The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

JOB OVERVIEW:

Reporting to Deputy Director of Programs, the Gender & Protection Mainstreaming Specialist provides country-level technical leadership to ensure that all IRC Ukraine programmes, partnerships, and delivery modalities are safe, inclusive, accountable, and responsive to the diverse needs of crisis-affected populations. Operating across sectors, geographic areas, and delivery models, the role leads IRC Ukraine’s approach to protection mainstreaming, gender equality, and inclusive programming, with a strong focus on programme quality, risk mitigation, and meaningful participation. The Specialist acts as a senior technical advisor to programme leadership, field teams, and partners, supporting principled and evidence-informed decision-making across the programme cycle in a complex and evolving context. The role is explicitly enabling rather than substitutive: it sets standards, develops tools, and strengthens systems and capacities so that sector teams and partners can effectively integrate protection, gender, age, and disability considerations into their work. The Specialist serves as IRC Ukraine’s primary technical reference on protection mainstreaming and inclusive programming and contributes to technical coordination, donor engagement, and learning initiatives, as delegated.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Capacity Strengthening & Partner Engagement

The Gender & Protection Mainstreaming Specialist strengthens IRC Ukraine’s institutional and partner capacity to integrate protection, gender, age, and disability considerations into programme design and delivery in a consistent, sustainable, and context-appropriate manner.

• Provide technical guidance and coaching to programme and sector teams to ensure protection mainstreaming principles — safety, dignity, accessibility, equity, and inclusion — are effectively applied across all sectors and throughout the programme cycle.

• Design and institutionalize country-level approaches, tools, and learning pathways for protection mainstreaming and inclusive programming, tailored to operational realities and risk profiles.

• Support the development and rollout of structured capacity-strengthening plans for staff and partners, in close collaboration with People & Culture, Field Coordinators, and sector leads, ensuring alignment with IRC global standards and Ukraine-specific needs.

• In coordination with IRC Protection and Safeguarding functions, contribute to targeted learning and refresher initiatives on humanitarian and protection principles, ensuring clarity of roles and avoiding duplication of safeguarding accountability.

• Provide technical advisory support to partners to strengthen their internal systems, policies, and practices related to gender equality and inclusion, supporting sustainable and locally owned approaches.

Strategy, Programme Design & Programme Quality

The Specialist contributes to strategic planning, programme design, and quality assurance by ensuring that protection and inclusion considerations meaningfully inform decision-making at all levels.

• Contribute to IRC and, where relevant, partner strategies by ensuring that protection monitoring, intersectional analysis, and community feedback are systematically used to inform programme priorities, targeting, and adaptation.

• Support proposal development, donor engagement, and reporting through credible and coherent articulation of IRC’s approach to protection mainstreaming and inclusive programming.

• Provide technical input into assessments, logframes, narratives, and budgets to strengthen integration of gender, age, disability, and safeguarding considerations in line with donor and IRC standards.

• Develop and maintain practical protection mainstreaming tools (e.g. assessments, checklists, action plans, guidance notes) in consultation with sector leads, ensuring usability and relevance for field teams.

• Advise programme and technical leads on context-specific protection risks, trade-offs, and mitigation measures, supporting principled decision-making in complex or high-risk operational environments.

• Provide quality assurance support through periodic field monitoring and technical reviews, supporting teams to identify gaps and develop realistic, time-bound corrective actions.

• Document and disseminate learning, good practice, and innovation related to safe and inclusive programming across the Ukraine response.

Community Engagement & Participatory Approaches

• The Specialist promotes meaningful, safe, and inclusive engagement with crisis-affected communities as a core component of programme quality and accountability.

• Promote accessible, inclusive, and context-appropriate community engagement approaches, in close collaboration with MEAL, Safeguarding, and programme teams.

• Support teams to identify opportunities for community-driven and locally led approaches that strengthen self-protection capacities, reinforce dignity, and reduce dependency on assistance.

• Ensure that information, education, and communication (IEC) materials and communication channels are safe, inclusive, and adapted to diverse needs, mitigating risks of exclusion, misinformation, or information overload.

Coordination, Representation & Technical Influence

The Specialist contributes to internal and external coordination and positions IRC as a credible actor in protection mainstreaming and inclusive programming.

• Serve as a technical focal point for protection mainstreaming, gender, and inclusion in relevant inter-agency coordination mechanisms, as delegated.

• Contribute technical input to donor engagement, programme reviews, learning events, and external discussions, strengthening IRC’s credibility and influence on safe and inclusive programming.

• Support the use of protection monitoring and community feedback findings to inform advocacy messages, strategic discussions, and consortium-level learning, in coordination with relevant teams.

• Review project SOPs, guidance, and training materials to ensure that protection mainstreaming considerations are systematically embedded, supporting sector leads to translate risks and mitigation measures into operational tools and workplans.

People, Culture & Organizational Practices

The Specialist contributes to strengthening organizational culture, ethical practice, and duty of care across the Ukraine Country Program.

• Support the integration of protection, inclusion, and safeguarding competencies into recruitment, onboarding, and performance management processes, in an advisory capacity.

• Promote ethical practice, staff wellbeing, and duty of care through mentoring, technical guidance, and modelling of IRC values.

• Develop and maintain onboarding and reference materials for project staff on humanitarian principles, protection mainstreaming, and safe and inclusive programming.

• Lead by example and support IRC’s commitment to preventing harm, promoting safe reporting, and fostering an environment where concerns can be raised without fear of retaliation, in line with IRC policies and values.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• Advanced degree in Law, Human Rights, Gender Studies, Social Sciences, or a related field.

• Extensive professional experience in humanitarian or development contexts, with demonstrated senior technical responsibility in protection mainstreaming, gender equality, inclusion, and/or safeguarding.

• Proven ability to operate across sectors, donors, and partners, providing high-level technical advice in complex and evolving operational environments.

• Strong experience engaging with donors, inter-agency coordination mechanisms, and senior internal and external stakeholders, including contribution to proposal development, programme reviews, and learning processes.

• Excellent analytical, facilitation, and communication skills, with the ability to translate complex protection and inclusion concepts into practical, actionable guidance for diverse audiences.

• Fluency in English; knowledge of Ukrainian and/or Russian is an asset.

• Demonstrated commitment to ongoing learning, ethical practice, and reflective dialogue, with the ability to foster team-level conversations that strengthen safeguarding, staff wellbeing, duty of care, and adherence to IRC values and policies.

Working Environment:

• Regular travel to field sites as needed up to 20% of time

• Interaction with multiple partners and stakeholders, requiring flexibility and a collaborative approach.

• Commitment to IRC’s values and safeguarding principles.

IRC employees are eligible to the following benefits:

• Competitive salary

• Purposeful job and development opportunities

• English classes and unlimited online training courses

• Life Insurance

• Medical insurance for staff and family members

• Free psychological support to employees and their family members 

• 30 calendar days of annual vacation with flexibility beyond the legally set minimum requirements

• Up to 10 days of paid medical leave 

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

Cookies: https://careers.rescue.org/us/en/cookiesettings