Skill Development Technical Lead

Job Description

Title: Skill Development Technical Lead

Company Name: Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO)

Vacancy: 01

Age: 18 to 45 years

Job Location: Cox`s Bazar (Teknaf, Ukhia)

Salary: Tk. 125000 (Monthly)

Experience:

• 12 to 15 years
• The applicants should have experience in the following business area(s): NGO

• Master's degree in Technical Education, Engineering, Education, TVET, Development Studies, or a related discipline from a recognized university.

• Candidates holding a Bachelor of Engineering in a relevant discipline (Civil, Electrical, Mechanical, Industrial and Production Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, or other relevant engineering fields) with a Master's in Education will be given higher preference.

• NSDA Level 5 or Level 6 certification is critically expected.

• Additional certification and training in Project Management, Technical and Vocational Education, Skills Development and Employment, MEAL, or Humanitarian Programming will be considered an advantage.

• 12 to 15 years
• The applicants should have experience in the following business area(s): NGO

• Age 18 to 45 years

Experience Requirements

• 12 to 15 years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian and development programming, with at least 5 to 6 years in a project leadership role with full budget and team management authority.

• Minimum 5 years of experience in TVET programme implementation with demonstrated results in employment outcomes for programme participants, workforce development, and skills development.

• Demonstrated experience of successfully managing large donor-funded projects.

• Proven experience in education, TVET, skills development, youth empowerment, adolescent development, livelihoods, or humanitarian programming.

• Experience working with UNICEF, UN agencies, international NGOs, or large donor-funded projects will be highly preferred.

• Demonstrated knowledge of TVET, employability, entrepreneurship, and youth development approaches in humanitarian or restricted-livelihood contexts.

• Familiarity with UNICEF programming procedures, HACT, safeguarding requirements, accountability frameworks, and partnership compliance.

• Strong analytical, report writing, and communication skills with experience preparing donor reports.

• Demonstrated stakeholder management and partnership-building experience with government, UN agencies, INGOs, and community structures.

• Experience working in the Cox's Bazar Rohingya humanitarian response is an advantage.

Additional Requirements

• Strong leadership, project management, and strategic planning skills.

• Excellent understanding of humanitarian coordination architecture and development programming in protracted crisis settings.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and project management tools.

• Ability to work under pressure and manage multiple priorities simultaneously.

• Strong commitment to child rights, inclusion, safeguarding, and gender equality.

• Must possess a valid driving license.

Job Context

Eco-Social Development Organization (ESDO) started its journey in 1988 with a noble vision to stand in solidarity with the poor and marginalized. Being a people` centered organization, ESDO envisioned a society which will be free from inequality and injustice, a society where no child will cry from hunger and no life will be ruined by poverty. Near about three decades of relentless efforts to make this happen, ESDO has embraced new grounds and opened up new horizons to help the disadvantaged and vulnerable people to bring meaningful and lasting changes in their lives. During this long span, ESDO has adapted with the changing situation and provided the most time-bound services, especially for the poor and disadvantaged. A community focused and people centered approach has been adapted by ESDO while consideration was given to the national policy and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its guiding principle. ESDO is one of the most dynamic organizations expanding its development interventions across 422 upazilas under 56 districts of Bangladesh covering over 10 million poor and vulnerable people.

ESDO is going to implement a UNICEF-supported project titled “Provide quality, inclusive skills development and Myanmar Curriculum STEM education for adolescent learners aged 15-18, and portable skills training for education volunteers in Cox's Bazar” in Rohingya camps of Ukhia, Cox’s Bazar. The project aims to improve access to quality foundational literacy numeracy (FLN), trade skills, employability skills, leadership skills, entrepreneurship training, STEM Education and portable skills opportunities for Rohingya adolescents and youth through multi-Purpose Centers (MPCs), Science & IT Labs, and SKILFO-based portable skills interventions.

The Skills Development Technical Lead is the senior-most project position in Cox's Bazar and carries overall accountability for the delivery, quality, compliance, and results of the project. This includes the full integrated learning pathway for adolescent learners across the multi-purpose centres, laboratory-based STEM education for secondary grade host and Rohingya learners, portable skills development for education volunteers, post-graduation market linkage and income-generation support, and all safeguarding, accountability, and financial compliance obligations under the partnership. The position provides strategic leadership, technical direction, and day-to-day management of the project, ensuring quality implementation, timely delivery, achievement of targets, budget compliance, and effective coordination with UNICEF, Education Sector, RRRC Office, Camp-in-Charges (CiCs), Government counterparts, Livelihood and Skills Development Sector (LSDS), cross-sectoral partners, and community stakeholders. S/he will ensure that all interventions are implemented in compliance with UNICEF policies, safeguarding standards, accountability commitments, and ESDO's organizational procedures.

The Skills Development Technical Lead will directly supervise project staff and coordinate cross-functional teams to ensure effective project implementation across all components.

Reporting to: Direct reporting to Head of Knowledge Management and Program Development & Quality (ESDO, Head Office and Cox’s Bazar based) with dotted reporting to Head of TVET (ESDO, Head Office based).

Job Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership, Team Direction and Program Accountability

• Provide overall leadership and direction across every component of the project and ensure the Programme Document translates into workable annual, quarterly, and monthly plans that deliver on the Result Framework.

• Translate the project deliverables into annual, quarterly, and monthly implementation plans that deliver on the Result Framework and address the results committed in the project according to approved work plans and budgets.

• Lead the Cox's Bazar-based project team, set clear responsibilities and delegated authorities, and foster a culture of accountability, learning, and psychological safety.

• Serve as the primary point of accountability for programme and result delivery, financial utilization, narrative and financial reporting, and evidence-based course corrections.

• Anticipate operational and reputational risks, escalate them early, and steer the team through the transitions and delivery milestones that determine the project's success.

• Ensure program compliance with donor and government requirements, sector standards and organizational policies.

2. Technical Oversight and Quality Assurance of Skills and Learning Delivery

• Set and uphold the technical standards for curriculum contextualization, pedagogy, and instructional quality across the full learning pathway, ensuring learner-centred, competency-based, and adolescent-appropriate delivery.

• Ensure appropriate balance of theory and practical instruction across trade courses, and that laboratory and MPC-based skills learning is safe, well-equipped, and aligned to labour market demand with corrective measures to adjust as needed.

• Support the design and delivery of Training of Trainers, refresher training, and continuous professional development for instructors, so that pedagogical standards are lifted across every learning facility.

• Champion continuous review and adaptation of learning based on market needs, standardization, contextualization and cost effectiveness of materials, unit plans, lesson plans and continuous formative and summative assessments are utilized across facilities.

• Oversee continuous assessment, integrate learners voice and assessment evidence to adapt delivery, graduation, certification of participation that is credible and defensible along with support to the graduates linking them with market opportunities.

• Actively liaising with CiC, cross sectoral Civil Society Organizations in camps, entrepreneurs and communities to ensure applied learning pathway placement and market linkages to ensure post-graduate results are achieved within three months of graduation of the learners.

3. Financial Stewardship and Compliance Assurance

• Steward the project budget in line with the approved cost structure and UNICEF Harmonized Approach to Cash Transfers (HACT) requirements, ensuring expenditure integrity, output-wise allocation, and effective and efficient programme management costs within institutional caps.

• Ensure timely FACE forms, DCT requests, and financial liquidations, and that procurement and supply management are transparent, documented, and appropriately monitored.

• Coordinate closely with the Admin and Finance Manager and UNICEF Finance colleagues on financial planning, spot checks, and audit readiness.

4. Safeguarding, PSEA, and Accountability to Affected Populations

• Serve as the senior management focal point for integrating safeguarding, Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA), Child Safeguarding (CSG), and Accountability to Affected Populations (AAP) within the project planning, implementation, monitoring and result delivery, in close partnership with the dedicated PSEA, CSG and AAP staff and UNICEF and Sectoral counterparts.

• Ensure the organizational PSEA Action Plan is fully operationalized within the project across policy, HR vetting, mandatory training, community reporting mechanisms in the mother tongue, victim referral pathways, and investigation readiness.

• Ensure all staff and volunteers sign the Code of Conduct and Self-Declaration form prior to deployment, receive necessary mandatory training and that safeguarding messages are visible, understood, and lived across every learning facility.

• Ensure any safeguarding disclosure, complaint, or incident is escalated to UNICEF and ESDO senior management immediately, and that community feedback is acted upon with documented follow-up.

5. Coordination, Representation, and Partnership Management

• Represent the project with the RRRC Office, Camp-in-Charges, Education Sector, Livelihood and Skills Development Sector, and cross-sectoral partners, securing and maintaining the authorizations and coordination arrangements the project depends on.

• Coordinate with Protection Sector and especially Child Protection sub-sector in camps to ensure referral pathways for MHPSS, Case management, Nutrition Sector for referral regarding nutrition needs of adolescent learners, LSDS for referral regarding upskilling and reskilling. Youth Working Group (YWG) and other sectors for market linkages.

• Position the project constructively within the wider humanitarian architecture and contribute to sectoral learning, technical working groups, and inter-agency dialogue.

• Ensure clear, timely, and consistent communication with volunteers on the terms of their engagement, including the natural end of contracts at project closure, to prevent expectations that cannot be met.

6. Monitoring, Evaluation, Information Management, Documentation and Reporting

• Ensure the Result Framework indicators are tracked through credible means of verification and that data quality is maintained across enrolment, attendance, assessment, participation, and post-graduation outcomes.

• Facilitate UNICEF monitoring visits, programmatic and financial spot checks, third-party evaluations, and donor missions with full transparency.

• Provide strategic direction to the information management and monitoring function to ensure evidence feed program decision making and facilitating sharing monitoring report, QPR submission, narrative and financial reporting within agreed timeline with quality standards.

• Documentation of the evidence, best practices, collecting stories, ensure compliance-based publications and program’s institutional memories.

7. Market Linkage, Transition, and Livelihood Outcomes

• Ensure that the transition from learning to livelihood is treated as a central deliverable, not an afterthought, through robust internship and apprenticeship placements, learner-led applied projects, and post-graduation market linkage.

• Steer engagement with entrepreneurs, camp-based enterprises, cross-sectoral partners, and civil society to open opportunities for graduates.

• Ensure post-graduation income-generation outcomes are tracked and reported against agreed indicators, and that tracer mechanisms are in place to capture mid-term livelihood trajectories.

8. Inclusion, Equity, and Environmental and Social Risk Management

• Ensure the project actively delivers on its inclusion commitments so that every learner, regardless of gender, disability, or background, has meaningful access to learning, participation, and outcomes.

• Ensure gender-responsive and disability-inclusive programming is embedded across enrolment, instructor recruitment, facility design, and learner experience, with targeted attention to adolescent girls' safety, dignity, and leadership.

• Ensure disability inclusion is operationalized through appropriate screening, reasonable accommodation, dedicated volunteer support, and coordination with specialist inclusion actors.

• Ensure the Adolescent Action Groups are established, supported, and empowered to influence decisions that affect learners' experience at the multi-purpose centres.

• Ensure the Environmental and Social Risk Management Action Plan is implemented across all applicable impact areas, including facility safety, disaster risk reduction, and environmental safeguards.

9. Institutional Positioning and Continuous Improvement

• Represent ESDO credibly in front of UNICEF senior management, donors, and the humanitarian community, and use every interaction to strengthen the partnership.

• Ensure capacity buildings of project staff and continuous improvement.

• Any other duties assigned by the supervisor in the interest of the project and its participants.

As per project allocation and organizational policy.