Deputy Project Director, Content and Delivery

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. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

BACKGROUND

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC works with people forced to flee from war, conflict and disaster and the host communities that support them, as well as with those who remain within their homes and communities.  In the MENA region (Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemen) IRC responds to displaced people’s acute and longer-term needs with integrated programs that improve health and safety, prioritize children’s education, foster economic wellbeing, and empower communities to regain control over their lives.

The IRC's MENA Early Childhood Development Portfolio

The IRC's MENA Early Childhood Development (ECD) portfolio builds on over seven years of programming, starting with the Ahlan Simsim and Play to Learn initiatives, launched in 2018. These initiatives reached millions of children and caregivers with ECD services, generated a library of high-quality ECD content, and established a resource bank of proven program models. Partnerships with Ministries of Education, Health, and Social Development produced co-designed programs that are now embedded within government services across the region.

The portfolio today spans multiple grants and donors across the MENA region, with an overarching aim of supporting the youngest children and their caregivers — particularly those affected by crisis and conflict — with high-quality, scalable, and sustainable interventions. Interventions target children directly and through their caregivers and communities. The portfolio also strengthens the capacity of the ECD workforce — including teachers, multi-sector facilitators, and health workers — advances national systems and policy through advocacy efforts, and delivers innovative digital technology solutions. The IRC works alongside key public and private stakeholders across health, protection, education, and economic recovery and development to co-design and expand partner-led interventions. For more information on the IRC's ECD work in the region, visit: https://www.rescue.org/ahlansimsim. 

The MENA regional ECD team manages core regional grants, supports country programs on country-specific awards, and actively contributes to business development efforts to expand programming reach, deepen impact, and mobilize resources from a growing base of public and private donors. The team also supports country programs in program quality and fidelity, content development, research and monitoring, policy, advocacy and communications, project and financial management, and digital technology solutions.

THE ROLE

Reporting to the Regional Project Director for IRC’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) portfolio in MENA, the Deputy Project Director for Content and Delivery provides senior strategic leadership across the full spectrum of ECD technical, content, and digital work within the MENA ECD portfolio. The role sits at the intersection of content quality, program delivery, and digital innovation, ensuring that these areas are strategically coherent, mutually reinforcing, and aligned with the initiative’s overarching ECD goals for children and caregivers in MENA.

The Deputy Project Director oversees and mentors two senior functions: the ECD Technical Lead, who manages day-to-day technical content development and adaptation, and the Digital Portfolio Senior Manager, who manages the ECD digital product portfolio and digital growth strategy. The Deputy Project Director provides the strategic direction, cross-cutting integration, and senior representation needed to bring the content and digital work together as one coherent team. The role also connects this work with country programs, regional and global technical and digital initiatives, and ensures strong coordination with relevant technical units.

Major Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership of Content, Delivery and Digital Work

• Provide senior strategic direction for MENA’s ECD Arabic content development, program delivery, and digital portfolio, ensuring these workstreams are integrated, complementary, and collectively advancing program goals
• Set the strategic vision for how content reaches children, caregivers, and service providers across in-person, remote, hybrid, and digital modalities, and ensure the technical and digital teams are working in alignment toward that vision
• Drive innovation in content and delivery approaches, cultivating a culture of evidence-based experimentation and continuous improvement across the team
• Ensure that content and digital strategies are informed by field realities, user insights, MEL data, and the broader ECD evidence base
• Stay abreast of global and regional developments in ECD, EdTech, and digital innovation, identifying opportunities for the team to lead, learn, and adapt

Oversight of Technical Content and Program Delivery

• Provide strategic oversight of the ECD Technical Lead, ensuring high-quality ECD content development and program delivery support across MENA
• Ensure content across all delivery routes — in-person, phone-based, and digital — 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, stepping in to provide technical guidance on complex or high-stakes decisions as needed
• Ensure alignment between IRC’s ECD content and program models and national and regional ECD standards, working in close collaboration with IRC's Education and ECD Technical Advisors and the Education Technical Unit
• Provide senior ECD technical input into partner content as relevant

Oversight of the Digital Portfolio

• Provide strategic oversight of the Digital Portfolio Senior Manager, ensuring the ECD digital portfolio is growing, performing, and aligned with program priorities
• Set the strategic direction for digital reach and audience engagement, supporting the Digital Portfolio Senior Manager in driving growth across IRC's ECD social media channels, mobile applications, chatbot platforms, and website
• Ensure digital products are integrated into broader programming where feasible, and that the digital and technical teams operate as a unified team with strong content-to-digital connectivity
• Hold senior accountability for the overall health, quality, and relevance of the digital portfolio, including decisions on product maintenance, scale, adaptation, and phaseout
• Oversee strategic relationships with key digital technology departments, colleagues, service providers, vendors, consultants, volunteers, and partners where these require senior engagement

Integration and Cross-Team Coherence

• Ensure the ECD Technical Lead and Digital Portfolio Senior Manager function as one integrated team, with clear collaboration structures, shared learning, and alignment on priorities
• Work closely with the MEL Lead to ensure that data from content testing, program delivery, and digital performance is systematically used to inform decisions and continuous improvement
• Collaborate with the Partnerships, Policy, Advocacy and Communications Lead to ensure that content and digital assets are leveraged effectively for external visibility, advocacy, and partner engagement
• Coordinate with country ECD teams to ensure that technical and digital support is responsive to field needs and that lessons from country-level implementation feed back into regional content and digital strategy

Country Coordination and Program Support

• Serve as the senior regional point of contact for country ECD teams in MENA all matters related to technical content, program delivery, and digital integration, ensuring that regional strategies are translated effectively into country-level implementation
• Lead regular coordination with country ECD Coordinators and Managers to track progress on program delivery, identify emerging challenges, and ensure that technical and content support is timely, targeted, and responsive to field realities
• Troubleshoot programmatic and content-related issues arising from country implementation, drawing on the ECD Technical Lead and Digital Portfolio Senior Manager, and coordination with the other project Leads as needed to develop and deploy practical solutions
• Oversee the provision of technical assistance, coaching, and capacity support to country teams, ensuring that program staff and partners have the guidance, tools, and resources they need to implement with quality and fidelity
• Lead or support engagement with national and local government partners, including Ministries of Education, Health, and Social Development, ensuring that IRC ECD content and program models are aligned with national ECD priorities, policies, and standards
• Identify opportunities to embed or institutionalize IRC’s ECD content and program models within government systems, and work with country teams and ministry counterparts to advance these efforts in a sustainable and context-sensitive way
• Ensure that learning and insights from country-level implementation are systematically captured and fed back into regional content development, program design, and digital strategy, closing the loop between field experience and regional decision-making

Representation, Business Development, and Project Management

• Represent IRC’s ECD content and digital work in strategic fora, partner meetings, donor engagements, and external events at a senior level
• Represent and advance IRC's profile in ECD technical, EdTech, and innovation spaces regionally and internationally
• Contribute to proposal development, budget design, and donor reporting for the content and digital dimensions of the IRC ECD portfolio in MENA
• Maintain strategic oversight of relevant workplans, budgets, and deliverables, ensuring the content and digital workstreams are on track and well-managed
• Assist in identifying new funding opportunities relevant to ECD content, delivery innovation, and digital technology

Key Working Relationships

• Reports to: Regional Project Director
• Directly supervises: ECD Technical Lead; Digital Portfolio Senior Manager; Potentially other technical and content staff in the future
• Indirect/Technical reporting: Director for ECD, IRC Headquarters
• Internal: Works closely with the MEL Lead, Partnerships Policy Advocacy and Communications Lead, Awards, Partnerships and Project Management Lead, country ECD Coordinators and MEAL teams in MENA, IRC's Education Technical Unit, and relevant global digital, technology and IT functions
• External: partners; donors; government counterparts; vendors and digital technology service providers

Requirements

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in ECD, education, or a related field, with a 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, with the ability to set strategic direction and manage through others
• Deep knowledge of the ECD field, including current research, evidence-based program models, and content development approaches
• 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
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and relationship-building skills, with the ability to work effectively across diverse teams in a complex, fast-paced environment
• Fluency in written and oral Arabic and English 

Working Environment

• Standard office work environment
• Travel approximately 15% of the time, including to country program offices across the MENA region 
• Position based in the IRC Regional Office in Amman, Jordan 

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.

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