Education Technical Specialist at Save the Children

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY

Technical Leadership:

• Provide technical leadership for education or the Country Office, and set the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy 
• Build capacity of staff and partners in key technical approaches related to education. 
• Engage programme managers and field teams in the process of developing or updating strategy and thematic plan, with the goal of needs based, responsive education programming.

Programme Quality (Design & Implementation):

• Work closely with new business development colleagues to identify and pursue funding opportunities that allow for both integration into broader programmes and standalone education programmes/projects; engage with technical partners, donors and colleagues across Save the Children 
• Lead the technical scoping, planning, design and proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high-quality education programmes for children, building on global best practice. Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our programme design and implementation.
• Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation
• Promote an Education Systems Strengthening approach as the overarching framework, that supports working in collaboration and partnership with governments and regional bodies, local partners and working towards impact, scale and sustainability.

Programme Quality (Evidence and Impact)

• Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams to ensure that thematic programme components are technically sound, implementation methods are consistent with national and global strategies, acknowledged good practice (e.g. Save the Children Common Approaches); and are likely to achieve scale, as well as equitable and sustainable results. 
• Promote and monitor integrated programming in a way that increases overall impact of education programmes at the community level.
• Work with MEARL in generating a robust learning agenda for education programs to inform the generation of evidence and foster utilization of the same to inform decision making and program development.
• Work with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability Research & Learning (MEARL) teams to conduct quality monitoring against international standards through participatory methodologies that promote gender equality and social justice (including child-friendly and gender sensitive/transformative methodologies).
• Contribute towards the creation of an organisational learning culture that promotes the use of disaggregated data, evidence and analysis (including gender and power analysis) and understands its link to quality and accountable programming; Contribute to strengthening the use of equality-focused programme principles and good practice across themes and sectors.
• Undertake field visits to project sites; work with implementation teams to understand impacts, operational challenges, and continuously identify opportunities for learning and improvement.
• Contribute to organisational learning on education, ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Country Office and our partners, as well as with colleagues in the wider regional and global education community in Save the Children including relevant technical working groups. 
• Support the operations team (as needed) to develop emergency preparedness plans and conduct sectoral assessments (using SC assessment processes and tools) and to design and deliver emergency response and recovery programmes. 
• Monitor trends to ensure early action; and lead technical design and implementation and technical coordination of humanitarian responses.

Fundraising & External Engagement:

• 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 in education. 
• Ensure that Save the Children is influencing and learning from others through national technical coordination and networking bodies such as clusters and working groups.
• Co-lead the Education in Emergencies (EiE) working group together with UNICEF and MOE recognising Save the Children and UNICEF are global co-leads for the education cluster. 
• Strengthen civil society engagement in national dialogues and policy processes through working closely with advocacy and child rights governance colleagues. Ensure that the diverse voices of children, girls and boys are equitably heard and represented in our education work.
• Represent the program to National and Local government representatives, donors, partner agencies, etc. as required. 
• Ensure the quality, clarity and consistency of technical components of internal and external reports (e.g. programme reports, sit-reps, internal updates), working closely with awards, programme implementation and communications colleagues as needed. 
• Leverage and liaise with technical colleagues from across Save the Children, including technical working groups and centres of excellence, ensuring that learning from the Country Office is shared with others and global lessons brought back. 

Contract Duration: 1 year (renewable)

Number of Vacancies: 1

Work Location: Nairobi

QUALIFICATIONS  AND EXPERIENCE/SKILLS

• Bachelor’s degree in education is required. Master’s degree in education or other related fields is preferable.
• At least 10 years of relevant professional experience in the education sector. 
• At least 8 years’ experience of leading the design and implementation of humanitarian and development programmes in education.
• Understanding of the education sector in Kenya. 
• Familiar with education systems (humanitarian/cluster systems as needed) for example the INEE Minimum Standards, the key issues related to Sustainable Development Goal 4.
• Track record in successful business development/fundraising such as Global Partnership for Education, Education Cannot Wait, EU, FCDO, USAID, World Bank
• Demonstrated experience in research and evaluations that contribute to designing and scaling pathways to sustainable impact.
• Experience of context, capacity and policy analysis, and influencing and advocacy at regional/international level to hold duty bearers to account to realise children’s rights. 
• Skilled at networking, representation and partnership development in order promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilise resources. 
• Able to generate and use data and evidence to innovate, deliver, learn and share what works and what doesn’t work for children.
• Experience of promoting quality and impact through at least one crosscutting area: gender equality and inclusion, adaptive and safer programming; child rights; disability; migration and displacement. 
• Experience of supporting humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery
• Significant experience in training, capacity building, and mentoring.