Senior Advisor, Maternal and Newborn Health at Save the Children

Role purpose

The Senior Advisor, Maternal and Newborn Health provides technical and strategic support in their thematic area to enhance the quality and impact of save the Children’s work across all contexts. Working within the Survive Breakthrough team, the postholder delivers timely country-driven technical assistance, and contributes to the development of tools, guidance, and evidence. The role also plays a key part in capacity strengthening, knowledge exchange, and external engagement, and ensuring work is inclusive, context-responsive, and aligned with global and country priorities.

Principal Accountabilities

• Provide specialized technical guidance and advice to Country Office teams, ensuring high standards in maternal & newborn health programme implementation, with a focus on specialized support in sub thematic area.
• Conduct regular reviews and analyses of relevant awards to ensure compliance with donor requirements and organisational policies, identifying areas for improvement.
• Apply specialised donor and sub thematic area technical knowledge to support the development and implementation of high-quality proposals and strategic plans in collaboration with country teams, ensuring alignment with Save the Children's mission and values.
• Oversee the design and quality assurance of capacity building and training initiatives for national and local partners to ensure sustainable and effective maternal & newborn health interventions
• Lead on the strategic development and coordination of partnership strategies with local actors, local authorities and peer agencies to advance maternal & newborn health work 
• Play a leadership role in external and internal working groups to continually learn and adapt best practices and institutionalize key learning. 
• Ensure internal systems are in place to support and learn from country office colleagues implementing maternal & newborn health programs
• Manage global and multi-country projects and initiatives to strengthen specific programme guidance, tools, evidence, etc. 
• Deploy to priority countries as needed for emergency response and provide in-person technical support and guidance (up to 40%).
• Promote a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion within all programmes, ensuring all interventions are accessible and effective for all community members, regardless of background or identity.

Experience and Skills

Essential

• Technical Expertise: Deep understanding of maternal & newborn health issues, technical guidelines, and effective program strategies. This should include experience in designing, implementing, monitoring, and evaluating MNH related programs and interventions. It will be an added value to have experience from several setting specifically humanitarian settings. 
• Demonstrated commitment to ongoing professional development and staying updated with the evidence, innovations, latest trends and best practices.
• Analytical and Problem-Solving Skills: 
• Knowledge and experience in using tools such as bottleneck analyses to strengthen programs
• Capacity Building and Mentoring: Considerable experience in building capacity, developing and delivering training, and mentoring staff and local partners on key MNH areas such as emergency obstetric care (EmONC), essential newborn care (ENC), care for small and sick newborns including kangaroo mother care (KMC). 
• Lead global thought leadership and representation of Save the Children's MNH work globally. 
• Proposal and Strategic Plan Development: Proven experience in developing high-quality proposals and strategic plans. A track record of writing successful proposals for donor-funded projects is essential.
• Quality Improvement: Proficient experience in reviewing and assuring compliance of awards with donor requirements and organisational policies. Demonstrated ability to identify and implement areas of improvement.
• Communication and Interpersonal Skills: High proficiency in communication, including presentations, training, , influencing, and coaching. Must demonstrate the ability to build and maintain effective relationships with diverse teams and stakeholders internal and external to Save the Children.
• Ability to Operate in High-Pressure Environments: Ability to travel and work independently, occasionally in challenging environments and with short notice (up to 40%).

Education and Qualifications 

Essential

• An advanced degree in Public Health, Midwifery, Medicine, Nursing, or a related field. Maternal and newborn health clinical experience preferred. Extensive professional experience may be considered in lieu of a formal degree.