Senior Education Technical Expert

ROLE PURPOSE:

The Senior Education Technical Advisor (TE) will use her/his in-depth contextual understanding, technical expertise, and relationship building skills to define and deliver our strategic ambition for education in El Salvador. The role will lead strategy development and the technical design and implementation of high-quality programmes that deliver change for children in both emergency and development programming. The role supports national advocacy and influencing, while driving strategic partnerships for new business development. It supports the design and implementation of monitoring and evaluation systems to demonstrate impact, while sharing learning across our programmes, teams and partners. The role will work closely with operations colleagues and with partners in the El Salvador Country Office, building their capacity, ownership and agency of local organisations. This role includes a focus on external representation on priority issues including early childhood care and development, and foundational learning and uninterrupted learning (education in emergencies) to ensure all children have access to education leading to learning and wellbeing outcomes.

Additionally, the Senior Education Technical Advisor plays a pivotal role in three strategic areas: advocacy and policy influence, technical design of proposals, and strategic technical alignment. This includes representing the organization in inter-institutional platforms, promoting evidence-based policies, and integrating risk mitigation and "do no harm" principles in humanitarian responses. The role also leads the conceptualization of scalable, context-adapted proposals aligned with Save the Children's global frameworks, and provides technical guidance to ensure quality standards, effective monitoring, and alignment with national strategies across the education portfolio.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Programme Quality & Development Director.

Staff reporting to this post: No direct reports but expected to provide coaching and mentoring support to operational and other technical colleagues and local partners.

Budget Responsibilities: None.

Role Dimensions: The role is expected to foster relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders including Save the Children members, the Country Office Programme Development & Quality team, advocacy colleagues, Regional Advisors, technical counterparts in other organisation, donors, academia etc. The role is also expected to engage with internal technical working groups and communities of practice.

Context: Humanitarian and development.

Primary Technical area: Education.

Primary Sub technical area: Emotional and psychosocial protection, physical protection, teaching and learning, parents and community, school leadership and management.



KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Technical Leadership:

1. Provide technical leadership for education for the Country Office, and set the strategic approach in relation to the wider country strategy

2. Build capacity of national staff and partners in key technical approaches related to education.

3. Technical advice for the project portfolio in key thematic areas.

4. Ensure technical alignment of the key thematic portfolio with the country strategy.

5. Analysis of educational research, national context, and regional education reports.

6. Ensure implementation of global quality standards for key thematic areas.

7. Review and technical advice on consultants' work related to research, baselines, impact evaluations, and methodological frameworks.

8. Review of Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) processes of ongoing projects.

9. Field-based technical support to ensure compliance with MEL, Common Approaches, and Save the Children quality standards.

Proposal Design

1. Conceptualization and technical development of proposals in key thematic areas.

2. Strategic communication with donors to convey concepts and ideas about proposals or projects.

3. Trend analysis in key thematic areas.

4. Design and identification of applicable, scalable, and viable strategies to systematically address national challenges related to key themes.

5. Ensure the inclusion and implementation of Save the Children's global Common Approaches, adapted to the country context.

6. Ensure the application of the socio-ecological model and Save the Children's Theory of Change in designed proposals.

Ensuring Programme Quality (Design & Implementation):

1. Work closely with new business development colleagues to identify and pursue funding opportunities that allow for both integration intro broader programmes and standalone education programmes/projects; engage with technical partners, donors and colleagues across Save the Children

2. Lead the technical scoping, planning, and design and proposal writing during new programme development, and ensure that we design and deliver high quality education programmes for children, building on global best practice. Ensure that gender, disability and resilience considerations are reflected in our programme design and implementation.

3. Work with Child Rights Governance colleagues to ensure that a rights based approach is reflected in our programme design and implementation (in line with our child rights programming approach), with a strong focus on child participation

4. Promote an Education Systems Strengthening approach as the overarching framework, that supports working in collaboration and partnership with governments and regional bodies, local partners and working towards impact, scale and sustainability.

5. Provide oversight and guidance to the programme implementation teams to ensure that thematic programme components are technically sound, implementation methods are consistent with national and global strategies, acknowledged good practice (e.g. Save the Children Common Approaches), and are likely to achieve scale as well as equitable and sustainable results.

6. Promote and monitor integrated programming in a way that increases overall impact of education programmes at the community level.

7. Work with Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning (MEAL) teams to carry out gender and power analysis, and conduct quality monitoring against international standards through participatory methodologies that promote gender equality and social justice (including child-friendly and gender sensitive/transformative methodologies).

8. Contribute towards the creation of an organisational learning culture that promotes the use of disaggregated data, evidence and analysis (including gender and power analysis) and understands its link to quality and accountable programming; Contribute to strengthening the use of equality-focused programme principles and good practice across themes and sectors.

9. Undertake field visits to project sites; work with implementation teams to understand impacts, operational challenges, and continuously identify opportunities for learning and improvement.

10. Contribute to organisational learning on education, ensuring that learning from our programmes is shared across the Country Office and our partners, as well as with colleagues in the wider regional and global education community in Save the Children including relevant technical working groups.

11. Support Humanitarian colleagues (as needed) to develop emergency preparedness plans and conduct sectoral assessments ( including gender analysis and disability situation analysis, using SC assessment processes and tools) and to design and deliver emergency response and recovery programmes. Ensure synergies between humanitarian teams, data and programme design.

12. Monitor trends to ensure early action in humanitarian response, and lead technical design and implementation and technical coordination of humanitarian responses.

Networking & External Engagement:

1. In alignment with Country Office strategy and leadership, engage in strategic positioning with donors, partners and government in-country, and ensure that Save the Children is a partner of choice in education.

2. Ensure that Save the Children is influencing and learning from others through national technical coordination and networking bodies such as clusters and working groups recognising Save the Children and UNICEF are global co-leads for the education cluster.

3. Ensure that Save the Children influences and learns from others through national technical coordination, especially in its relationship with the Ministry of Education.

4. Strengthen civil society engagement in national dialogues and policy processes through working closely with advocacy and child rights governance colleagues. Ensure that the diverse voices of children, girls and boys are equitably heard and represented in our education work.

5. Represent the program to National and Local government representatives, donors, partner agencies, etc. as required.

6. Ensure the quality, clarity and consistency of technical components of internal and external reports (e.g. programme reports, sit-reps, internal updates), working closely with awards, programme implementation and communications colleagues as needed.

7. Leverage and liaise with technical colleagues from across Save the Children, including technical working groups and centres of excellence, ensuring that learning from the Country Office is shared with others and global lessons brought back.

8. Technical representation in various inter-institutional platforms related to key themes, both in development and humanitarian contexts.

9. Promote and drive the adoption of policies and practices in multisectoral spaces related to technical expertise.

10. Identify internal and external risks and their potential impacts on the organization, as well as design mitigation measures.

11. Ensure the "do no harm" approach in humanitarian responses.

12. Implement effective technological solutions with governments and partners to improve access to services related to technical expertise themes.

13. Influence systems, policies, and coordination mechanisms in key thematic areas.

BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds their team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in accordance with the context, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.
  
  Ambition:
• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
• Widely shares Save the Children's vision, and engages and motivates others future orientated, thinks strategically and on a national and global scale.
  
  Collaboration:
• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength.
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.
  
  Creativity:
• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions.
• Willing to take disciplined risks.
  
  Integrity:
• Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity.
  
  The post holder must commit to work in an international agency that promotes diversity, equity and inclusion and fights racism, gender inequality and discrimination in all forms; and to model positive behaviours that demonstrate a commitment to equality and respect to all colleagues, partners and communities.
  
  QUALIFICATIONS
  
  Masters degree in Education.
  
  EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
• At least 5 years' experience of leading the design and implementation of humanitarian and development programmes in education.
• Understanding of the education sector in El Salvador.
• Knowledgeable in education systems (humanitarian/cluster systems as needed), e.g., The INEE Minimum Standards, the key issues related to Sustainable Development Goal 4 - to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
• Track record in successful business development/fundraising such as Global Partnership for Education, Education Cannot Wait, EU, DIFID, USAID, World Bank
• Demonstrated program design, monitoring and evaluation skills, including designing pathways to sustainable impact at scale.
• Experience of strategy development and planning.
• Experience of context, capacity and policy analysis, and influencing and advocacy at regional/international level to hold duty bearers to account to realise children's rights.
• Skilled at networking, representation and partnership development in order promote learning, strengthen civil society and mobilise resources.
• Able to generate and use data and evidence to innovate, deliver, learn and share what works and what doesn't work for children.
• Experience of promoting quality and impact through at least one cross-cutting area: gender equality and inclusion, adaptive and safer programming; child rights; disability; migration and displacement.
• Experience of supporting humanitarian preparedness, response and recovery
• Significant experience in training, capacity building, and mentoring
• Fluent in English and high level of English writing skills.