Pacific Program Development and Quality Director

There’s something special about spending your days alongside like-minded people, just as committed to purposeful work as you. At Save the Children Australia, we attract bright and big-hearted people who are inspired to make a difference. Together, we are fearless in our pursuit of making lasting change for the children and communities who need it most.

A place to make a difference:

In this full-time permanent role, you’ll work as a part of our International Programs team (ideally based in one of our Pacific country offices, or from an Australian / New Zealand location) to help us create lasting change for children everywhere. As a member of the Pacific Regional Senior Leadership Team (SLT), the Regional Director of Program Development and Quality delivers on a comprehensive portfolio of programmes aligned to the global strategy, while ensuring resource mobilisation, measurement of impact and programme quality across 3 country offices, and Save Australia programmes throughout the region.

You will make a difference by:

• Leading regional strategy and program direction: Drive the Pacific Regional Strategy and Country Strategic Plans, ensuring alignment with Save the Children's global strategy, child rights programming, safeguarding, gender equality, and digital transformation priorities.
• Overseeing program quality and impact: Ensure high-quality, evidence-based programs that deliver outcomes against Save the Children's three global breakthroughs—Survive, Learn and Be Protected—while monitoring performance, quality standards, risk management, and continuous improvement.
•  Strengthening monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEAL): Establish robust MEAL systems across the region, promote data-driven decision-making, accountability and learning, and ensure evidence is captured, shared and used to improve program effectiveness and demonstrate impact for children.
• Driving funding growth and external engagement: Lead donor engagement, resource mobilisation and new business development efforts, build strategic partnerships, and represent Save the Children with governments, donors, UN agencies, members and other key stakeholders.
• Building leadership and technical capability: Lead and mentor a multinational PDQ team and regional technical specialists, strengthen country office capability, develop future leaders, and foster collaboration, innovation and cross-country learning across the Pacific region.  

A place to feel valued:

Ideally, you are an accomplished humanitarian and development leader with deep experience in strategy, program quality, evidence-based programming, stakeholder engagement, and team leadership across complex international environments.

This role requires:

• 10+ years of senior leadership experience managing large-scale humanitarian and development programs, shaping organisational strategy, and delivering results in complex settings.
• Strong program quality and technical expertise across humanitarian and development sectors, including program design, research, evidence generation and learning.
• Proven people leadership experience with expertise in managing diverse, high-performing teams, developing talent, and succeeding in matrix management environments.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement capabilities, with a track record of building strategic partnerships and influencing governments, donors, UN agencies, NGOs, research institutions, and senior leaders.
• Highly analytical and adaptable professional with strong communication skills, cultural sensitivity, commitment to Save the Children's values, and willingness to travel extensively and respond to emergencies.

A place to belong:

We are diverse personalities, backgrounds and talents, embracing our differences as one strong and united team. We see and celebrate the unique value you bring to our organisation, and offer a range of rewards for your effort, including:

• Opportunity to work on additional projects to enable you to stretch and feel connected to programs in a different way
• Individual learning plans to help map and deliver on your career development.
• Internal employment and development opportunities
• Support for workplace wellness, including access to our free, confidential Employee Wellbeing Program
• Celebrate and feel supported in your diversity. We have a highly inclusive culture and diverse workforce reflecting the communities we serve, allowing you to bring your whole self to work (if that’s what you want!).
• Full salary packaging benefits (please use this link to see how much this benefit could mean to you!)
• Extra leave to use in a range of ways to ensure you’re able to perform at your optimum

Follow this link for the full list of our employee benefits.

Does this sound like the place for you?

We’d love to hear from you. Submit your cover letter and resume below.

We strongly encourage Pacific Islander candidates to apply.

Applications close 4pm AEST, Thursday 16^th July 2026.

Position Description – Pacific Regional PDQ Director

For more information about a career at Save, visit our Careers Page.

We have tested our application process with diverse groups in mind, with the intent to ensure it's straightforward and accessible for all to apply. Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our culture and improve our ability to reach our most vulnerable client groups. But we also know there is no one-size fits-all when it comes to recruitment - so if we didn’t quite hit the mark for you, please let us know at people.culture@savethechildren.org.au. We’re dedicated to ensuring Save the Children Australia is a place where everyone can feel supported – no matter your race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, sexuality, neurodiversity, culture and beliefs.

Save the Children Australia is a child-safe organisation. All employees are required to undergo a National Police Check, a Working with Children Check, and sign our Child Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct. We also support the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.

Save the Children is committed to providing and maintaining a safe working environment for its employees and client groups, consistent with our obligations under OH&S legislation.

If you are having any issues with uploading your application for this role, please contact people.culture@savethechildren.org.au for further support.