Education Specialist

Position: Education Specialist

Job Identification: 14781
Job Category: Programme Operations
Apply Before: 12/18/2025, 11:59 PM
Job Schedule: Full time
Locations: FO Country Office – Programme

The Opportunity

Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In Bhutan 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 future we share. Save the Children expects that anyone associated with it abides by its Safeguarding and other Zero Tolerance Policies.

This role will be responsible for the development of and technical support to high quality child-focused programs reaching the most vulnerable and deprived. The postholder provides technical assistance to all Education programs and projects. They will support the Senior PDQ Advisor to establish and maintain functional collaboration and coordination with government counterparts, external development partners, strategic partners, and donors at the national level. Likewise, they will provide support to maintain communication with donors, members and internal working groups. The position holder will be working closely with Senior PDQ Advisor, project coordinators and other Save the Children departments and field offices to ensure required technical support to SC’s field teams and partners is available and timely. They will assist to Senior PDQ Advisor on setting the overall education strategies and high-quality education standards, and knowledge management system in the education theme with a focus on.

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Programme Development and Strategy (20%):

• Under the supervision of the Senior PDQ Advisor, leads in developing new Education projects or education-related parts of other proposals, in consultation with other departments, field offices, and partners. This includes, but is not limited to, developing detailed implementation plans, staffing plans, phased budgets, identifying new partners, etc., in addition to technical narratives and log frames. Ensures project design is linked to SC’s country strategic plan and common approaches.
• Contributes to the identification of partner organizations that have robust and proven technical excellence in Education.
• Leads the continuous assessment of education program needs, and ensures that these are appropriately reflected in sectoral strategies, proposals, and programs.
• Ensure that all new designs are at minimum gender-responsive, inclusive, and climate-resilient.
• With PDQI and Senior PDQ Advisor, spearheads the exploration of additional funding sources to pilot and scale-up innovation in education.
• Supports Senior PDQ Advisor to develop the education thematic strategy, and monitor the milestones of the Country Strategic Plan.

Program Technical Support and Quality Assurance (40%):

• Provides technical leadership and support to field teams including SCI and partner staff. Takes responsibility for delivering on project Technical Assistance plans working with project teams to adjust planning as needed.
• Makes a minimum of four monitoring visits annually to assigned education projects.
• Leads on development and standardisation of Education materials, SOPs, guidelines, training manuals etc.
• Ensures Quality Benchmarks and monitoring tools for education projects are in place, updated as per required, and effectively used in the education projects.
• Ensures all education interventions meet technical quality standards and are aligned with Save the Children’s Common Approaches.
• Holds self-responsible for staying current on the latest news, innovations, and adaptations in sector.
• Collaborate with project leads to develop quality implementation plans, technical reviews, and reflection processes.

Evidence and Learning (20%)

• Provides critical feedback and technical inputs on periodic project reports including baseline, midterm, and final evaluation reports, including annual reports.
• Supports research and evaluation efforts by drafting ToRs, supporting with consultant hiring and oversight. Provides analysis of R&E findings.
• Engages in period project reviews, including annual Program Learning Groups.
• Ensures education projects collect information on the progress towards project outcomes/results, collect information or observations for the variations in these outcomes/results, and draw conclusions/lessons, and take actions to address these conclusions/lessons.

Representation, Networking, and Advocacy (10%):

• Ensures strong linkages and coordination amongst line Ministries, strategic partners, external development partners on matters of Education.
• Assists Senior PDQ Advisor for external representation in Education (with donors, government, technical working groups etc.)
• With Senior PDQ Advisor, advocates for policy changes and implementation in close collaboration with advocacy counterparts.
• Supports Senior PDQ Advisor in developing and maintaining an in-depth understanding of the Education sector, including national policies/policy development,
• key players in government, UN agencies, INGOs and national civil society organizations.

Capacity Building (5%)

• Assists Senior PDQ Advisor to develop the capacity development plan for education staff in SCI and partners, and organize capacity development initiatives.
• Works with education project teams and partners to identify technical strengths and weaknesses areas and develops plans to address gaps.

OTHER

• Other tasks as requested by the Senior PDQ Advisor or Director, Programme Development Quality and Influence covering Education more broadly.
• Support the Save the Children Humanitarian responses where appropriate, ensuring timely and quality responses in line with international standards and technical best practice.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Master’s degree in Education, international development, Social Sciences, Development Studies, or a related discipline.
• Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in education.
• Demonstrable experience in education programming including designing high quality proposals and implementing and monitoring projects.
• Experience with INGOs/NGOs/CSOs in education. Experience in child rights programming a plus.
• Proven experience in strategy development.
• Proven experience with external representation with Government and donors. Experience leading technical working groups (or similar) a plus.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to present complex issues in a clear and concise manner.
• Ability to write high quality reports and analyse information.
• Excellent spoken and written English and Nepali.

Desirable

• Experience with EdTech.
• Experience with Climate Change in Education

Required No.(s): 1 (Nepalese Citizen Only)

Contract length: Fixed Term

Location: Country office, Kathmandu

The Organisation

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard.

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information

Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations.

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.

Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.

About Us

The Organization

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

•  No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
•  All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

Application Information:

Please apply using a cover letter and up-to-date CV as a single document. Please also include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/jobs We need to keep children safe so our selection process reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.