Protection Specialist

The Organisation

Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child but know this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it is girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges girls and vulnerable children face. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood and we enable children to prepare for and respond to crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

For over 85 years, we have rallied other determined optimists to transform the lives of all children in more than 80 countries.

We won’t stop until we are all equal.

The Opportunity 

The Protection Specialist will provide strategic leadership, technical expertise, and overall coordination for stand alone, integrated and mainstreamed protection programming, with a particular focus on Child Protection (CP) and Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in both humanitarian and development contexts. The position will play a critical role in strengthening the organization’s protection portfolio by ensuring that programs effectively prevent, mitigate, and respond to protection risks faced by children, adolescents, women, and other vulnerable populations, including internally displaced persons (IDPs), refugees, returnees, and host communities.

The role will be responsible for designing, guiding, and ensuring the quality implementation of protection interventions that align with international standards and best practices, including the Child Protection Minimum Standards (CPMS), Inter-Agency GBV Minimum Standards, humanitarian protection principles, safeguarding policies, and gender equality and inclusion frameworks. The Protection Specialist will ensure that protection programs are evidence-based, rights-based, survivor-centered, and child-sensitive, and that they address both immediate protection needs and the underlying factors that increase vulnerability to abuse, exploitation, neglect, and violence.

The Individual 

• Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Sociology, Psychology, Gender Studies, Law, Human Rights, Political Science, or other relevant social science fields (Master’s degree preferred).
• Minimum 5 years of progressive professional experience out of which 3 years on a senior level experience
•  in protection programming, including Child Protection and/or Gender-Based Violence in humanitarian or development contexts.
• Demonstrated experience in designing protection strategies, developing project proposals, and leading protection interventions.
• Proven experience providing technical guidance and capacity building to program teams, partners, and government stakeholders.
• Experience working with government institutions, UN agencies, NGOs, and humanitarian coordination mechanisms at national or sub-national levels.
• Experience in needs assessments, program monitoring, and evaluation within protection programming.
• Demonstrated experience in training facilitation, workshop organization, and mentoring of staff and partners.
• Experience working with major humanitarian donors and understanding donor compliance and reporting requirements.
• Strong ability to work effectively in complex, multi-cultural, and fast-paced humanitarian environments, including willingness to travel frequently to field locations.

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITY:

• Strong knowledge of child protection and gender-based violence issues in humanitarian and development contexts.
• Good understanding of international protection frameworks and standards, including CPMS, GBV Minimum Standards, safeguarding, and protection principles.
• Ability to analyze protection-related data and contextual trends and translate findings into programmatic recommendations.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills with the ability to plan and prioritize in complex environments.
• Strong proposal development, report writing, and documentation skills.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and facilitation skills, including experience delivering trainings and workshops.
• Proven ability to build and maintain effective partnerships with government institutions, humanitarian actors, and community stakeholders.
• Ability to mentor and provide technical support to program teams and partners.
• Capacity to manage multiple tasks and meet deadlines in demanding and fast-paced settings.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively in multicultural and multidisciplinary teams.
• Willingness to travel to remote field locations including refugee camps often for extended periods depending on need
• Commitment to and understanding of Plan International’s strategic ambition, aims, values and principles including rights-based programming approaches

Please click here Full Job Description

Safeguarding Children and Program Participants (Safeguarding) and Gender Equality and Inclusion (GEI)

• Understands and puts into practice the responsibilities under Safeguarding and GEI policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), ensuring that concerns are reported and managed per the appropriate procedures.
• Ensures that all staff in the unit/function/department are properly inducted on and understand their role in upholding Plan International’s safeguarding and GEI policies;
• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in day-to-day work.
• Ensures that Plan Ethiopia contributes to Plan International’s global efforts to ensure safe guarding and GEI, including making sure that relevant reporting and data are submitted.

Location: Addis Ababa, Country Office

Type of Role: Fixed term Contract 

Reports to: Thematic Lead – Protection Sector

Closing Date: April 05, 2026

Equality, diversity and inclusion is at the very heart of everything that Plan International stands for.

We want Plan International to reflect the diversity of the communities we work with, offering equal opportunities to everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Plan International is based on a culture of inclusivity and we strive to create a workplace environment that ensures every team, in every office, in every country, is rich in diverse people, thoughts, and ideas.

We foster an organisational culture that embraces our commitment to racial justice, gender equality, girls’ rights and inclusion.

Plan International believes that in a world where children face so many threats of harm, it is our duty to ensure that we, as an organisation, do everything we can to keep children safe. This means that we have particular responsibilities to children that we come into contact with and we must not contribute in any way to harming or placing children at risk.

A range of pre-employment checks will be undertaken in conformity with Plan International's Safeguarding Children and Young People policy. Plan International also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. In line with this scheme we will request information from applicants previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms their understanding of these recruitment procedures.

Please note that Plan International will never send unsolicited emails requesting payment from candidates.