Early Childhood Development (ECD) Senior Manager-Damascus

Background/Context:

The IRC has operated in Syria since 2012, providing protection, health, economic recovery, and early childhood development programs in Idleb, Aleppo, Ar-Raqqa, Hassakeh, and Deir ez-Zor, with new programs expanding into Hama, rural Damascus, and Homs. With a team of over 350 members, the IRC has established trust and strong community relationships, ensuring access and effective service delivery.

Our longstanding experience in the country to date provides a strong foundation for the IRC to further adapt and expand its programming across Syria, in order to respond to the new realities, with a greater focus on resilience and recovery initiatives. Alongside this, the IRC also It plays a significant role in Syria’s NGO, donor, and coordination forums, holding key positions and actively engaging in advocacy efforts.

Early Childhood Development (ECD)

IRC is implementing ECD program to provide early learning and nurturing care to children and caregivers affected by conflict and displacement across the Middle East. Our goal is to create inclusive environments where all children, regardless of their background, can reach their full potential, especially in communities that have experienced the brunt of the conflict.

Job overview:

The ECD Senior Manager will provide technical leadership and strategic guidance to strengthen the quality, relevance, integration, and scale-up of Early Childhood Development programming in Syria. The role will support the design, adaptation, implementation, and continuous improvement of evidence-based ECD approaches, while building the technical capacity of IRC staff and partners.

The Senior Manager will work collaboratively with local partners, municipalities, government counterparts, NGOs, IRC sector teams, MEAL, Partnerships, Grants, and Technical Units to ensure that ECD programming is contextually appropriate, inclusive, aligned with national priorities, and integrated across relevant sectors.

Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership and Program Quality

• In collaboration with the ECDE Coordinator, Education Technical Unit and Regional ECD Technical Team, develop and contextualize country-specific technical standards and guidance for child-facing and caregiver-facing ECD programming.
• Ensure that ECD content, curricula, tools, and program models are aligned with local and national standards for early childhood development and early childhood education.
• Lead the technical quality assurance, adaptation, and rollout of ECD training packages for IRC staff and partners.
• Provide technical guidance to ensure that ECD activities are age-appropriate, inclusive, gender-sensitive, conflict-sensitive, and responsive to the needs of children and caregivers affected by crisis and displacement.
• Work closely with the MEAL team to strengthen ECD monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning systems, ensuring that data and client feedback inform program quality, adaptation, and decision-making.
• Provide technical input to ensure ECD programming contributes to the IRC Syria Strategy, particularly relevant outcomes related to child development, caregiver engagement, inclusion, resilience, and integrated service delivery.
• Coordinate with relevant technical, grants, MEAL, partnerships, and program teams to ensure ECD activities are technically sound, feasible, and aligned with program quality standards.

Internal and external representation

• Serve as the ECD technical focal point at country level, representing ECD priorities, technical standards, learning, and evidence in relevant internal coordination and management forums.
• Participate actively in internal coordination and technical meetings to promote effective information sharing, problem-solving, learning, and evidence-based decision-making.

Advocacy, partnerships and scaling

• Provide overall direction to align the scaling design with relevantSyria national strategies and ECD and Education needs.
• Ensure scaling and partnerships efforts are rooted in the partnerships principles and abides by the IRC partnership management system
• Coordinate the team dynamics to foster a shift in mindset towards scaling and oversee the scaling process and ensure different team members are accountable to their roles
• Establish and maintain solid relationships with ECD and Education stakeholders, networks and government agencies that support IRC’s ECD scaling and sustainability objectives.

Integration and mainstreaming of ECD across sectors

• Identify and support opportunities for integrated ECD programming across sectors, including Education, Child Protection, Health, Women’s Protection and Empowerment, Protection, and Economic Recovery and Development, in collaboration with country program senior management, business development, and sector teams.
• Provide technical guidance, tools, and capacity-building support to help other sector teams integrate age-appropriate, caregiver-focused, inclusive ECD approaches into their programming, including where ECD is not funded as a stand-alone component.

Technical Capacity Strengthening, Learning and Staff Development

• Develop and implement technical capacity-strengthening plans for ECD staff and partners, including coaching, mentoring, on-the-job learning, peer learning, and structured training.
• Support staff and partners to apply ECD standards, curricula, training materials, monitoring tools, and quality benchmarks consistently across implementation sites.
• Promote a culture of learning, collaboration, and evidence use within the ECD team and across sectors.
• Identify technical capacity gaps and work with the ECDE Coordinator, Education Technical Unit, Regional ECD Technical Team, and other relevant teams to address them through targeted support and learning opportunities.
• Contribute to learning products, case studies, technical briefs, program reviews, and documentation of good practices to strengthen ECD programming and support internal and external learning.

Job Requirements:

Education:

• Bachelor’s level qualification in Social Sciences, Education and Psychology, or related subject. Equivalent experience in a similar role may also be accepted in place of formal education.

Work Experience:

• 7 years of experience managing and implementing Early Childhood (Education is a plus) especially for children 0-8 of age, programs in a fragile context
• At least 3 years in a managerial position, including staff management
• Passion for children’s issues especially in the area of child development, child health, and early childhood education with proven experience in managing and/or technically supporting early childhood development, education, health or child protection programs
• Experience working in positive partnerships with local actors and in particular government officials and line ministries in Education

Demonstrated Skills and Competencies

• Strong technical knowledge of Early Childhood Development and Education, particularly for children aged 0-8
• Good critical thinking; ability to synthesize evidence, and contextual information to inform ECD and education programming.
• Solid understanding of child development domains, including cognitive, social-emotional, language, physical development, early literacy and numeracy.
• Proven ability to design, adapt, and provide technical guidance on ECD and early education interventions
• Strong technical leadership and capacity-building skills, with the ability to coach teams, partners, teachers and facilitators
• Strong written and oral communication skills, in a multi-cultural environment and effective in technical representation and coordination.
• Experience working in policy and advocacy, with proven experience developing and implementing strategies related to ECD, early learning, pre-primary education, or systems strengthening.
• Strong organizational, project, staff and reporting skills, with the ability to oversee multiple awards while maintaining a strong focus on technical quality.

Language/Travel:

• Travel: 30% percent travels
• Language: Fluent English and Arabic.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: ECDE Coordinator

Position directly supervises: ECD Program Manager, ECD Officers

Key Internal Contacts: Education Technical Unit, Regional ECD Technical Team, Partnerships Team, Other program Coordinators

Key External Contacts: Directorates of Education and ECD Regional center

Professional Standards: IRC staff must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Global Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality. In accordance with these values, IRC operates and carries out policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti-Workplace Harassment, Respect at Work Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

Returning National Candidates: We strongly encourage national or returning national candidates to apply for this position. If you are a citizen of the country where this position is based and are currently residing outside of your home country, you may be eligible for an attractive relocation package. Eligibility is determined based on IRC's operational needs and specific role requirements. IRC strives to attract, motivate, and retain qualified national staff in our programs.

Accountability to Clients: IRC staff must adhere to the commitment of contributing to the sustainability and development of its (CR) Client Responsiveness Mechanisms, preserving the culture of prioritizing the needs of our clients and affected communities by systematically listening to their perspectives and using their feedback to make programmatic decisions and give them greater influence over program design and delivery.

كيفية التقديم

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