Senior Safeguarding & Ethics Officer in London

Location: Brighton/Hybrid (UK working only)

Contract type: Part time - 0.5 FTE

Salary: Circa £40,000 dependent on experience

Closing date: Sunday 19 April

About Itad

We are a global consultancy providing evidence, learning and strategy services to help solve complex challenges. We aim to build a more equitable, sustainable, and secure world by helping organisations use evidence to learn and take action. In fast-moving, complex environments, we create space to reflect, make sense of change, and enable informed decisions. Through evidence, insight, and learning, we unlock strategies for better performance and lasting change.

The role

The Senior Safeguarding & Ethics Officer provides senior specialist support to strengthen Itad's safeguarding and ethical practice across all consultancy work. The role focuses on high quality safeguarding risk management across the project lifecycle and advanced advisory support on both organisational ethics and the ethics of delivering our monitoring, evaluation, research and learning services.

Working in close collaboration with the Head of Safeguarding, the Global Safety & Security Manager (GSS), and the Safeguarding, Ethics & Data Committee (SEDC), HR, and project teams, the postholder ensures compliance, supports effective risk management, and contributes to the continuous improvement of systems, tools, and organisational capability.

Key Areas of Responsibility

• Safeguarding Risk Management (Approx. 75% of working time)
  • Implement Itad's safeguarding risk management approach across the project lifecycle, working closely with project teams and the Head of Safeguarding.
  • Review weekly bids from a safeguarding perspective, including signing off risk registers and advising on risk mitigation at project design stage.
  • Provide safeguarding inputs to proposals, including but not limited to, resource implications for budgets and tailoring guidance to client requirements and contextual needs.
  • Conduct safeguarding risk assessments, partner due diligence, risk mitigation plans, and pre-deployment briefings.
  • Support the management of live safeguarding issues, escalating complex or high-risk cases to the Head of Safeguarding and the SEDC.
  • Carry out supplier due diligence reviews and elevate non-compliant suppliers to SEDC.
  • Prepare and update safeguarding risk matrices for SEDC review.
  • Facilitate enhanced background checks for external personnel when required.
  • Contribute to safeguarding lesson learning across projects and share insights to improve organisational practice.
• Ethics of Evaluation & Organisational Ethics (Approx. 25% of working time)
  • Provide specialist ethics input during evaluation and research design, based on Itad's Code of Conduct and Ethics Principles, including ethical risk assessment, informed consent, equity considerations, and do no harm principles.
  • Review evaluation designs and fieldwork plans to identify ethical issues, especially when working with vulnerable or marginalised groups.
  • Support submissions to external ethics committees, such as Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).
  • Advise project teams on ethical dilemmas and responsible decision making throughout the project lifecycle.
  • Support the maintenance and refinement of Itad's organisational ethics policies, frameworks, tools, and templates.
  • Monitor emerging issues and good practice in organisational and evaluation ethics and advise the Head of Safeguarding on potential updates.
  • Contribute to learning reviews, and organisational reporting on ethics related risks and compliance.
  • Monitor our portfolio of bids and projects so that we can maintain a whole company overview of Safeguarding and Ethics risks, advise and monitor mitigations and escalating to SEDC as needed.
• Governance
  • Act as an active member of the SEDC, providing reporting and updates on safeguarding and ethics issues and supporting quality assurance.
• Systems & Process Improvement
  • Contribute to regular reviews of safeguarding and ethics procedures to ensure they remain clear, practical, and aligned with legal, contractual, and donor requirements.
  • Develop staff guidance, awareness materials, and communications to embed safeguarding and ethical practice.
  • Support preparation of quarterly ARRC and other governance reports.
  • Maintain and update relevant SharePoint content, tools, and training resources.
• Capacity Building & Organisational Support
  • Deliver training, inductions, and capacity building sessions for staff, project teams, and partners on safeguarding and ethical practice.
  • Support the coordination of the Safeguarding Focal Point (SFP) network, including organising refresher training and periodic check-ins.
  • Promote a culture of responsible, ethical, and safe working across the organisation.
  • Provide technical support to project teams dealing with live safeguarding and ethics issues.
• Coordination of External Providers
  • Liaise with external safeguarding and ethics providers on live cases, advisory support, and training.
  • Track utilisation of retainer hours and raise any issues with the Head of Safeguarding.
  • Support periodic review of external suppliers for suitability and quality.

Benefits

• A matched company pension up to 5% with a wide range of fund options.
• 26 days holiday per year, plus 3 flexible days and the option to purchase another 5 days, flexible bank holidays (you can take these whenever you wish) and the opportunity to buy holiday.
• Hybrid and flexible working from anywhere in the UK.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Itad Rewards: Offers up to 20% discount at over 100 UK retailers. There are savings on gym memberships, holidays, restaurants, cinemas, and an average of 5% discount on supermarkets.
• Discretionary bonus scheme.

If you’re enthusiastic about this opportunity but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every requirement, we encourage you to apply anyway and demonstrate how your experience is transferable. You may be just the right candidate.

We are committed to equality and inclusion to empower people both within our organisation and through our work. We know that employees with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences make us a more effective and innovative company and we therefore welcome and encourage applications from interested candidates regardless of age, sex, gender identity, disability, sexual orientation, race, religion, or belief.

We are not able to support a work permit for this role so candidates must already hold the right to live and work in the UK independently.

Please note, we will be interviewing candidates on a rolling basis, early applications are encouraged.