Senior Advisor, Early Childhood Development

About ChildFund

ChildFund’s Values

We aspire for every person in our organization—program, participants, supporters, staff, and volunteers alike—to feel free, safe, and confident to be themselves. In our culture of connection, you will have ample opportunity to grow, learn, and lead while contributing your talents and innovations to our inspiring mission.

ChildFund’s Commitment

ChildFund International has a zero-tolerance policy regarding sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment (SEAH) and all other forms of harm by its staff, partners, and other representatives in the delivery of its mission and services for children. ChildFund is committed to creating a safe environment in the workplace as well as in the communities where it delivers programs and services. ChildFund expects every staff member, partner, and representative to adhere to this commitment and to ensure all organizational policies and standards are followed. This position is subject to a range of vetting checks, including a criminal records check and/or disclosure to ensure program participants are safeguarded.

About This Role

ChildFund’s ECD program portfolio currently covers two main practice areas—responsive caregiving and center-based early childhood education and care (ECCE) with an emphasis on nurturing care and learning through plat.  The programs’ intervention strategies are delivered in both the development and humanitarian contexts and often include a focus on both child health and development, particularly for the “first one thousand” days of life.

The Senior Advisor, ECD works closely with the Program and Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) teams to draft well-crafted programs that are aligned with ChildFund’s Results Framework and key sectoral and global practices, ensuring global impact. Together, they will also guide ChildFund’s ECD program evidence and impact assessment needs and thought leadership.

The role also requires working closely with the Business Development and the Grant Acquisitions teams to expand and diversify resources for ChildFund’s early childhood development programs, which is essential for securing funding and creating new opportunities for the organization and global aspiration of positively impacting children and their families around the world.

This is a full-time, open-ended, remote position open to internal and external candidates in the United States, Ethiopia, Guinea, Kenya, Mozambique, Senegal, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Uganda, or Zambia. To be eligible, candidates must have current work authorization and residence in one of the above countries.

Required Experience and Education

• A minimum of 8 to 10 years of progressive program management or technical advisor experience in early childhood development across multiple countries or regional contexts with responsibilities for program design, technical leadership, innovation and business development within the international development or humanitarian sector and a proven track record of leading complex program design for grant acquisition.
• Demonstrated experience leading program design for large-scale early childhood-focused grants, such as those from USAID, EU, UNICEF, foundations, and multilaterals.

Education

• Bachelor of Arts (BA) or Bachelor of Science (BS) in child development, early childhood education, developmental psychology or related field required.
• Master’s degree or higher in child development, early childhood education, developmental psychology, child health, or another relevant field is preferred.

Primary Responsibilities

1. Technical Support and Leadership: The Senior Advisor, ECD provides technical support and leadership to strengthen ChildFund International’s global early childhood development program portfolio including the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of children. This involves enhancing program design, quality and ensuring that ECD programs are designed for impact while incorporating ChildFund’s evidenced-based approaches and the latest global best practices.
2. Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning:: The Senior Advisor, ECD works closely with the Program and Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) teams to draft well-crafted programs that are aligned with ChildFund’s Results Framework and key sectoral and global practices, ensuring global impact. Together, they will also guide ChildFund’s ECD program evidence and impact assessment needs and thought leadership.
3. Partnership Cultivation: The Senior Advisor, ECD actively cultivates partnerships with private sector actors, government stakeholders and other external organizations, stakeholders, and donors to enhance the program’s impact and sustainability through collaboration opportunities, securing funding and promoting ChildFund International’s ECD initiatives.
4. Resource Expansion and Diversification: The role also requires working closely with the Resource Mobilization and the Grant Acquisitions teams to expand and diversify resources for ChildFund’s early childhood development programs, creating new opportunities for the organization to positively impact children and their families around the world.

Others

1. The Senior Advisor must remain alert and responsive to any child safeguarding risks, acquire relevant knowledge and skills which will enable them to promote strong safeguarding practices, understand the child safeguarding policy and procedures, and behave in a manner consistent with the Child Safeguarding Policy.
2. Travel domestically and internationally up to 20%.

Required Competencies

• Teamwork: the ability to work effectively and collaborate with others; values and respects individual differences.
• Communication: demonstrates empathy and tact when communicating with others and uses a storytelling approach when appropriate.
• Results orientation: gets things done; takes proactive steps to achieve organizational goals and quality standards.
• Decision making: uses good judgement, critical thinking, and non-traditional ways to evaluate problems and opportunities; reflects and innovates to improve decisions and outcomes.
• Resilience: thrives and grows in rapidly changing, demanding, and complex environments.
• Digital literacy: adopts and champions new technology to relevant contexts, stays aware of technological trends and embraces technological solutions to business challenges.

Other Required Competencies

• Language: English fluency is required. Proficiency in second language is preferred.
• Technical Expertise and Leadership: The ability to provide technical support and leadership that ensures the delivery of quality programming across ChildFund’s countries of operations.
• Expertise in Child Development: Possess a comprehensive understanding of child development principles and practices, with the ability to effectively promote the physical, social, emotional, and cognitive development of children.
• Knowledge in Child Protection programming: Ability to understand, analyze, apply and align appropriate child protection strategies in ECD programming.
• Grant Proposal Development: Strong skills in technical writing; ability to collaborate with the Director of Program and Product Design and Resource Mobilization teams to craft well-aligned grant proposals that adhere to ChildFund’s Global Results Framework, key sectoral and global practices, and evidence of impact, supporting the expansion and diversification of revenue streams.
• Donor Relations and Funding Models: Proficiency in identifying global donors, cultivating relationships with key donors, advising on donor trends, knowledge and understanding of existing and emerging funding models.
• Impact Assessment and Collaboration: Competence in guiding ChildFund’s early childhood development program evidence and impact assessment needs, priorities, and thought leadership.
• Capacity Building and Training: Demonstrated ability to conduct effective capacity building and training in virtual settings.
• Work effectively in a matrix environment: Ability to navigate and collaborate within a geographically dispersed, matrix organizational structure, where multiple reporting lines and cross-functional teams are common.

• Effective representation and networking: Proven ability to build and maintain strategic relationships internally and externally by creating communities of practice, building strong donor engagement and positioning ChildFund as a leader in ECD.

• Strong technology skills, including proficiency with Microsoft Office suite applications.