[Hiring] Technical Leadership Track Development Consultant @AGORA

Role Description

Formalizing a technical leadership track requires creating a structured, parallel career path that also allows our technical experts to be recognized as leaders without necessarily transitioning into management. It legitimizes senior technical leadership roles as peers to senior staff in management roles. This shift will mean establishing dynamic "career lattices" that offer multiple pathways to leadership and success.

Global Leads and Senior Advisors in the Global Programme Division represent a deep reservoir of institutional knowledge, sectoral expertise, and professional influence. This initiative serves as a pilot with this demographic as the beneficiaries, to motivate and develop them as valued leaders in their areas of expertise, and to inform how technical leadership can be recognized, developed, and supported across UNICEF.

What will success look like:

• Reshaping our talent pipelines toward prioritizing and recognizing expertise, influence, and impact.
• Active internal mobility programmes that create fluid dual paths between managerial leadership and technical leadership.
• Higher employee retention in high growth and future-focused environments.

The technical leadership career path looks to create opportunities for those willing to think beyond conventional trajectories and actively shape their professional development. By understanding these emerging paths, our professionals can build fulfilling, impactful careers that align with the ambitious and transformative agenda of UNICEF.

Scope of Work:

• Working in close partnership with DPC, GPD and OED, the consultant will design and build the architecture of a structured technical leadership track with a proposal for how to organize, establish, implement, maintain and govern it.
• The consultant will be responsible for the following:
• Strategic Design & Workplan including Governance, Sustainability and Continuity and Ownership
• Data Gathering & Participant Identification
• Exposure Opportunities Model
• Assessment Preparation & Competitive Readiness

Qualifications

• Master's in Human Resources, Organizational Development, Business Administration, Public Administration, International Relations, International Development

Requirements

• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible experience in talent management, leadership development, organizational development, workforce transformation, or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing leadership, specialist, expert or technical career pathways in large organizations.
• Experience supporting workforce transformation, talent strategies, organizational capability development, or skills-based workforce initiatives.
• Experience working with international organizations, multilateral institutions, public sector organizations or large complex organizations.
• Experience designing and facilitating leadership assessments, development programmes, coaching and talent reviews.

Skills

• Knowledge of talent management, leadership development and organizational development methodologies.
• Knowledge of specialist, technical or expert career frameworks and leadership pathways.
• Strong understanding of competency frameworks, skills-based organizations and workforce planning approaches.
• Ability to design leadership models, role profiles and talent development strategies.
• Strong facilitation, stakeholder engagement and consultation skills.
• Excellent analytical, writing and communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively with senior leaders and diverse stakeholder groups.

Language Requirements

• English

Desirables

• Experience working with UN organizations or other international development organizations.
• Experience designing or implementing technical leadership, specialist or expert career tracks.
• Familiarity with Communities of Practice, knowledge networks and technical talent development approaches.
• Executive coaching or leadership assessment certification.
• Experience supporting organizational capability or skills-based workforce transformations.

Benefits

• UNICEF promotes and advocates for the protection of the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything it does.
• UNICEF encourages applications from all qualified candidates, regardless of gender, nationality, religious or ethnic backgrounds, and from people with disabilities, including neurodivergence.
• Reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities throughout the recruitment process.