Education and Early Childhood Development (ECD) Technical Advisor – MENAU

Background

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions.

The IRC’s Technical Excellence department helps achieve that aim by generating evidence, sharing learning, and providing technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff. Technical Excellence is comprised of Technical Units (TUs) – Health; Economic Recovery and Development (ERD); Education; and Violence Prevention and Response (VPR) – including Global Practice Teams, regionally aligned technical teams, and supporting units for MEAL, policy and advocacy, and partnerships and program development.

In 2025, the IRC reached over 600,000 children and youth in 20 countries with early childhood development and education programs, ensuring that even the hardest to reach children in the most challenging places are able to go learn, develop and thrive. The Middle East, North Africa & Ukraine (MENAU) region is one of IRC’s largest and most complex areas of operation, encompassing protracted conflict, displacement, and recovery contexts across multiple country programs. Regional TU teams provide dedicated, context-relevant technical assistance to these country programs across the program cycle, aligned with the IRC Technical Assistance model and service charter.

Position Overview

The IRC is seeking an Education & Early Childhood Development (ECD) Technical Advisor to provide temporary coverage during a period of parental leave. This is a fixed-term, 6-month assignment (September 1, 2026 – March 1, 2027) focused exclusively on the Middle East, North Africa & Ukraine (MENAU) region. IRC’s MENAU region includes Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, occupied Palestinian Territory, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.

The role is focused on education and early childhood development (pre-natal through age 8), which is closely aligned with the Nurturing Care Framework and has key interlinkages across multiple sectors. The Education & ECD TA will provide direct technical support to MENAU country programs identified as strategic priorities for Education and ECD innovation, growth, and research, in close collaboration and coordination with the regional Education TA and other sector-specific TAs relevant to ECD (Child Protection, Nutrition, Primary Health, Mental Health, Economic Recovery and Development, Women’s Protection, Governance, etc.).

To ensure quality programming and impact for young children and families affected by conflict and crisis, the Education & ECD TA will: support country program staff to design programs and projects aligned to IRC’s outcomes and evidence framework / theories of change / core indicators; review technical quality of proposals; input into proposal go/no-go decisions; analyze data to inform course correction; conduct technical trainings and ongoing technical coaching; share cross-context learning with country program staff; design, review, and share program-level tools (e.g., assessment frameworks, M&E templates, proposal materials); and support senior technical country program recruitment and capacity-building. Development, adaptation, and quality assurance of Education and ECD content and curricula sit with the ECD Content Specialist, and the ECD TA is expected to route any content-related country requests accordingly rather than duplicate that work.

As the Education and ECD Technical Advisor for MENAU, you will be responsible for ensuring high-quality technical assistance to Education and ECD projects across the MENAU region, including collaboration with counterparts from other sectors to ensure holistic support to clients. You will promote and collaborate with relevant stakeholders to achieve high-quality, high-impact interventions that are informed by evidence and best practice, contextually appropriate, driven by client and partner voices, and widely inclusive.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Program Design & Business Development

Support designated MENAU country and regional programs to design winning submissions and generally position IRC for continued success in our Education and ECD technical domains:

• Support designated country programs’ proposal technical lead through participation in and/or facilitation of program design meetings
• Promote and support design collaboration with partners and clients
• Advise on program modalities and strategic partnership development based on how we can best support, complement, and reinforce local systems
• Advise on and/or provide hands-on support on assessments, including application and contextualization of technical standards
• Review technical design quality, including alignment of narratives, log-frames, and budgets to IRC standards and outcomes

Implementation Support

Support MENAU country program staff and other key stakeholders in implementing technical interventions:

• Support country and regional programs and other stakeholders with the recruitment and training of technical coordinators
• Assess program quality and inform improvements, providing follow-up support to country programs as needed
• Collaborate with country and regional program colleagues to monitor and analyze key indicators to inform periodic review, program adaptation, and course-correction as needed
• Provide technical capacity strengthening through ongoing mentoring, coaching, and trainings with country program focal points

Knowledge & Learning

Support continuous sectoral learning and IRC technical leadership within the MENAU region:

• Document learnings from program activities and share takeaways and opportunities
• Share cross-contextual learnings with country program staff across the MENAU region
• Refresh the sectoral evidence base in collaboration with global and regional staff to influence approaches
• Collaborate with other technical advisors within the region to promote integrated programming leadership
• Contribute to the delivery of education strategic priorities
• Maintain currency with sectoral best practices through continual learning and development
• Coordinate closely and maintain a regular check-in with the ECD Content Specialist and relevant Regional ECD Portfolio Team to align on country requests, agree on division of labor between program-level technical assistance and content/curricula work, and avoid duplicative deliverables

Professional Profile

Success in this position requires an individual with expertise in designing and delivering Education and ECD technical assistance and with a keen ability to work across the range of cultural, societal, and political contexts found across the MENAU region.

Work Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in implementing and/or managing ECD education programs, preferably with on-the-ground programmatic experience in humanitarian or crisis-affected contexts
• Experience and familiarity with related donors, peer agencies, and national contexts required, preferably in humanitarian and transitional, post-crisis contexts within the MENAU region
• Demonstrated expertise in technical program design, monitoring and evaluation, research methods, and data analysis, with the ability to turn concepts and strategy into measurable action

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Strong organizational and time-management skills; proven ability to prioritize and deliver projects on time and independently
• Demonstrated ability to navigate a dynamic, cross-functional, global team structure in a large multi-national organization
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively with internal and external stakeholders at all levels
• Strong analytic problem-solving skills, data analysis, and data visualization skills
• Highly proficient in Microsoft Office suite
• Ability to manage and work through change in a proactive and positive manner
• Strong cross-cultural communication skills and familiarity with the MENAU region’s humanitarian context

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Education or a relevant field required; Master’s degree preferred.

Language Skills

Fluency in Arabic (spoken and written) is required. Excellent spoken and written English is also required.

Key Working Relationships

This position reports to the Global Practice Lead and Director of Research, Early Childhood Development, in close coordination with the Education Technical Advisor for MENAU, based in Amman for the duration of the parental leave cover. This role is expected to play an active role in the Education Technical Unit and regularly engage with other Technical Advisors and colleagues through meetings and virtual events. Communication and coordination with other technical unit staff, MENAU regional and country program teams, awards management and grants management staff, and other internal stakeholders is expected.

Working Environment

This is a remote, fixed-term position and may be based within the MENAU region or relevant timezone. This role may require some travel within the MENAU region (up to approximately 40% of the time), conditions permitting.

This is a hybrid position open to internal candidates based in countries where IRC operates who have the right to work in their location. Successful candidates will be hired on a local employment contract and according to local salary scale.

This role is open to candidates located and with the right to work Jordan, Lebanon, and United Kingdom.

Compensation: (UK Pay Rate: £52,210-£61,999/yr). Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

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.