Education Technical Advisor – National - Aden

The National Education Technical Advisor provides strategic and technical leadership for the Yemen Country Office education portfolio, ensuring education programming is contextually grounded, technically strong, inclusive, safe, evidence-based, and aligned with Save the Children standards and national priorities. The role leads technical direction, quality assurance, programme design, donor engagement, and external representation for education in Yemen.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for education programming across Yemen, including formal education, non-formal/alternative learning, foundational literacy and numeracy, teacher professional development, safe schools, inclusive education, systems strengthening, and education in emergencies.
• Lead technical engagement with operations, awards, MEAL, advocacy, safeguarding, humanitarian access, supply chain, finance, and partner teams to ensure education programmes are realistic, safe, accountable, and deliver quality outcomes for children.
• Represent Save the Children in relevant national education coordination platforms, donor discussions, Ministry of Education engagements, technical working groups, and strategic forums as delegated by senior management.
• Provide technical oversight and coaching to education programme managers, coordinators, officers, partners, and relevant cross-functional teams.
• Lead the development, review, and implementation of the Yemen Country Office education strategy, ensuring alignment with the Country Strategic Plan, Save the Children’s global education ambition, national education policies, and the evolving humanitarian and development context in Yemen.
• Provide overall technical direction for the education portfolio, including education in emergencies, foundational learning, teacher development, remedial and reading interventions, school leadership, school safety, inclusion, and system resilience.
• Ensure education programming is informed by contextual analysis, conflict sensitivity, gender and disability inclusion, safeguarding, child participation, climate and disaster risk, and operational feasibility.
• Contribute to country-level strategic planning, annual planning, portfolio reviews, master budgeting, risk management, and prioritisation of education investments.
• Support senior management in positioning Save the Children as a credible technical actor in education and education in emergencies in Yemen.
• Lead or provide senior technical inputs to the design of education proposals, concept notes, logical frameworks, theories of change, budgets, indicators, results frameworks, risk analyses, and implementation models.
• Ensure new programme designs are technically sound, locally relevant, costed realistically, and aligned with donor requirements and Save the Children quality standards.
• Identify education funding opportunities and contribute to strategic donor positioning, in coordination with NBD, awards, partnerships, advocacy, operations, finance, and member colleagues.
• Provide technical leadership for donor discussions, technical clarifications, proposal revisions, and evidence-based justification of education approaches.
• Promote integrated programming with child protection, WASH, health and nutrition, food security and livelihoods, cash assistance, MEAL, advocacy, and safeguarding where this strengthens outcomes for children.
• Provide technical quality assurance across the education portfolio, including review of workplans, implementation tools, training packages, technical guidance notes, procurement specifications, assessment tools, reports, and partner deliverables.
• Support field teams and partners to translate technical approaches into practical, sequenced, and feasible implementation plans.
• Lead or support technical quality reviews for key education interventions such as teacher professional development, classroom-based support, foundational literacy and numeracy, remedial learning, reading activities, school improvement planning, safe schools, and inclusive learning environments.
• Ensure education programmes apply recognised good practice, Save the Children standards, child safeguarding requirements, accountability principles, and safe participation of children.
• Undertake regular field visits, where security and access allow, to monitor quality, provide coaching, identify implementation risks, and agree corrective actions with field teams and partners.
• Work with operations and humanitarian access colleagues to ensure education implementation models are realistic for Yemen’s access, security, partner capacity, school calendar, and supply chain constraints.
• Provide technical leadership in the design and review of education results frameworks, logical frameworks, indicators, IPTTs, MEAL plans, assessment tools, data collection approaches, and learning questions.
• Ensure education data is used for decision-making, adaptive management, reporting, advocacy, and technical learning across the portfolio.
• Work with MEAL teams to strengthen quality monitoring for learning outcomes, teaching practices, attendance/retention, transition, inclusion, school safety, and learning environment indicators.
• Lead or support technical review of education assessments, baselines, midlines, endlines, evaluations, learning briefs, case studies, and donor evidence products.
• Ensure lessons learned, good practices, and technical evidence from education programming are documented, shared, and used to improve future programme design and delivery.
• Promote accountable programming by ensuring children, caregivers, teachers, school leaders, partners, and communities are consulted safely and meaningfully.
• Strengthen the technical capacity of national staff, field teams, and partners through coaching, mentoring, technical accompaniment, structured learning, and practical guidance.
• Promote a sustainable national technical leadership model for the education sector, including clear delegation, knowledge transfer, documentation of key processes, and development of national staff capacity.
• Support education teams to improve technical writing, analysis, proposal development, donor reporting, indicator interpretation, programme adaptation, and evidence use.
• Model collaborative leadership that enables national teams to lead technical discussions confidently with donors, government counterparts, clusters, partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Maintain effective working relationships with relevant Ministry of Education entities, education authorities, UN agencies, donors, INGOs, national NGOs, partners, technical working groups, and coordination bodies.
• Represent Save the Children in education coordination platforms, technical discussions, donor meetings, and sector forums as delegated, ensuring that messages are evidence-based, constructive, and aligned with Country Office priorities.
• Contribute to national-level education policy dialogue, sector analysis, technical guidance, advocacy priorities, and coordination efforts, with attention to the needs of children affected by conflict, displacement, poverty, disability, and exclusion.
• Coordinate with advocacy and communications colleagues to develop clear education advocacy messages and evidence products based on programme learning and field realities.
• Ensure coherence between Save the Children’s education programming, external representation, cluster/sector engagement, and donor communications.
• Provide technical review and inputs to donor reports, ensuring accuracy, quality of analysis, alignment between narrative and financial information, and clear explanation of progress, risks, challenges, and corrective actions.
• Support timely identification and escalation of education-related programme risks, including access, school calendar, partner capacity, safeguarding, quality, procurement, staffing, data quality, and donor compliance risks.
• Contribute to audit readiness, technical documentation, donor verification, and evidence management for education awards.
• Carry out responsibilities in line with Save the Children policies and procedures, including child safeguarding, child protection, code of conduct, health and safety, fraud prevention, equal opportunities, and risk management.
• Lead the process of lessons learning to ensure high quality Educational programming, with support from the MEAL team, coordinating the documentation of said lessons across all the programmes;
• Ensure program products and learning are maintained within the Save the Children country program.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Education, International Education, Education in Emergencies, Development Studies, Social Sciences, or a related field. Equivalent combination of education and relevant senior experience may be considered.
• Strong technical grounding in education programming, including foundational learning, teacher professional development, education in emergencies, inclusive education, school leadership, and education systems strengthening.
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in education programming, including senior technical advisory, programme quality, programme development, or education management roles in humanitarian and/or development contexts.
• Demonstrated experience in Yemen or a comparable conflict-affected and fragile context; strong understanding of Yemen’s education system, operating environment, coordination architecture, and field realities is required.
• Proven ability to lead technical programme design, proposal development, logical frameworks, theories of change, technical budgets, donor narratives, and high-quality reports.
• Experience providing technical support to complex education portfolios funded by institutional donors, UN agencies, foundations, or multilateral partners.
• Strong knowledge of education in emergencies, foundational literacy and numeracy, teacher support, remedial/alternative learning, school safety, inclusive education, and child-centred approaches.
• Excellent analytical, writing, presentation, facilitation, and communication skills in English and Arabic.
• Proven ability to engage effectively with government counterparts, donors, clusters/sector groups, UN agencies, INGOs, national NGOs, and community-level stakeholders.
• Demonstrated commitment to strengthening national staff and partner capacity through coaching, mentoring, participatory approaches, and structured technical support.
• Ability to work effectively across functions, influence without direct authority, manage competing priorities, and provide calm technical leadership under pressure.
• High level of computer literacy, including Microsoft Office; experience with data analysis, dashboards, or digital monitoring systems is an advantage.
• Experience promoting child rights, safeguarding, gender equality, disability inclusion, accountability, conflict sensitivity, and do-no-harm principles in education programming.
• Ability and willingness to travel to field locations, subject to security and access conditions.

Skills

• Education Programming
• Foundational Learning Strengthening
• Teacher Professional Development
• Education in Emergencies
• Inclusive Education
• School Leadership
• Education Systems Strengthening
• Programme Quality Assurance
• Program Development
• Education Management
• Technical Programme Design
• Proposal Development
• Logical Frameworks
• Theories of Change
• Technical Budgeting
• Donor Reporting
• Education Portfolio Management
• Education Coordination
• Government Engagement
• Donor Engagement Strategies
• Cluster Coordination
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Coaching and Mentoring
• Capacity Building
• Microsoft Office Suite
• Data Analysis
• Digital Monitoring Solutions
• Child Rights Promotion
• Safeguarding
• Gender Equality
• Disability Inclusion
• Accountability in Education
• Conflict Sensitivity
• Do-No-Harm

Languages

English, Arabic