Senior Advisor, Humanitarian Climate Crisis Unit (P4)

Staff whose work requires or potentially could require any in-person interaction with Save the Children colleagues, partners, or beneficiaries must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 unless otherwise required by law. Save the Children complies with federal, state, and local laws with regard to accommodations related to this policy.

Summary

As a key member of Save the Children’s global Anticipatory Action (AA) Team, the Senior Advisor will lead the development and implementation of the Humanitarian Climate Crisis Unit (HCCU) strategy, focused on advancing programming and gathering evidence related to climate-driven humanitarian crises. You will inform the strategic design of Anticipatory Action processes and programming in response to climate hazards, and will oversee research on the humanitarian impact of climate change on children and develop mechanisms across the global Save the Children movement to ensure that predictive tools and research findings enable early action. You will establish core partnerships across the technology and academic space to improve design and utilization of tools to predict and respond to climate-driven humanitarian crises. As a leading technical expert on the climate crisis humanitarian impacts, you will represent Save the Children externally and internally including with partners, donors and in movement-wide working groups as appropriate.

Note: In 2022, Save the Children is facilitating a global structural change to strengthen our humanitarian staffing structures. While this position will be recruited and hired by Save the Children US, it will be seconded to Save the Children International’s Crisis Anticipation and Response Team, which is part of the One Humanitarian Team. More information about these upcoming changes will be available during the interview process.

What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

Strategic and Technical Leadership (40% of time)

• Lead the development and implementation of the HCCU strategy and workplan, building on its current pilot and inception phase.
• Build fundraising strategy for the HCCU, in collaboration with key internal stakeholders; implement strategy by engaging institutional and private donors with respective Member representatives
• Act as trusted advisor to the Head of Anticipatory Action on climate-related risks and support the development of an Anticipatory Action Framework for Save the Children; serve as a technical lead from a humanitarian climate crisis perspective ensuring the Anticipatory Action Framework is relevant to climate drivers of humanitarian need
• Serve as an agency-wide expert on climate-related risks and their humanitarian impact on children, including support the strategic design of Anticipatory Action systems, methodologies, and protocols to inform Save the Children programming in response to climate hazards
• Identify sector wide trends in humanitarian climate crisis and effectively communicate to Save the Children leadership to inform strategic planning
• Inform Save the Children’s global advocacy agenda related to humanitarian climate issues, in coordination with the Head of Anticipatory Action
• Represent Save the Children in coordination mechanisms and external forums, including Risk-informed Early Action Partnership (REAP), Anticipation Action Hub, United Nations, and others by serving as a panelist/expert, as required by the Head of Anticipatory Action
• Support capacity building efforts for Save the Children teams and/or local partners on humanitarian aspects of climate and environmental issues via training, coaching, etc.

Build Partnerships and Develop Predictive Tools (20% time)

• Engage and build an external network of contacts in the climate crisis and environmental risk management field, including academicand technology partners, to inform Save the Children’s work
• Collaborate with the internal teams like the Context Analysis and Foresight Unit (CAFU) and Humanitarian Operational Data and Information Management; inform existing risk analysis and predictive analysis tools to forecast climate impacts; support rollout of new tools to Regional and Country Offices

Engage in Early Action Programs (20% time)

• Engage with technical staff and Crisis Resilience Environmental Sustainability Technical Working Group (CRES TWG) to promote Save the Children’s three breakthroughs (Survive, Learn, be Protected) and promote Anticipatory Action mechanisms for climate-induced emergencies to inform programming
• Support Country Offices to design and implement Anticipatory Action programming that advance climate hazard risk analysis, vulnerability identification, safety net mapping, indicators/trigger development, and pre-financing based on best practice; document key lessons learned to inform future program design
• Collaborate with Humanitarian Fund staff to review and recommend resource allocations related to early action programming; advise to strengthen proposed programmatic and operational approaches

Oversee Research (20% time)

• Develop a climate-related research agenda and engage Save the Children Members and technical teams, including CRES TWG, to align climate-related research priorities; ensure children impacts are highlighted in all climate- related research
• Initiate and advance research projects on key humanitarian and climate topics focused on impacts on children in collaboration with relevant partners; guide research processes and use data to inform future global programming and advocacy
• Analyze the possibilities and potential of other risk management approaches such as insurance or disaster risk financing tools

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of a Bachelor degree or equivalent experience, plus seven (7_ years of relevant experience,
• Demonstrated recent experience in the climate change field (either adaptation, resilience, or response)
• Demonstrated experience in the humanitarian sector, including designing and implementing emergency response programming
• Proven ability to absorb and contribute to strategic thinking, including development of strategic objectives and work planning to achieve strategic goals
• Demonstrated experience developing and overseeing research initiatives, including methodology design
• Knowledge of predictive analytics and forecasting, with the ability to advise on climate-related monitoring
• Proven ability to build and manage multi-disciplinary partnerships with organizations to produce shared outputs
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally and ability to deploy to climate emergencies on short notice
• Professional proficiency in MS Office suite
• Professional proficiency in spoken and written English
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering and maintaining and environment of diversity, inclusion, and belonging

Preferred Qualifications

• Language skills in Spanish, French, or Arabic

Why you should join the Save the Children Team…

Save the Children US offers outstanding benefits that include health, dental, vision and life insurances, pet insurance, short-term and long-term disability coverage, an Employee Assistance Program, 403(b), generous vacation, personal sick leave, family leave, parental/adoption leave, commuter benefits, dress for your day, and much more.

Click here to learn more about how Save the Children US will invest in YOU!

About Save the Children

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.

*Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond. As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.*

We provide equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, ancestry, sexual orientation, national origin, age, handicap, disability, marital status, or status as a veteran. Save the Children complies with all applicable laws.

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Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.