Head of Mission, Venezuela

The Head of Mission will provide strategic, organisational and external leadership for Plan International’s work in Venezuela, leading the transition from emergency scale-up toward a sustainable, compliant and locally anchored country presence. The role includes accountability for the country portfolio quality, relevance, sustainability and integrity, and leadership of the humanitarian response and country operations.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic, organisational and external leadership for Plan International’s work in Venezuela.
• Lead the establishment of the operating model, governance arrangements, organisational capabilities and partnerships for sustainable impact.
• Lead a partner-led humanitarian response focusing on technical and operational accompaniment, quality assurance, partner capacity strengthening, safeguarding, compliance, humanitarian coordination, resource mobilisation, MEAL/AAP and donor reporting.
• Serve as senior organisational representative for Venezuela, managing relationships with authorities, UN agencies, donors, diplomatic actors, civil society, partners and peer organisations.
• Hold executive accountability for the Venezuela country strategy and humanitarian response, including a phased multi-sector portfolio delivered primarily through local and national partners.
• Lead an evolving country structure spanning programmes, humanitarian response, operations, finance, people and culture, security, safeguarding, MEAL, business development, communications and partnerships.
• Ensure organisational risk, legal and regulatory compliance, partner assurance, financial stewardship, safeguarding and staff/consultant duty of care.

Requirements

• Previous Country Director, Head of Mission, Response Director or equivalent experience.
• Substantial senior leadership experience in an international humanitarian, development or rights-based organisation, including accountability for a country programme, major response, complex portfolio or comparable business unit.
• Demonstrated success leading humanitarian response and recovery programming in fragile, politically sensitive or access-constrained contexts.
• Strong understanding of child-centred humanitarian programming, protection, gender equality and inclusion, safeguarding, accountability to affected populations and localisation.
• Experience in strengthening, performance management, compliance, and equitable decision-making.
• Experience establishing or transforming country operations, organisational systems, legal/registration arrangements or complex remote/hybrid operating models.
• Strong financial and business management capability, including portfolio budgeting, forecasting, grants management, donor compliance, risk management, and cost recovery.
• Proven resource-mobilisation and external representation experience with institutional donors, UN agencies, diplomatic actors, government counterparts, civil society and peer organisations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and develop diverse, multidisciplinary and geographically distributed teams in high-pressure environments.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, negotiation and influencing skills in Spanish and English.

Skills

• Country Programme Leadership
• Humanitarian Response Management
• Recovery Programming
• Child-Centred Humanitarian Programming
• Protection Programming
• Gender Equality Programming
• Inclusion Programming
• Safeguarding
• Accountability to Affected Populations
• Localisation
• Performance Management
• Compliance Management
• Equitable Decision-Making
• Country Operations Management
• Organisational Systems Development
• Legal and Registration Arrangements
• Remote and Hybrid Operating Models
• Finance Management
• Portfolio Budgeting
• Forecasting
• Grants Management
• Donor Compliance
• Risk Management
• Cost Recovery
• Resource Mobilization
• External Representation
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Team Leadership
• Interdisciplinary Team Management
• Geographically Distributed Team Management
• Negotiation
• Influencing
• Spanish
• English

Languages

Spanish, English