Staff whose work requires or potentially could require any in-person interaction with Save the Children colleagues, partners, or beneficiaries must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless otherwise required by law. Save the Children complies with federal, state, and local laws with regard to accommodations related to this policy.
Summary
The Early Childhood Research, Evidence and Learning Advisor will provide technical support to Country Offices in the generation and use of evidence and will communicate findings in internal and external forums in support of the delivery of Save the Children’s programming. The Advisor will lead research and evaluation activities to successfully measure and report on literacy, numeracy, and social and emotional learning outcomes and their relationships to programming activities. The Advisor will lead on evaluation design and use quantitative and qualitative research methods to produce findings and recommendations for evidence-based program design and improvement. This role will have a particular focus on education technology, transitions from early childhood to school-aged learning and climate change. The Advisor will prepare and disseminate evaluation and research results to Country Offices, the Department of Education and Child Protection (DECP), Save the Children International (SCI) and in internal and external technical forums. Working with the Research Team, the Advisor will collaborate on multi-site analyses to inform advocacy and program innovation.
What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)
Technical Leadership and Quality Programming (50%)
- Lead research design, analysis, and data use to inform Early Learning, Wellbeing and Protection programs to build the evidence base for Save the Children
- Build SC staff capacity to generate, interpret, and apply findings of research on SC’s Early Learning, Wellbeing and Protection interventions
- Lead the development of and technical assistance to COs on research and evaluation components of education, child protection, and cross-sectoral grants
- Work with the Early Learning, Wellbeing and Protection cluster and Senior Advisors to implement, and track progress against the learning agenda
- Engage in and provide support to SC movement facing initiatives related to research and evidence building in the education sector
Program Learning and Innovation (20%)
- Ensure technical quality of learning outcomes measurement in SC ECCD sites, analysis and utilization of findings to realize impact for program, advocacy and fundraising.
- Support the development and testing of assessments for programs with 0-3 year olds and 3-6 year olds for continuous program improvement
- Work with the Research Team to leverage the variety of assessments currently used towards greater holism and rigor and pilot new instruments (e.g., Remote Assessment of Learning (ReAL))
- Lead technical inputs to global use of the International Development and Early Learning Assessment (IDELA), including support of administration and training guidance
- Lead research and evaluation activities on education technology, transitions from early childhood to school-aged learning and climate change as it relates to education
Cultivate Public and Private Resources (20%)
- Support the writing of proposals for strategic research-specific funding opportunities
- Support SC efforts to expand Early Learning, Wellbeing and Protection programming based on evidence.
- Lead on M&E elements of proposal development for Early Learning, Wellbeing and Protection opportunities
External Partnerships and Collaboration (10%)
- Support strategic external partnerships with academic institutions, multilateral organizations, implementing partners, and donors to leverage learning and position SC as a thought leader in the Early Learning, Wellbeing and Protection space
- Provide inputs to external technical discussions on Early Learning and Protection measurement, with a focus on education technology, transitions from early childhood to school aged learning and climate change
Required Qualifications
- Minimum of a Bachelor Degree or equivalent experience, plus at least 5 years of relevant experience
- Proven technical knowledge in research design, utilizing emergent/early learning assessments and quantitative analytic methods as well as experience training others in the same
- Demonstrated experience presenting in internal and external fora on applied research
- Proven experience in contributing to writing the evaluation components of proposals
- Professional proficiency in MS Office suite, Stata and/or R, and electronic data collection platforms (e.g,, KoBo Toolbox)
- Professional proficiency in spoken and written English
- Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally
- Demonstrated commitment to fostering and maintaining and environment of diversity, inclusion, and belonging. Proven experience with applied and collaborative research
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 25%, primarily internationally
Preferred Qualifications
- Applied research experience in a developing country context
- Experience in qualitative analysis and using qualitative analysis software (e.g., Dedoose, NVivo, Atlas.ti)
- Experience in writing research specific proposals
- Experience in education technology and climate change applied research
- Proficiency in Power BI
- Proficiency in French, Spanish, or Arabic
Why you should join the Save the Children Team…
Save the Children US offers outstanding benefits that include health, dental, vision and life insurances, pet insurance, short-term and long-term disability coverage, an Employee Assistance Program, 403(b), generous vacation, personal sick leave, family leave, parental/adoption leave, commuter benefits, dress for your day, and much more.
Click here to learn more about how Save the Children US will invest in YOU!
About Save the Children
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.
*Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond. As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.*
We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.
Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom we are in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse. In addition, it is Save the Children’s policy to create and proactively maintain an environment that aims to prevent and deter any actions and omissions, whether deliberate or inadvertent, that place children at the risk of any kind of child abuse. All our representatives are expected to conduct themselves in a manner consistent with this commitment and obligation.
Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.