The Role

As the Economic Evaluation Advisor, you will be integral to our work in helping vulnerable children achieve a brighter future. You will strengthen the cost modeling and benchmarking that underpins our proposals and new business development, helping Save the Children develop competitive, evidence-based budgets for strategic projects that accurately reflect what programs should cost to deliver results for children. You will also contribute to our cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness analysis, generating and applying evidence that improves how we design, deliver, and communicate the impact of our programs. Reporting to the Lead Advisor for Economics and Data Analytics, you will work closely with technical advisors, country offices, finance, awards management, new business development teams, and counterparts across the Save the Children movement to ensure resources are used as effectively as possible in service of our mission.

The ideal candidate for this role is curious about how much aid programs cost and why, is comfortable problem solving with incomplete or ambiguous information under tight timelines and is open to questioning their assumptions about how things work.

Location

Hybrid - Washington DC, Fairfield, CT or Lexington, KY office locations

What You'll Be Doing (Essential Duties)

*not inclusive of all role responsibilities. May be subject to change

Program Cost Modeling and Benchmarking for New Business Development (65%)

• Lead the development of program cost models to support proposal design, translating program strategies into activity-based budgets that reflect realistic, competitive, and defensible unit costs (e.g., cost per beneficiary and cost per output, and - where prior impact evidence permits - expected cost per outcome), in collaboration with technical advisors, new business development teams, country offices, and monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) colleagues where applicable.
• Develop and maintain internal cost benchmarks by analyzing historical Save the Children program financial and results data across sectors and geographies, and by drawing on external benchmarks from peer organizations, donors, and published research.
• Support new business development, technical, and country office colleagues in interpreting cost benchmarks and building "top-down" cost estimates for proposals, so that program budget and results targets are set consistently and can be articulated clearly to stakeholders.
• Analyze cost drivers and cost variation across contexts, sectors, delivery modalities, and program phases, and translate findings into practical guidance for proposal design, budget review, and program adaptation.
• Proactively engage in the early stages of proposal design to embed cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness considerations, respond to donor cost-effectiveness thresholds and value-for-money requirements, and strengthen the narrative linking costs to expected results.
• Build the capacity of colleagues across new business development, technical, finance, and awards management teams to use cost modeling tools, benchmarks, and best practices through mentoring, coaching, training, and technical guidance.
• Contribute to the design and continuous improvement of Save the Children's tools, templates, guidance, and processes for cost modeling, activity-based budgeting, and cost benchmarking.

Program Cost Analysis and Research Support (30%)

• Plan, conduct and support retrospective economic evaluations of Save the Children programs - including cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness analysis, bringing together financial data, program/MERL data, impact evaluations, and external evidence to produce a holistic picture of program performance, in collaboration with internal and external researchers, technical advisors and country office colleagues.
• Apply and promote best-practice economic evaluation tools and methodologies (including the "4Es" framework: economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and equity) in program design, evaluation, and reporting.
• Synthesize and communicate cost and economic evaluation evidence for internal and external audiences through briefs, presentations, learning events, and contributions to knowledge products.
• Support and train colleagues across Save the Children on the principles and practice of economic evaluations
• Participate actively in Save the Children's economic evaluation and evidence and learning communities of practice and keep apprised of external thinking and practice in cost analysis, cost-efficiency, and cost-effectiveness in international development.

Other (5%)

• Contribute to team and wider divisional meetings and occasional corporate initiatives.
• Represent Save the Children in external forums and communities of practice related to economic evaluation, and monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning.

Required qualifications for the role

• Minimum of a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, plus at least 5 years of relevant experience
• Proven experience developing, reviewing, and analyzing program budgets in an international development or humanitarian context, including activity-based budgeting and cost modeling for proposals to institutional and/or private donors
• Demonstrated skills in cost-efficiency analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis, and familiarity with the "4Es" framework.
• Demonstrated skills and experience analyzing complex quantitative data, including programmatic outputs, outcomes, and financial data, and translating results into practical recommendations for program design and management.
• Proven ability to plan and coordinate research and data analysis projects, working independently with minimal guidance and acting as a resource for colleagues with less experience.
• Proven facilitation, teaching, and coaching skills, including experience building the capacity of colleagues across different cultures and contexts using both in-person and remote approaches.
• Demonstrated writing, editing, and verbal communication skills, including the ability to summarize, synthesize, and present technical cost and financial information to non-technical audiences and to build consensus with diverse stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally.
• Willing and able to travel, primarily internationally, up to 20% of the time.
• Professional proficiency in MS Office suite
• Professional proficiency in spoken and written English

Preferred qualifications for the role

• Master's degree in economics, public policy, international development, applied statistics, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Familiarity with donor budget formats and cost norms across private foundations and philanthropy, US public donors, and multilateral donors.
• Experience with activity-based costing in an international NGO or international development context.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel or comparable tools for financial modeling and cost analysis.
• Proven proficiency using statistical or data-analysis programs (e.g., STATA, R, SPSS, Dioptra) and/or data visualization tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau).
• Professional proficiency in French, Arabic, or Spanish.

Compensation

Save the Children is offering the following salary ranges for this position, dependent on candidate location:

• Geo 1 - NY Metro, DC, and other locations with labor costs significantly above national average: Target Salary for this position is $91,800 - $102,600 base salary

• Geo 2 - Locations around the US National Labor Cost Average: Target Salary for this position is $83,725 - $93,575 base salary
• Geo 3 - Locations significantly below the US National Labor Cost Average: Target Salary for this position is $74,800 - $83,600 base salary

The salary ranges listed above are for US based candidates. For candidates located outside of the US, salary ranges will be based on the salary scales of the local employer of record. Actual base salary may vary based on, but not limited to, relevant experience, base salary of internal peers, business sector, and geographic location (more information on job structure is available here).

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