Landing a role at UNICEF has long been a career goal for many development professionals, but how realistic is it in the sector’s current recruitment landscape?
In this edition of Career Hub, I’m sharing what we learned from our latest job board data analysis, which examined thousands of UNICEF job postings from last year. Plus, the best new job opportunities on Devex’s board from the Palladium Group, UNOPS, and other leading organizations.
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Top full-time staff jobs this week
1. Account Manager (PR and Strategic Communications)
Newton Street
United States (remote)
2. Project Officer, GGSP-CALAO
TradeMark Africa Limited
Côte d’Ivoire
3. Careers Pathway Officer
DT Global
Nauru
4. Program Manager
The Schmidt Family Foundation
United States
5. Humanitarian Data Analyst
The Palladium Group
United Kingdom
6. Finance Officer
UNOPS
Worldwide (remote)
Devex Talent Solutions, our boutique recruitment agency, is assisting the Sustainable Agriculture Network in its search for a strategic and results-driven corporate engagement director to lead private-sector partnership expansion and revenue growth. This is a remote opportunity, and the application is open until April 24.
+ See more roles DTS is helping to fill.
Data download: Hiring at UNICEF
As part of our ongoing coverage of global development employment trends, we took a closer look at UNICEF’s hiring activity in 2025, including the top locations and sectors the agency recruited for, as well as the salaries offered.
Coming off a year when it led all development organizations in job postings on Devex’s board in 2024, UNICEF — like many other multilaterals — significantly cut back recruitment amid an uncertain funding climate. Here are a few key figures from our recent job board data analysis.
50% fewer jobs posted in 2025. UNICEF posted 3,484 vacancies between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2025, compared to 7,038 during the same period in 2024. Despite the decrease, the total still accounted for the third-most postings among global development employers in 2025.
79% of roles were short-term contracts. Across the board, short-term assignments dominated, including those advertised by UNICEF country offices. This was also the case in 2024, when 64% of jobs offered short-term contracts.
$95,801 average maximum salary. Across job postings, the average annual pay in 2025 ranged from $69,142 to $95,801, reflecting a decrease of about 13% from the previous year’s average of $79,113 to $103,763.
Read more: A UNICEF jobs guide — the roles it hired for in 2025 and what it paid (Career)
Top consulting and short-term jobs
1. Senior Officer, Financing Partnerships
Gates Foundation
United Kingdom
2. Manager, Programs and Business Development
Opportunity International Canada
Canada (remote)
3. Regional Fundraising Adviser — MENA region
Terre Des Hommes
Jordan
4. Individual Consultant — Growth Manager, Africa
Digital Green
Kenya | Nigeria (remote)
5. Associate Investment Officer, Financial Institutions
International Finance Corporation
Brazil
6. Individual Consultant: Senior Philanthropy Consultant
The Nature Conservancy
United States (remote)
+ For more opportunities, check out the weekly Devex Jobs Alert newsletter on LinkedIn and the job board.
Post-USAID pivots: Back to entrepreneurship
“I'm back to being an entrepreneur, not because I decided I wanted to be an entrepreneur, but because it's actually a lot easier to create a job than to get a job in this market.”
— Siobhan Green, chief finance officer, Fenix DigitalBefore Siobhan Green spent two years as a senior digital development adviser with the U.S. Agency for International Development, she ran her own small consultancy for 15 years, providing technology services to the United Nations, the federal government, and USAID.
After being laid off from what she called her dream job in the agencywide cuts of 2025, she leaned on her network of former colleagues from USAID’s office of digital technology, who kept in touch about the difficulties of job seeking and what was happening in the sector.
Faced with a highly competitive job market — and recognizing there was still domestic and international demand for the digital services and deep technical expertise they’d built — a group of them started exploring the idea of launching something on their own.
Of those who went on to launch Fenix Digital, some had spent their careers in government, while others, including Green, had experience running a business. “Without that hands-on small business experience, I don't think we would have gotten as far as we have,” she says.
Read more: How a former USAID staffer returned to entrepreneurship (Career)
Download: Post-USAID pivots — how the agency’s ex-workforce is moving forward (Career)
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Around the watercooler
News and views from around global development worth knowing about.
UN Women–UNFPA merger? A proposed merger between UN Women and UNFPA is stirring debate as a new U.N. analysis maps the agencies’ overlap and differences.
Human Rights Watch’s new chief is a familiar face. After years of shaping Human Rights Watch from the inside, Philippe Bolopion returns to lead the organization at a moment he calls a “perfect storm” for human rights.
U.S. signs on to IDB capital increase. IDB Invest, the Inter-American Development Bank’s private sector arm, is poised to activate a $3.5 billion capital increase, with the U.S. submitting a legally binding commitment to participate.
Sign up to Devex Career Hub for global development’s top jobs, expert career advice, and practical tips to help you do more good for more people.
About the author
Justin Sablich
Justin is a contributing writer and editor who previously led Devex’s careers content strategy. Before joining Devex, Justin served as the managing editor of Springwise, covering sustainable and climate-tech innovation across all business sectors. He also spent over 13 years as an editor and writer for the New York Times, specializing in digital content production and strategy while producing written and multimedia content on a range of topics, including travel, sports, and technology.
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