[Hiring] Secretariat Lead, Global Home-Based Childcare Alliance @Global Development Incubator

Role Description

The Secretariat Lead, Global HBCC Alliance, serves as the Secretariat Lead for the Global HBCC Alliance. This role anchors the Alliance through coalition-building, strategic leadership, facilitation, and Secretariat governance — ensuring coherence, legitimacy, and alignment across Members. Working closely with the CEO, the Secretariat Lead drives collective processes, facilitates Member collaboration, and stewards governance, while drawing on evidence and communications functions to strengthen advocacy and visibility. This is a strategic operator role: part coalition steward, part facilitator, part governance lead, part advocacy engine. The role requires flexibility in working hours to coordinate across diverse time zones and ensure global Member engagement.

Key Responsibilities

• Secretariat Leadership, Governance & Sustainability
  • Steward the Alliance’s governance processes, including membership criteria, decision-making procedures, and annual workplan coordination.
  • Maintain the Alliance’s neutrality, legitimacy, and coherence across diverse Members.
  • Track progress against the Alliance workplan, budget, and advocacy milestones, ensuring accountability and transparency.
  • Escalate issues to the CEO as needed, protecting coalition cohesion and legitimacy.
  • Support sustainability by mobilizing Member energy, external visibility, and funding partnerships.
• Coalition Building, Strategic Leadership & Facilitation
  • Lead facilitation of collective processes, surfacing tensions and guiding Members toward aligned positions.
  • Build community and trust between Members with diverse mandates and geographies, fostering shared ownership.
  • Ensure provider voice mechanisms are integrated into advocacy processes.
  • Protect coalition breadth and legitimacy through diplomatic, inclusive leadership.
• Evidence Translation & Knowledge Brokering
  • Equip Members with advocacy-ready insights and narratives drawn from synthesized evidence.
  • Broker knowledge into collective positions, messaging frameworks, and public goods that strengthen global advocacy.
  • Ensure the Alliance’s evidence base is accessible and coherent, supporting Member alignment and external credibility.
  • Identify priority evidence needs that inform the Alliance’s advocacy agenda, coordinating with Members to shape research directions.
• Global Advocacy Execution
  • Support the design and execution of the Alliance’s global advocacy strategy targeting donors, development banks, and multilateral institutions.
  • Coordinate Member engagement in global moments (UN forums, development bank convenings, care economy events).
  • Align messaging and advocacy positions across Members to ensure coherence and amplification.
  • Represent the Alliance in selected forums as needed.
• Convenings & Collective Learning
  • Design the strategic purpose and structure of Alliance convenings (virtual and in-person), ensuring they advance advocacy and evidence goals.
  • Provide strategic facilitation that enables Members to move from dialogue to collective positions and advocacy priorities.
  • Coordinate logistics and content development with Members and relevant internal functions.
  • Ensure convenings generate actionable insights, shared narratives, and strengthened alignment.
• Internal Collaboration & Cross-Functional Leadership
  • Collaborate with the Learning & Innovation function to ensure evidence synthesis aligns with advocacy needs.
  • Partner with the Communications & Narrative function to shape coherent coalition narratives and advocacy materials that amplify Member voices.
  • Work with the Head of Programs to ensure alignment between global advocacy and in-country systems work.
  • Support the CEO in preparing for high-level engagements, speeches, and global advocacy moments.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of experience in global advocacy, coalition coordination, policy engagement, or systems-focused program leadership.
• Demonstrated ability to steward multi-stakeholder governance processes with diplomacy and neutrality.
• Proven ability to facilitate collective processes and build coalitions across differences.
• Strong understanding of global development, early childhood, gender equity, or care economy ecosystems.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including facilitation and synthesis.
• Experience working across diverse cultural and geographic contexts, especially in the Global Majority.
• Flexibility in working hours to coordinate across diverse time zones and geographies.

Preferred

• Experience translating evidence or research into accessible narratives, policy messages, or advocacy materials.
• Familiarity with HBCC, early childhood development, or women’s economic empowerment.
• Experience coordinating research agendas or knowledge products.
• Comfort representing an organization in selected external forums.

Competencies

• Coalition builder: Anchors the role in convening, alignment, and shared power — the most critical function of the Secretariat.
• Strategic leadership & facilitation: Guides collective processes with clarity, neutrality, and authority, ensuring Members move from dialogue to aligned action.
• Operational excellence & governance: Builds systems, tracks progress, and drives execution with transparency and accountability.
• Communication & relationship management: Maintains trust and coherence across diverse stakeholders.
• Sustainability & mobilization: Secures legitimacy, resources, and momentum for the Alliance.
• Political intelligence: Reads dynamics, anticipates tensions, and escalates appropriately.
• Strategic synthesis: Distils complex evidence into clear, compelling advocacy insights.
• Cultural humility: Deep respect for diverse caregiving practices and contexts.
• Narrative awareness: Understands how evidence becomes influence.

Location & Travel

• Flexible / Remote-friendly.
• Preference for candidates based in the Global South or in time zones with workable overlap with UTC+12.
• International travel up to 20–30% for convenings, global moments, and Member engagement.

Why Join NurtureFirst

This is a rare opportunity to help shape a global movement for home-based childcare — stewarding a coalition that elevates provider voice, strengthens evidence, and influences global policy and financing. You will play a pivotal role in building the systems, relationships, and narratives that position HBCC as essential public infrastructure worldwide.

How to Apply

If this sounds exciting to you and you meet the qualifications above, please submit a single PDF document containing a one-page cover letter and CV/resume outlining your interest in this position and why you would be a good fit. Please note that the cover letter is considered an important aspect of the application and will be evaluated against the qualifications above. Applications that do not include a cover letter will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Applications take place on a rolling basis until the position is filled, and are to be submitted via https://www.gdiafrica.org/our-careers/ .