Country Director, Global Surge

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

The IRC’s Global Surge Team (GST) is a roster of esteemed and highly qualified humanitarian professionals who deploy on short notice to non-emergency and emergency contexts to support the IRC’s mission. Members of the GST provide specialist support where talent is most needed for short-term deployments of up to three months.The GST is a flexible, occasional employment opportunity. Deployment needs vary based on demand. Staff can take on additional deployments as opportunities arise and if they are interested.

Job Overview: 

The Country Director, Global Surge (CD) leads all programs implemented in the country program in which the IRC operates. The CD is responsible for overall leadership and supervisory management of IRC staff, programming, and operations, including program quality and accountability, stewardship of resources, staff safety and security, performance management and external representation.

In this role, you will be directly responsible for the program's overall coordination and strategic direction; providing oversight and coaching for senior managers; leading country program teams to identify, design and deliver responsive, high-quality programs; ensuring efficient management of public grants and private funds for results, compliance, and timely reporting; and oversight of financial management and compliance systems.

Major Responsibilities:

Leadership and Representation

• 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 at various levels; UN OCHA; donors including US and UK governments, ECHO, UNHCR, UNICEF and other international organizations; international and local NGOs.
• Ensure that IRC maintains a strong reputation and relationship with major 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 the work of IRC and its partners, as well as the lives and the needs of the people IRC seeks to serve.
• 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 the IRC to effectively adapt to contextual changes and fully make use of opportunities to expand humanitarian access and assistance.

Strategic Direction, Quality, and Growth

• Ensure the strategic vision and direction of the country program is aligned with IRC Strategy100 to serve people with responsive, high-quality and accountable programming, and secure the resources necessary for realization.
• Together with other members of the country program senior management team (SMT), ensure the strategy action plan is of quality, implemented and guides decision-making.
• Ensure quality through consistent use throughout the country program of: rigorous assessment, design, and proposal development and review processes; comprehensive monitoring & evaluation, accountability and learning systems; staff development investments; and partner organization capacity strengthening.
• Remain current on national and regional issues impacting the country program and partners, and develop responsive strategies to changing contexts.
• Ensure the SMT delivers the leadership, management structures, staffing skills and approaches, and operational systems required to ensure a coherent ‘one IRC’ approach to achieve regional objectives.
• Find opportunities for appropriate expansion and growth of programs, supported by the acquisition of and investment in human resources.

Safety and Security Management

• Take primary responsibility for overall safety & security management for the country program.
• Oversee the management of all security issues, together with safety & security lead, including appropriate response to emergency situations as they arise.
• Maintain a culture of safety throughout the country program, including trainings and briefings that prepare all country program staff for security incident prevention and response.
• Keep security, evacuation and contingency plans current and accessible to country program staff.
• Maintain close coordination and communication with the Regional Safety and Security Director on relevant concerns and evolving issues that could adversely affect IRC staff or operations.

Staff Management, Learning and Development

• Oversee the management, coaching and development of staff to build a team of skilled, committed and motivated staff. Coach, train, supervise and mentor direct-report staff, including communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely positive and constructive performance feedback, and providing documented semi-annual performance reviews.
• Support the setting and achievement of development goals including on-the-job learning with the aim of strengthening technical capacity, exchanging knowledge within the team and offering guidance on career paths.
• Hold high-quality meetings with each direct report on a regular and predictable basis, at least bi-weekly.
• Approve and manage all time, attendance and leave requests of direct reports to ensure adequate departmental coverage.
• As part of succession plan and career pathway goals, identify, train and develop capability and capacity of staff, in particular local national staff, to successfully transition role and responsibilities.
• Promote and monitor staff care and well-being. Model healthy work-life balance practices. Support appropriate interventions in response to identified staff care needs of both national and international staff.
• Offer leadership support for successful adherence by all staff to IRC’s country, regional and Global HR Operating Policies and Procedures.
• Work with regional People & Culture staff to identify and implement recruitment and retention strategies.
• Undertake regular reviews of labor and salary markets in the area for the purpose of enhancing the competitiveness of the IRC’s overall compensation package for local staff.

Stewardship and Operational Management

• Drive operational excellence to achieve optimal efficiency and cost-effectiveness in all functions and operations of the country program.
• Oversee the development, deployment and utilization of financial and operational policies, procedures, and systems to deliver compliance with IRC and donor requirements.
• Ensure responsiveness and appropriate levels of in-person and remote support to all offices, especially in the areas of people & culture, finance and supply chain.
• Provide timely and effective oversight of the country program’s financial position.
• Maintain effective and coordinated budget monitoring processes for grant funds and discretionary funds.
• Seek opportunities to introduce efficiencies and eliminate redundancies in existing business processes.

Communications

• Model and encourage active practice of the principles of the “IRC Way – Global Standards for Professional Conduct” throughout the country program.
• Maintain a healthy and empowering office environment that encourages open, honest and productive communication among IRC staff and with partner organizations.
• Maintain open communications with regional management staff, regional technical advisors, and HQ departmental staff.

Job Requirements:

• You should have strong leadership abilities and interpersonal skills, and be able to deploy strong communications effectively, both internally and externally. You should enjoy developing networks to build partnerships and expand program resources. 
• 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 Arabic, Spanish and/or French strongly preferred

Demonstrated Technical Skills:

• 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 Box, SharePoint, etc.

Demonstrated Managerial/Leadership Competencies:

• Experience building personal networks at a senior level, resulting in securing new opportunities for the organization.
• Demonstrated successful leadership and management experience with a multi-disciplinary teams in dynamic 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.

Compensation: Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget.  Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements. 

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.

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Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.