Senior Project Lead - Cost Optimization Initiative at Save the Children at Save the Children

Senior Project Lead - Cost Optimization Initiative at Save the Children at Save the Children | Iko Kazi

Principal Accountabilities

Lead the Cost Optimisation Project and Organisational Adoption: lead the design, planning, and delivery of the Cost Optimisation Project, ensuring alignment with strategic, operational, and financial objectives and develop and maintain a phased, multi-year transformation roadmap with prioritised initiatives, clear milestones, and alignment to organisational delivery capacity
Lead Change Management and Continuous Improvement: Drive organisational change, stakeholder adoption, and continuous improvement for the Cost Optimisation initiative to embed sustainable efficiencies and a culture of operational excellence.
Identify and Deliver Efficiency Opportunities: Drive the identification, prioritisation, and implementation of enterprise-wide efficiency opportunities across all support functions and organisational levels.
Drive Cost Optimisation and Benefits Realisation: Establish cost baselines, analyse current and future state, and ensure delivery, tracking, validation, and sustainability of efficiency benefits and cost savings including structured reporting to senior stakeholders.
Enhance efficiency in Service Delivery: Identify opportunities to simplify, standardise, and optimise service delivery models and levels of effort across functions and geographies.
Lead Programme Governance and Delivery: Establish programme governance structures, oversee workstreams, manage dependencies, and ensure timely delivery of agreed milestones and outcomes.
Influence and Engage Senior Stakeholders: Facilitate alignment, decision-making, and collaboration across senior stakeholders, functions, and geographies to support successful delivery.
Leverage AI, Digital Solutions, and Analytics: Promote the use of AI, automation, analytics, and digital technologies to improve operational efficiency, decision-making, and organisational effectiveness.
**Manage Programme Risks and Organisational Change: **Proactively manage programme risks, issues, and organisational impacts while ensuring effective change management and adoption of new ways of working.
Embed a Culture of Continuous Improvement: Foster innovation, accountability, and continuous improvement, ensuring efficiency initiatives are embedded into long-term organisational practices and governance.

Experience and Skills

Essential

An extensive track record of leading large-scale organisational transformation, organisational redesign, and enterprise-wide change programmes within complex global organisations.
Significant experience operating within complex INGOs, federated organisations, multinational matrix environments, or similarly complex stakeholder structures.
A proven ability to design and implement enterprise-wide organisational redesign initiatives across both programmatic and support functions, including operating model transformation and service delivery redesign.
A proven ability to apply excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, and to work collaboratively to deliver of effective solutions to project related issues. This will include taking on hands on analysis activities to support the wider team as required
Extensive experience engaging, influencing, and building alignment among Executive Leadership Teams, Global Functional Leaders, Country Directors, Member organisations, and senior stakeholders across multiple geographies.
A proven ability to lead and influence in highly ambiguous, politically sensitive, and rapidly changing environments, including influencing stakeholders without direct authority.
Strong knowledge and practical experience of operating model design, shared services, process harmonisation, workforce and level-of-effort optimisation, finance transformation, and organisational effectiveness initiatives.
Exceptional executive communication, presentation, and stakeholder management capability.
Experience leveraging AI, automation, analytics, and digital transformation approaches to improve organizational performance.

Desirable

Experience leading global transformation programs exceeding USD 100M operational scope.
Experience working across both headquarters/global teams and decentralized country operations.
Experience supporting ERP transformation Initiatives.
Experience in Lean Six Sigma, continuous improvement, or operational excellence methodologies.
Exposure to enterprise analytics, AI-enabled transformation, or intelligent automation initiatives.

Education and Qualifications