Director I, Child Protection, Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) at ChildFund

Job Description

About This Role
This is a global, remote position that can be based in any location where ChildFund has an office. To be considered, candidates must have current residence and work authorization in a ChildFund country of operation. Please note that pay will be in local currency. To apply, please submit a resume and cover letter in English.

ChildFund’s child protection portfolio focuses on the prevention of, and response to, exploitation, abuse, neglect, harmful practices, and violence against children. Our work in child protection is community-led and focuses on comprehensive Community-based Child Protection (CBCP) Mechanism systems strengthening approach in each of our countries of operation. We work to address harmful cultural norms, gender inequality, and promote safety within homes, schools, communities, and online.

To achieve and sustain overall child and youth protection positive outcomes, ChildFund commits to mainstreaming the principles and strategies of protective gender-based and inclusive child protection within all programming, advocacy, and community-based support for children and youth who are excluded, and challenged by factors of gender, identity, ability, and socio-economic context. It uses gender transformative, intersectional, social and behavior change, and contextualization strategies to community-based child protection while strengthening child protection workforce.

The Child Protection, Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Director supports the provides strategic technical support, leadership, and guidance to drive and strengthen ChildFund’s global program portfolio and enhance program quality on behalf of children in development and emergency contexts. The Director focuses on guiding colleagues and teams and working collaboratively with divisional/regional and country office leaders to ensure the successful integration of Child Protection and Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) principles in our programming across life stages and in line with our theory of change.

Required Experience and Education
• Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree preferred.
• At least 9 years of programs experience in international development, social work, or a similar field, in a multi-country or regional context.
• At least 5 years of international field experience.
• At least 5 years of experience managing and mentoring teams.
• Demonstrated experience with proposal development.
• Demonstrated experience with child protection systems strengthening, including but not limited to: social service workforce strengthening, case management system development, or national information management systems (CPIMS) implementation.
• Experience with US government donor agencies and grant-making processes (e.g., USAID).
• Demonstrated representation and networking experience with multilateral agencies, foundations and other institutions focused on child development and protection programming.
• The ability to travel up to 25% internationally.

Primary Responsibilities
• Lead the development and execution of ChildFund’s Child Protection and GESI strategy; lead and manage the implementation of strategic priorities in Child Protection and GESI.
• Lead and manage Child Protection technical advisors; lead staff on business development or strategic investment projects.
• Enhance the capabilities of ChildFund staff on GESI interventions through the development of guidance, tools, frameworks, and other resources.
• Lead the generation of GESI content for internal and external communications; serve as a thought leader and serve as ChildFund’s focal point for GESI in the ChildFund Alliance.
• Collaborate with the Director of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility to ensure alignment between internal and external IDEA and GESI plans and strategies.
• Collaborate with Senior Advisors in early childhood development, education, youth livelihoods, climate action, and health to support country office teams to plan and execute the roll-out of child protection strategies in country offices.
• Lead processes to identify and address program capacity gaps in GESI.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and external partners to design and adopt evidence-based child protection and GESI programs and interventions that align with organizational goals and address the unique needs of diverse country contexts, including emergency response programming. Provide specific technical support to country offices to develop program models and other project designs.
• Support country office teams to strengthen the use of Community-Based Child Protection mapping data and experience for decision-making, advocacy, program model development, grant efforts and thought leadership.
• Collaborate with the Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning team to develop and oversee robust M&E systems to track program outcomes, identify best practices, and drive continuous improvement.
• Collaborate with Research and Learning to ensure high quality implementation of evaluation activities.
• Identify child protection and GESI funding opportunities and coordinate with Business Development in the “go/no-go” process.
• Collaborate with Business Development and country office teams to provide technical inputs into the design and writing of grant proposals.
• Review and provide technical feedback on results and project reports required by funders to ensure quality and full compliance with donor GESI policies and progress toward GESI integration in projects.
• Develop strategies to partner with global and regional protection actors and other external stakeholders to ensure comprehensive and coordinated protection, equity, and inclusion efforts.
• Represent ChildFund in international forums as an advocate for policies and practices that promote the organization’s protection focused thought leadership.
• Stay abreast of emerging trends, innovations, and research in Child Protection and GESI.
• Remain alert and responsive to any child safeguarding risks, acquire relevant knowledge and skills which will enable you to promote strong safeguarding practices, understand the child safeguarding policy and procedures, and conduct yourself in a manner consistent with the Child Safeguarding Policy.

Required Competencies
• The ability to read, write, and speak fluently in English.
• Proficiency in another language (French, Spanish, and/or Portuguese preferred) is beneficial.
• Demonstrated inclusive leadership skills, with a commitment to fostering a culture of learning and collaboration among teams.
• Demonstrated technical competencies in program design, including monitoring & evaluation frameworks, implementation, and evaluation for child protection programs.
• The ability to contribute to technical strategy design and narrative writing in funding proposals.
• The demonstrated ability to develop and deliver trainings and capacity building for program design, delivery, and assessment.
• Excellent presentation and oral communication skills, with the ability to provide high-quality in-person and virtual technical assistance, guidance and coaching to staff and implementing partners.
• Strong analytical capability to apply “big picture” organizational goals and strategy to shorter-term objectives.
• Excellent organization skills, with the ability to coordinate multiple projects simultaneously and lead teams across countries and time zones.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite, including Word, Sharepoint, Teams, and PowerPoint.