Strategy Portfolio Lead at Save the Children

Role Purpose:

Who we are: Save the Children is the world’s first, and largest, independent child rights organisation. Our founder, Eglantyne Jebb, wrote the first draft for the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1923, and we’ve worked to uphold it ever since. Generations later, her pioneering work is being influenced by children themselves. Today, we are still going strong, working in over 100 countries worldwide to build a world where every child can grow up healthy, educated and safe, and look forward to a future full of promise.

Our ambition for 2030 is to create a world in which all children:

• Survive: No child dies from preventable causes before their fifth birthday
• Learn: All children learn from a quality basic education
• Are Protected: Violence against children is no longer tolerated.

In recent last years, challenges to children’s rights have intensified. We are experiencing the worst child rights crisis in a century. A global hunger crisis, an increasing number of conflicts, and the effects of climate change are undermining the rights of children and pushing more children and family into poverty. In this context, our ability to deliver impact at scale is as important as ever.

Save the Children operates in multi-year strategy cycles, and has developed an ambitious strategy for 2022-24, focused on transforming and amplifying impact for and with children. The global strategy connects Save the Children’s 2030 ambition with medium term organisational priorities focused on impact for children. Achieving our strategy requires making choices, staying focused, and ensuring strong collaboration across the whole of Save the Children Association.

The Strategy Portfolio Manager is responsible for using rigorous program management methodology to help drive progress across all our strategic initiatives. This will involve taking a lead on managing interdependencies, actively engaging individual projects to understand priorities and progress, and stepping in to address issues as needed which could involve hands on interventions and support.

This role, as part of the central Strategy, Planning and Performance team, is integral to leading and supporting the organisation in delivering on our ambitious strategy at a critical point in time for children. The role should bring in learning and innovation from across the sector as well as the private sector, to enhance the way Save the Children drives its own strategy.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential:

• Experience establishing and deploying structured project and program methodology, e.g. as a strategy consultant or working with in-house program management office
• Responsibility for managing a complex portfolio of transformation initiatives or at a minimum experience of leading a complex transformation initiative as a Project Lead or equivalent
• Demonstrated experience working with complex stakeholders across different levels of the organisation
• Experience of working in a fast-paced environment with high levels of change and quick turnaround times, whilst delivering to the highest standards
• Ability to resolve complex project issues, with a balance of pragmatism and rigour
• Commitment to Save the Children values

Desirable:

• Coaching skills to help build the capabilities of others in the area of project and change management
• Prior experience in challenging geographies that include less developed areas in the Middle East, Africa and Asia
• Extensive Save the Children experience in a similar role
• Non-profit sector knowledge/experience
• Proficiency in a second core language of Save the Children (French, Spanish, Portuguese or Arabic)