Vacancies at Save the Children

Principal Accountabilities
The Head of Global Philanthropy Development will:

• Lead and drive the implementation of the Global Philanthropy strategy to achieve Horizon B objectives, with a focus on Save the Children’s priority fundraising markets
• Lead on identifying, developing and promoting best practice in philanthropy across the Save the Children movement, in order to build internal capacity and increase long-term income.
• Take responsibility to support, strengthen and grow the global community of Major Donors practitioners. 
• Lead on building capacity across our global movement, including building expertise and skills in philanthropy prospecting, proposition development, pitching and market analysis for new and growth opportunities with major donors to drive increased value and impact at national and global levels. 
• Be responsible for supporting the identification, shaping and development of strategic growth opportunities with a wide range of key prospects by working in close collaboration with colleagues globally.
• Be responsible for accelerating growth in key markets, working alongside Members’s teams, virtually and/or in person. Also potentially being deployed to other markets for limited periods (weeks, months) where appropriate. 

Experience and Skills
Essential

• A deep understanding of the breadth of NGO models that exist across the sector globally and a clear vision for how Save the Children can differentiate itself among its peers to be the organisation of choice 
• A proven track record in leading and delivering within a large, complex organization with multiple stakeholders, preferably in an international development charity or similar
• A demonstrable and sophisticated understanding of the complexities of international philanthropy and associated challenges and solutions
• Proven experience of leading a new initiative or strategy to achieve desired growth outcomes 
• Proven track record of developing and managing a major gifts portfolio and a proven track record for prospecting, cultivating, and closing gifts in a large charity or international organization
• Excellent written and presentation skills and confident ability to deliver verbal and written proposals up to CEO level
• Experience of negotiating, influencing and delivering results internally and externally 
• An established leader with personal gravitas and ability to work with senior executives
• Ability to network with, and influence, senior people both internally and externally in order to achieve a pre-defined outcome
• A strategic thinker who is able prioritise and balance a busy work load     

Desirable

• Experience with wealth advisory work, venture capital, or private equity is preferred, as many individual contributions stem from Save the Children’s work with corporations
• Experience providing creative and innovative approaches in developing new initiatives that contribute towards departmental targets
• Second language of Member country

Education and Qualifications 
Essential

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience

Desirable

• MBA or business-related masters

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Principal Accountabilities

• Lead the Cost Optimisation Project and Organisational Adoption: lead the design, planning, and delivery of the Cost Optimisation Project, ensuring alignment with strategic, operational, and financial objectives and develop and maintain a phased, multi-year transformation roadmap with prioritised initiatives, clear milestones, and alignment to organisational delivery capacity
• Lead Change Management and Continuous Improvement: Drive organisational change, stakeholder adoption, and continuous improvement for the Cost Optimisation initiative to embed sustainable efficiencies and a culture of operational excellence.
• Identify and Deliver Efficiency Opportunities: Drive the identification, prioritisation, and implementation of enterprise-wide efficiency opportunities across all support functions and organisational levels. 
• Drive Cost Optimisation and Benefits Realisation: Establish cost baselines, analyse current and future state, and ensure delivery, tracking, validation, and sustainability of efficiency benefits and cost savings including structured reporting to senior stakeholders.
• Enhance efficiency in Service Delivery: Identify opportunities to simplify, standardise, and optimise service delivery models and levels of effort across functions and geographies.
• Lead Programme Governance and Delivery: Establish programme governance structures, oversee workstreams, manage dependencies, and ensure timely delivery of agreed milestones and outcomes.
• Influence and Engage Senior Stakeholders: Facilitate alignment, decision-making, and collaboration across senior stakeholders, functions, and geographies to support successful delivery.
• Leverage AI, Digital Solutions, and Analytics: Promote the use of AI, automation, analytics, and digital technologies to improve operational efficiency, decision-making, and organisational effectiveness.
• Manage Programme Risks and Organisational Change: Proactively manage programme risks, issues, and organisational impacts while ensuring effective change management and adoption of new ways of working.
• Embed a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Foster innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement, ensuring efficiency initiatives are embedded into long-term organisational practices and governance.

 ​​​​​​​Experience and Skills

• Essential
• An extensive track record of leading large-scale organisational transformation, organisational redesign, and enterprise-wide change programmes within complex global organisations.
• Significant experience operating within complex INGOs, federated organisations, multinational matrix environments, or similarly complex stakeholder structures.
• A proven ability to design and implement enterprise-wide organisational redesign initiatives across both programmatic and support functions, including operating model transformation and service delivery redesign.
• A proven ability to apply excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, and to work collaboratively to deliver of effective solutions to project related issues. This will include taking on hands on analysis activities to support the wider team as required
• Extensive experience engaging, influencing, and building alignment among Executive Leadership Teams, Global Functional Leaders, Country Directors, Member organisations, and senior stakeholders across multiple geographies.
• A proven ability to lead and influence in highly ambiguous, politically sensitive, and rapidly changing environments, including influencing stakeholders without direct authority.
• Strong knowledge and practical experience of operating model design, shared services, process harmonisation, workforce and level-of-effort optimisation, finance transformation, and organisational effectiveness initiatives.
• Exceptional executive communication, presentation, and stakeholder management capability.
• Experience leveraging AI, automation, analytics, and digital transformation approaches to improve organizational performance.

Desirable

• Experience leading global transformation programs exceeding USD 100M operational scope.
• Experience working across both headquarters/global teams and decentralized country operations.
• Experience supporting ERP transformation Initiatives.
• Experience in Lean Six Sigma, continuous improvement, or operational excellence methodologies.
• Exposure to enterprise analytics, AI-enabled transformation, or intelligent automation initiatives.

Education and Qualifications 
Essential

• Master’s degree in business administration, Finance, Organizational Development, Strategy, Operations, Management, or related field.

Desirable

• Professional certification in Programme Management, Change Management, Lean Six Sigma, Organizational Design, or related discipline is strongly preferred.