Head, Hunger and Livelihoods (E1) At Save the Children

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.

Please note that we may have the ability to hire in locations outside of the US, but only where Save the Children already has an established presence. Salaries in those locations will be determined by the local market, and will not align with the Save the Children US published salaries.

Summary

As the Head, Department of Hunger and Livelihoods (DHL) you will provide key leadership for Save the Children’s flagship portfolio to alleviate hunger, improve livelihoods for the poor, and address climate change across development, transition, and emergency settings. Overseeing a team of approximately 60 staff, you will set the department’s strategic direction, grow the portfolio and global market position, and promote technical quality standards and delivery of results. You will develop and maintain key partnerships with Save the Children (SC) Members and Save the Children International (SCI), public and private sector donors, universities, policymakers, and other implementing partners to advance and expand our impact for children. A member of SCUS’s International Programs senior management team and agency expanded senior leadership team, you will represent DHL throughout the agency to achieve overall organizational goals and champion matrixed coordination and collaboration.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

Global Program Strategy and Market Position (35%)

• Set vision and goals for DHL portfolio, engaging program colleagues, SCI Country Offices, and other SC Members, while maintaining clear SCUS direction and focus.
• Develop and guide the implementation of multi-year strategic and annual operational plans to achieve agency objectives and to expand our reach to children, collaborating closely with SC Global Movement Child Poverty thematic team to ensure complementarity and collaboration.
• Ensure that clear process and outcome success measures are defined and tracked for SCUS, and seek to ensure that good practice is adopted by the SC Global Movement.
• Lead efforts for effective cross-functional collaboration on climate action within SCUS and serve as the SCUS representative to SCI’s Green Climate Fund Account Management Group.
• Represent SCUS to key external audiences and networks, in particular associated with USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and Bureau for Resilience and Food Security.
• Shape SCUS global food security, livelihoods and climate advocacy priorities, and work with SCUS’s Public Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns (PAC) division and other SC Members to plan and implement that agenda.
• Serve as a member of the SCUS International Programs (IP) senior management team and SCUS expanded senior leadership team and represent DHL in agency strategy and transformation projects.

Technical Leadership & Quality Programming (15%)

• Provide leadership to demonstrate the critical importance of SCUS strategy, and ensure that priorities and metrics for measuring progress are in place.
• Shape and implement strategies to ensure that SCUS develops, maintains, and grows technical capacity in food security, climate and livelihood programming in development, transition and emergency settings.
• Serve as Co-Champion of the SC Global Movement’s Food Security and Livelihoods Technical Working Group, utilizing this platform to provide guidance and support to technical leaders in the SC Global Movement.
• Ensure that state of the art quality standards are widely shared and promoted throughout the SC Global Movement (e.g. through the Child Poverty Reduction, Climate and Urban Technical Leadership Group and associated Technical Working Groups).
• Keep the department, senior management, and board informed about performance against SC quality standards and in comparison to other industry leaders.

Program Learning and Innovation (R&D) (5%)

• Identify, prioritize, and oversee development of opportunities to test and evaluate new or improved approaches to advancing SC’s hunger and livelihoods policy and program priorities, with special attention to current/potential flagship programs.
• Guide efforts to improve knowledge management (KM), and especially to ensure that DHL’s KM work leverages the USAID/BHA funded Implementer-Lead Design, Evidence, Analysis, and Learning (IDEAL) activity and associate awards and supports the SC Child Poverty Reduction, Climate and Urban Technical Leadership Group.
• Identify and develop key external partnerships to advance evaluative research.

Resource Mobilization (25%)

• Develop a resource mobilization plan for public and private funding streams, including the US Government (especially USAID), foundations, private and corporate partners, and multilateral donors managed by SCUS – working closely with SCUS colleagues in IP departments of New Business Development and Humanitarian Response, as well as SCUS Resource Development division and SCI Country Offices.
• Develop global/regional partnerships to create new evidence and enhance the scale and impact of child-focused food security and livelihoods programs; work with SC Members and SCI Country Offices to position SC as a partner of choice.

Program Oversight and Human Resource Management (20%)

• Advocate for and manage the department’s budget (undesignated, designated, and awards).
• Identify and ensure that the needed management resources for the DHL portfolio are in place to guide and support global programs (including general award management as well as oversight of global programs such as IDEAL).
• Supervise and ensure that succession plans are in place for senior leadership positions in the department, and help shape relevant HR strategies (recruitment, retention, leadership development, succession planning) to support achievement of strategic/operational goals.

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of a Bachelor Degree or equivalent experience, plus at least 15 years of relevant experience in food security, climate, and/or livelihoods, spanning program and policy work on a global level
• Prior senior-level management experience
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally
• Proven ability in portfolio expansion and diversification
• Ability to identify, attract, and develop high-caliber staff
• Professional proficiency in spoken and written English
• Professional proficiency in MS Office suite
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering and maintaining and environment of diversity, inclusion, and belonging

Preferred Qualifications

• Field experience strongly preferred
• Established networks/familiarity with technical and donor community, especially USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance and/or legacy USAID/Offices of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and Food For Peace
• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time

Compensation

Save the Children is offering the following salary ranges for this position, dependent on candidate location:

• Geo 1- NY Metro, DC, and other locations with labor costs significantly above national average: Up to $222,000/ year
• Geo 2-Locations around the US National Labor Cost Average: Up to $202,000/ year
• Geo 3-Locations significantly below the US National Labor Cost Average: Up to $182,000/year

Actual base salary may vary based upon, but not limited to, relevant experience, base salary of internal peers, business sector, and geographic location.

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

No matter your role when you join Save the Children, each and every day you will challenge yourself to devote your skills, talent and expertise to changing the world for kids. It’s an ambitious goal, and a meaningful one no matter how you see yourself professionally: an accountant, a writer, a data analyst, a teacher, a driver, a designer, or any one of the hundreds of dozens of roles we’re looking to fill every day.

You see, 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.