Senior Humanitarian Advisor

(18-month contract)

Save the Children believes every child has the right to a future. In Canada and around the world, we do whatever it takes – every day and in times of crisis – to support children to fulfill their rights to a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn, and protection from harm. With over 100 years of experience, Save the Children is the world’s first and leading independent children’s organization – transforming lives and the future we share.

Save the Children Canada is a hybrid workplace based in Toronto Ontario Canada. This recruitment is open to all applicants residing in Ontario.

THE IMPACT YOU WILL MAKE:

Reporting to the Senior Advisor, Partnerships and Technical Quality, the Senior Humanitarian Advisor is responsible for providing high-quality technical support to humanitarian projects and emergency responses, ensuring alignment with quality and accountability standards. The role involves actively pursuing new humanitarian funding opportunities, cultivating relationships with Canadian humanitarian donors, demonstrating contextual knowledge of crises, and providing thought leadership on best practices. The Senior Humanitarian Advisor will also engage in humanitarian networks in Canada and within SCI to promote program quality and innovation, and offer targeted support for public engagement, communications, and advocacy efforts related to Children in Crisis.

Responsibilities include (but are not limited to):

Advisory and Technical Quality Assurance

• Provide high-quality technical input to program teams, ensuring alignment with humanitarian best practices and quality standards.
• In coordination with SCI, develop and promote tools to strengthen program quality; contribute technical expertise to evaluations and reviews.
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with the Global Team, Country Offices and key SCI focal points.
• Support humanitarian responses by reviewing related policies and procedures through a rights-based and gender-sensitive lens.
• Represent Save the Children Canada as a subject matter expert in domestic and international humanitarian forums and working groups, as appropriate, contributing contextual analysis and technical insights.

Humanitarian Business Development

• Monitor emerging crises and provide timely analysis to inform programmatic and donor decisions.
• Engage with institutional and non-institutional donors to pursue humanitarian funding aligned with organizational strategy.
• Together with Country Office Technical Advisors, lead technical design of humanitarian projects, including logical frameworks and contextual inputs.
• Collaborate with the Resources Development and Business Development teams to ensure timely, high-quality humanitarian proposals that meet donor requirements.
• Cultivate relationships with key donors, peer agencies, partners, and sector leaders. Together with Country Offices and relevant Save the Children Canada teams, proactively lead on prepositioning efforts.
• Support development of emergency appeals and drawdown funding mechanisms, such as the Canadian Humanitarian Assistance Fund (CHAF).

Operational

• Implement response protocols for new emergencies in line with Save the Children Canada’s Humanitarian SOPs including review of the process, crisis interest holder coordination, post- response evaluation.
• Represent Save the Children Canada in Canadian humanitarian networks, public engagement.
• Acts as a media spokesperson for Save the Children on relevant humanitarian contexts and crises, as required.
• Contribute to the development and execution of advocacy plans by producing thought leadership and representing Save the Children at external events .
• As required, perform tasks related to SCC and sector humanitarian capacity building.
• Ensure regular and transparent communication on strategy and policies, uphold SCC’s Code of Conduct, Policies, Leadership Charter, Reconciliation, Equity, Anti-Racism, Diversity, Inclusion (READI), Health and Safety standards, integrates Child Safeguarding practices, models competencies, and professional and ethical behavior.

Qualifications include (but are not limited to):

• Post-secondary education in a relevant field or equivalent experience
• Minimum 5-7 years of experience in International Development, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO/INGO), or other not-for-profit sectors is required.
• Advanced knowledge and understanding of humanitarian principles, practices, and coordination architecture.
• Technical expertise in one or more of Save the Children’s priority sectors: Nutrition, Health, Child Protection, Food Security & Livelihoods, WASH, Cash Transfer Programming, or Education.
• Knowledge of Canadian foreign policy and Global Affairs Canada policies and procedures.
• Demonstrated experience integrating gender equality, child-safe programming, protection mainstreaming, resilience building, and conflict analysis in humanitarian contexts.
• Advanced communication, interpersonal, and teamwork skills for diverse audiences to build strong working relationships across cultural and organizational settings, both internally and externally. French/Spanish/Arabic language skills is an asset.
• Demonstrated project management experience for task execution of assigned objectives supported by proficiency with MS Office tools and relevant technologies. Ability to work under pressure within tight timelines to achieve SCC objectives.
• Displays analytical and problem-solving skills to support initiatives with demonstrated adaptability to support change management for successful task implementation.
• Applies judgment and make sound decisions that are accountable, justifiable, and in adherence to policies and procedures.
• Considers organizational strategy and thinks creatively to support innovative initiatives and collaborations that deliver benefits for the children and families we serve.
• Ability to occasionally travel locally, nationally and internationally (less than 10%) as required.

WHAT WE OFFER

The salary range for this position is non-union pay band 6 between $75,543.87 - $90,652.65 CAD depending on skills and experience. In addition to this, our employees will have the following package of additional benefits:

• Comprehensive benefits package for you and your dependents available three months after employment start date. Coordinated benefits for your partner paid by Save the Children Canada.
• Hybrid workplace including opportunities to work remotely and flexible work hours to support employee wellbeing and work life balance. 
• 4 weeks of annual paid vacation.
• In addition to annual leave, we offer an end of year office closure Decembre 25 - January 1 (SAVE Days) so we can all recharge simultaneously.
• 5 paid personal days.
• 3 paid float days.
• 10 paid sick leave days.
• Parental leave top-up.
• Employer contributions to group pension plan. Access to help save for a first home through the pension provider.
• Learning and development opportunities and specialized training including professional development time.
• Confidential Employee Assistance Program services available to you and your dependents from your first day of employment.
• Organization-wide membership access to Headspace.

HOW TO APPLY?

If you are interested in this position, please visit the career page at https://www.savethechildren.ca/ and submit your resume and cover letter by 5:00 pm EST November 6, 2026. Internal candidates, please apply via ADP by 5:00 pm EST October 15, 2026. Applications will be reviewed on ongoing basis. We thank all applicants for their interest, however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Please note that AI is used in some components of the recruitment process.

It is our individual and collective responsibility to ensure all children are protected from deliberate or unintentional acts that lead to the risk of, or actual, harm caused by our employees. Each employee shall be aware that there may be additional vulnerabilities facing children associated with their age, socio-economic background, disability, gender, racial heritage, religious belief, identity, sexual orientation or identity, and is committed to ensuring this does not form barriers to effective safeguarding.

Each employee is committed to fostering and sustaining a safe environment through proactive, accessible, and effective approaches that seek to prevent and respond to any harm to the children including but not limited to sexual exploitation and abuse. SCC and all its employees will take all reasonable steps to make itself safe, both as an organisation and in the conduct of all aspects of its day-to-day operations of emergency, humanitarian, developmental, policy, campaigning and administrative work.

SCC supports and acts in compliance with the Human Rights Code. SCC is committed to providing accessible employment practices that are in compliance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (‘AODA’). Providing an accessible and barrier-free environment is a shared effort, and as an organization, SCC is committed to working with the necessary parties to make accessibility for all a reality. If you require an accommodation during any stage of the recruitment or employment process, please notify People & Culture at peopleandculture@savethechildren.ca

Please Note: This job opportunity is to fill an existing vacancy.

This recruitment process may involve the use of AI-enabled or automated tools within ADP Workforce Now to help manage job postings and application workflows. These tools may assist with tasks such as organizing applicant information, identifying potential matches based on job-related qualifications, or supporting communication and scheduling.

All hiring decisions are made by our People & Culture team and hiring managers. No automated tool makes final decisions about your candidacy. If at any point you have questions about how your information is used, please contact our team at peopleandculture@savethechildren.ca