Save the Children International has an exciting opportunity for aSenior Specialist, Enterprise Analytics – Cost Optimization Initiative to join our global team.
Team and Role Purpose
Save the Children is launching the Cost Optimisation Initiative to improve organizational sustainability, strengthen value for money, and maximize resources available for children and programme delivery. The aim is to build a simpler, smarter, and more efficient Save the Children that delivers greater impact for children through better use of every resource entrusted to us.
Role purpose
The Senior Enterprise Analyst will provide analytical leadership and data-driven insights to support the organization-wide Cost Optimisation Initiative. The role will enable evidence-based decision-making by developing analytical frameworks, comparative models, cost efficiency reporting, dashboards, and operational intelligence capabilities across SCI Country Offices.
The role will work closely with the Project Lead, Senior Finance Specialist, Senior Business Analyst, Global Functional Teams, and Country Offices to support identification, validation, tracking, and reporting of structural cost efficiency opportunities and organizational performance improvements.
The role will act as the central analytical resource for the initiative, ensuring that cost optimisation decisions, efficiency targets, and benefits realization are supported by robust data, consistent methodologies, and actionable insights.
The role will also support the integration of AI-enabled analytics, automation, and predictive intelligence capabilities to strengthen organizational efficiency monitoring and operational decision support.
- Job Title: Senior Specialist, Enterprise Analytics – Cost Optimization Initiative
- Reports To: Senior Project Lead – Cost Optimization Initiative
- Work Pattern: Hybrid/Remote with flexible working options available
- Location: Any approved Save the Children International office location. For a full list of locations that Save the Children International can hire in, please visit: SCI Careers
- Required Time Zone: Any
- Contract Length: Fixed Term Contract (18 Months 50% LOE)
- Right to Work: The successful candidate must have the right to work in the country where the role is based, for the duration of employment.
- Language Requirements: English
- International Travel: up to 10%
- Remit: Global
Principal Accountabilities
- Develop Enterprise Analytics Models and Cost Optimisation Framework: Build analytical models and frameworks to identify, size, and track cost efficiency opportunities, conducting comparative analysis across Country Offices, Global Teams, and functions to surface trends, variances, and optimisation opportunities informed by staffing, PSC, operational cost drivers, and levels of effort data.
- Establish Cost Baselines and Efficiency Performance Indicators: Support development of cost baselines, metrics, benchmarking analysis, and efficiency performance indicators, generating data-driven insights to inform strategic decision-making and the prioritisation of transformation initiatives including scenario modelling and sensitivity analysis for organisational redesign.
- Design and Maintain Enterprise Dashboards and Reporting Frameworks: Design and maintain enterprise-level dashboards and reporting frameworks for transformation performance monitoring, developing executive reporting packs and visualisation tools for leadership and governance forums and ensuring consistency, integrity, and quality of transformation reporting across functions and geographies.
- Translate Complex Data into Actionable Insights for Senior Stakeholders: Translate complex datasets into clear, actionable insights for senior leadership, supporting real-time monitoring of the Cost Optimisation Initiative, implementation progress, and benefits realisation, and partnering with other functions to streamline reporting processes and improve data accessibility.
- Ensure Analytical Governance and Data Quality: Support establishment of analytical standards, methodologies, and governance frameworks for transformation reporting, ensuring accuracy, consistency, and validation of data drawn from multiple enterprise systems and operational sources, and identifying data gaps, inconsistencies, and reporting risks with recommended mitigation actions.
- Drive AI, Automation, and Advanced Analytics Enablement: Identify and evaluate opportunities to leverage AI, automation, predictive analytics, and intelligent reporting solutions to improve operational efficiency, supporting development of automated analytical workflows and partnering with others to build scalable future-state analytical capabilities.
- Build KPI and Metrics Frameworks: Support development of enterprise-wide metrics and KPI frameworks aligned to Cost Optimisation objectives, contributing to the design of performance monitoring tools that enable the organisation to track and report on efficiency delivery and organisational performance consistently and at scale.
- Partner with Global Teams and Country Offices on Analytical Needs: Partner with Global Functional Teams, Country Offices, Finance, and Operations to understand analytical and reporting requirements, facilitating collaborative review of assumptions, metrics, and outputs and presenting findings and recommendations to senior management and transformation governance forums.
- Support Business Cases, Initiative Prioritisation, and Benefits Tracking: Contribute analytical inputs and decision-support materials to business case development, initiative prioritisation, and implementation planning, supporting benefits tracking and realisation monitoring throughout the transformation lifecycle and identifying emerging risks and performance issues through analytical insights.
- Promote a Data-Driven Culture and Evidence-Based Decision-Making: Foster adoption and use of analytical outputs across the organisation, promoting data-driven decision-making and contributing to continuous improvement of transformation reporting and analytical processes in support of the broader Cost Optimisation initiative.
Experience and Skills
Essential
- Significant progressive experience in enterprise analytics, business intelligence, financial analysis, or transformation reporting, with a demonstrated track record of delivering high-quality analytical outputs in complex, fast-moving organisational environments.
- Strong experience supporting large-scale transformation, operational efficiency, or organisational redesign initiatives, including direct contribution to cost analysis, efficiency tracking, benefits realisation monitoring, and performance reporting across multiple functions or geographies.
- Demonstrated expertise across data analysis and interpretation, enterprise reporting, dashboard development, financial and operational analytics, KPI development, comparative and trend analysis, and benefits realisation tracking — with the ability to apply these capabilities in an integrated and coherent analytical framework.
- Strong experience working with enterprise systems and large, complex datasets, consolidating and harmonising data from multiple operational and financial sources to produce accurate, consistent, and governance-ready analytical outputs.
- Strong understanding of organisational cost structures, operational performance metrics, programme support cost management, and transformation monitoring, including familiarity with cost allocation methodologies and efficiency performance frameworks in global organisational contexts.
- Proven ability to translate complex data into clear, actionable business recommendations, with strong stakeholder management and communication skills and demonstrated ability to influence senior leaders and non-technical audiences through analytics.
- Strong problem-solving, critical thinking, and analytical reasoning capability, with proven ability to work effectively within highly ambiguous, politically sensitive, and fast-evolving transformation environments while maintaining rigour and output quality.
- Experience leveraging AI, automation, predictive analytics, machine learning techniques, or advanced reporting capabilities to improve operational efficiency, forecasting accuracy, or analytical workflow automation.
- Experience working within complex INGOs, multinational organisations, or matrixed global environments, with direct exposure to Country Office operations, donor compliance environments, or programme support cost structures.
Desirable
- Formal certification or practical knowledge of Lean Six Sigma, continuous improvement, or operational excellence methodologies as applied to analytical process design or performance management.
Education and Qualifications
Essential
- Bachelor’s degree in data Analytics, Statistics, Economics, Finance, Information Systems, Business Analytics, Mathematics, or related field.
Desirable
- Master’s degree in Analytics, Data Science, Business Intelligence, Finance, or related discipline is an added advantage.
Working at Save the Children International
Save the Children is the world’s leading organisation for children, employing ~25,000 staff. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Through our work in 116 countries, we put the most deprived and marginalised children first.
We know that great people make a great organisation, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.
The work here is challenging but is also immensely rewarding. At Save the Children, you will be in good company, working with talented, like-minded individuals who are determined to ensure that all children survive, learn, and are protected. Your contribution will help ensure children’s voices are heard at the highest levels, and that we achieve our global strategy, Ambition for Children 2030, and reach every last child.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Equal Opportunities
DEI is core to our vision, values and global strategy. Save the Children is committed to creating a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation, and one which will support us in our vision to ensure every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation.
We are committed to equal employment opportunities, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, disability, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, caring or parental responsibilities, age, or beliefs and religion. We are committed to diversifying our staff to better represent the communities we serve and actively welcome underrepresented groups to apply.
Reasonable adjustments will be made should any candidate invited to interview require this.
Application Information
Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application. A full copy of the role profile can be found at SCI Careers. It is recommended that you save a copy of the role profile as it will no longer be available after the advert closes.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the job advert may be closed earlier than advertised subject to the volume of suitable applicants. Please submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.
Due to the high volume of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Candidates who are successfully shortlisted should expect to hear from us within 2 weeks of the advert deadline.
Our Recruitment Process
- Application review by our recruiting team based on your CV and cover letter
- Two-stage competency-based interviews with the hiring team
- Some recruitment may include an additional assessment or case study stage, or a third stage interview
- If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, followed by your contract subject to passing background checks
We need to keep children and adults safe so our selection process includes rigorous background checks and reflects our commitment to the protection of children and adults from abuse. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our Code of Conduct and all policies and procedures relating to Anti-Harassment, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, and DEI and Equal Opportunities.
Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.
