We’re looking for a Melbourne-based senior humanitarian generalist with sharp thinking, creative energy and extensive networks to lead our work across evaluation, design, research and influence. This is a rare opportunity to work with a values-driven team to elevate local leadership and shape the future of the humanitarian system.

• Supportive environment with flexible and remote work and opportunity for international travel.
• Contribute to a culture of curiosity, creativity and community.
• Work with a wide range of partners and clients to address critical challenges in how communities are supported during crises.

Who we are

Humanitarian Advisory Group (HAG) is a Melbourne based social enterprise that generates thinking, evidence and new approaches to enhance how we deliver support to disaster-affected communities. As an ethically driven business, we are a values-driven team who work on a range of exciting and leading-edge issues.

We pride ourselves for being ridiculously flexible and supporting our staff to achieve the best outcomes possible. You will be working 5 days a week (4 days remotely with 1 day a week spent with the rest of the team in our CBD office). The key responsibilities for this role are as follows:

• Provide leadership for our monitoring, evaluation and learning practice, boosting impact, ensuring rigour, relevance and innovation, including direct involvement in designing MEL frameworks, conducting evaluations, and authoring analytical outputs
• Support/Lead humanitarian programme design and advisory work, ensuring our inputs are forward thinking, locally-rooted and policy-relevant.
• Drive business development through identifying opportunities, nurturing partnerships and translating the relevance of our work for other sectors and clients.
• Lead research initiatives including design and implementation, managing teams, ensuring quality outputs and disseminating findings broadly.
• Serve as a member of the leadership team, contributing to organisational strategy, culture, quality, and sustainability.

Detail of the key areas or responsibilities are:

Monitoring, evaluation and learning

• Enhance and oversee HAG’s overarching monitoring, evaluation and learning portfolio, including direct authorship of evaluation reports and analytical narratives.
• Manage client relationships, planning, and delivery of services under HAG’s M&E support projects.
• Lead evaluations of humanitarian programmes and reflections on our own impact.
• Ensure learning loops to embed reflection, adaptation, and continuous improvement into programmes and processes (both for clients and internally for HAG).
• Champion localisation and inclusive approaches in MEL ensuring that local partners and practitioners are meaningfully engaged in data generation, analysis, learning and dissemination.
• Carry out data analysis, synthesise findings, and produce high-quality written outputs.

Humanitarian programme design

• Design of innovative and rigorous methodologies to inform the development of humanitarian programme design
• Embedding HAG’s priority areas of locally led humanitarian response, greening, protection and inclusion into humanitarian programme design
• Lead concept development, design workshops, theory of change, and MEL frameworks for humanitarian programmes (emergency response, disaster risk reduction, localisation, greening, protection, etc).
• Provide technical leadership and thought-partnership to clients, donors and partner organisations.
• Maintain awareness of sector trends (e.g., localisation, greening the humanitarian system, civil-military coordination, digital humanitarian response) and incorporate into HAG’s design work.

Business development and sustainability

• Identify new funding streams (government, multilateral, private sector, philanthropic) aligned with HAG’s values and strategy, through concept development and evidence-based proposals.
• Cultivate partnerships with universities, humanitarian agencies and local organisations in Asia-Pacific and beyond.
• Lead preparation of high-quality proposals, bids and concept notes.
• Support contract management and ensure projects are delivered to budget, on time and to the highest quality.

Influence and impact

• Translate research, evaluation and advisory findings into compelling reports, policy briefs, blogs, podcasts or events.
• Represent HAG at conferences, public forums, webinars and media as needed.
• Support the communications team to raise HAG’s profile, networks and influence in the humanitarian sector.

Research and project leadership

• Support delivery of research portfolio and dissemination.
• Drive flagship studies or thematic deep-dives on issues such as local leadership, gender equality, disability and social inclusion (GEDSI), and humanitarian system reform.
• Mentor junior researchers and build capacity across the team and within partner networks.

Selection Criteria

Essential

• 10+ years of relevant experience in humanitarian or international development contexts, including MEL, programme design, research and/or business development.
• Demonstrated track record of leading multidisciplinary teams and delivering high-quality outputs (evaluations, research, proposals, programmes).
• Strong business development skills and experience in identifying and securing funding opportunities.
• Excellent research and analytical skills, including the ability to design studies, interpret data, produce accessible outputs.
• Exceptional communication skills, being able to write a technical, yet accessible, report and also being able to learn from disaster affected communities.
• Understanding of key current humanitarian issues particularly localisation, greening, GEDSI, civil-military coordination, protection, emerging technology.
• Commitment to inclusive practice, especially valuing voices of local actors, embedded learning and equity in partnerships.
• Willingness to travel internationally and work across time-zones.

Desirable

• Post-graduate qualification in international development, humanitarian action, evaluation, monitoring or related field.
• Experience working with DFAT programmes and processes.
• Experience working in Asia-Pacific/remote and fragile contexts.
• Established networks in humanitarian research, MEL, policy and practice.
• Familiarity with digital tools for monitoring, data management and communications.
• Experience working in or with social enterprises and ethically driven organisations.

HAG encourages people who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, are from a non-English speaking background, LGBTIQ+ or have a disability to apply. All applications will be de-identified.

Please visit our website for further information about our work https://humanitarianadvisorygroup.org

A position description is attached.