Project Director, Global Technical Expert (TE) Model - FTC

Save the Children International has an exciting opportunity for a Project Director, Global Technical Expert Model to join our global team.

• Job Title: Project Director, Global Technical Expert (TE) Model
• Reports To: Jointly to Chief Programme Delivery & Impact Officer and Chief Strategy Officer
• Work Pattern: Hybrid/Remote with flexible working options available
• Location: Any approved Save the Children International office location. For a full list of locations that Save the Children International can hire in, please visit: SCI Careers
• Required Time Zone: +/-3 hours GMT
• Contract Length: Fixed Term Contract (6 months), with potential to extend
• Grade: Executive
• Right to Work: The successful candidate must possess the unrestricted right to work in their current or preferred location for the duration of employment
• Language Requirements: English
• International Travel: up to 10%
• People Management: manager of team
• Remit: Global

Team Purpose

Our Technical Expertise (TE) is central to Save the Children’s ability to deliver impact with and for children—shaping the quality, relevance, and influence of our programmes, and increasingly enabling change through systems, partnerships, and policy. Today, Save the Children has more than 1,000 technical experts across its movement in addition to important partnerships with local organisations, academic institutions and peer organisations.

This project is critical to ensuring TE is positioned as a globally connected platform —aligning scarce resources, strengthening capability across the network, supporting our localisation agenda, and enabling Save the Children to operate more effectively in a complex and rapidly changing environment. The Global TE model is a cornerstone of the organisation’s broader change agenda, with significant implications for workforce, funding, and how we deliver impact at scale.

Project Purpose

To design and mobilise a future-fit Global Technical Expertise (TE) model that enables Save the Children to deliver greater impact for children through outcomes, influence, partnerships, and system change, in a context of funding pressure and organisational transformation.

Role Purpose

To lead the development, agreement, and initial execution of the Global TE strategy and operating model, covering workforce, funding, and utilisation, with accountability for delivering a coherent, financially sustainable and outcome-driven model. The role will deliver a clear, financially grounded model and implementation plan, secure alignment across the movement, and position the TE model for sustained delivery and long-term organisational impact.

Principal Accountabilities

1. TE Strategy & Operating Model

• Building on significant analysis and input gathered to date, finalise the future TE value proposition as an outcome-led, distributed model of expertise, with accountability for ensuring its effectiveness and organisational impact
• Establish design principles (e.g. country-led, networked expertise, partnership-first)
• Develop the target operating model, including: 2. Workforce, Funding & Utilisation Design 3. Financial Modelling & Scenario Analysis 4. Implementation Planning 5. Stakeholder Alignment & Governance 6. Mobilisation & Early Execution Experience and Skills Essential Desirable Education and Qualifications Essential Desirable Values in Practice Accountability:
  Ambition:
  Collaboration:
  Creativity:
  Integrity: Working at Save the Children International Save the Children is the world's leading organisation for children, employing ~25,000 staff. We save children's lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Through our work in 116 countries, we put the most deprived and marginalised children first. We know that great people make a great organisation, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued. The work here is challenging but is also immensely rewarding. At Save the Children, you will be in good company, working with talented, like-minded individuals who are determined to ensure that all children survive, learn, and are protected. Your contribution will help ensure children's voices are heard at the highest levels, and that we achieve our global strategy, Ambition for Children 2030, and reach every last child. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Equal Opportunities DEI is core to our vision, values and global strategy. Save the Children is committed to creating a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation, and one which will support us in our vision to ensure every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation. We are committed to equal employment opportunities, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, disability, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, caring or parental responsibilities, age, or beliefs and religion. We are committed to diversifying our staff to better represent the communities we serve and actively welcome underrepresented groups to apply. Reasonable adjustments will be made should any candidate invited to interview require this. Application Information Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application. A full copy of the role profile can be found at SCI Careers. It is recommended that you save a copy of the role profile as it will no longer be available after the advert closes. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the job advert may be closed earlier than advertised subject to the volume of suitable applicants. Please submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.
  Due to the high volume of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Candidates who are successfully shortlisted should expect to hear from us within 2 weeks of the advert deadline. Our Recruitment Process We need to keep children and adults safe so our selection process includes rigorous background checks and reflects our commitment to the protection of children and adults from abuse. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our Code of Conduct and all policies and procedures relating to Anti-Harassment, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, and DEI and Equal Opportunities. Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.
  • Global, member, and country roles and accountabilities
  • Distributed expertise
  • Role of TE in influence, partnerships, and resource mobilisation
  • Lead integrated model design across:
    • Workforce: role segmentation, governance, and localisation alignment
    • Funding: sustainable model that maximises value of unrestricted and restricted funding
    • Utilisation: flexible deployment, shared resourcing, and surge capacity
  • Ensure alignment with broader organisational shifts (localisation, private income, efficiency), with accountability for delivering measurable improvements in workforce effectiveness and cost efficiency
  • Oversee development of robust financial models to test options and scenarios
  • Quantify cost implications, investment shifts, and efficiency opportunities
  • Translate analysis into clear, decision-ready recommendations
  • Provide oversight and challenge to ensure financial assumptions and recommendations support sustainable, organisation-wide outcomes
  • Develop a phased implementation roadmap (6–24 months)
  • Define required changes across policy, systems, processes, and governance
  • Identify dependencies and risks, including alignment with Horizon B/C and related initiatives
  • Ensure implementation plans are realistic, prioritised, and positioned to deliver intended organisational outcomes
  • Engage and align senior stakeholders across SCI, Members, and Country Offices
  • Work through established governance (Sponsors, Steering Group, Project Team)
  • Facilitate decision-making at senior leadership level
  • Establish programme governance and delivery structures to enable effective execution
  • Initiate and oversee priority implementation actions (e.g. workforce planning, pilots)
  • Ensure momentum and transition into sustained delivery, ensuring clear ownership beyond the initial phase
  • Senior leadership experience in global transformation or operating model design
  • Strong experience in workforce strategy, organisational design, and/or funding models
  • Proven track record in financial modelling and scenario-based decision-making
  • Experience operating in complex, federated or matrix organisations
  • Ability to influence senior stakeholders at executive and board level
  • Experience in INGOs or international development sector
  • Experience with technical expert workforce design or change
  • Familiarity with localisation, partnership models, and innovative financing
  • Advanced degree or equivalent experience in relevant field
  • Professional qualification in project management or organisational development
  • Application review by our recruiting team based on your CV and cover letter
  • Two-stage competency-based interviews with the hiring team
  • Some recruitment may include an additional assessment or case study stage, or a third stage interview
  • If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, followed by your contract subject to passing background checks
  • Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
  • Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved
  • 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 their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
  • Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale
  • 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
  • Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
  • Willing to take disciplined risks
  • Honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity
  • Application review by our recruiting team based on your CV and cover letter
  • Two-stage competency-based interviews with the hiring team
  • Some recruitment may include an additional assessment or case study stage, or a third stage interview
  • If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, followed by your contract subject to passing background checks