Assistant Director (Strategic Planning), ECDA/CD

Ministry Of Social And Family Development; Singapore; On-site; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Ministry Of Social And Family Development is seeking a seasoned strategic planner to lead the Ops Policy and Planning team within the Professional Pillar. You will drive multi-year roadmaps, coordinate with senior leaders, and translate evolving policy directions into actionable programmes across EC/EI professionals and partners.

The role requires strong leadership, policy analysis, high-level communication, and the ability to deliver results in a fast-paced government environment.

Qualifications

• A degree in any discipline with at least 8 years of relevant experience.
• Proven track record leading teams and managing multi-stakeholder projects.
• Experience in workforce, professional development, or policy areas is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Drive multi-year strategic planning and roadmaps for the Pillar in alignment with national priorities.
• Monitor policy shifts, research developments and sector trends to inform planning.
• Design planning frameworks, KPIs, and outcome metrics to track progress.
• Coordinate resource planning, reporting cycles and WoG alignment.
• Lead cross-team initiatives and ensure coherence across workstreams.
• Translate policy directions into actionable plans with MSF and partner agencies.

Skills

Leadership

People management

Strategic thinking

Policy analysis

Writing & presentation

Data analytics

Stakeholder management

Education

Degree in any discipline

Job description

What the role is:

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) is the regulatory and developmental agency for the early childhood sector in Singapore, jointly overseen by the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF). We oversee children's development below the age of seven across kindergartens and childcare centres, spanning quality standards, professional development, programme affordability, and early intervention services.You will be part of the Ops Policy and Planning team within the Professional Pillar, which leads and drives quality across Early Childhood (EC) and Early Intervention (EI) professionals and programmes, anchored on four outcomes: quality professionals, quality programmes, quality preschools, and better outcomes for every child.

What you will be working on:

• Strategic Planning and Roadmap
• Drive and coordinate the Pillar's multi-year strategic planning agenda, collaborating with senior leaders, internal teams, and external partners to ensure alignment with ECDA's mandate and national early childhood and early intervention priorities.
• Monitor and synthesise policy shifts, research developments, and sector trends locally and internationally to support evidence-based planning and keep the Pillar's strategies current and forward-looking.
• Conduct environment scanning and foresight work and perform data analytics to identify emerging trends, insights, and threats that could shape the Pillar's policies and programmes.
• Planning Frameworks and Performance
• Design and maintain planning frameworks, KPIs, and outcome metrics for quality education, tracking progress against strategic goals and surfacing gaps or misalignments for timely attention by senior leadership.
• Support annual resource planning and reporting cycles to ensure accountability and alignment with Whole-of-Government (WoG) objectives.
• Coordinate the tracking of key performance indicators and support enterprise risk management across the Pillar.
• Cross-Pillar Coordination and Initiative Development
• Serve as a strategic bridge across the Pillar's teams to ensure coherence across workstreams — for example, ensuring that quality improvement initiatives for preschools are matched with corresponding professional development pathways for EC and EI practitioners.
• Lead cross-team efforts to conceptualise and design new and cross-cutting initiatives, and coordinate their development and implementation across the Pillar.
• Stay closely plugged in to policy developments across MSF and work with partners across the public sector and ground agencies to translate broader policy directions into actionable plans for the Pillar.

What we are looking for:

• A degree in any discipline, with at least 8 years of relevant working experience, with a proven track record of leading teams and managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects.
• Domain knowledge in at least one of the following areas would be advantageous: workforce or professional development, child or educational research, early childhood or early intervention, programme development or quality assurance.
• Strong people leadership skills, with the ability to motivate, develop, and guide a team while fostering a collaborative and high-performing work culture.
• Excellent writing, communication and presentation skills, with the ability to distil complex information into clear and actionable insights for senior leadership and diverse audiences.
• Strong analytical, systems thinking, and organisational skills, with the ability to see how different workstreams connect and influence one another.
• A results-oriented, highly self-motivated and resilient individual who thrives in a fast-paced and dynamic environment.
• Able to manage multiple priorities and tight deadlines, and work effectively both independently and in a team or cross-team setting.

About Ministry Of Social And Family Development

Join Us at MSF for a Meaningful, People-Centric Career!At MSF, our mission is to nurture and build resilient individuals, strong families, and a caring society. We offer meaningful and impactful people-centric careers in the design and delivery of policies, services and programmes. We are an all-inclusive and family friendly workplace where career growth is prioritised through a comprehensive suite of development opportunities to help our officers succeed today as well as be future-ready. We do this through various formal and informal learning and development programmes for officers to build different competencies and gain diverse work experiences within MSF, the Public as well as the Social Service Sectors.