Director, Safeguarding and Child Protection

Role at a glance

• Job title: Director, Safeguarding and Child Protection

• Reports to: Global Director, Member Support (a member of the Senior Management Team)

• Team: Double reporting line to five safeguarding staff based in our five regional offices and work supported by a volunteer team of more than 50 WOSM Consultants worldwide

• Location: Kuala Lumpur Support Centre, Malaysia 

• Contract: Full-time role, with a three-year renewable contract

• Travel: A minimum of 4 travels per year should be expected 

• Languages: English essential. French, Spanish or Arabic an advantage.

About World Scouting

In this role you will join World Scouting, one of the world's largest and most influential youth education movements. With a presence in communities across the globe, Scouting empowers young people to develop the skills, values, and confidence they need to create positive change in their lives and the world around them.

At the heart of Scouting is a powerful mission to contribute to the education of young people through a values-based approach grounded in the Scout Promise and Law, helping to build a better world where young people and volunteers can thrive and make meaningful contributions to society.

Today, World Scouting is a global membership network of 176 National Scout Organizations, representing more than 60 million Scouts worldwide. Supported by over 5 million dedicated adult volunteers, our movement reaches young people in more than 1 million local Scout groups across diverse cultures and communities.

What makes Scouting unique is our grassroots, youth-led approach. Through peer-to-peer learning and leadership, supported by committed adult volunteers, young people are encouraged to explore, grow, and lead. While every local Scout group adapts its activities to meet the needs of its community, all are united by a shared set of values and a common educational method that inspires personal development, active citizenship, and service to others.

As an independent, global, non-profit and non-partisan organisation, World Scouting supports and strengthens the Scout Movement around the world. By fostering collaboration among National Scout Organizations, promoting shared values, and advancing the growth and development of Scouting, we enable millions of young people become leaders and changemakers in their communities and beyond.

The World Scout Bureau (WSB) serves as the secretariat of World Scouting. Together with approximately 140 staff members from more than 40 countries, you will work as one global team, committed to supporting our worldwide membership from seven locations worldwide:

• Belgium, Brussels (Europe Support Centre)

• Egypt, Cairo (Arab Support Centre)

• Kenya, Nairobi (Africa Support Centre)

• Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (Global Support Centre)

• Panama, Panama City (Interamerica Support Centre)

• Philippines, Makati City (Asia-Pacific Support Centre)

• Switzerland, Geneva (Europe and Global Support Centre)

Why this role exists now

Safeguarding at World Scouting has changed shape over the past decade. What began as one strand of our work on volunteering is now a function in its own right, with its own staff, volunteers, standards, training and support. Meeting minimum safeguarding standards is today a constitutional membership requirement of World Scouting, not an aspiration.

The foundations are in place, but we need to focus on what comes next.

• Close gaps in compliance across the membership, ensuring that safeguarding requirements are understood, applied, and monitored more consistently. This is one of the clearest measures of success for this area of work.

• Embedding Safeguarding at every level of Scouting rather than being seen as a separate exercise or additional requirement, it must be integrated into decision-making, events, education, member support, volunteer engagement, and organisational practice.

• We are in an evolving landscape with new and emerging risks, particularly in online and digital spaces, requiring stronger anticipation, guidance, and organisational readiness.

• We have more to learn from outside Scouting. World Scouting also has an opportunity to learn from expertise beyond the Movement, including statutory agencies, sport, other youth movements, research, and organisations with relevant safeguarding practice.

This role exists to connect these priorities and lead the next phase of safeguarding development, ensuring that safeguarding is not seen as an obstacle to Scouting, but as the foundation that makes safe, positive, and high-quality Scouting possible.

What you will do

1.Set the strategy

• Lead World Scouting’s safeguarding strategy: Lead the ongoing development and prioritisation of this important area and make the case for it to senior leadership and to our governing bodies.

• Turn our long-term ambition, that every young person and adult in Scouting has a safe experience, into a plan with stated outcomes, timescales and measures.

• Help define where the safeguarding portfolio should evolve, stop or refocus

2. Own the standards and drive compliance

• Own the safeguarding standards member organisations are assessed against, and the assessment process itself. Keep both current and proportionate.

• Drive measurable improvement in the number of members who meet the standards. Set the targets, and hold the organisation accountable to them.

• Make sure assessments are applied consistently across all five regions and that decisions can withstand external scrutiny.

• Guide and provide leadership to the volunteer panels in each region that review members’ assessments, so their judgements are consistent, evidenced and well-founded.

3. Oversee cases and event safety

• Own the system by which safeguarding concerns reach World Scouting and are addressed.

• Make sure cases escalated to World Scouting are handled promptly and professionally, and in a way that puts the safety and wellbeing of the person harmed first.

• Oversee safeguarding procedures at our largest international events: the risk assessment, the on-site arrangements, the reporting routes available to participants, and the rules about which cases we hold centrally and which return to the national organisation.

• Make sure what we learn from cases changes what we do, so that case data shapes our strategy, standards and training where appropriate.

4. Lead the team and the volunteer network

• Lead the five safeguarding staff based in our regional support centres. They take professional and technical direction from you, whilst their day-to-day line manager is based in the Region.

• Set objectives, standards of practice and development plans for the team, and hold a consistent bar across the team.

• Lead the recruitment, induction and development of the volunteers who deliver safeguarding work, the regional panel members, and the volunteer consultants who run tailored support and deliver capacity building with member organisations.

• Own the safeguarding budget, and influence member organisations to resource safeguarding properly in their own structures.

5. Build capability across the membership

• Decide, in coordination with the regional support centres, what support member organisations need, based on evidence, and design the support offer accordingly.

• Own the quality of our safeguarding guidance, training and resources: ensuring it is current, usable in several languages, and workable in very different legal and cultural settings.

• Make sure expertise is available where it is needed.

6. Stay ahead of emerging risk

• Lead our thinking on risks that are changing quickly: online grooming and abuse, image-based abuse and AI-generated material, harmful sexual behaviour between young people, and harm that happens outside the home; at camps, in scout groups, and online.

• Bring in evidence and practice from outside Scouting, and translate it into something our members can act on.

7. Advise governance and represent World Scouting

• Serve as subject matter expert to our Senior Management Team, to the World Scout Committee (our elected governing body) and to its subcommittees.

• Report to governance bodies, partners and donors, ensuring that our governance bodies know where standards are being met, where they are not, what the trends are, and what is being done about it.

• Represent World Scouting with funders, safeguarding bodies and peer organisations on the topic of safeguarding.

What we are looking for

We are interested in what you have built and led, regardless of how many years it took you or which degree you hold. Our recruitment approach is competency-based, which means we look for evidence of how you apply your skills, knowledge, and experience to real challenges, as well as your openness to learning and continuous development.

Safeguarding and child protection expertise.

Assessed at application and interview

• Strong knowledge and expertise in safeguarding and child protection, gained in practical experience in areas such as social work, education, statutory services, regulation, sport, or an international organisation.

• Experience developing, strengthening, or implementing safeguarding systems, standards or policy at an organisational level.

• Strong experience overseeing the handling of serious or sensitive safeguarding cases, using sound judgement to assess risks, interpret standards, advise on difficult situations, and recommend proportionate action.

Working in a global matrix structure and across cultures

Assessed at application and interview

• Ability to work in complex organisations where decisions depend on coordination, influence, and alignment across different teams, levels, or stakeholders.

• Experience leading professionals you do not directly line manage and who are based in different geographic locations.

• Experience contributing to work that requires both strategic thinking and practical implementation.

• Demonstrated ability to translate safeguarding standards, evidence and technical guidance into practical tools, support and implementation approaches across very different legal systems, cultures and levels of resource, and to adapt a global standard to local reality without lowering it.

Leadership and Influence

Assessed at application and interview

• Experience providing expert technical guidance and professional direction to colleagues, volunteers, consultants, specialists, or partners who may not be directly line managed by you.

• Ability to influence, guide, and support others to apply standards and improve practice, even where direct authority is limited.

• Experience working collaboratively with senior stakeholders, technical experts, volunteers, or governance structures.

• Ability to strengthen the connections between standards, assessment, compliance, reporting, learning, training, events and member support to improve consistency and accountability,

Communication and judgement

Assessed at application and interview

• Fluent to written and spoken English. Working knowledge of French, Spanish or Arabic is an advantage.

• Sound judgement when dealing with sensitive, complex, or ambiguous situations.

• Ability to prepare clear guidance, advice, reports, or recommendations that support decision-making and action.

• Ability to explain complex and sensitive issues clearly to non-specialist audiences.

Useful, but not essential

• Experience in a membership-based, federated or volunteer-led organisation.

• Experience supporting safeguarding at large-scale events.

• A relevant qualification in safeguarding, child protection, social work, law, psychology, education or a related field; or a recognised professional safeguarding certification.

How we work

At the World Scout Bureau, we work with a core competency framework aligned with our values. These competencies will be assessed during the recruitment process, together with the technical competencies and requirements outlined above.

• Members Support. You keep building your own knowledge and skills so that the support we give members and stakeholders keeps getting better.

• Focus on results. You take personal responsibility for delivering your responsibilities on time and to a high quality standard.

• Flexibility and persistence. You adjust as conditions change, and you keep going when things get difficult.

• Leadership and decision-making. You think clearly and creatively, and you support others motivate and commit to achieve organisational goals.

• Interpersonal relations. You listen intently and handle difficult conversations diplomatically. You build strong relationships with staff, volunteers and stakeholders outside the organisation, across cultures and countries.

• Collaboration work. You involve others building trust, sharing information, listening to different perspectives, and contributing actively to shared goals.

• Organisational Integrity. You understand the objectives and values of the organisation, and you take responsibility for your own conduct.

What expect and how to apply

This is a full-time, three-year contract based at the Kuala Lumpur Support Centre in Malaysia. The role requires regular in-person engagement with teams, partners, and stakeholders, and remote employment will not be considered for this position.

The remuneration package will be aligned with the seniority of the role and applicable Malaysian regulations. Full details of the salary and benefits package will be discussed during the final stages of the selection process.

The standard working week is 40 hours, Monday to Friday. Given the global nature of World Scouting and the responsibilities of this role, some evening and weekend work will be required as well as frequent travels.

Annual leave and public holiday entitlements will be provided in line with Malaysian law and the WSB Leave Policy. Relocation support will also be available for the successful candidate, where applicable.

We know that moving into a role like this is an important decision. Throughout the process, we will aim to give you the information you need to understand the role, the working arrangements, and the package before any final decision is made.

Applications must be submitted by 23:59 Kuala Lumpur time zone (GMT+8) on 30th August. Your application should include a curriculum vitae and career history, as well as contact information for up to three people who can provide references.

We encourage you to use the application questions to tell us not only what you have done, but what you have built, strengthened, influenced, or helped change in practice.*

*We recognise that AI tools may support your application, whether for brainstorming or structuring your thoughts, and we welcome that. However, job opportunities at the World Scout Bureau are content-driven leadership roles where original thinking and collaborative ideas are central to success. This will serve you best during both the application and interview stages. We encourage you to ensure your responses genuinely reflect your own perspectives and experiences, so we can better understand your unique voice, ideas, and approaches.

The World Scout Bureau is an equal opportunity employer and strongly believes in and practices diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are committed to creating an inclusive and diverse work environment where all qualified candidates receive equal consideration in applying for job opportunities and subsequent career advancement. Our employment practices are open to everyone regardless of race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or other protected characteristics. We believe that fostering an inclusive culture and embracing diverse perspectives strengthens innovation and growth within the World Scout Bureau. We encourage people of all backgrounds, including those from underrepresented communities, to apply for the job opportunities created and announced by the World Scout Bureau.