Director, Safeguarding, Girl Up

Title: Director, Safeguarding, Girl Up

Supervisor: Co-CEO and Chief Program Officer, Girl Up

Employment Status: Full-time

Application deadline: Friday, September 4, 2026

This position description is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for performance of the position responsibilities. It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of essential functions, responsibilities or requirements nor meant to exclude other duties as assigned.

ABOUT GIRL UP
Founded in 2010, Girl Up develops transformative leaders who advance gender justice worldwide. Through evidence-based training, resources, and community, we equip youth with the skills to organize, advocate, and drive social change across issues like education, climate justice, gender-based violence, and reproductive health. Today, Girl Up supports a global network of 430,000+ youth leaders in 155 countries and all 50 U.S. states, with a bold goal to reach 1 million girls by 2030. Girl Up is fiscally sponsored by Global Fund for Children (GFC), aligning with their mission to shift power to youth-led and locally rooted organizations.

POSITION OVERVIEW
Girl Up seeks a Director of Safeguarding to lead the organization's global safeguarding strategy and strengthen a culture of care, resilience, safety, and youth engagement across our worldwide network. Reporting to the Co-CEO & Chief Program Officer and serving as a member of Girl Up's Extended Leadership Team, the Director will be responsible for designing, implementing, and continuously improving safeguarding systems that protect youth, staff, and all community members while preserving the leadership, ingenuity, and advocacy that are central to Girl Up's mission. This role will serve as Girl Up's primary safeguarding expert and will partner across programs, operations, and partnerships to embed a strong safeguarding culture across the organization to ensure safeguarding practices are youth-centered and aligned with Girl Up's feminist and decolonizing values and Global Fund for Children's safeguarding requirements. Girl Up is committed to building safeguarding systems that are protective, humane, and enabling—not punitive or restrictive. We are particularly interested in candidates who can hold structure and flexibility, protection and freedom, accountability and care, especially within youth-led and advocacy-driven spaces.

The Director will work collaboratively across global and regional teams to ensure that safeguarding, wellbeing, and belonging are integrated throughout the Girl Up experience.

This is a remote position.

COMPENSATION AND REWARDS
Girl Up provides a full employee package, including financial compensation and other benefits according to company policy and national laws. Girl Up is committed to offering wages that are competitive locally by striving to be in the top quarter of employers with the same type of work and the same operating budget size. The annual compensation range for the position is based on the role’s level and candidate’s location, in line with Girl Up’s global reward structure. Girl Up also offers flexible work arrangements and prioritizes staff wellbeing as part of our global culture of care.

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential function satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Strategic Leadership & Organizational Culture

• Serve as Girl Up's organizational lead on safeguarding and wellbeing.
• Serve as a member of the Extended Leadership Team, contributing to organizational strategy and advising Executive Team on organizational risks, emerging trends, and best practices.
• Foster a culture of safety, resilience, wellbeing, and shared responsibility across the organization.
• Partner with Global Fund for Children colleagues to ensure alignment with safeguarding requirements and expectations.
• Integrate safeguarding considerations into organizational planning, partnerships, programs, events, and youth engagement.
• Ensure Girl Up is meeting all its legal obligations and regulatory requirements for Safeguarding

Safeguarding Systems & Policy Development

• Lead the development, implementation, and ongoing refinement of Girl Up's safeguarding framework.
• Maintain and strengthen safeguarding culture through policies, codes of conduct, reporting mechanisms, response procedures, and other tools as necessary,
• Ensure safeguarding approaches are trauma-informed, survivor-centered, culturally responsive for a global network, and developmentally appropriate for a youth-led movement.
• Develop and implement robust safeguarding mechanisms and protocols for Girl Ups online work including networking platforms and social media.
• Develop, and manage, a safeguarding risk register, ensuring that this feeds into the GFC Safeguarding Risk Register.

Incident Response & Risk Management

• Serve as the primary point of contact for safeguarding concerns.
• Lead intake, assessment, documentation, escalation, and response processes.
• Coordinate internal and external stakeholders involved in safeguarding matters, including legal counsel, investigators, GFC colleagues, and partner organizations when appropriate.
• Ensure safeguarding responses prioritize safety, dignity, confidentiality, and accountability.
• Maintain a confidential record of all safeguarding incidents, producing an anonymised annual report that highlights patterns and key learning, ensuring that this informs future practice.

Capacity Building, Monitoring & Learning

• Develop and deliver safeguarding training for staff, youth leaders, volunteers, funders, partners, and other stakeholders.
• Ensure staff are aware of their responsibilities around safeguarding through safeguarding induction for all new staff and consultants.
• Provide coaching and support to managers and staff navigating safeguarding concerns and complex situations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to strengthen the overall youth experience by creating learning resources that strengthen safeguarding knowledge across Girl Up's global network.
• Support organizational assessments, audits, and compliance reviews; prepare safeguarding reports for leadership and external stakeholders and make recommendations accordingly.

Organizational Culture

• Uphold the values of Girl Up: Youth Centered, Global, Feminist, and Decolonizing.
• Actively contribute to making Girl Up a diverse and equitable workplace through anti-racist and inclusive practice and commitment to listening to and learning about different perspectives, cultures, and ideas.
• Maintain behavior and conduct which uphold the highest standards for safeguarding.

QUALIFICATIONS
The qualifications listed below are representative of the knowledge, skills, and/or behavior required to be successful in this role.

Skills and Competencies

• 10–15+ years of professional experience in safeguarding, child protection, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), gender-based violence prevention, youth protection, or related fields.
• Significant experience designing and implementing safeguarding systems, policies, and procedures.
• Experience managing safeguarding concerns, investigations, and incident response processes.
• Experience leading teams and supervising staff.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, and adapt within fast-paced environments.
• Experience working within international, multicultural, or global boards, donors, and international partners.
• Experience supporting organizations through periods of growth, transition, or organizational change.
• Demonstrated success building organizational capacity through training, coaching, and systems development.
• Strong judgment, discretion, and ability to navigate sensitive situations with professionalism and care.
• · Excellent written and verbal communication skills; fluency in a language besides English is a plus.

Desired Behaviors

• Passionate about supporting the leadership, voice, and collective power of girls and youth activists globally.
• Collaborative and relationship-oriented, with the ability to work effectively across cultures, regions, and time zones.
• Proactive, resourceful, and solutions-oriented in navigating operational challenges.
• Demonstrates care, accountability, and sound judgment when working with youth communities and sensitive information.
• Committed to equity, inclusion, anti-racist practice, and continuous learning.
• Aligns with Girl Up’s values as a youth-centered, feminist, global, and decolonizing organization.
• Passionate in amplifying the leadership, voice, and potential of girls.
• Proactive collaborator who thrives in fast-paced, high-impact environments.

Girl Up strives to be an inclusive organization and encourages applications from under-represented and intersectional groups including BIPOC, LGBTQ+ and persons with disabilities. We are seeking people with different backgrounds, cultures, ages, experiences and identities to provide a wide range of experience, ideas, views and insights into the strategy, policies, culture and ambitions of Girl Up. In addition, we know that strong candidates may not meet every single qualification listed. If you are passionate about advancing gender justice and believe your skills and experiences would help you thrive in this role, we encourage you to apply.