Emergency Country Director, Global Surge

The Emergency Country Director, Global Surge leads all programs implemented in the assigned Country Program during an emergency. Responsible for leadership, supervisory management, program quality, resource stewardship, staff safety, performance management, and external representation in emergency contexts.

Responsibilities

• Lead the country program by maintaining open and professional relations with colleagues, promoting a strong team spirit, oversight, and resources to enable staff to perform successfully.
• Develop and carry out strategies that result in strong representation with government ministries, UN OCHA, donors, international organizations, NGOs, and networks.
• Ensure IRC remains a partner of choice for major international donors.
• Develop and maintain a high level of understanding of donor priorities and planned funding streams.
• Initiate and sustain strong, mutually beneficial and authentic partnerships with local organizations.
• Seek out and pursue opportunities to raise the profile of IRC and its partners.
• Play a leadership role in efforts to improve humanitarian coordination.
• Lead country program collaboration with colleagues to deliver regional programming and advocacy.
• Ensure leadership and management processes enable IRC to adapt to contextual changes and expand humanitarian access and assistance.
• Ensure the strategic vision and direction of the country program is aligned with IRC2020 for responsive, high-quality programming and resource securing.
• Ensure quality through rigorous assessment, design, proposal development, monitoring & evaluation, accountability, learning systems, staff development, and partner capacity strengthening.
• Remain current on national and regional issues impacting the country program and develop responsive strategies.
• Ensure SMT delivers leadership, management structures, staffing skills, and operational systems for a coherent ‘one IRC’ approach.
• Find opportunities for program expansion and growth supported by human resources acquisition and investment.
• Take primary responsibility for overall management of the country program.
• Oversee management of all security issues and emergency responses.
• Maintain a culture of safety including trainings and briefings for security incident prevention and response.
• Keep security, evacuation, and contingency plans current and accessible.
• Maintain close coordination with Regional Safety and Security Advisor.
• Oversee management, coaching, and development of national and international staff.
• Coach, train, supervise and mentor direct-report staff with clear expectations and performance feedback.
• Provide measurable development plans and career guidance.
• Hold regular meetings with direct reports.
• Approve and manage time, attendance and leave requests.
• Identify, train and develop national staff for role transition by end of assignment.
• Promote and monitor staff care and well-being.
• Support adherence to IRC HR policies and procedures.
• Work with regional HR staff on recruitment and retention strategies.
• Review labor and salary markets to enhance compensation competitiveness.
• Identify and monitor strategic, programmatic, operational, financial, safety, and compliance risks; escalate as needed.
• Drive operational excellence for efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
• Oversee financial and operational policies, procedures, and systems for compliance.
• Ensure appropriate support in HR, finance and supply chain.
• Provide oversight of financial position and budget monitoring.
• Seek opportunities to introduce efficiencies and eliminate redundancies.
• Model and encourage IRC Way – Global Standards for Professional Conduct.
• Maintain an empowering office environment with open communication.
• Maintain communication with regional management, technical advisors, and HQ staff.

Requirements

• Graduate degree in a relevant field preferred.
• At least 12 years of dynamically responsible international work experience, including leadership at the Country Director level of multi-site, multi-sectoral operations in a complex operating environment.
• Prior experience working within organizational structures in transition.
• Experience working in conflict/post-conflict or disaster response situation.
• Professional fluency in written and spoken English.
• Working knowledge of French, Arabic, and/or Spanish is strongly preferred.
• Experience managing security in a complex and rapidly changing security context.
• Confirmed ability to negotiate and work with partner organizations.
• Experience with organizational capacity strengthening and partnership building is helpful.
• Strong budget and fiscal oversight capacities.
• Extensive representation and fundraising success, including prior experience with European, US and international donors.
• Established capacity to handle stressful situations in a healthy, constructive manner.
• Ability to respond to multiple priorities in a timely manner, producing high-quality outcomes.
• Proficiency with the Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
• Working knowledge of file sharing protocols such as Dropbox, SharePoint, etc., an advantage.
• Experience building personal networks at a senior level, resulting in securing new opportunities for the organization.
• Demonstrated successful leadership and management experience with multi-disciplinary teams in cross-cultural settings, including active mentoring and coaching.
• Effective in developing high-potential staff to achieve career growth and maximum contribution.
• Confirmed experience delivering suitable levels of oversight of a portfolio consisting of a variety of complex, high-value donor-funded projects.
• Opportunity-awareness.
• A successful innovative approach to unpredictable programming, operational, and funding contexts.
• Ability to dispassionately represent program context, constraints, and successes to media, government, and other senior audiences.

Skills

• Country Program Leadership
• Multi-sectoral Operations Management
• Conflict and Disaster Response
• Security Management
• Partner Negotiation
• Organizational capacity building
• Budget Oversight
• Fiscal Management
• Fundraising
• Donor Relations
• MS Word
• MS Excel
• MS PowerPoint
• Microsoft Outlook
• File Sharing Protocols
• Senior Networking
• Cross-cultural Team Management
• Coaching and Mentoring
• Donor-funded Project Oversight
• Program Representation
• Emergency Programme Management

Languages

English, French, Arabic, Spanish