Director of Program Development and Quality at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the world's leading independent organisation for children. We work in 120 countries. We save children's lives; we fight for their rights; we help them fulfil their potential. We work together, with our partners, to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Director of Program Development and Quality

Location: Abuja

Role Purpose

• The Director of Program Development and Quality shares in the overall responsibility for the direction and coordination of the Country Office program.
• As a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) in Nigeria, the Director of Program Development and Quality is responsible for overseeing the development of high quality, innovative programs that deliver immediate and lasting change for children and monitoring the quality of the implementation of those programs. 
• Provide technical assistance and appropriate monitoring and evaluation in emergency responses.

Key Areas of Accountability
As a member of the Senior Management Team, contribute to:

• Leadership of the Nigeria Country Office
• Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our dual mandate values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors
• Ensure that all required support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the rules and principles during emergencies, working closely with the Regional Office

Strategic Planning:

• Provide strategic vision and direction to the Save the Children Nigeria program
• Take a lead role in developing program strategies and annual plans ensuring coordination of all technical input to country strategy, proposals and reports

Program Design/Development and Technical Assistance:

• Responsible for grant acquisition ensuring that Nigeria country office has adequate funding to deliver on its strategic priorities.
• Ensure the design and development of child focused emergency and development programs of a high quality that contribute to the Country Office’s strategies and plans, informed by child participation where possible
• Ensure that all sectors apply a risk lens to program design and implementation in line with the Save the Children policy on Disaster Risk Reduction

Innovation, Research & MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability & Learning):

• Maintain a robust M&E and Accountability systems to measure achievement and progress toward program goals and results
• Lead on internal and external program/project evaluations as necessary and ensure the execution of baseline, periodic, and final evaluations as necessary in coordination with Director of Program Operations
• Lead on child rights situations analysis and ensure first class technical assistance is secured to produce robust analysis and includes participation of key stakeholders including children and their families
• Ensure learning by the country program from relevant best practice internally and externally both nationally and globally and make learning from Nigeria available for other programs.

Advocacy:

• Identify key opportunities and events for Save the Children Nigeria CO to position itself as the leading organisation for children’s issues in Nigeria
• Working with the Director of Advocacy, ensure that Save the Children receives national recognition for achieving proven and innovative National and State level impact from well-managed child development programs and emergency response

Strategic Partnerships:

• Ensure that every partnership is formed in the context of the Theory of Change and is designed and managed so that the partnership furthers achievement of Save the Children's global strategy and strengthens local and national capacity to deliver for children
• Analyse potential strategic partners using documented selection methods and ensure that all partners comply with Save the Children and donor requirements and regulations
• Ensure that the Nigeria Country Office engages in mutual assessment, feedback and learning with partners and assist partners to engage in knowledge building and advocacy

Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development – Program Development and Quality:

• Ensure appropriate staffing within Program Development and Quality
• Ensure that all staff understand and are able to perform their role in an emergency
• Manage Program Development and Quality team; define expectations, provide leadership and technical support as needed, and evaluate direct reports regularly
• Ensure the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff

Qualification and Experience

• Recommended a minimum of 10 years’ management experience in a corporate or an NGO environment, including experience directing and implementing programs for children in both emergency and development contexts, preferably with solid experience in more than one of the Save the Children priority sectors: education, protection, rights governance, HIV/AIDs, health and nutrition, and emergencies
• Recognized leadership role in relevant technical areas at both field and country level
• Strong management and leadership skills with the ability to motivate and get the best out of teams
• Masters degree in Social Sciences, in an area of social development
• A general appreciation of the issues concerning the NGO sector, both development and humanitarian issues
• Solid experience of developing and managing monitoring and learning systems
• Good analytical skills. Effective negotiator, with the ability to positively influence cross departmental and cross sector working
• Credibility to lobby, influence and represent Save the Children at all levels
• Resource management, training , capacity building, coaching, and mentoring skills
• Good understanding and knowledge of gender equity and diversity
• Ability and willingness to dramatically change work practices and hours, and work with incoming teams, in emergencies
• Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles including rights-based approaches
• Fluency in written and spoken English
• Experience of developing consortia programmes and working with and in consortia
• Experience of  contracting  and managing technical assistance to carry out research and studies

Application Closing Date