Senior Specialist, Finance (Cost Optimization Initiative)

Save the Children International has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Specialist, Finance (Cost Optimization Initiative) to join our global team.

Team and Role Purpose

Save the Children is launching the Cost Optimisation Initiative to improve organizational sustainability, strengthen value for money, and maximize resources available for children and programme delivery. The aim is to build a simpler, smarter, and more efficient Save the Children that delivers greater impact for children through better use of every resource entrusted to us.

Role purpose

The Senior Finance Specialist will serve as the financial lead resource within the organization-wide Cost Management & Efficiency Initiative providing data-driven insights, advanced analytics, financial modelling, and performance intelligence to support the achievement of the organization’s cost optimization ambitions. The role will provide advanced financial analysis, cost modelling, operational efficiency assessment, and financial validation to support the achievement of the organization’s 2026–2030 cost optimization ambitions.

Working within a highly matrixed international NGO environment, the role will partner closely with Global Teams, Country Offices, Finance Transformation teams, operational leaders, and Programme stakeholders to identify, quantify, validate, and track cost efficiency opportunities across support and operational functions.

The Senior Finance Specialist will play a critical role in supporting the organization’s ambition to achieve significant cost efficiencies while strengthening operational effectiveness, improving value for money, and maximizing resources available for beneficiary impact.

• Job Title: Senior Specialist, Finance (Cost Optimization Initiative)
• Reports To: International Programs Finance: Senior Manager (Strategic Projects)
• Work Pattern: On-site/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: Any
• Contract Length: Fixed Term Contract (18 months)
• Right to Work: The successful candidate must have the right to work in the country where the role is based, for the duration of employment.
• Language Requirements: English
• International Travel: up to 10%
• Remit: Global

Principal Accountabilities

• Lead Financial Analysis and Cost Modelling: Drive comprehensive financial analysis of organisational cost structures across Country Offices and Global Teams, developing sophisticated cost-driver models and scenario analyses to identify inefficiencies, quantify optimisation opportunities, and validate financial assumptions underpinning the Cost Optimisation initiative.
• Establish and Maintain Cost Baselines: Build robust current and future-state cost baselines and operational benchmarks, conducting comparative analysis across functions, geographies, and operating models to identify best practices and scalable efficiencies aligned with the organisation's 2026–2030 targets.
• Drive Benefits Realisation and Savings Validation: Develop and maintain financial benefits realisation methodologies and savings validation frameworks, establishing rigorous processes to track, validate and independently assure the delivery of cost savings against approved efficiency targets.
• Provide Transformation Finance Support: Partner with transformation and workstream leads to evaluate current versus future-state operating models, providing financial insight into business process redesign, operational simplification, and digital enablement initiatives including the development of investment rationales and business cases.
• Deliver Financial Governance and Reporting: Produce high-quality financial dashboards, executive summaries, and performance reports for senior leadership and governance forums, ensuring consistent reporting methodologies and proactively identifying financial risks, dependencies, and emerging issues across workstreams.
• Build and Maintain KPI and Performance Frameworks: Support the design and implementation of KPI frameworks and cost efficiency performance indicators for the Cost Optimisation initiative, ensuring milestones and efficiency targets are measurable, trackable, and aligned to strategic objectives.
• Influence and Engage Senior Financial Stakeholders: Engage and partner with senior finance, operations, HR, and programme stakeholders across global and country structures, translating complex financial analysis into clear and actionable insights and facilitating evidence-based discussions on efficiency trade-offs and opportunities.
• Support Service Delivery Cost Optimisation: Assess the financial implications of operational redesign initiatives — including staffing structures, service delivery models, and non-staff cost initiatives — to support the simplification and standardisation of service delivery across functions and geographies.
• Ensure Financial Alignment Across Transformation Workstreams: Collaborate with Finance Transformation and Enterprise Analytics teams to align financial models, reporting frameworks, and transformation objectives, ensuring coherent and integrated financial intelligence across the full programme.
• Embed Financial Discipline and Data-Driven Decision-Making: Promote a culture of financial accountability, rigour, and data-driven decision-making across the organisation, supporting change efforts by building financial literacy and confidence in efficiency data among non-financial stakeholders.

Experience and Skills

Essential

1. Extensive track record of financial leadership within large-scale organisational transformation, cost optimisation, or operational efficiency programmes in complex global organisations, with direct responsibility for financial analysis, modelling, and benefits realisation.
2. Significant experience working within complex INGOs, federated organisations, multinational matrix environments, or similarly complex stakeholder structures, including proven ability to navigate competing priorities across multiple geographies and functions.
3. A proven ability to design and apply sophisticated financial models, cost-driver analyses, scenario planning, and sensitivity analyses to quantify efficiency opportunities and validate transformation assumptions at enterprise scale.
4. A proven ability to apply strong analytical and problem-solving skills collaboratively, including taking on hands-on analysis activities to support broader transformation workstreams and delivering high-quality outputs under tight timelines and with limited supervision.
5. Extensive experience developing and maintaining financial benefits realisation frameworks, savings validation methodologies, and cost baseline models, with a track record of independently assuring and reporting efficiency delivery against approved targets.
6. A proven ability to engage, influence, and build alignment among senior finance, operations, HR, and programme stakeholders across multiple geographies, translating complex financial analysis into clear and actionable insights for non-financial audiences.
7. Strong knowledge and practical experience of cost management, operational cost structures, support function efficiency, staffing and level-of-effort optimisation, and financial implications of service delivery redesign.
8. Exceptional communication, presentation, and financial storytelling capability, with demonstrated experience producing executive-level dashboards, governance reports, and financial summaries for senior leadership forums.
9. Professional accounting qualification (CPA, ACCA, CIMA, ACA, or equivalent) with progressive experience in finance, financial planning & analysis, business partnering, or transformation finance — global or multi-country experience essential.
10. Experience supporting ERP transformation initiatives or enterprise-wide financial systems implementations.

Desirable

• Experience supporting or embedding financial governance within transformation programmes exceeding USD 50M in operational scope.
• Experience working across both headquarters or global teams and decentralised Country Office operations, with an understanding of the operational realities of field-based humanitarian or development contexts.
• Practical knowledge of Lean Six Sigma, DMAIC, continuous improvement, or operational excellence methodologies as applied to financial or operational redesign.
• Exposure to enterprise analytics platforms, AI-enabled financial modelling, or intelligent automation initiatives in a transformation context

Education and Qualifications

Essential

• Bachelor’s degree in finance, Accounting, Economics, Business Administration, or related discipline.

Desirable

• Professional accounting qualification (CPA, ACCA, CIMA, ACA, or equivalent).

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

1. Application review by our recruiting team based on your CV and cover letter
2. Two-stage competency-based interviews with the hiring team
3. Some recruitment may include an additional assessment or case study stage, or a third stage interview
4. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, followed by your contract subject to passing background checks

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.