Senior Operations Coordinator

The Senior Operations Coordinator supports the Country Director in leading and improving IRC Yemen’s Operations functions, including Supply Chain, Administration, ICT, and Field Coordination, ensuring effective support to programs, partners, compliance, and office operations. The role involves managing multi-sectoral operations in a complex environment and providing leadership to a multi-disciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Supports the development and implementation of comprehensive supply chain strategies, including procurement, warehousing, transportation, and distribution, to support the operation and program activities.
• Monitors and evaluates supply chain performance, identifying opportunities for improvement and implementing best practices to enhance efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and accountability.
• Coordinates with internal stakeholders, external partners, and relevant authorities to ensure compliance with donor requirements, local regulations, as per the IRC standards and policies.
• Supports coordination with partners by the supply chain team.
• Promotes and ensures compliant use of IRC equipment and communication resources, including adherence to BIS licenses, confidentiality, and storage of data and similar.
• Leads the planning, implementation, and maintenance of IT infrastructure and systems to support the operational needs of the organization, including hardware, software, networks, and telecommunications.
• Ensures the security, reliability, and scalability of IT systems, implementing robust cybersecurity measures and disaster recovery plans.
• Provides technical guidance and support to staff, ensuring proper utilization of IT resources and adherence to IRC IT policies and procedures.
• Establishes and maintains robust data management systems and processes to collect, analyze, and disseminate information critically to operational decision-making.
• Oversee data collection, storage, and analysis activities, ensuring data quality, accuracy, and integrity in accordance with organizational standards and ethical guidelines.
• Works with CD, DDP and Field Coordinators to identify opportunities for program expansion and support Field Office operations setup where applicable.
• Serves as point person for operational support to programs and in coordination with the DDP, provides strategic leadership to overall programming that is responsive to people’s needs in the designated area of operations.
• Works with the Field Coordinators, Program Managers and relevant field teams during the preparatory work, assessments, technical requirements, and selection of external entities in support of specific projects/program.
• Promotes strong linkages and exchanges between operations and programming teams, including in the field and other offices, to ensure the sharing of standard methodologies and expertise.
• Provides added support to Program Coordinators as required.
• Ensures that all policies, procedures, and practices align with IRC and donor requirements.
• In coordination with Finance, be responsible for the development and submission of the consolidated monthly spending plan for the field activities.
• Works daily with support staff to ensure proper daily support functions and compliance with IRC and donor policies.
• Interacts with contractors in coordination with the Supply Chain team.
• Ensures that the required documentation of supplies and transactions are completed to IRC standards.
• Coordinate with the Finance Department to ensure that payments to vendors are made on time and without any unnecessary strain on the financial systems of IRC.
• Serves as an active member of the country program’s Senior Management Team.
• Has knowledge of and provide input in discussions on safety and security for all staff.
• Ensure proactive communication within the Regional Office and HQ Support Departments as appropriate.
• Supports, where necessary, IRC partners assessment and improve/support their operational capacity.
• Ensures IRC in-country legal registrations documents are in line and updated as per the Yemeni law.
• Supports the Supply Chain Lead in coordinating with external entities like the log cluster for supplies and deliveries to the Yemen CP areas of operation.
• Promotes a supportive, solution-oriented, respectful, and inclusive management culture within the Ops team and in the Country Program in general.
• Implement personnel policies including regular one-on-one’s, ongoing coaching, performance evaluation, staff development & career pathways, and disciplinary measures.
• Ensure regular & reliable team meetings and maintain open and professional relations with team members, promoting a strong team spirit and providing oversight and guidance to enable and empower staff to successfully perform in their positions.
• Ensures duty of care activities are regularly conducted within the team to promote staff well-being and keep morale high.
• Is mobile within the Country Program, visiting regularly field offices.
• Maintains constructive, proactive internal communication on the progress and obstacles faced by operations.
• Member of the Partnership Working Group (PWG), and co-responsible for delivering the functions of the PWG, including through appropriate delegation, ensuring it drives cross-departmental collaboration and the effective and efficient management of partnerships under the direction of the SMT.
• Hold direct responsibility for defining and delivering the operations components of the Strategic Action Plan (SAP) partnership ambition across supply chain, ICT, administration, and field coordination.
• Work with SMT colleagues to establish and promote IRC’s internal capacity to partner, including the six building blocks for partnership success, and ensure the office consistently uses the Partnership Excellence for Equality and Results System (PEERS) so that partnership decisions and actions are driven by IRC’s partnership principles.
• Participate in collaborative partnership risk management, in particular through effective due diligence (including the Partnership Capacity Analysis), mitigation, and monitoring, ensuring material risks are managed jointly and proportionately without transferring risk to partners.
• Hold oversight responsibility for effective and timely partnership project support and other capacity sharing commitments as they relate to operations components, ensuring support strengthens systems and capacities that are responsive to each partner’s needs rather than replicating IRC’s systems and policies.
• Ensure operations engagement across Partnership Cycle Management, including partnership project opening, review, and closing meetings, capturing effective operational practices and lessons learned for future partnerships.
• Where IRC procures on behalf of a partner, ensure a partner procurement plan is agreed with the partner and the relevant technical lead at the outset of the partnership agreement, and that project budgets reflect fair market value.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Business Administration, Management, International Development, Social Sciences, or any related discipline.
• Relevant professional training or certifications in project management, leadership, operations management, finance/budget management, safety and security, or humanitarian response are desirable.
• At least five years of progressively responsible international work experience, including at least three years in a leadership role at the Senior Coordinator level in multi-site, multi-sectoral operations in a complex operating environment.
• Demonstrated successful leadership and management experience with a multi-disciplinary team in a cross-cultural setting, including active mentoring and coaching.
• Proven experience delivering appropriate levels of oversight of a portfolio consisting of a variety of complex, high-value donor-funded projects.
• Previous experience working in the MENA region and/or with IRC is preferred.
• Experience in IT and security is preferred.
• Ability to work, live and thrive in a complex environment.
• Skilled at building trusting and effective relationships and coordinating operations within a large team.
• Ability to respond to multiple priorities in a timely manner while producing high-quality outcomes.
• Excellent leadership, people management, interpersonal and negotiation skills, with a demonstrated ability to develop harmonious teams in cross-cultural contexts.
• Strong negotiation skills with contractors and vendors.
• Strong budget and fiscal oversight capacities.
• Established capacity to deal with ambiguity in stressful situations.
• Fluency in English is required; fluency in Arabic is an asset.
• Strong proficiency in budget monitoring, fiscal oversight, and operational coordination.
• Proficiency in managing complex, multi-sectoral, donor-funded projects.
• Proficiency in coordination, communication, negotiation, and relationship-building.
• Proficiency in safety, security, IT, and risk management is preferred.

Skills

• Project Management
• Operations Management
• Leadership
• Multi-sectoral Operations
• Donor-funded Project Management
• Budget Management
• Fiscal Oversight
• Safety Management
• Security Management
• Risk Management
• Technical Mentoring
• Cross-cultural Team Management
• Negotiation with Contractors
• Vendor Management
• Operational Coordination
• Supply Chain Management
• Information Technology Management
• Humanitarian Response
• Multi-site Operations Management
• Interpersonal Skills

Languages

English, Arabic