Senior Technical Specialist, Innovation

Overview

Global Communities works at the intersection of humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and financial inclusion to save lives, advance equity and secure strong futures. We support communities at the forefront of their own development in more than 35 countries, partnering with local leaders, governments, civil society and the private sector to achieve a shared vision of a more just, prosperous and equitable global community.

Global Communities is seeking a Senior Technical Specialist to join the Innovation Works team based in San Diego, California. The Senior Technical Specialist for Innovation will serve on the Innovation Works team within the Executive Office and is responsible for providing technical and managerial support to the initiatives, projects and processes designed to build and nurture an organization-wide innovation ecosystem within Global Communities.

This ecosystem will generate a portfolio of solutions that can dramatically advance the scale and impact of our mission, generate new business and strategic growth opportunities, and establish GC’s reputation as one of the premier innovators in our space. To achieve this, the Innovation Works office will partner across the organization (Strategic Development – Development Finance – Humanitarian Assistance) to provide targeted, demand driven support to teams addressing vexing development challenges. Specifically, the Senior Technical Specialist will: (1) help envision and establish a process that supports early stage ideation and rapid prototyping of products, services and processes that advance the organizational mission and strategy; (2) provide technical advising and capacity strengthening to country teams and functional departments/units in applying innovation tools and methodologies; and (3) work with the Senior Director Innovation, Executive and other leadership of the organization to nurture the innovation ecosystem at Global Communities.

The office will be substantively involved in working multi-laterally with specific countries, offices, and units in innovation development, as well as in close collaboration and support of organizational leadership who advocate for and are accountable for supporting organization-wide innovation efforts. The Senior Technical Specialist will work closely with field teams, proposal development teams, and leadership across SD, HA, and DF to ensure that innovation and innovative design, prototyping and scaling of solutions occurs across Global Communities programs and processes.

Responsibilities

Innovation Ecosystem Development (10% LOE)

• Provide the research and support to the Senior Director of Innovation in the development of an ecosystem nurture plan. Developed in Year 1 and revisited each year, this plan will require working across multiple departments and country operations to identify and support activities that will help build a culture of innovation in support of our strategic plan.
• Provide technical assistance across the organization in the design of actions to strengthen the eight attributes of a highly effective innovative organizations – aspire, mobilize, discover, choose, accelerate, extend, scale, and evolve).

Early-stage Ideation and Rapid Prototyping (30% LOE)

• Support the design of process and procedures to promote/incentivize ideation across the organization – particularly in strategic priority areas. Develop procedures to solicit new ideas each year, and subsequent outreach and dissemination through presentations, emails, and outreach through various internal communication channels.
• Develop and support a process for selection and investment in innovation. Support an innovation pipeline at least two distinct stages (proof of concept and scale up), assisting in screening, vetting and selection.
• Manage and track funding allocations to support prototyping of innovations. Track allocations, expenditures, and progress reporting on up to 3-6 product level innovations each year and up to several process level innovations.

Technical Advising and Capacity Development (30% LOE)

Facilitate innovation workshops and design sprints with selected country or international office teams as well as outside partners. Conduct 1-to-2-day workshops focused on innovation methods such as lean or agile, and anticipated to be 2 to 4 per year and may or may not be tied to direct program requirements. Design sprints will be tied to the funded prototype as well as design sprints that are integrated into program designs. Design sprints involve 1 to 2 months of planning leading to an intensive 4-day sprint with 15 to 20 participants that takes them from ideation to prototyping.

• Provide bespoke innovation services and assistance to specific projects or functional areas as requested – particularly in the areas of lean, agile, human-centered design and innovation design.
• Support the establishment of partnerships with frontier technology firms and research institutions that can support innovations and extend our expertise to solve big problems. Frontier technologies will be instrumental in generating original approaches to entrenched problems.
• Provide technical assistance and support to teams leading Global Communities’ social enterprise, entrepreneurial and other innovative initiatives including AfriScout which has traditionally been part of this portfolio.
• Support business development efforts that will finance development or scale of specific innovations; and that help support the Innovation Works initiatives more broadly. Support or lead 4 to 6 proposals each year that have a focus in whole or in part on the innovation process or specific innovations that are generated through the Innovation Works pipeline.
• Collaborate closely with the local capacity strengthening, staff development/learning, technical, programmatic, and strategic growth and partnership teams at headquarters and in the field to ensure knowledge and skills transfer to local partners and staff, as well as the incorporation of innovation and innovative design elements into program designs, learning agendas, and proposal development, program implementation, thought leadership and capacity development efforts.

Communication and Marketing (25% LOE)

• In collaboration with the Communications department, this individual will lead our internal and external communications and marketing efforts around the ecosystem and specific innovations. This includes:
  • Produce the internal (SharePoint) content development and updating designed to inform, support, and help nurture our innovation culture and track ongoing innovations.
  • External facing innovation communication and marketing through our website, social media, and other platforms.
  • Outreach and content development for targeted media within the development (i.e., DEVEX) and social innovation spheres (i.e., Stanford Social Innovation Review),

Track, Measure and Inform (5% LOE)

• Inform metrics that bridge to, Global Communities’ backbone information systems (i.e., Salesforce, ERP, etc.) in collaboration with MELI and IT. The result of this activity will be a mechanism to continuously track innovations and innovation activity including, # of innovations in the pipeline, innovation results/impact, resource mobilization efforts and outcomes, training, and ecosystem development results.
• Assist in defining and implementing simplified systems for tracking prototype applications, progress, and expenditures.
• Assist in defining and implementing simplified systems for monitoring and reporting on the innovation ecosystem, including return on investment calculations and analysis.
• Inform regular measurement, reporting and feedback mechanisms with Global Communities leadership on the state of innovation within the organization and its partners. This will include an annual innovation report, special highlights bulletins, and regular updates through internal communications platforms.

POSITION SPECIAL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Approximately 25% travel required, both domestic and international
• Other tasks as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Insights and experience in supporting social innovation.
• Insights in the social innovation sector – particularly in the global south.
• Competencies in team building, mentorship, and facilitation of complex processes.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Superb written and verbal communication skills.
• Superb coordination, collaboration, and networking skills.
• Resource mobilization skills and demonstrated expertise in mobilizing private and public funding for organizational development and cross-cutting programmatic areas.
• Ability to think and act strategically at all levels and all situations.
• Foreign language capacity preferred.
• A passion for the mission and values of Global Communities

Qualifications

• Undergraduate in a related discipline with a minimum of four years of related work experience or a minimum of eight years of related work experience.
• Preferred degree in social innovation or a related discipline.
• Specific experience in innovation design, training and embedding innovation within an organization through the provision of technical assistance and support.
• Must have U.S. work authorization.

The salary for this position is between 80,266 and 120,399. Salary is based on several factors including qualifications, experience, and internal equity.

As an organization working to advance public health, Global Communities has an obligation to model best practices and to do all we can to protect each other, our partners and the communities where we work. To ensure the continuity and effectiveness of our business operations, Global Communities is adopting a policy to safeguard the health of our visitors, employees, families, and the larger global community from COVID-19. Effective January 3, 2022, all U.S.-based Global Communities employees are required to provide proof of having received full dosage of COVID-19 vaccine that is FDA approved, approved for emergency use authorization, or have an approved medical or religious exemption on file with Global Communities, as a condition of employment.

Global Communities holds strict safeguarding principles and has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct of sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment. In the process of recruitment, selection, and appointment, Global Communities will conduct robust reference and background screening checks, including international vetting as a signature of the Global Misconduct Disclosure Scheme to ensure children and vulnerable adults are safeguarded, and abuse is prevented. The incumbent is required to carry out their duties in accordance with Global Communities Safeguarding policy and the Standards of Conduct.

Global Communities is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.