Senior Nutrition Advisor - Wasting

Save the Children UK is looking for a specialist in wasting treatment and prevention programming to join us as a Senior Nutrition Adviser (maternity cover) in our Hunger, Nutrition & Livelihoods team within our Global Impact group. In this role, you will provide high-level technical leadership, supporting both ongoing programmes and new innovations, guiding the strategic direction and quality of nutrition programmes, and working with country offices to deliver high-quality, evidence-based interventions that improve outcomes for children globally.

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children's unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the Team

Working as part of the Global Impact group, our Global Outcomes function catalyses positive change for children by driving influencing agendas and bringing knowledge, evidence, analysis and expertise to our partnerships, programmes and advocacy work. The Hunger, Nutrition & Livelihoods Team works as part of the Global Save the Children movement and the wider sector to drive long lasting systems changes at the global and country levels. We are committed to promoting inclusive and equitable solutions, amplifying the voices of children most affected by inequality, and prioritising locally led efforts for lasting change.

About the role

The Senior Nutrition Adviser is an exciting position leading Save the Children UK's work on the prevention and treatment of child wasting/acute malnutrition, providing leadership across the movement on complex assignments and projects, and contributing to overall strategy and policies. You will provide expert technical guidance to drive impactful programme design and evidence generation, and to policy and advocacy goals on child wasting / acute malnutrition. You will build and maintain strategic relationships with key decision-makers and partners, lead capacity strengthening for colleagues and partners, and champion equality, inclusion and the shifting power agenda.

In this role, you will:

• Provide senior technical leadership on the prevention and treatment of child wasting / acute malnutrition, supporting high-quality programme design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and learning across country offices and the wider movement.
• Ensure nutrition strategies and programmes are informed by the latest research, scientific evidence and learning, and that this evidence is effectively translated into policy and practice.
• Deliver high-level, tailored technical support to country offices managing complex nutrition programmes, both remotely and through in-country engagement.
• Lead the development, adaptation and use of evidence-based nutrition standards, guidance, tools and technical positions aligned with global best practice.
• Support the design and delivery of large-scale, high-impact nutrition programmes, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy, national policies and international standards.
• Represent Save the Children as a technical expert on child wasting and nutrition in global forums, technical working groups, partnerships and sector networks.
• Build and sustain strong relationships with donors, academic institutions, research partners and technical agencies to strengthen learning, influence and impact.
• Contribute to resource mobilisation through donor engagement, development of high-quality concept notes and funding proposals, and support to partnership strategies.
• Strengthen collaboration, innovation and learning across multidisciplinary teams and technical communities of practice.
• Build organisational nutrition capacity through mentoring, coaching and inclusive leadership, championing equality, inclusion and impact in all aspects of the work.

About you

To be successful, it is important that you have:

• Significant experience in programming and evidence generation on the treatment of child wasting.
• Experience working on the prevention of child wasting, including good understanding of the issue of post-treatment relapse.
• Substantial experience designing, leading and managing large-scale nutrition programmes in an international development context, including the treatment and prevention of child wasting.
• Awareness and ideally experience of approaches for the economic evaluation of prevention and treatment of child wasting / acute malnutrition.
• Able to strengthen evidence and learning uptake through analysis and collaboration.
• Able to support development of strategies to influence key stakeholders (partners, donors, policy makers) in the prevention and treatment of child wasting.
• Strong strategic, analytical and conceptual skills, with the ability to apply evidence to influence policy and practice at a senior level.
• Proven ability to build and sustain effective international partnerships, and to influence senior decision-makers, donors and policy stakeholders.
• Successful track record in developing high-value funding proposals, with strong monitoring, evaluation and learning approaches, budget oversight, grant management and donor reporting.
• Highly collaborative leader with strong interpersonal skills, able to convene diverse stakeholders, coach others and work through teams to deliver impact.
• Ideally an Internationally recognised postgraduate qualification in nutrition or a related field (e.g. MSc Public Health, Nutrition, or equivalent).

Please Note: We're happy to consider flexible working arrangements and welcome applications for this role on either a full-time or part-time basis.

Location & Ways of Working:

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but at times you will be required to come to your contracted office (usually between 2–4 days per month, depending on the needs of your role, team, or service). For many roles, this is likely to be the minimum required to deliver impact. This will be discussed and agreed with your manager/team and we encourage candidates to discuss our ways of working in more detail at interview stage. Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be 'Free to Be Me'. We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences - of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability - help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world.