Education Specialist (Emergencies), P-4, TA, 364 days, #00137696, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), UNICEF Hosted Fund, Geneva, Switzerland

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

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks include: Portfolio Oversight & Strategic Alignment; Portfolio management, Programme Design & Coherence; Lead on Quality Assurance framework and process; Country Engagement Programming monitoring for quality learning; Governance and Coordination at Programme Level; External Representation, Sector leadership and partnerships. The role requires demonstrated experience designing, implementing, managing and/or evaluating education programmes in humanitarian, conflict-affected, displacement, fragile-state, or post-crisis settings. Strong technical expertise across the humanitarian-development nexus, including crisis preparedness, emergency response, resilience building, and learning outcomes is essential. The postholder will have demonstrated field-level responsibility for education programme implementation and management, and experience working in and/or managing education portfolios in at least five ECW-supported countries, preferably across East Africa and/or the Middle East and in crisis-affected contexts.

Work Experience

Minimum eight (8) years of progressive professional experience in Education in Emergencies and Protracted Crises (EiEPC). Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, managing and/or evaluating education programmes in humanitarian, conflict-affected, displacement, fragile-state, or post-crisis settings.

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, Portfolio management, Programme design, Quality assurance, Country engagement programming, Governance and coordination, Partnership development

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