The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.

We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 80 years, and are now active in more than 70 countries.

The Opportunity

As a leader in the global movement for girls’ rights, our ambition is to take collective action so that 100 million girls learn, lead, decide and thrive. These ambitions require that we work in new ways and unleash our full creative potential. It is the role of the Digital & Innovation Team to nurture creativity and support teams to develop new impactful offerings in the areas of programming, influencing, fundraising and operations. The team is deployable (virtually and in person) to where it is most needed and provides hands-on support from the early stages of identifying a challenge statement through to the realisation of scalable impact for girls. The Innovation Team is also responsible for creating an enabling environment for innovation to flourish, including a network of innovators, skills building in human-centred design methodologies and an ecosystem or relevant partners.

We are recruiting for an Innovation Fund Officer to play a crucial role in helping drive demand for the Innovation Fund, ensuring clear communication and dissemination of information to prospective applicants, including Plan International’s Country Offices, Regional Offices, National Organisations, and Global Hub Teams. With support from the Head of Digital and Innovation and Innovation Leads, the Innovation Fund Officer will lead on the implementation of the new Fund strategy, including socialisation of the new approach across the organisation, publicising ‘Call for Proposals’ for innovation challenges using relevant outreach channels, designing the application process, evaluation criteria, and coordinating the project selection process, including relevant due diligence of applicants. With support from the Innovation Leads, the Innovation Fund Officer will monitor performance of individual portfolio projects and lead on portfolio performance reporting. Additionally, the Innovation Fund Officer will provide timely reports and assistance to the Head of Digital & Innovation and the rest of the team to ensure that financial resources are used efficiently and effectively.

The role necessitates working collaboratively with and connecting to the work and portfolios of the Innovation Lead, as well as engaging with other sector and technical experts to develop and deliver cutting-edge, relevant, and appropriate technical assistance on managing innovation.

About You

You will have proven experience of project cycle development in an international organisation and a good understanding of innovation processes and/or design thinking.

A strong understanding of the technical requirements of experimental/seed grants of all types and sizes, grant application mechanisms, implementation and funding cycles and proposal writing or marketing experience will be crucial.

You will have excellent communication, organisational and prioritisation skills and the ability to multi-task effectively.

Your expertise in creating impactful communications and presentations, including copy writing, video editing and social medial skills will be essential.

Location: Flexible where Plan International has a legal entity and the applicant has the pre-existing right to work and live. Those locations closest to Plan International’s point of impact are preferred.

Type of Role: Permanent, or fixed term contract as dictated by national terms and conditions

Reports to: Head of Digital and Innovation

Salary: We will be happy to disclose the salary and applicable benefits to applicants as part of this process, however, please kindly note that this will vary according to the location of the appointed candidate and therefore it is not possible to include full details here. As an indication if based in the UK only, the salary would be circa £35000 per annum

Closing Date: Friday 22nd October

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International’s Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.