Save the Children UK is looking for an experienced policy and advocacy professional to join our Hunger, Nutrition & Livelihoods team as a Senior Hunger, Nutrition & Livelihoods Advocacy Advisor on a maternity cover basis, working three days per week.

This is a unique opportunity to lead and shape Save the Children's global advocacy on child wasting and malnutrition, helping to drive progress on one of the most critical challenges facing children worldwide. You will strengthen our global leadership and visibility, influence policy and decision-makers, and build strategic relationships with partners including government, multilateral organisations, donors and civil society.

You will also coordinate and influence key coalition activities, represent Save the Children in high-profile external forums and help strengthen policy and advocacy capability across the team. This role would suit someone with strong knowledge of the global nutrition policy landscape, particularly child wasting, together with experience of leading coalitions, building partnerships and delivering effective influencing strategies.

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.  When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave.  We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the Team

Working as part of the Global Impact group, our Global Outcomes function catalyses positive change for children by driving influencing agendas and bringing knowledge, evidence, analysis and expertise to our partnerships, programmes and advocacy work.   

The Hunger, Nutrition & Livelihoods Team works as part of the Global Save the Children movement and the wider sector to drive long lasting systems changes at the global and country levels. We are committed to promoting inclusive and equitable solutions, amplifying the voices of children most affected by inequality, and prioritising locally led efforts for lasting change. 

About the role

As Senior Hunger, Nutrition and Livelihoods Advocacy Advisor, you will provide global leadership in hunger, nutrition and livelihoods policy and advocacy, with a particular focus on child wasting and malnutrition to shape and drive shared advocacy and impact agendas across Save the Children and the wider sector.

You will develop and deliver high-quality policy and influencing strategies, fostering innovation and inclusivity and contributing to systemic change. In this role, you will build strategic relationships with key decision-makers, lead capacity strengthening for colleagues and partners, and champion equality, inclusion and the shifting power agenda. Additionally, you will contribute to multi-disciplinary teams and drive thought leadership.

In this role, you will:

• Provide global leadership in hunger, nutrition and livelihoods policy and advocacy, with a particular focus on child wasting and malnutrition, to shape and drive shared influencing and impact agendas within the Save the Children movement and the wider sector, maintaining up-to-date expertise and monitoring relevant external trends.
• Set and deliver outcome goals for your area of specialism by working collaboratively to implement strategies that contribute to systemic change, incorporating power analysis, policy, advocacy, research, partnerships and programme portfolios as relevant.
• Develop and deliver very high-quality policy, research and advocacy outputs with minimal supervision, ensuring inclusivity and excellence in implementation.
• Contribute to a strong learning culture through leading or supporting research, evaluation, innovation and knowledge sharing.
• Provide thought leadership in hunger, nutrition and livelihoods, particularly child wasting and malnutrition, including engaging in external debate and producing technical guidance, research briefs and analytical outputs to identify barriers and pragmatic but ambitious solutions for transformative change.
• Facilitate capacity strengthening through mentoring, coaching and training, providing formal and informal support to colleagues and partners to build expertise and effectiveness.
• Build and maintain strategic relationships with key high-level decision-makers and opinion leaders, including senior civil servants, academics, leaders in international organisations and civil society partners, to amplify the impact of our advocacy and programmes.
• Lead and coordinate coalition engagement and partnership working to advance shared advocacy objectives and strengthen collective impact on child wasting and malnutrition.
• Coordinate and contribute to high-level events, meetings and influencing opportunities, including preparing briefings and materials for senior leaders and representing Save the Children in external forums.
• Champion and role model equality, inclusion and impact across Save the Children's work and the broader sector, while actively shifting power and resources closer to the communities and children served.
• Identify and lead strategic partnerships with funders and other organisations in collaboration with partnership colleagues to advance child rights and increase impact

About you

To be successful, it is important that you have/are:

• A strong track-record in designing and implementing successful influencing strategies with minimal supervision, drawing on analytical skills to identify political and other barriers to change and prioritise from a range of possible objectives and approaches.
• High-level expertise in the global international development and child rights policy landscape and institutions, coupled with deep expertise in hunger, nutrition and livelihoods policy and advocacy, including strong knowledge of the nutrition policy landscape and child wasting.
• A strong track-record in policy analysis and development, with the ability to draw on different sources of information and ideas from partners and children to generate relevant policy positions and solutions that resonate with target audiences.
• Experience working in and leading coalitions, partnerships and collaborative initiatives, bringing together diverse stakeholders to drive shared advocacy objectives and impact.
• Proven ability to build external relationships and partnerships, and to influence decision-makers and policy specialists, including politicians, donors, multilateral organisations, civil society actors and other key stakeholders globally.
• Very strong oral and written communication skills, with the ability to tailor messaging to resonate with and influence different audiences.
• The ability to network and represent Save the Children externally, including facilitating and speaking at high-level events and meetings, engaging with senior stakeholders and acting as a credible organisational representative.
• Experience coordinating or contributing to high-level events and influencing opportunities, including producing briefings and materials for senior leadership.
• Strong interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and authenticity that enable effective communication and relationship-building with a wide range of audiences.
• Strong convening skills, creating synergy, fostering collaboration and bringing together diverse perspectives to achieve common goals.
• Experience supporting capacity strengthening through mentoring, coaching, training or knowledge-sharing activities.

What we offer you 

We promote flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, and wellbeing both at work and beyond, and offer a wide range of benefits designed to reward your hard work and inspire you to help improve the lives of children every day. 

Some of the benefits you can expect include: 

• Generous Annual Leave – Starting at 27 days per year (pro rata for part-time employees) increasing with service up to 32 days, plus public holidays and our annual 'Save the Children Day'. 
• Family Leave – Up to 39 weeks of maternity/adoption pay (including up to 21 weeks full pay) and paternity/adoption leave of 10 weeks full pay (plus statutory entitlement).  
• Special Leave – Up to 10 days paid leave per year (pro rata) for urgent or exceptional personal circumstances, without using annual leave.  
• Volunteer Leave – Up to 3 days paid leave per year to support volunteering and give back. 
• Pension & Life Assurance – Helping you plan for the future with up to 7% employer pension contributions. 
• Employee Discounts – Access thousands of deals across groceries, retail, tech, travel, fitness, and more.  
• Health & Wellbeing Support – Including access to a 24/7 Virtual GP and Employee Assistance Programme and Counselling, eye care support, and seasonal flu vaccinations. 

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Location & Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but at times you will be required to come to your contracted office (usually between 2–4 days per month, depending on the needs of your role, team, or service). For many roles, this is likely to be the minimum required to deliver impact.

This will be discussed and agreed with your manager / team and we encourage candidates to discuss our ways of working in more detail at interview stage.

Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense. 

Flexible Working - We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion: 

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce, and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where structural inequality is actively addressed, and all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can thrive. 

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and are especially interested in hearing from people with diverse and intersecting identities such as lived experience of poverty, people of faith, people of colour, people with disabilities, with experience of migration and/or refugee status, care-experienced people, the LGBTQIA+ community and individuals with experience living in diverse families.  

We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. We know that different voices working together will enable us to do our work better, improving the lives of children around the world. 

Salary Structure: 

Save the Children is committed to paying staff in a fair and equitable way and will benchmark all salary offers in line with the pay of existing staff. To see our full offer please visit this link: Save the Children | Careers

Interview Expenses: 

Candidates should note that unfortunately it is not our policy to reimburse expenses accrued when attending interviews at Save the Children UK unless you are requested to attend an interview in an alternative location to where the role is based.

Pre-employment Checks:

Any Employment with Save the Children UK will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• A satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International Criminal Record Check (If applicable)
• Receipt of satisfactory references - As a committed member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, as part of our onboarding process, Save the Children UK will undertake a minimum of 2 references, and any additional references required to collectively cover the last 5 years of your employment history.
• Proof of eligibility to work in the national location for this role

If you have any questions, we have an FAQ section here.

For anything else you can email us on: careers@savethechildren.org.uk