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TITLE: Head of Programme Design and Development Mozambique Country Office
TEAM/PROGRAMME: Programme Development and Quality and member of the Extended Leadership Team
LOCATION: Maputo, with some field office travel or remote from an eligible country
GRADE: National, Grade 2
CONTRACT LENGTH: 2 years
CHILD SAFEGUARDING:
Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.
ROLE PURPOSE:
The Head of Programme Design and Development (HPDD) is a senior and strategic position within the Programme Development and Quality (PDQ) Department. The role holder leads effective innovative, transformational and high-impact project and program design, partnership and business development from both a quality (results for children) and a business perspective. The role holder oversees the process of strategic portfolio analysis, identifying donor, partner and corporate engagement opportunities, and program and proposal development. S/he is responsible for overseeing and facilitating the process of new project design, based on learning from implementation and working closely with the Director of PDQ, Technical Specialists, NBD, MEAL, Advocacy, Campaigns, project implementation teams and support staff. Key emphasis is also on fostering new business models, and developing non-traditional partnerships (both financial and non-financial) to help achieve results for children at scale.
The Head of Programme Design and Development plays a central role in shaping Save the Children’s future impact in Mozambique. The role leads the identification and development of strategic growth opportunities, innovative partnerships and new business models that expand the organisation’s reach, influence and impact for children. Working closely with senior leadership, technical teams, donors, government and partners, the post holder drives the development of ambitious, evidence-based and scalable programmes across development and humanitarian contexts.
SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Director of Programme Development and Quality (DPDQ)
Staff direct reporting to this post: None currently, but opportunities for expansion.[PM1]
Budget responsibilities: None
Role dimensions: [PM2] Save the Children works in eight provinces in Mozambique, in both development and humanitarian settings. Project activities are implemented directly as well as with around 20+ different local, national and corporate partners. SC in Mozambique works with a wide range of donors (bilateral, institutional, foundations, etc.) implementing a portfolio of 25+ projects with approximately 350 staff. In 2026 SCI’s budget in Mozambique is USD 35 million, the County Office has a growth ambition to increase our results and impact for children at scale. Our 2025–2027 strategy is focused on generating impact for children at scale through five strategic goals: ensuring a healthy start in life, improving access to safe and quality education, protecting children from violence and abuse, strengthening child rights and participation, and building climate resilience through adaptive social protection and green livelihoods. We place particular emphasis on children affected by conflict, displacement, climate shocks, disability and poverty, while advancing locally led action, anticipatory action and systems strengthening.
Each year the NBD team handles around 30 different proposals of varying complexity, including some very large high risk or consortium projects. This role requires very close collaboration with CO technical, operational and support staff, as well as with Save the Children member offices.
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
Strategic leadership (10%)
Lead the development, implementation and monitoring of the Country Office Programme Development and Funding Strategy, ensuring alignment with the Country Strategic Plan, humanitarian priorities and SMT decisions.
Conduct regular analysis of the funding landscape, donor priorities, portfolio performance and emerging trends to inform strategic decision-making and organisational positioning.
Provide regular pipeline, funding gap and portfolio growth analysis to SMT, identifying risks, opportunities and investment priorities.
Ensure programme development draws on evidence, evaluations, learning and innovation from current and past programmes to improve impact and competitiveness.
Business analysis and Donor Engagement (15%)
Represent the Mozambique CO in relevant donor fora, workshops and conferences where new business development opportunities can be formulated.
Establish effective relationships with external stakeholders, donors and potential partners for large scale or strategic funding opportunities, either as a prime or sub-recipient;
Cultivate excellent working relationships with and serve as focal point for SC Members and donor agencies at the regional and country level.
Ensure key contacts, required formats and donor strategies are kept up-to-date at the country office level. Ensure maintenance of donor and partner engagement tracking database.
Proactively identify, research, and disseminate information on new funding opportunities from bilateral, multi-lateral, and other institutional and non-traditional donors (foundations, corporates, etc.)
Develop and maintain a private sector engagement pipeline, identifying strategic corporate, foundation, social enterprise and innovative financing opportunities that align with Save the Children’s strategic priorities.
Cultivate and manage relationships with existing and prospective private sector partners, positioning Save the Children as a partner of choice for shared value initiatives, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, climate resilience and social impact investments.
Ensure tracking of active funding opportunities, submission deadlines, financing available. Ensure all appropriate donor and SC proposal formats are available in country.
Monitor proposals pipeline and win rates, ensure that updated trackers are available for planning purposes, inform SMT.
Innovation and New Business Models (5%)
Lead exploration of innovative financing models and emerging funding mechanisms.
Promote innovative programme design approaches that increase impact, scale and value for money.
Identify opportunities to pilot and scale new partnerships, financing mechanisms and delivery models.
Oversee project, programme and proposal development (55%)
Oversee project and programme development processes, including leading, organizing and facilitating project design workshops and consultation meetings with key internal and external stakeholders, as required – particularly for cross-thematic projects, or strategic opportunities to ensure an integrated approach.
Ensure that SCI’s Program Quality Framework is addressed in all new projects and proposals and that key elements of programme quality are included (e.g. child participation, child safeguarding, lessons learned from past proposals, accountability, risk assessments, effective partnership strategy, gender sensitive, disability inclusion, etc.).
Ensure strong programmatic integration, and future programming is innovative, transformational and high-impact, that can deliver sustainable impact at scale.
Ensure that all sectors apply a risk lens to Programme design and implementation.
Lead on the development of high-value or complex proposals for donor awards and bids for donor contracts.
Provide leadership and co-ordination to the proposal development team, overseeing all proposals under development. Ensure proposal design is aligned with SCI operating model(s) and advise on design of alternative operating models that help the CO to adapt to changing context, purpose and role.
Interface closely with Programme Operations and the Finance teams to ensure all information is produced in a way that ensures quality and integration of SCI interventions at the programme design and reporting stage.
Ensure that concept notes and funding proposals align closely with Country Strategy Plan, Thematic plans, geographic priorities, master budgets and Monitoring & Evaluations, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) frameworks as well as SLT decisions;
Track proposal development timelines and work closely with PDQ, Programme Operations, Finance, HR, Security and Supply Chain to ensure adequate and timely input into proposal and budget development.
In collaboration with SC Members, broker technical assistance and other resources to support proposal development.
Facilitate engagement of consultants on large-scale proposals, or when technical specialists are needed.
Represent Save the Children International generally (along with technical experts) in consortium meetings regarding proposal development.
Ensure that Programme Quality Framework is addressed in all new proposals and that key elements of programme quality are included (e.g. child participation, disability inclusion, child safeguarding, lessons learned from past proposals, accountability, risk assessments, effective partnership strategy, etc.).
Ensure all proposal and concept note submissions to donors are reviewed and approved by the SMT and other staff in country as appropriate before submission to the donor.
In collaboration with the Awards team, lead on maintaining the up-to-date database of proposals submitted, approved, rejected and reports submitted to donors/SC members.
Ensure the Program Development team supports the awards kick-off process and budget and proposal re-alignments throughout the implementation, as well as cost and no cost extensions, assuring initial proposal compliance.
Partnership and Localisation Leadership (10%)
Lead strategic partner mapping and consortium development processes for major funding opportunities.
Ensure local, national and community-based organisations are meaningfully engaged throughout programme design and resource mobilisation processes.
Promote locally led action through equitable partnership approaches that strengthen local capacity, leadership and sustainability.
Support assessment and selection of consortium partners, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy, localisation objectives and donor requirements.
Develop strategic partnerships with government institutions, academia, private sector actors and civil society organisations to increase impact and scale for children.
People Mentoring and Development (5%)
Support the DPDQ to proactively build and maintain technical skills and competencies required for leading and/or in-putting for first class programs across PDQ and Operations.
Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our broad-spectrum programming values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors.
Be effective as a mentor and coach for all staff involved in NBD, as well as other senior program staff, to strengthen their skills in developing proposals.
BEHAVIOURS (Values in Practice)
Accountability:
holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.
Ambition:
sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale.
Collaboration:
builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
approachable, good listener, easy to talk to.
Creativity:
develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
willing to take disciplined risks.
Integrity:
honest, encourages openness and transparency; demonstrates highest levels of integrity
QUALIFICATIONS
Minimum of a Master degree in an area of social development or equivalent.
EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
Essential
Minimum of 8 years experience in a both emergency and development contexts, preferably with solid experience in more than one of the Save the Children International priority sectors: education, child protection, child rights governance, youth employment and economic empowerment, health and nutrition, climate resilience and emergencies.
Proven track record in producing large-scale or complex winning bids, proposals, and reports for institutional donors, corporations and others.
Proven ability to design high quality, and innovative programs.
Excellent writing/editing skills, budget development skills and presentation/communication skills.
Experience in presenting project information to donors and partners.
Experience in developing large proposals for donors such as EC, USAID, BHA, FCDO, ECHO, NORAD, GAC, AICS, etc.
Demonstrated experience engaging and negotiating with institutional donors, private sector partners, foundations and strategic stakeholders to secure funding and build partnerships.
Experience developing resource mobilisation, fundraising or business development strategies.
Experience leading consortium development and partnership negotiations for complex funding opportunities.
Ability to coach or mentor senior staff in proposal development, funding strategies and MEAL.
Highly developed interpersonal and communication skills including influencing, negotiation and coaching.
Highly developed cultural awareness and ability to work well in an international environment with people from diverse backgrounds and cultures.
Strong results orientation, with the ability to challenge existing mind-sets.
Experience of solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in.
Ability to present complex information in a succinct and compelling manner.
Ability and willingness to dramatically change work practices and hours, and work with incoming surge teams, in the event of emergencies.
Fluency in English and Portuguese, both verbal and written, required;
Commitment to Save the Children International values and policies including willingness to abide by and enforce the Child Safeguarding policy.
Desirable
Experience of working with financial and other data systems to produce budgets, analyse data and track trends.
Experience securing private sector support to development or humanitarian programming.[PM3]
Additional job responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.
Equal Opportunities
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with the SCI Equal Opportunities and Diversity policies and procedures.
Child Safeguarding:
We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.
Health and Safety
The role holder is required to carry out the duties in accordance with SCI Health and Safety policies and procedures.
How to apply
Interested candidates must submit the CV and motivation letter in English by 23rd August 2026, through the following link:
https://hcri.fa.em2.oraclecloud.com:443/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/job/17197?utm_medium=jobboard
”As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage women and people with disabilities to apply. Save the Children is committed to ensure that all of the employees and programs are absolutely safe for children.
We apply strict procedures to ensure that only candidates, suitable for working with children are allowed to join our organization and all candidates will therefore be subject to this scrutiny.”
LEGAL NOTICE:
SAVE THE CHILDREN INTERNACIONAL DOES NOT CHARGE ANY KIND OF PAYMENT IN ANY OF THE STAGES OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS AND DOES NOT PROCEED THROUGH RECRUITMENT AGENTS.
NB: Only selected candidates will be contacted