Plan International was founded over 75 years ago with a mission to promote and protect the rights of children. The organisation was set up by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge in 1937, with the original aim to provide food, accommodation and education to children whose lives had been disrupted by the Spanish Civil War. Langdon-Davies conceived the idea of a personal relationship between a child and a sponsor – a model that puts the child at the centre, and remains the core of what we do. Today, Plan International is a global organisation that is active in over 70 countries to advance children’s rights and equality for girls. Who We Are We work with communities around the world to end the cycle of poverty for children. We work with communities around the world to end the cycle of poverty for children. Founded over 70 years ago, Plan is a nearly $800 million organization often ranked among the top 10 international development agencies by reputation, size and scope. We work side-by-side with communities in 50 developing countries to end the cycle of poverty for children, developing solutions to ensure long-term sustainability. Our level of community engagement, long-term outlook and constant focus on the needs and priorities of children is unique among international development organizations. Our solutions are designed up-front to be owned by communities for generations to come and range from clean water and health care programs, to education projects and child protection initiatives. Community by community, Plan works to promise futures that are worthy of all children’s potential. Our Vision Our vision is of a world in which all children realize their full potential in societies that respect people’s rights and dignity. Our Mission Plan strives to achieve lasting improvements in the quality of life of vulnerable children in developing countries by: Enabling children, their families and their communities to meet basic needs and to increase their ability to participate in and benefit from their societies; Fostering relationships to increase understanding and unity among peoples of different cultures and countries; and Promoting the rights and interests of the world’s children.
We are seeking an experienced Humanitarian Needs Assessment Specialist to strengthen the quality, consistency and impact of needs assessments across our humanitarian portfolio.
In this highly dynamic role, you will support Country Offices to design and implement high-quality, principled humanitarian needs assessments in real time—ensuring Plan International is well positioned to design effective programmes, secure funding and respond to the needs of the most at-risk children, especially girls.
This role involves significant global travel and deployments to humanitarian crises, often at short notice.
Key Responsibilities
You will:
- Develop and maintain user-friendly tools, guidance and methodologies for rapid and multi-sectoral needs assessments.
- Ensure gender, child protection, disability inclusion and age considerations are central to all assessments, in line with Sphere and Core Humanitarian Standard requirements.
- Support Country Offices to deliver high-quality assessment reports suitable for donors, clusters and peer agencies.
- Design and deliver needs assessment training to build organisational capacity.
- Work closely with MERL and Digital teams to promote the use of digital data collection tools and alignment with monitoring and evaluation systems.
- Deploy to Country Offices (up to 4 months at a time) to directly support assessment design and implementation.
- Represent Plan International in inter-agency coordination forums, including IASC-related networks.
- Support fundraising, advocacy and influencing teams by translating assessment data into compelling insights and products.
- Strengthen alignment with donor requirements, including ECHO submissions during HIP cycles.
- Produce an annual global overview of assessments and emerging humanitarian trends.
- Ensure safeguarding, child protection, and gender equality policies are fully embedded in all areas of work.
About You
You are an experienced humanitarian professional who thrives in complex and fast-moving environments. You bring both technical expertise and a collaborative, capacity-building mindset.
Essential experience and skills:
- Extensive experience leading or supporting humanitarian needs assessments across diverse emergency contexts, including rapid-onset crises.
- Strong expertise in gender analysis and integrating protection and inclusion into assessments.
- Experience developing and delivering training.
- Familiarity with donor expectations and humanitarian standards (Sphere, CHS, CPMS, INEE).
- Experience using digital tools for data collection and analysis.
- Strong analytical, coordination and report-writing skills.
- Ability and willingness to deploy at short notice and work in challenging environments.
Desirable:
- Experience contributing to funding proposals or donor submissions.
- Experience developing advocacy or influencing messaging from assessment findings.
- Experience working with partner organisations.
- Fluency in English; French, Spanish or Arabic is an asset.
Working Conditions
This is a global, deployment-heavy role. You will spend approximately:
- 50% of your time in-country during the first year
- Up to 75% in subsequent years
Method of Application
Interested and qualified? Go to Plan International on jobs.plan-international.org to apply
