Deputy Executive Director

The Deputy Executive Director serves as the operational backbone of MSF Canada, ensuring that strategy translates into action across all departments while maintaining organizational health, accountability, and cross-functional cohesion. This role bridges leadership, operations, risk, and governance to amplify the Executive Director's capacity and keep the organization running with clarity and purpose.

Responsibilities

• Lead day-to-day operations by driving organizational effectiveness across departments and leading the planning and accountability cycle
• Manage senior leaders including Finance and Administration, IT, Human Resources, Strategy and Planning, building team capacity through coaching, accountability and cross functional collaboration
• Oversee risk and compliance including critical incident preparedness, risk registry management, and oversight of legal and data privacy obligations
• Ensure compliance across Finance, HR, and IT, including data privacy, legal obligations, and safeguarding casework
• Lead operational risk response within agreed thresholds
• Act as the Executive Director’s strategic partner, ensuring alignment between internal operations and external/movement-facing priorities
• Provide operational insight for governance reporting, Board engagement, and organizational health monitoring
• Support the Executive Director in representing MSF Canada internally and externally, preparing the organization for engagements with the movement and the public
• Connect internal teams, the Association, and governance bodies to strengthen MSF Canada's cohesion, credibility, and networks

Requirements

• Genuine interest in, understanding of, and commitment to, the humanitarian principles and the social mission of MSF
• Proficiency in spoken and written English and French
• Culturally humble, equity-minded, and able to model inclusive leadership across a diverse organization
• Demonstrated senior leadership experience in a complex, multi-stakeholder organization - nonprofit, humanitarian, or similarly mission-driven environment
• Proven track record managing cross-functional teams and executive level direct reports
• Ability to lead and develop high-performing teams, with a coaching and accountability-oriented approach
• Extensive experience bridging departments and creating conditions for collaboration across an organization
• Comfortable holding both strategic and operational responsibilities simultaneously
• Strong organizational and process management skills, with experience running planning and reporting cycles
• Ability to identify, assess, and mitigate organizational risk
• Familiarity with financial oversight, IT governance, and/or legal and compliance functions
• Good communicator in both internal leadership and public contexts where needed in support of the organization’s leadership

Skills

• Humanitarian Principles
• Inclusive Leadership
• Senior Executive Leadership
• Cross-Functional Team Management
• Executive Leadership
• Team Development
• Coaching
• Accountability Management
• Organizational Collaboration
• Strategic Planning
• Operational Management
• Process Management
• Planning and Reporting
• Risk Assessment
• Risk Mitigation
• Financial Oversight
• IT Governance
• Legal Compliance
• Internal Communications
• Public Communication

Languages

English, French