Overview
Provides senior strategic leadership for Early Childhood Development (ECD) technical, content, and digital work within the MENA ECD portfolio, ensuring integration and alignment with overarching ECD goals.
Key Responsibilities
- Provide senior strategic direction for MENA’s ECD Arabic content development, program delivery, and digital portfolio.
- Set the strategic vision for how content reaches children, caregivers, and service providers across various modalities.
- Drive innovation in content and delivery approaches.
- Ensure content and digital strategies are informed by field realities, user insights, MEL data, and the ECD evidence base.
- Provide strategic oversight of the ECD Technical Lead and the Digital Portfolio Senior Manager.
- Ensure content across all delivery routes is of consistent quality, culturally and linguistically relevant, evidence-based, cost-effective, and scalable.
- Oversee the strategic direction of content adaptation, new content development, and program model design.
- Set the strategic direction for digital reach and audience engagement.
- Hold senior accountability for the overall health, quality, and relevance of the digital portfolio.
- Ensure the ECD Technical Lead and Digital Portfolio Senior Manager function as one integrated team.
- Collaborate with the MEL Lead to ensure data informs decisions and continuous improvement.
- Coordinate with country ECD teams to ensure regional strategies are translated into country-level implementation.
- Troubleshoot programmatic and content-related issues arising from country implementation.
- Represent IRC’s ECD content and digital work in strategic fora, partner meetings, and donor engagements.
- Contribute to proposal development, budget design, and donor reporting.
Required Experience
- A minimum of 10 years of experience in ECD, education, or a related field.
- Strong track record in both technical content/program leadership and digital or technology-driven programming.
- Demonstrated experience in a senior leadership role overseeing multiple functions or teams.
- Strong familiarity with digital technology in an ECD or education context, including EdTech trends, digital product management, and digital reach strategies.
- Direct experience managing digital programs or products is an asset.
- Experience in program design and technical quality assurance for large-scale, multi-country programs in humanitarian or development settings.
- Proven ability to integrate and align cross-functional teams around a common strategic vision.
- Experience in proposal development, donor reporting, and representation at senior levels.
- Strong knowledge of the MENA regional context.
- Experience working in MENA, especially in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, or Palestine strongly preferred.
