Technical Director/USAID Accelerating Choice, Equity,

Description

Summary

Save the Children seeks a qualified candidate for the position of Technical Director for the upcoming USAID Accelerating Choice, Equity, and Sustainability for Services (ACCESS) activity. The purpose of the award is to improve family planning (FP) and other sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and related health outcomes among adolescents/youth and other underserved and underrepresented populations by advancing excellence, innovation, and best practices in service delivery.  

The Technical Director will be responsible for providing overall technical leadership and oversight for the program to assist ACCESS-supported countries to advance access to and use of equitable, quality, and rights-based voluntary FP, SRH, and other related health services. This will include overseeing strengthening the technical and operational capacity of local government agencies and local partners to expand access to high-quality FP/SRH services especially for adolescents and youth and other underserved and underrepresented populations, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, migrants, and LGBTQI+ people.  The Technical Director should be a recognized leader in the FP/SRH sector and should bring knowledge and cutting-edge skills in rights-based, social norms shifting, and gender-responsive FP/SRH to ensure implementation is based on the latest global best practices and most updated guidelines. They should possess strong project management skills, previous experience working with staff and stakeholders in multiple countries, and they will be responsible for coordinating and providing direction to technical team leads across the ACCESS program. This position will be under the supervision of the Project Director.  

The position is subject to the availability of funds and approval by USAID.

The location is TBD with preference for either Washington, DC or West Africa.

What You'll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

•   Provide technical assistance in the delivery of high-impact service delivery, social and behavior change, and enabling environment FP practices, with an operational strategy and policy for the integration of practices into the delivery of existing SRH and primary care and support services at the community level and in the public and private sector.  
• Provide technical assistance and guidance to the project’s social norms shifting, social and behavior change approaches to strengthen access to SRH including voluntary FP services.
• Lead technical planning and program implementation, ensuring programming is evidence-based and rights-based as well as grounded in global best practices and guided by the most up-to-date guidelines, tools, and approaches.   
• Provide technical expertise and guidance in the development and/or updating of national policies, strategies, protocols, and guidelines related to FP and SRH in ACCESS-focused countries.  
• Ensure programming advances gender equity and equality and the meaningful engagement of adolescents/youth, women, and other underserved and underrepresented groups in program design, implementation, monitoring, and sustainability planning.  
• Lead technical capacity strengthening efforts to program staff, local government counterparts, and local program partners in the provision of high-quality, gender-responsive FP/SRH programming.  
• Contribute to the development of a model for the adoption, replication, and scale up of key FP high impact practices regionally and across ACCESS-supported countries.  
• Support monitoring and reporting of project progress to ensure quality, timeliness, and completeness of activities, interventions, and technical deliverables.  
• Assist program leaders to rapidly identify and address any FP/SRH technical issues related to project implementation.  
• Synthesize and disseminate evidence-based results and lessons learned through reports, working groups, country-level workshops, and regional platforms.  
• Contribute to project learning, equity, and rights-based FP/SRH programming and the global evidence-base by collaborating with donors, host governments, technical working groups, FP/SRH coalitions, and implementing partners to share and discuss progress, achievements, and challenges.  
• Contribute to internal communication, organizational development, and the promotion of the visibility of Save the Children.  

Required Qualifications

• Hold at least a post-graduate degree in public health, nursing, obstetrics, or a related health field. Academic specialization in FP/SRH is an asset.  
• Have at least 12 years of experience working at graduated levels of responsibility, with at least five (5) years in FP/SRH technical and project management roles with similar scope, size, and complexity.  
• Experienced in providing training, coaching, mentorship, and capacity strengthening in gender-responsive, equity-centered FP/SRH programming, including youth-centered programming, in various country contexts.   
• Demonstrated experience contributing to the internal and external body of evidence in FP/RH programs for youth and/or other underserved populations.   
• Extensive knowledge of current advances in FP and SRH, particularly for adolescents/youth and other underserved and underrepresented populations.  
• Experienced in managing staff and coordinating and collaborating with multiple teams with emotional intelligence, cultural humility, and respect.  
• Knowledge of USAID rules and regulations or experience working on USAID-funded projects.   
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skill in English (written and oral). French language skills desired.  
• Ability to travel to the focus countries and to regional events.

Why you should join the Save the Children Team…

Save the Children US offers outstanding benefits that include health, dental, vision and life insurances, 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   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.