Product Owner Scaling

]Are you passionate about creating impactful, scalable solutions that transform lives? As Product Owner Scaling, you will play a crucial role in driving War Child’s scaling strategy, ensuring that scalable principles are embedded into our evidence-based methodologies (EBMs) every step of the way—from research and development to creating a comprehensive partnership package. Your work will ensure that our approach remains innovative, cost-effective, and faithful to the core methodology, empowering partners to deliver real change.

You will be the owner of a dynamic, scalable delivery system (partnership package) that includes components like quality assurance systems, learning trajectories, costing models, and contextualization guidelines. Developing this system is complex, requiring close collaboration with technical teams and ensuring that the voices of implementation partners—key to our success—are prioritized throughout the process. Your contributions will also support War Child’s localization strategy, promoting collaborative and adaptive approaches to designing and implementing EBMs with our valued partners.

You’ll report to the Director of Programme Quality, Scaling, and Advocacy and serve as a vital link within the scaling team. Your work will involve coordinating with colleagues across Research and Development, Programme Quality, MEAL, and Scaling & Partnerships, as well as managing service delivery providers as needed. This is an opportunity to lead change processes, ensuring our solutions are inclusive, user-centered, and impactful.

We’re looking for someone with deep expertise in user-centered and inclusive design, experience developing Minimum Viable Products and scalable solutions, and a proven track record of leading complex change processes. If you are excited about the chance to create scalable systems that make a lasting impact for children affected by conflict, we encourage you to apply and be part of this transformative work.

Overview

War Child’s vision is to ensure that all children affected by conflict receive the care they need to ensure their mental health and well-being. We will never reach all these children by ourselves - which is why we developed a strategy to implement evidence-based methodologies via partners, so that together, we can support the delivery of quality care to many more children and their care-givers.

Over the past ten years War Child has developed a range of evidence-based methodologies to support child protection and the mental health and well-being of children and their care-givers. Together these methodologies form a care system which can be adapted to work in any combination or in any context, based on relevance.

In order to make this care system accessible to many more children, care-givers and communities, we are developing a new product. This product is a partnership package - the systems and services WCA develops with partners to support implementation of EBMs via partners. This package must be tailored to our partner’s needs and be scalable; easy to implement, simple to contextualize and cost effective.

Your Mission & Impact

• Design and development of learning trajectories for trainers and facilitators
• Development costing models to support budgeting and fundraising
• Development of a quality assurance system to monitor the quality of implementation by partners
• Guidance on how to integrate and contextualize components of the care system into existing services.

Key Result Areas

Project management

• Maintain, track and share an overview of where each component of the partnerships package is in its development
• Monitor the interdependencies between the projects
• Guidance on the development of (new) project plans with project owners
• Ensure project timelines respect and deliver on programme/donor commitments
• Identify and oversee risks to the product development process and taking proactive steps when processes are delayed or stuck
• Coordinate and ensure timely input and approvals by the product steering committee

Result oriented/inclusive design

• Ensure that product components reflect the goals, objectives and quality defined in our strategy and planning
• Ensuring that partner needs are prioritized and their input is incorporated in the design and delivery of methodologies and tools
• Ensure all key stakeholders are mapped and included in design processes

Collaboration and scalability

• Build on a way of working which respects and balances project teams’ efforts and expertise while recognizing the priorities of partners and strengthening their ownership
• Ensure that War Child’s guiding principles for scaling are embedded in all stages of the development and delivery of evidence-based methodologies
• Give clear guidance on scalability for teams at each stage of methodology development and product development
• Build the capacity of War Child to develop the skills needed for scaling

Your Expertise and Strengths:

• 10+ years experience as product owner/project manager
• Experience working with stakeholders around the globe, ideally in the for-purpose sector
• High level planning and communications skills
• Pragmatic and structured
• Given that localisation is core to the work of War Child, deep experience in user-centered and inclusive design is a must
• Extensive experience leading change processes
• Experience in developing Minimum Viable Product and scalable solutions
• Identification with War Child’s mission and values and are committed to working with us to scale our evidence-based methodologies for the benefit of children, young people, and their caregivers.
• Fluent in English Language
• Preferably fluent in some of the other War Child country languages (Dutch, French, Spanish and/or Arabic).

What We Offer:

• Location: Based in Amsterdam (Only candidates with permission to work in Amsterdam may apply).
• Contract Type and duration : one year employment contract with a possibility to extend
• Salary range from € 4180 – € 5197 gross per month, based on 40 hours per week (the exact step determined by the years of relevant working experience);
• An employment contact with War Child for 40 hours per week;
• 28 vacation days on full time basis (consisting of 26 vacation days plus 2 additional fixed free days, based on 40 hours work week);
• A pension scheme fully paid by War Child;
• Compensation for travel and work from home costs;
• Laptop to work from any location and monthly mobile phone contribution of € 25;
• Professional Development: Opportunities for capacity building and growth, both within the role and through War Child’s broader network.
• Meaningful Impact: Possibility to follow training and/or courses where relevant;

Pleasant working conditions, good atmosphere, great colleagues and of course the meaningful purpose of our work!

• Equal Opportunities: War Child is an inclusive employer committed to diversity and inclusion, respecting all individuals regardless of age, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, or physical ability.
• Workplace Culture: War Child is dedicated to fostering a diverse, inclusive, and respectful workplace that prioritizes safety and fairness for all individuals. We strictly prohibit any form of discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying within our organization

Why You Should Apply

• Make a Real Impact: Your work will directly contribute to providing quality education to children who need it most, creating lasting change in their lives.
• Career Growth: Join a dynamic organization that values your professional development and offers opportunities for learning, growth, and innovation.
• Global Reach: Play a key role in scaling a ground-breaking programme that operates in multiple conflict-affected regions around the world.
• Collaborative and Mission-Driven: Work alongside passionate colleagues and partners united in a mission to protect children and help them thrive despite adversity.

How to Apply

Qualified candidates are encouraged to submit their applications by December 18, 2024. We are reviewing submissions on a rolling basis, so early applications are strongly recommended. 

About War Child:

The War Child Alliance is an international non-governmental organization committed to providing psychosocial support, child protection, youth empowerment programming and quality education to the children affected by armed conflict. We implement evidence-based interventions to empower key stakeholders—including governments, educators, caregivers, and communities—to foster children’s wellbeing, education, and self-determination.  War Child has a presence in 19 countries: Jordan, Lebanon, the occupied Palestinian territory, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Colombia, Burundi, DR Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Ukraine, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Learn more about War Child and our programmes https://www.warchild.net/  

Safeguarding 

War Child is committed to humanitarian values, standards and norms and we expect the same from job applicants. War Child is especially committed to safeguarding the children and youth we support and doesn’t tolerate any form of abuse. Because we want to prevent and deter any actions that place children and youth at risk, conduct references are an important part of our recruitment procedure. As part of the selection process, War Child will request standardized references in accordance with the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme and a recent Criminal Records statement.

The safety of children is essential to War Child. War Child does not tolerate or accept any form of abuse. This subject is addressed in our recruitment and selection procedures.