Education Specialist

Organizational context: UNICEF works in over 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, defend their rights, and help them fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence. We are committed, passionate, and proud of what we do for as long as we are needed. Promoting the rights of every child is not just a job – it is a calling.
Job purpose: The Education Specialist (Emergencies) is a critical role within the Programme Delivery and Quality Team supporting the Chief of Education to oversee ECW’s portfolio of country investments and alignment with ECW’s strategic approach, programme priorities, and standardised programme delivery and quality assurance approaches. The postholder will ensure the effective design, implementation, and strategic oversight of ECW’s country-level investments. This role ensures coherence across ECW’s country portfolios, governance processes, and technical operations, while driving excellence in programme design, implementation, and monitoring. The Education Specialist serves as a key member of the Programme Delivery and Quality Team, working closely with the chief of education to ensure effective running of the team, and contributes to ECW’s mission to deliver quality education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Responsibilities:
Portfolio Oversight Strategic Alignment: Manage and oversee ECW’s portfolio of country investments, ensuring alignment with ECW’s strategic approach, programme priorities, and quality assurance frameworks. Portfolio Management, Programme Design Coherence: Lead the design and implementation of country-level investments, ensuring coherence across portfolios, governance processes, and technical operations. Drive excellence in programme design, implementation, and monitoring. Quality Assurance: Lead on the Quality Assurance framework and process for ECW’s country investments. Country Engagement: Monitor country engagement programming for quality learning outcomes. Governance and Coordination: Ensure effective governance and coordination at the programme level. External Representation: Represent ECW in external forums, engage in sector leadership, and foster partnerships. Key functions include managing multi-country portfolios, grant cycles, and engaging with global Education coordination platforms and policy.

Education:
Master or equivalent (Advanced University Degree) in Education, International Development, or other related fields.
Work

experience:
Minimum eight (8) years of EiE/protracted crisis experience with significant field-based programme management and monitoring-evaluation experience. Experience managing donor-funded multi-country EiE portfolio and grant management cycles. Experience across several ECW-supported contexts, specifically East Africa and/or Middle East contexts.

Skills:
Strong communication, negotiation, and stakeholder engagement skills, Leadership and Change Management, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL/MEL), External Representation and Advocacy, Cross-Sectoral Collaboration, Experience working in complex humanitarian and crisis-affected contexts, MEAL systems and programme quality assurance, Leading or supporting change management and organizational adaptation initiatives, Stakeholder representation (governments, donors, UN agencies, global education platforms), Education programme leadership in humanitarian and development contexts, Humanitarian field experience (crisis-affected, displacement, fragile-state, post-crisis), Inter-agency coordination and multi-stakeholder partnership mechanismsRequired languages: EnglishDesired languages: Arabic, French, Chinese, Russian, Spanish