Senior Adviser Innovation (Learning Hub) P-5, FTA, Office of Innovation, Helsinki, Finland

Contract

This is a P-5 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 10 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 110,869 USD and 138,944 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

Yet the current pace of progress for children will not get us to children-related SDGs targets. This, if left unaddressed, will leave tens of million children behind. Unprotected. Uneducated. Unfed. Unable to reach their full potential.

For every child, hope . . .

The Office of Innovation (OoI) works to catalyse UNICEF's and all its partners’ expertise and resources against key children-outcomes bottlenecks, with a view to continuously ideate and scale the most effective solutions with transformational potential at scale to achieve the child-related SDGs.

The office is doing this by continuously exploring new ways of accelerating results for children, investing across a range of early stage solutions, and harnessing internal and external expertise towards continuously iterating and finetuning the most promising solutions for children through a systematic portfolio management approach, and leveraging all stakeholders’ innovation energy, knowhow and resources from intergovernmental, multilateral, private sector and non-governmental fora (think tank, academia).

For every child, learning…

The UNICEF Learning Innovation Hub is the home for the architects of the future of learning with the goal of bringing together the global community to build game changing solutions in education, that can help solve the learning crisis and as well imagine and develop alternative learning futures for all children.

The UNICEF Learning Innovation Hub supports the Reimagine Education initiative through accelerating equitable access to world class digital learning solutions by testing and scaling frontier technologies & innovations hand in hand with UNICEF Country Offices. At the same time, it creates a safe playground for disruption, inviting UNICEF and the learning community to look for solutions outside the traditional sphere and join tech entrepreneurs, scientists, artists, data ninjas, fiction writers, designers, business leaders & others to explore new learning journeys, pedagogical approaches, spaces and artifacts that help unleash each child’s full potential.

The UNICEF Learning Innovation Hub brings to the front the voice of young people about the skills they want to acquire to become entrepreneurs of their own life and become forward-thinking powerhouse that re-imagines and builds bright alternative futures that turns learning into a fascinating adventure for all children.

How can you make a difference?

You will work under the direction of Director of the Innovation Office. As a visionary and strategic thinker, your role involves fostering collaboration among various stakeholders, fields of expertise, and resources. Your ability to forge connections in innovative ways will lead to groundbreaking solutions and exciting opportunities for the benefit of all children.

You will need to have a strong entrepreneurial background, with proven experience in designing, building and fire-starting new ventures from scratch with excellent and compelling communication skills that can help attract and engage world-class talent, resources and strategic partnerships. This will also imply a deep understanding and experience in innovation and human centered design approach at large: from what it takes to bring a new successful product or service to life to designing strategies for system change. You need to be technology literate, with a strong understanding of frontier technologies, such as AI, ML, robotics, etc. that are currently redefining the learning experience.

You will be responsible for leading UNICEF’s Learning Innovation Hub in Helsinki, tasked with identifying, piloting, accelerating, and scaling innovative digital learning solutions that will positively impact learning outcomes for millions of children around the world and that will empower them to acquire the skills they need for the future of work, unleash their full potential, and become architects of their own future.

Key functions, accountabilities, and related duties/tasks:

• To advance UNICEF's Strategic Plan and contribute to the achievement of SDG4 objectives, collaborate closely with both internal and external stakeholders to formulate and execute the strategic vision for innovation in learning.
• As the head of UNICEF's Learning Innovation Hub, positioned as a prominent global entity in the realm of learning innovation, play a pivotal role in shaping the future success of Reimagine Education. Transform this hub into a dynamic think-and-do platform for driving innovation in the field of education. The responsibilities include overseeing the hub activities such as strategic planning, strategic communication and positioning, budget management, human resources, and office establishment.
• Building partnerships for success, including key Finnish partners, main partners from the global south, the global private sector, and others, using innovative approaches to attract world-class expertise and resources.
• Developing and overseeing a portfolio of game-changing, world-class digital learning solutions focused on addressing identified problem statements. These solutions will accelerate the delivery of Reimagine Education by leveraging frontier technologies to improve learning outcomes for children.
• Developing and overseeing a think tank that focuses on generating thought-provoking research and experiences. These initiatives should provide new insights to the learning community on transdisciplinary approaches, disruptive technologies, and cost-effective solutions from the field.
• Coordinating and overseeing the development of a Country Office Learning Pioneers Network to ensure solutions are tested, refined, and scaled in partnership with end-user ecosystems.
• Building and managing the team in Helsinki responsible for delivering results. This will be done in collaboration with guidance and support from colleagues in the Office of Innovation Core Team in Sweden.

Under the direction of Director of Innovation, you will be an inspirational and strategic thought leader with strong experience in starting an innovative venture, build the strategy and lead operationalization to manage UNICEF’s Learning Innovation Hub. This will include:

Vision, Strategic Planning and KPIs

• Transform the vision of the Learning Innovation Hub into concrete action plan with tangible deliverables; a pathway to position the Hub as a key player within the global learning ecosystem; a growth strategy for mobilizing resources and increasing the Hub’s reach; budget and KPIs that reflect impact driven innovation approach.
• Working with Programme Group Education colleagues (in the Hub and in Education roles across UNICEF) to build a shared understanding for how innovation in learning will deliver against the long-term vision for Reimagine Education, ensuring this is translated into a disciplined approach to innovation focused on concrete and actionable problem statements, which inform planning, prioritization and reporting for all of the Hub’s activities.

Hub Set Up

• Manage the Learning Hub team members who are supported to deliver results, with the collaboration of colleagues from the Office of Innovation Core Team in Sweden for guidance and assistance.
• Build Hub branding and identity in collaboration with P5 Senior Adviser (Partnership & Comms), Stockholm.
• Prioritize and oversee recruitment of staff into the Hub and the outsourcing of activities to external vendors.

Learning Innovation Portfolio

Through supervision of the Learning Innovation Portfolio Manager:

• Oversee the review and development of the learning innovation portfolio ensuring the right scaffolding and support is in place to attract, select and grow game changing digital learning solutions with high potential for impact and scale.
• Ensure appropriate sourcing tactics are in place, including building structured pathways between Venture Fund investments and the Learning Innovation Portfolio.
• Provide thought leadership on innovative ways to scale up digital learning solutions through business model design, technology transfer, and other alternative pathways to ensure equitable access to the best digital learning tools for all children.

• Advise on human centered design and state of the art user experience for developing engaging and impactful digital learning solutions for different contexts and settings in the global south.

  Learning Innovation Design Lab

• Oversee the co-creation of new solutions by bringing together UNICEF expertise in the field, with academia, entrepreneurs, corporations around specific learning challenges and untapped opportunities.

• Provide advice on best innovation practices for co-creation with multiple stakeholders and agile methodologies to successfully design, pilot and test new solutions from scratch.
• Through supervision of the Learning Cabinet Product Lead, oversee the design and development of an EdTech Tools repository.

Field & Country Office Network

Through supervision of the Education Specialist (who works in close partnership with Programme Group Education colleagues in HQ, ROs and COs):

• Oversee the development of the Learning Innovation Pioneers Network across UNICEF to ensure digital solutions are ground-truthed, tested and scaled in partnership with the end user ecosystems.
• Oversee the development and implementation of strategies to support Country Offices in their process to support their local ecosystem to adapt, absorb and scale innovative digital learning solutions.
• Design and implement strategies to engage Country Offices and other stakeholders, including young people, ensuring close ties to UNICEF programming and the global south and to gather insights on main needs, challenges, barriers that can inform all the Hub activities.

Hub Global Network & Thought Leadership

• Build a network of thought leaders + strategic key partners in the education, frontier technology & impact investment
• Oversee the development of thought-provoking research at the crossroad of learning, technology and other transversal disciplines.
• Participate in relevant learning, technology, and entrepreneurship events globally, both from public and private sector.

Partnerships & Communications

• Working in partnership with PPD, build and maintain a strong relationship with key government stakeholders in Finland.
• Based on the agreed vision for the Learning Innovation Hub, work together with P5 Senior Adviser (Partnership & Comms), Stockholm on a partnership and communications strategy for the Learning Innovation Hub.
• Within the Finnish ecosystem, represent UNICEF Innovation and the Learning Innovation hub as thought leaders in learning innovation and innovation for children, including participating in relevant events and media opportunities in Finland and globally
• Support the hub in building partnerships with key ecosystems for learning innovation in the global south
• Support the prospecting and stewardship of major partners for the Learning Innovation Hub
• You are expected to work collaboratively with the other Hub leads (as they are recruited), key personnel within the Core Office of Innovation team in Stockholm and Education colleagues across UNICEF.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Innovation, Technology, Business, Education or another relevant technical field.
• A minimum of ten (10) years of relevant professional experience is required at national and international levels in the area of Innovation and/or Innovation in Learning, within the private and public sector.
• A minimum of ten (10) years of required professional experience related to leadership and people management.
• Entrepreneurial capacity, demonstrated through experience of starting a new venture, initiative or team and building it from scratch.
• Experience in working with technology, ideally frontier technologies such as AI, ML, robotics, in low resource settings.
• Experience in human-centered design and design thinking applied to technology and innovation projects.
• Experience in the private sector and establishment of partnerships within it.
• Experience in working in UNICEF programme countries.
• Experience in working within the UN system is desirable.
• Experience inworking with and managing diverse stakeholders, including government, private sector, NGOs and UN partners.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (3)
• Works Collaboratively with others (3)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships(3)
• Innovates and Embraces Changes (3)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (3)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (3)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (3)
• Nurtures, leads and manages people (3)

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Should you be selected for a position with UNICEF, you either must be inoculated as required or receive a medical exemption from the relevant department of the UN. Otherwise, the selection will be cancelled.

All selected candidates will undergo rigorous reference and background checks and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Contact

For any queries, please contact: swe-ooi-recruitments@unicef.org