Save the Children Colombia · 5 days ago
Head of Technical Unit
Palestine, IA
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
8+ years expSave the Children is an organization working in development and humanitarian contexts to support children and communities. The Head of Technical Unit will oversee the direction and coordination of the PDQ department, ensuring program quality and the development of evidence-based strategies to enhance Save the Children's impact.
Civic & Social Organization
Responsibilities
Support the development and monitoring of the Country Strategy, Country Annual Plans and reports and ensure progress review against key country and organisational level objectives, indicators and targets
Position Save the Children as a thought-leader by actively promoting the knowledge and learning generated by the CO’s programmes and advocacy
Ensure the technical team complies with all Save the Children Management Operating Standards, Standard Operating Procedures and Child Safeguarding and antiharassment policies
Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation
Ensure that the country office has high quality, cost-effective and evidence based multi-sector programs reflecting SC’s global initiatives and theory of change and promote the integration of SCI Common Approaches in program design
Ensure all thematic strategies include key global indicators to guide programme development, and holistic needs of children and communities are considered
Play a leading role in designing innovative and high impact programmes/projects and proposals, including: Engaging with technical experts to ensure high quality, evidence-based designs that draw on needs assessments, learning from past programs and child safeguarding principles; If needed, ensure relevant technical support and backstopping by global teams is secured if and as needed to complement the capacities of country teams; Promote the sectoral integration in proposal design efforts; Ensure that relevant thematic needs assessments are in place or conducted for the purpose of quality proposal design; Ensure partners are identified and appropriately engaged in program design, linking with Operations and Awards teams as need be for assessments, especially to strengthen gender sensitivity at design stage; Ensure the inclusion of Child Participation and community engagement in proposal design, and later on during implementation; Ensuring the project budget will enable the project to be delivered as designed
Ensure that relevant technical and other teams receive regular timely and quality programme inputs to help guide their strategies and promote effective cross-thematic collaboration
Ensure discussion on innovation and T4D, policy making and bringing in external stakeholders to foster innovation
Ensure that Technical Advisors engage in larger communities of practice to link with the most relevant and evidence-based approaches and conduct timely and useful review of project reports to support quality reporting for Members and donors
Review and sign off donor reports and proposals form a technical perspective prior to submission with a view of maintaining a high standard of quality, relevance and donor compliance
Join project field visits for quality monitoring and to assess the fidelity of implementation of our programs vis-à-vis design and common approach standards
In close collaboration with the MEAL team, NBD Team and Technical team, ensure we maintain excellent performance on all program quality KPIs
Ensure the regular improvement and roll-out of Quality Benchmarks and Tools for regularly measuring progress and achievements across all thematic sectors of the Country Office
Ensure that program development actions are informed by lessons generated from programme monitoring, learning and accountability results
Ensure effective collaboration between MEAL staff, technical advisors in the development of sector log frames, indicators, implementation plans, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks and related tools
Ensure the research, evaluation, and policy work of the country office contributes to the generation of evidence for sound decision-making and policy influencing within and outside the Country Office and the development and implementation of impactful and innovative programmes for children
Participate in project kick-offs for significant awards to ensure effective strategic direction and project close-outs to gather learning and share results
Develop and manage a CO technical capacity building plan for staff and partners to be delivered by the technical unit
Engage proactively with programme operations teams including the partnerships unit and our local partners to assess capacity building needs of implementing partners in technical / thematic areas and propose related capacity building initiatives
Deliver and roll out trainings on relevant common approaches and specific topics in line with his/her technical expertise
In alignment with Country Office strategy and leadership, engage in strategic positioning with donors, partners and government in-country, and ensure that Save the Children is a partner of choice and the go to organization on matters children
Represent the program to National and Local government representatives, donors, partner agencies, etc. as required and ensure that Save the Children is influencing and learning from others
Interface with Member focal points to effectively execute strategy and build effective member and donor relationships
Internally, as and when required, engage with and participate in relevant Groups and Committees set up to advance the work of Save the Children regionally and globally
Ensure the technical unit’s participation in clusters and working groups at national and sub-national is well planned and consistent; and that Save the Children’s work and contributions are adequately reflected on cluster dashboards etc
Ensure that all staff understand and are able to perform their role in full spectrum programming
Ensure the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff including coaching and mentorship
Effectively use the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measurable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations
Ensure appropriate staffing within the technical team as per TE principles
Maintain oversight of budget coverage and availability for the Technical team
Recognize outstanding performance
Liaise with global and regional technical teams to ensure the CO technical unit receives the necessary support and backstopping
Qualification
Required
Minimum of a Post graduate degree or higher education in a relevant field – i.e. Social Sciences or any of the thematic sectors Save the Children programmes in
A minimum of 8 years' management or advisory experience in an international development environment, including working in range of different cultures, experience directing and implementing programs for children in both emergency and development contexts
Demonstrated experience in managing diverse teams
Solid experience in more than one of the Save the Children priority sectors: education, protection, rights governance, cash assistance, health and nutrition, and emergencies
Recognized leadership role in relevant technical areas at both field and country level
A general appreciation of the issues concerning the NGO sector, both development and humanitarian issues
Solid experience of developing and managing monitoring and learning systems
Good analytical skills. Effective negotiator, with the ability to positively influence cross departmental and cross sector working
Credibility to lobby, influence and represent Save the Children at all levels
Fluency in written and spoken English and Arabic
Preferred
Resource management, training, capacity building, coaching, and mentoring skills
Ability and willingness to dramatically change work practices and hours, and work with incoming teams, in emergencies
Ability and willingness to conduct regular visits to field locations
Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children's aims, values and principles including rights-based approaches
Company
Save the Children Colombia
Impulsamos avances significativos en la forma en que el mundo trata a los niños y niñas, con el fin de generar cambios inmediatos y duraderos en sus vidas.
201-500 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageCompany data provided by crunchbase