Position Title: Project Director
The IRC’s Emergencies and Humanitarian Action Unit (EHAU) oversees IRC’s global acute emergency preparedness and response activities. The mission of the EHAU is to expand and improve IRC’s ability to help affected communities survive in acute emergencies and hard to reach contexts by investing in people, systems, and solutions to complicated humanitarian challenges. The EHAU team achieves this mission through ongoing rigorous risk analysis, investing in capacity strengthening of frontline humanitarians, partnership with local actors, offering collaborative support and technical assistance to teams working in emergencies and hard to reach places, and deploying and supporting world class emergency response staff as they help people affected by acute crisis situations.
Job Overview
Reporting to the Director, Humanitarian Action, the Project Director will embed with a partner to implement humanitarian programming in remote areas of East Africa. The Project Director will resource, design and drive forward the delivery of high-quality humanitarian aid programming serving crisis affected communities. They will ensure excellent donor and partner relations, first-class leadership and support to the delivery team and frequent field visits for oversight and coordination.
Major Responsibilities:
Leadership and Representation
• Lead programming by maintaining open and professional relations with colleagues, promoting a strong team spirit and providing mentorship, oversight and resources to enable staff to perform successfully.
• Develop and carry out strategies that result in strong representation with: government ministries and/or non-state actors at various levels; UN agencies; donors and other international organizations; international and local NGOs; and NGO coordination networks.
• Ensure that IRC remains a partner of choice for major international donors, and maintain a high level of understanding of donor priorities and planned funding streams.
• Ensure leadership and management processes enable the IRC to effectively adapt to contextual changes and realize opportunities to expand humanitarian assistance.
Program Strategy, Quality and Development
• Ensure that a humanitarian response plan or strategy action plan is up to date, aligns team members and stakeholders and is used to guide decision-making.
• Ensure program quality by promoting the use of: rigorous assessment, design, and proposal development and review processes; comprehensive monitoring & evaluation, accountability and learning systems; staff development investments; and capacity strengthening.
• Actively seek out and pursue opportunities to grow the reach and integration of humanitarian programming so as to reach more people, in more meaningful ways.
• Remain current on national and regional issues impacting the program and develop responsive strategies to changing contexts.
Stewardship, Operational Management, People and Culture
• Drive operational excellence to achieve optimal efficiency and cost-effectiveness in all functions and operations of the program.
• Lead the development, deployment and utilization of financial and operational policies, procedures, and systems to deliver compliance with internal and donor requirements.
• Ensure responsiveness and appropriate levels of in-person and remote support to all offices, especially in the areas of HR, finance and supply chain.
• Provide timely and effective oversight of the 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.
• Ensure HR policies, practices, recruitment and retention strategies are clearly defined, communicated, competitive, context appropriate and support the maintenance of high-quality and high-performing international and national staff
Safety and Security Management
• Ensure overall management of safety and security including up to date safety and security risk analysis, management plans and standard operating procedures.
• Lead the management of all security issues, including appropriate response to emergency situations as they arise.
• Maintain a culture of safety and security, including trainings and briefings that prepare all staff for security incident prevention and response. Keep security, evacuation and contingency plans current and accessible to staff.
Key Working Relationships:
Position Reports to: Director, Humanitarian Action
Indirect Reporting: Vice President, Emergencies and Humanitarian Action
Position supervises: Technical and functional leads
Job Requirements:
• Master’s Degree in international development, humanitarian assistance or related field. Equivalent experience also welcomed.
• 8 years’ experience leading complex humanitarian programs requiring extensive judgment and interpretation.
• Proven ability to provide leadership through direction, decision-making, coordination and communication with staff and stakeholders
• Proven ability to work with partners, peer agencies, local government and community leaders to work effectively towards a common and agreed upon result.
• Proven ability to evaluate and implement best practices and processes affecting multiple technical specialties to achieve rapid, consistent and high-quality outcomes.
• Experience developing, resourcing & leading complex projects with multiple technical specialties.
• Fluency in English & Excellent oral, written and computer skills
• Arabic an advantage
Working Environment: The Program Director will split their time between Nairobi and the field. The Project Director will spend at a minimum 50% of his/her time the in the field. The Project Director should expect to work in modern office environments in Nairobi, and very basic, mostly disconnected and sometimes volatile situations while in the field.
The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.
IRC et les employés de IRC doivent adhérer aux valeurs et principes contenus dans le IRC WAY (normes de conduite professionnelle). Ce sont l’Intégrité, le Service, et la Responsabilité. En conformité avec ces valeurs, IRC opère et fait respecter les politiques sur la protection des bénéficiaires contre l’exploitation et les abus, la protection de l’enfant, le harcèlement sur les lieux de travail, l’intégrité financière, et les représailles.
How to apply
https://rescue.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/1/home/requisition/39620?c=rescue