Plan International was founded over 75 years ago with a mission to promote and protect the rights of children. The organisation was set up by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge in 1937, with the original aim to provide food, accommodation and education to children whose lives had been disrupted by the Spanish Civil War.
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.
Plan International has built an Innovation Team that has the expertise and skills to nurture creativity and help existing teams to develop innovations in the areas of programming, influencing, fundraising and operations. A Global Innovation Fund has been created to invest in the central innovation capabilities and in the innovation projects it supports; this investment is currently €3m per annum. The team is deployable to where it is most needed and guides projects from the early stages of identifying a challenge statement through to the realisation of scalable impact for girls. This team is creating an enabling environment for innovation to flourish, including a network of innovators, skills building in “design thinking” methodologies, an ecosystem of relevant partners and thought leadership in innovation for social impact.
Plan International is seeking an Innovation Lead, an experienced innovation practitioner with a unique blend of technical skills that will help maximize the impact of our innovation capability across the organisation.
The Innovation Lead will lead and successfully deliver innovation projects; to incubate and accelerate disruptive projects to deliver gender-transformative impact in line with our global strategy, 100 Million Reasons. The Innovation Lead will share and amplify the learning and results from these projects and contribute to the development of the Girl-Centred Design methods. To succeed in this role, the post holder will need to demonstrate in-depth expertise and experience in innovation for social impact, with a specific focus on working with girls and young women in developing work and humanitarian contexts. Fluency in English and another Plan language are required for this role (French, Spanish, or Arabic).
Location: The location of this role is flexible and could be based at the Global Hub in Woking, UK, Nairobi, Dakar, Niamey, Bogota or Sao Paulo. Other locations where Plan International has an entity may also be considered. Applicants must have the pre-existing right to work in the location. Those locations closest to the point of impact are preferred.
Type of Role: Permanent
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.
