Jobs at Plan International

• The Chief Impact Officer (CIO) drives Plan International’s global efforts by strengthening programming quality, country office capability, and portfolio performance to deliver measurable, credible, and transformative impact for children and girls across humanitarian, development, and sponsorship work.
• This role ensures that our work is grounded in evidence, responsive to global shifts, and strategically connected to advocacy, communications, and partnerships.
• The Chief Impact Officer (CIO) sets the organisation’s global impact agenda, providing strategic leadership across humanitarian response, global campaigns, performance and learning, and country portfolio management. This role ensures coherence between global strategy and local delivery by integrating our humanitarian, development, sponsorship, and influencing work. Through this alignment, we deliver measurable results for girls and children, guided by evidence and learning.
• With the CEO, the CIO works alongside Regional Directors to strengthen strategic coherence and accountability across global, regional, and country-level delivery and impact. This partnership focuses on empowering country offices by simplifying systems and reducing operational complexity, enabling faster, locally led humanitarian responses. The CIO also coordinates performance reporting across the global portfolio to support learning, accountability, and informed decision-making.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES AND MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

• Ensure strategic coherence and accountability across global, regional, and country-level delivery and impact, and strengthening capabilities of country offices to be future fit, through co-management of the Regional Directors and in collaboration with the CEO
• Lead global portfolio to deliver measurable, credible, and transformative impact across humanitarian, development, and sponsorship portfolios.
• Drive agile and effective humanitarian preparedness response at the regional and global level, simplifying systems to reduce operational complexity and ensuring risk-informed, context-aware programming.
• Oversee global performance and impact reporting, ensuring evidence informs advocacy, learning, communications, and decision-making.
• Ensure that Plan’s is grounded in evidence, responsive to global shifts, and strategically connected to advocacy, influencing, communications, and partnerships.
• Anticipate sector shifts and mobilise internal and external knowledge networks to drive innovation, learning, grow humanitarian portfolio and enable organisational agility in a rapidly changing context.
• Connects thematic programmes and monitoring and evaluation expertise across Plan Worldwide to ensure Country Offices benefit from practical, evidence-based guidance that drives real-world impact.
• Strengthen global positioning and influence through evidence-based external engagement and strategic partnerships.
• Enabling Plan’s work on influencing, advocacy, communications, and brand strategy through, ensuring alignment with programme evidence and strategic priorities.
• Represent Plan International externally in multilateral fora, global coalitions, and strategic partnerships to amplify the organisation’s voice, influence and impact.
• Take a strong people and culture focus towards wider strategic resourcing and talent pipelines i.e. attract high calibre, develop, progress and retain a diversified and global workforce – promoting equity diversity and inclusion; focus on identification of high performers and talent and developing clear succession plans for key roles at the global, regional and country levels and ensuring that staff at all levels feel empowered and supported to deliver at their best, and feel pride in the work that they deliver
• Lead in driving positive and high-performance culture change across the organisation, consciously embracing and personifying the values-based leadership framework under pinned by feminist principles, holding self and others accountable for behaviours, drawing on strengths and reflecting on areas of self-development. Be intentionally aware of the impact and power, purposeful and visible about changing the organisational culture and our internal power dynamics and empower teams to live and participate in the culture as a group.
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Internal:
• CEO and PII’s Leadership Team
• Direct Reports
• External partners and stakeholders
• Country, Regional and National Directors
• PII Board, Programme Committee and other sub committees as required
• External:
• UN agencies, multilateral institutions, donors, INGOs, and global advocacy coalitions (in collaboration with the Director of Global Affairs)

COMPETENCIES, EXPERTISE, SKILLS, AND KNOWLEDGE

• Expertise, Knowledge, and Skills
• Senior leadership experience at an enterprise level in international development and/or humanitarian response.
• Proven ability to drive strategic alignment, performance management, and evidence-based impact.
• Proven ability to lead global impact strategies across humanitarian and development ensuring coherence from global to local levels.
• Strong understanding of risk-informed, context-aware programming and agile humanitarian preparedness and response.
• Experience in impact measurement, MERL systems, and using evidence to inform advocacy, learning, and decision-making.
• Skilled in external representation, global advocacy, and building strategic partnerships with multilateral institutions, donors, and INGOs.
• Track record in driving culture change, embedding feminist leadership principles, and developing diverse global talent pipelines.
• Ability to anticipate sector trends, mobilize knowledge networks, and scale successful local innovations globally

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KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

• Strategic Leadership & Influence
• Lead Plan International’s global influencing strategy, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities and external trends.
• Advise senior leadership on political, reputational, and advocacy matters, shaping coherent, values-based positioning on global issues.
• Develop and implement stakeholder engagement strategies with donors, private sector, and thought leaders.
• Oversee integrated global public affairs strategy, ensuring brand and narrative support fundraising, partnerships, and digital engagement.
• Manage a lean, high-impact function with strategic budget oversight.
• Advocacy & Global Representation
• Lead global advocacy priorities and coordinate influence across multilateral platforms and inter-agency spaces.
• Represent Plan or support senior leaders at key global fora (e.g. UNGA), ensuring alignment with strategic goals.
• Oversee Liaison Offices and build strategic partnerships with governments, multilateral bodies, civil society, and the private sector.
• Champion localisation and youth engagement to amplify authentic voices and drive equitable advocacy.
• Communications & Brand
• Lead global communications strategy to ensure coherence, agility, and measurable impact across internal and external channels.
• Safeguard Plan’s brand and reputation through strategic oversight of crisis communications and risk management.
• Integrate communications to build transparency, trust, and engagement across the organisation.
• Leadership & Collaboration
• Lead and develop a high-performing, multi-skilled team across geographies.
• Foster strong collaboration across National Organisations, Country Offices, and Regional Hubs to ensure shared ownership of advocacy and communications priorities.
• Risk & Accountability
• Anticipate and manage reputational risks, ensuring effective crisis response and safeguarding organisational trust.
• Ensure all advocacy and communications activities align with organisational policies, values, and ethical standards.
• Manage budgets and resources transparently and efficiently.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

• Internal: CEO, Leadership Team, National Directors, Regional Directors, Chief of Staff, Chief Operating Officer (advocacy and stakeholder coordination), Chief Impact Officer (campaigns), Chief Transformation & Information Officer (data and impact evidence).
• External: UN agencies, multilateral institutions, governments, INGOs, media, influential policy makers, partners, and advocacy coalitions.

EXPERTISE, SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

• Senior leadership experience in global advocacy or public affairs within an international organisation.
• Extensive experience influencing at senior levels in the UN, intergovernmental bodies, and international policy spaces.
• Proven ability to lead global communications and brand strategies that support organisational positioning, reputation, and fundraising.
• Strong understanding of humanitarian advocacy and communications, particularly in fast-moving or crisis contexts.
• Demonstrated success advising senior leadership on political, reputational, and strategic issues in complex global environments.
• Expertise in crisis communications, risk management, and reputational safeguarding, including proactive scenario planning.
• Track record of leading cross-functional transformation, delivering measurable impact through lean, multi-skilled teams.
• Experience managing diverse, multi-location teams and budgets, with strategic resource allocation and operational efficiency.
• Knowledge of international development, humanitarian child rights, and gender equality, with a commitment to localisation and equity.
• Understanding of donor engagement and private sector partnerships as they relate to advocacy, influence, and communications.
• Excellent communicator, politically astute, with sound judgement and the ability to distil complex issues into compelling narratives; multilingual skills (especially French and/or Spanish) are an asset.