Pros
Really nice colleagues Some great programs that make a true difference on the ground Good benefits If you report to a good manager and believe in the program you are working on, you can remain untouched by the toxic top leadership.
Cons
Top leadership -- several of whom have never done anything substantial other than work at IREX -- are obsessed with their own prerogatives, power, and privilege. They would rather enforce hierarchical distance, than do what is best for the organization or beneficiaries around the world. The organization has long struggled with defining its mission, because it is far easier to define what it doesn't do than what it does, with a hodgepodge of programs that are linked only by their nominal housing at IREX. In fact, the organization's true mission is to go after every lucrative contract it can, making it really no different then for-profit international development firms (except that IREX pays less) or the classic beltway bandits in the military arena. Huge gap between what most of the staff earns and those at the top.