Early Childhood Development Technical Lead

BACKGROUND

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC works with people forced to flee from war, conflict and disaster and the host communities that support them, as well as with those who remain within their homes and communities. In the MENA region (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen) IRC responds to displaced people’s acute and longer-term needs with integrated programs that improve health and safety, prioritize children’s education, foster economic wellbeing, and empower communities to regain control over their lives.

The IRC's MENA Early Childhood Development Portfolio

The IRC's MENA Early Childhood Development (ECD) portfolio builds on over seven years of programming, starting with the Ahlan Simsim and Play to Learn initiatives, launched in 2018. These initiatives reached millions of children and caregivers with ECD services, generated a library of high-quality ECD content, and established a resource bank of proven program models. Partnerships with Ministries of Education, Health, and Social Development produced co-designed programs that are now embedded within government services across the region.

The portfolio today spans multiple grants and donors across the MENA region, with an overarching aim of supporting the youngest children and their caregivers — particularly those affected by crisis and conflict — with high-quality, scalable, and sustainable interventions. Interventions target children directly and through their caregivers and communities. The portfolio also strengthens the capacity of the ECD workforce — including teachers, multi-sector facilitators, and health workers — advances national systems and policy through advocacy efforts, and delivers innovative digital technology solutions. The IRC works alongside key public and private stakeholders across health, protection, education, and economic recovery and development to co-design and expand partner-led interventions. For more information on the IRC's ECD work in the region, visit: https://www.rescue.org/ahlansimsim.

The MENA regional ECD team manages core regional grants, supports country programs on country-specific awards, and actively contributes to business development efforts to expand programming reach, deepen impact, and mobilize resources from a growing base of public and private donors. The team also supports country programs in program quality and fidelity, content development, research and monitoring, policy, advocacy and communications, project and financial management, and digital technology solutions.

THE ROLE

Reporting to the Deputy Project Director for Content and Delivery, the Early Childhood Development (ECD) Technical Lead provides technical leadership and day-to-day management of Arabic ECD content and program development across the IRC ECD portfolio in. The role ensures that high-quality, evidence-based ECD content is developed, adapted, and effectively deployed in a way that can be delivered efficiently — including in-person, remote, and hybrid modalities — in MENA.

The ECD Technical Lead works in close collaboration with the Digital Portfolio Senior Manager and the wider digital team, ensuring that content developed for in-person and remote delivery is appropriately adapted and integrated into digital products and platforms, and that insights from digital reach and engagement inform content development and improvement. While the digital portfolio is managed separately, the ECD Technical Lead and digital team operate as one integrated unit under the Deputy Project Director, with a shared commitment to ensuring content and delivery are coherent, complementary, and collectively advancing IRC’s ECD goals for children and caregivers across the region.

Major Responsibilities

High-Quality Content Development

• Oversee the development, adaptation, and effective utilization of IRC's ECD content and materials for child-facing programs, especially for children ages 0-8; caregiver-facing programs, including parenting programs and caregiver support; and content for teachers, service providers, and supervisors, coaches, and trainers, including teacher training and ECD content integrated into healthcare, protection and economic recovery and empowerment services
• Set and implement a clear strategy for the development, testing, implementation, and improvement of new content, in close collaboration with the Deputy Project Director, Technical Advisors, country team focal points, and the Director of ECD within the Education Technical Unit
• Ensure content is of consistent quality and aligned across delivery routes — in-person, hybrid, remote, and digital — working closely with the Digital Portfolio Senior Manager to ensure that content developed for non-digital delivery is appropriately adapted and optimized for digital platforms and products
• Oversee processes ensuring all ECD content is culturally and linguistically relevant, and designed to enhance children's development and learning outcomes in ways that are cost-effective and scalable
• Provide input and ECD technical guidance for partners where relevant
• Work with country teams to ensure content and program models are aligned with local and national standards for ECD and early learning
• Lead collaboration with IRC's ECD country program team members to guide them in content adaptation, testing, development, and deployment
• Work with relevant internal and external technical staff to ensure appropriate and timely guidance is provided for multi-sectoral and integrated ECD content and design
• Collaborate with internal and external technical experts to finalize guidance for gender equity standards and disability inclusion across ECD program models
• Provide training and ECD technical support for relevant country and regional staff and for partners
• Analyze data from country content utilization and feedback to inform decision-making and report on key strategic metrics of success, in close collaboration with the MEL Lead and IRC's Technical Advisor for ECD supporting MENA

Linkages with the Digital Team

• Work closely with the Digital Portfolio Senior Manager to ensure strong content-to-digital connectivity, including the timely provision of ECD content and technical input needed for digital product development, updates, and improvement
• Provide ECD technical review and quality assurance for content deployed across digital platforms and products, ensuring accuracy, cultural relevance, and alignment with program priorities
• Participate in joint planning and coordination processes with the digital team to ensure that content and digital delivery strategies are mutually reinforcing and informed by a shared understanding of user needs and program goals
• Contribute technical insights and field-level learnings to inform the digital team's product decisions, content adaptation choices, and audience engagement strategies

Representation and Project Management

• Represent IRC as the regional ECD Technical Lead at strategic meetings, technical fora, and external events, under the guidance of the Deputy Project Director
• Work closely with the Deputy Project Director and the Partnerships, Policy, Advocacy and Communications Lead to strengthen productive relationships with ECD-focused organizations and networks, technical experts, government agencies, and donors within the region
• Assist in the writing and development of proposals and reports for ECD content components
• Manage relevant technical workplans and spending plans, contributing to project implementation meetings to provide updates, identify challenges, and discuss solutions

Key Working Relationships

• Reports to: Deputy Project Director, Content and Delivery
• Indirect/Technical reporting: Regional Education Lead
• Internal: Works closely with the Digital Portfolio Senior Manager and digital team; country ECD Coordinators and MEAL teams; MEL Lead; Partnerships, Policy, Advocacy and Communications Lead; IRC's Education Technical Unit; and relevant regional and global teams and functions
• External: donors; partners; government counterparts; community representatives; consultants; vendors

Requirements

• A minimum of 8 years of experience developing ECD or education content and contributing to program design and delivery for large-scale programs focused on ECD or a related field
• Deep knowledge of the ECD field, including current and past research, evidence-based program models, and content development approaches across child-facing, caregiver-facing, and service provider-facing modalities
• Proven ability to provide high-quality technical assistance, guidance, and coaching to staff and partners
• Familiarity with digital technology in an ECD or education context, including an understanding of how content is adapted and deployed across digital platforms and products; direct experience working alongside digital teams is an asset
• Experience using or managing staff who use user-centered design principles in content creation
• Experience working in conflict and crisis settings and knowledge of humanitarian programming
• Demonstrated ability to work with a high degree of autonomy, managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Excellent interpersonal and oral and written communication skills, with the ability to build positive relationships across diverse, geographically dispersed teams
• Strong knowledge of the MENA regional context; experience working in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and/or Palestine strongly preferred
• Fluency in written and oral Arabic and English

Working Environment

• Standard office work environment
• Travel required across MENA as needed
• Position is based in Amman, Jordan; Beirut, Lebanon OR Damascus, Syria

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.