A separate, retained search service for experienced senior educators seeking leadership roles at international schools across Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and South Korea. Personally managed by a senior NUPAF consultant. Confidential by default.
Recruiting a Head of School is not a faster version of recruiting a class teacher it is an entirely different exercise. The shortlist is smaller. The diligence is longer. The conversations are more confidential. The fee structure rewards quality over volume.
NUPAF's leadership team operates on a retained search basis. A senior consultant takes the brief from the school, runs a discreet search across our network, and presents a shortlist of three to five named candidates with full backgrounds, reference summaries, and a written assessment of fit.
For senior candidates, the same service runs in reverse — your search for the right role is treated as a confidential career move, not a job application. We don't list your CV publicly, we don't approach schools without your written consent, and we don't share your name until both sides have agreed to talk.
Subject leadership across primary, secondary, and post-16. Includes Heads of Faculty for English, Mathematics, Sciences, Humanities, Modern Languages, and Creative Arts.
Academic leadership across a phase or whole school. Curriculum design, assessment, and teacher development. Often a stepping stone to Deputy Head.
Whole-school leadership across pastoral, academic or operational portfolios. Senior-team appointments with significant safeguarding and budget responsibility.
Principal or Head appointments across our destination markets. Often the most heavily contested searches in the international school sector — handled by the most senior NUPAF consultants.
Multi-site or group leadership across school chains and operating networks. Strategic and commercial responsibility across multiple campuses, often regionally.
Newly established schools opening across our markets — particularly Vietnam, Thailand, and South Korea. Leadership roles for educators ready to build something from the ground up.
You submit a short application — five sequential stages covering personal details, teaching experience, leadership profile, destination preferences, and a confidential safeguarding declaration. Reviewed personally by a senior NUPAF consultant within 48 hours.
No public CV listing. No approaches to schools until you have given written consent.
A 90-minute confidential conversation with the senior consultant assigned to your search. We explore your leadership philosophy, the kind of school environment you would thrive in, and the specific roles already in our active brief.
This conversation is the foundation of every subsequent shortlist. The more you tell us, the more accurately we can match you.
Three to five live leadership vacancies, each presented in confidence with a full school profile, governance structure, salary band, accommodation arrangement, and an honest assessment of where you would and would not be a strong fit.
You decide which to pursue. We facilitate every interview from there, including any preparatory briefings.
Once a school extends an offer, your senior consultant manages the negotiation on your behalf — salary, package, contract length, accommodation, relocation allowance, and any specific terms (sabbatical clauses, family education benefits, return flights).
NUPAF's full operational layer applies: visa coordination, Employer of Record structure, full safeguarding compliance, in-country support from arrival through your first year.
Senior educators are usually currently employed when they begin a search. NUPAF's leadership service is built around that reality — discreet, retained, and never exposed without consent.
Our leadership candidates are not searchable in any database. Your details exist only inside the secure NUPAF portal, accessed only by your assigned senior consultant.
Even when we identify a strong-fit role, we ask before sharing. Your name is held back until both sides have agreed in principle to a conversation.
References are taken only with your permission, only at the point you have decided to pursue a role, and never from anyone you have asked us not to approach.
Leadership searches often pause for a term, a year, or longer. NUPAF holds your file in confidence until you choose to reactivate.
The leadership application is structured as five sequential stages: personal details, teaching experience, leadership profile, destination and contract preferences, and a confidential safeguarding declaration. Reviewed by a senior consultant within 48 hours.
Begin your application →If you are a school director with an open senior role to fill, NUPAF's leadership team operates retained-search engagements across all five destination markets. The first call is a 30-minute confidential conversation about your brief.