Faith & Development: Technical Lead

With 75 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.Come join our 33,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

Employee Contract Type:

Local - Fixed Term Employee (Fixed Term)

Job Description:

The Faith and Development Technical Lead provides sector-specific technical leadership, thought leadership, donor engagement, and resource acquisition to position World Vision Ethiopia (WVE) as a partner of choice for high-impact programming. Reporting to the Technical Director, the Technical Lead is responsible for managing Technical Specialists within their sector, ensuring program quality assurance, evidence-based design, and alignment with organizational priorities and donor expectations.

A core function of this role is to lead donor engagement and drive resource acquisition for the sector in close collaboration with the Resource Acquisition and Management (RAM) team, contributing a measurable proportion of funding (e.g., target $ or % contribution) to the national portfolio through technical leadership in proposal development, external engagement, and strategic positioning with donors and partners. The Technical Lead develops and steward’s donor relationships, leads proposal design, integrates cross-cutting themes, and mobilizes resources to achieve targeted growth and contribution to the national portfolio.

Leadership and Team Building

• Foster a collaborative team environment, providing mentorship and supporting professional development for staff.

Capacity Building

• Support and mentor local institutions (CBOs, FBOs, etc.) and smaller NGOs to enhance their capabilities and ensure compliance with project standards

Resource Stewardship

• Enforce accountability by ensuring efficient resource utilization, adherence to internal controls, and achieving satisfactory financial and operational audit results.

Resource Mobilisation & Donor Engagement

• Lead technical input for proposals and donor engagement, working closely with RAM and Marketing teams.
• Identify funding opportunities and position WVE as a credible, innovative sector partner.
• Support preparation of concept notes, technical annexes, logframes, and donor communications.
• Engage externally to build relationships with donors, government, UN, NGOs, and other stakeholders.
• Capture measurable contribution to national funding portfolio (e.g., $ value or % increase).

Sector Strategy, Technical Guidance & Thought Leadership

• Lead the development, contextualisation, and periodic review of the sector strategy in alignment with World Vision Ethiopia’s National Strategy and WVI global sector models and frameworks.
• Provide strategic technical guidance to ensure programs are evidence-based, contextually relevant, and focused on the well-being of children and the most vulnerable.
• Offer thought leadership by contributing to strategic learning agendas, representing WVE in national and global technical platforms, publishing articles, and influencing sector debates.
• Actively shape and inform the development and refinement of WVI’s global sector models through engagement with global technical working groups and communities of practice.
• Integrate cross-cutting themes (nexus, gender-lens, conflict sensitivity, safeguarding, do no harm, faith & development).
• Engage with Local Partnerships Specialist to implement the Localisation Roadmap and strengthen local partner capacity

Program Quality Assurance & Support

• Provide ongoing technical coaching, mentoring, and capacity building to project staff, regional technical focal points, and implementing partners.
• Conduct regular field visits to monitor technical quality and provide hands-on support.
• Support orientation and training of new staff in the sectoral approach and technical standards.
• Capture innovations, lessons learned, and significant change stories for internal learning and wider dissemination

Capacity Building & Field Support

• Provide ongoing technical coaching, mentoring, and capacity building to project staff, regional technical focal points, and implementing partners.
• Conduct regular field visits to monitor technical quality and provide hands-on support.
• Support orientation and training of new staff in the sectoral approach and technical standards, including cross-cutting themes, and localization approaches.

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEAL)

• Collaborate with MEAL teams to define sector-specific indicators and ensure robust monitoring systems are in place.
• Use data and evidence, and change stories for decision-making, learning, and adaptive management.
• Document and share lessons learned, promising practices, and technical innovations for scale-up and learning across the organisation and the wider World Vision Partnership.

Engagement with Government & Sector Networks

• Represent WVE in national technical working groups, sector coordination platforms, and stakeholder meetings.
• Build strong working relationships with ministries, UN agencies, NGOs, and academic institutions.
• Influence national policy and practice through field-based evidence, innovations, and learning.

Collaboration with Global & Regional Technical Teams

• Actively engage with WVI Global and Regional Sector Communities of Practice, sharing learning from Ethiopia and adapting global models to local context.
• Provide feedback into global model development, technical guidance, and toolkits.
• Participate in regional/global technical events, webinars, and capacity strengthening initiatives.

• Engage with the Local Partnerships Specialist to implement the Localization Roadmap in order to strengthen local partner capacity and deliver targeted training and mentorship where needed.
• Integrate cross-cutting themes (nexus approach, gender-lens, conflict sensitivity, safeguarding, do no harm, faith & development) to ensure programs are inclusive, context-sensitive, and aligned with WVE values and donor expectations.
• Contribute to WVE’s acquisition efforts by engaging in external stakeholder relations and proposal preparation to increase funding opportunities in coordination with the RAM and Marketing teams.
• Capture and share innovations and most significant change stories with Technical, MEAL, Comms, Marketing and RAM teams to support evidence-based learning, scale-up, and wider stakeholder engagement.
• Build a public profile of being a thought-leader and demonstrate expertise in their area of operate in collaboration with the Communications Team to help build WVE’s reputation

Required Education, training, license, registration, and/or Certification

• Education:
  • Master’s degree in Theology, Religious Studies, Intercultural/Development Studies, Social Sciences, or related field.
  • (Bachelor’s degree with significant experience in faith and development programming may be considered).
• Training & Professional Development:
  • Specialized training in:
    • Faith and development approaches in humanitarian and development contexts.
    • Interfaith dialogue, peacebuilding, and conflict sensitivity.
    • Holistic child development and faith integration in programming.
    • Community engagement and social behavior change communication.
    • Safeguarding, protection, and Do No Harm principles.
• Licenses/Registrations (if applicable):
  • Ordination or formal recognition as a faith leader (preferred but not mandatory).
  • Membership in professional or theological associations (advantageous).
• Certifications (preferred/advantageous):
  • Certification in interfaith dialogue, mediation, or conflict transformation.
  • Certification in safeguarding/child protection.
  • Training/certification in gender, disability, and social inclusion.

Required Professional Experience

• Minimum 7 years’ experience in technical leadership roles within international development or humanitarian contexts.

• Proven track record in resource mobilisation and donor engagement, with experience leading technical input for large, competitive proposals.
• Demonstrated expertise in:
  • Technical strategy development
  • Program quality assurance and evidence-based programming
  • Innovation and adaptive management
  • Localisation and systems strengthening
• Strong external representation and negotiation skills with donors, government, and global networks.
• Excellent leadership, people management, and communication skills
• Strong understanding of Ethiopian policies, strategies, and regulatory requirements.
• Excellent interpersonal and leadership skills, with the ability to motivate and manage diverse teams.
• Strong report writing, analytical, and presentation skills in English.

Required Language(s)

• Amharic
• English

Required travel and/or work environment accommodations

• Based in Addis Ababa or project location, with frequent travel to field offices and project sites.
• Regular external engagement with donors, government, UN agencies, and INGO consortia.
• Willingness to travel internationally as required.
• Field conditions may include challenging terrains, limited infrastructure, and security-sensitive areas.
• Extended hours may be required during donor submissions, evaluations, or emergency responses.
• Role requires strong representation, negotiation, and relationship-building skills in diverse settings.

Preferred Experience, Knowledge and/or Key Competencies

• Be Safe and Resilient
• Build Relationships
• Learn and Develop
• Partner and Collaborate
• Deliver Results
• Be Accountable
• Improve and Innovate
• Embrace Change
• Proven track record of securing and managing large-scale donor funding (bilateral, multilateral, foundations, corporates, and private donors).
• Demonstrated success in working collaboratively with Resource Acquisition and Management (RAM) teams to design and win complex, multi-sectoral proposals.
• Experience representing an organisation at high-level donor forums, technical working groups, and multi-stakeholder platforms.
• Previous experience leading technical teams across multiple sectors (Health & Nutrition, WASH, Education, Livelihoods, Child Protection, Gender, Climate/Environment, Faith and Development).
• Experience in fragile, conflict-affected, or complex humanitarian-development nexus contexts
• Strong understanding of donor priorities and funding modalities (USAID/BHA, FCDO, EU, UN agencies, World Bank, GAC, foundations, corporates).
• In-depth knowledge of program quality standards, evidence-based approaches, and innovation in development and humanitarian programming.
• Familiarity with localisation frameworks, partnership models, and systems-strengthening approaches.
• Applied knowledge of cross-cutting themes: gender equality, safeguarding, conflict sensitivity, faith and development, do no harm, social inclusion, and climate resilience.
• Solid grounding in monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning (MEAL) and its use for acquisition and adaptive management.

Applicant Types Accepted:

Local Applicants Only

Skills Required:

• Education / Teaching / Training
• Social / Science / Project / Management / Development