Deputy Director, Child and Youth Protection and Development

The International Rescue Committee’s (IRC) bold and urgent mission is to help people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future.  The Child and Youth Protection and Development (CYPD) Technical Unit is a dynamic team of 30 professionals in child protection, education and youth & livelihoods sectors.  The CYPD team puts children and youth at the center of its work: we see them as resilient and powerful, and work in partnership with them, their families, schools, communities and workplaces, to ensure that they are safe from all forms of violence and able to develop to their fullest potential.   

Job Overview/Summary:

The IRC seeks a seasoned manager with an outstanding track record leading programs for children and youth in conflict, post-conflict and disaster-affected settings for a new Deputy Director position within the Child and Youth Protection and Development Technical Unit.   The Deputy Director’s primary responsibility will be to ensure that the technical support provided by the CYPD to IRC’s programs around the world is effective and efficient, responsive to context, and based on or generating evidence about what works for children and youth.   The Deputy Director will ensure that the three existing technical teams in education, child protection and youth & livelihoods are cohesive, motivated and structured in a way that will create efficiencies and success.  S/he will represent the IRC’s children’s programs in both internal and external high-level forums, events and meetings, and will support the Senior Director to establish new partnerships and increased funds for IRC’s child and youth programs. 

Responsibilities:

• Ensure all child protection, education and youth& livelihoods programs receive quality technical support
  • Establish a clear vision for what high quality, efficient technical support looks like and how we monitor and measure it. Do this in partnership with senior technical advisors, technical advisors, other technical units, regional units and international programs.
  • Develop systems and relationships that enable the CYPD technical unit and IRC’s programs to access and use high quality, relevant information and research to inform our technical approaches and programs for children and youth.  
  • Develop knowledge management and communication strategies to ensure that program and technical unit staff are learning from one another, and that all of the IRC as well as the wider humanitarian community are learning from the IRC’s child and youth programs.
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with Regional Units and Country Directors
  • Build and maintain relationships with other technical units to learn from their programs and identify approaches and strategies that can be translated into better results for child and youth programs.   
• Ensure a cohesive, effective and motivated team: support and management of people
  • Further build a cohesive, effective and motivated team of child protection, education and youth & livelihoods staff.  Model and expect a culture in which team members thrive when their colleagues succeed; are curious and hungry for solutions; work efficiently; have deep respect for each other, their colleagues and the IRC’s clients; and are driven by the resilience and determination of children and youth.  
  • Directly supervise three Senior Technical Advisors and one Project Manager.  Discuss job expectations, set performance objectives and provide constructive, timely feedback; and identifying opportunities for professional growth. 
  • Establish mechanisms for country program staff to provide feedback to the TU about the technical support we provide. 
  • Ensure the successful implementation of and adherence to the IRC Global HR Operating Policies and Procedures.
  • Lead with commitment, integrity and accountability to the “IRC Way” – Global Standards for Professional Conduct.
• Representation and business development
  • Support the Senior Director and Senior Technical Advisors to represent the IRC in strategic, high-level meetings, conferences and events related to child and youth protection and education, and youth livelihoods. 
  • Lead representation and partnership-building with NY-based United Nations agencies. 
  • With the Senior Director, ensure that experiences and lessons from IRC’s programs are driving and informing our advocacy and communications.  Work closely with and provide useful program and field information to advocacy and communications colleagues to achieve this. 
  • Support the Senior Director and Business Development Advisor to raise funds for IRC’s child and youth programs: ensure effective collaboration between Business Development Advisor and technical advisors; when needed, support the Business Development Advisor to coordinate technical teams for fundraising/ proposal writing; provide program information to Senior Director and other internal colleagues for the purposes of fundraising; meet with existing and prospective donors when requested.   

Requirements

• ·         At least 8 years of management experience; at least five years of experience directly managing programs for children or youth in emergency or crisis-affected contexts; experience managing senior technical professionals, across a range of sectors and located in offices around the world.  
• ·         Master’s degree or PhD in education, social work, psychology, international development or related field.  
• ·         Excellent written and oral communications skills; ability to communicate with many and diverse audiences; you listen intently and actively to all audiences; your communications avoid jargon and rhetorical questions, are direct, simple and respectful.   
• ·         Ability to identify and complete the most important tasks or pieces of work amidst a seemingly infinite list of priorities.  Strong desire to work in a fast-paced environment where you and your staff are expected to accomplish high quality work under pressure and short deadlines.  
• ·         Commitment to research and learning: experience ensuring that programs are informed by the best available evidence and generating high quality research demonstrating their effectiveness.
• ·         Fluency in English; French or Arabic a plus.

Working Environment:

• 25% travel to crisis or post-crisis-affected countries.