advice during the term of the agreement. CIS will consult with you regarding the scheduling of any assignments and any specific assignments will be agreed upon prior to commencement. CIS cannot guarantee that any specific assignments will become available, and you will have the right to decline any assignment.

You will be based at your own office location. However, you will be required to travel to the CIS office in Leiden and to member schools both in your country of residence and elsewhere according to mutually-agreed assignments.