Position Title: Country Director
About the role
"At Crown Agents, we are pleased to have an established network of Country Directors, who lead, grow, manage and set the strategic direction for our over 20 international offices worldwide. This fantastic opportunity has arisen for a new Country Director to join our global leadership team, to win new work and oversee our operations in Kenya and the East Africa region".
Department: - International Office – East Africa
Function of Department
- To grow Crown Agents’ business in Kenya and East Africa particularly within the Supply Chain Cluster, engaging with the local market to secure new and profitable work that will expand our footprint in the country and provide a sustainable income stream for the company.
- An incubator for senior-level client relationships; placing business development at the heart of Country and regional strategy.
- To deliver high quality impactful programmes that support development progress in Kenya and East Africa and meet the needs of Crown Agents’ clients.
- To operate as a well-run functional operational platform for Crown Agents in Kenya, employing and investing in talented people who will contribute to CA’s global business.
- Aligned to Crown Agent’s Supply Chain Cluster, which includes the provision of services to clients in the areas of procurement agency, quality assurance and inspections, and freight and logistics.
Main Job Purpose
- To provide overall leadership to the CA Kenya office, achieving ambitious growth targets through business development.
- To engage proactively and effectively with clients and other key external stakeholders in the Government of Kenya, international donor organisations and in the private sector to promote CA’s business and generate high quality market intelligence for growth.
- To provide strategic direction and effective oversight to the CA Kenya team
- To work in partnership with colleagues across the global business to identify and secure profitable new business opportunities in the country, contributing to the company’s overall growth targets.
- To manage the CA Kenya operations, resources and the team effectively and in accordance with local legislation and company policies
- To provide strong credible oversight of Crown Agents’ contracted work in Kenya, ensuring high quality delivery of projects that meet our clients’ needs.
- To be a key senior member of the Supply Chain Cluster and propose, negotiate and sell Procurement, Inspections and logistics project solutions to address donors and governments’ development agendas in Kenya and East Africa.
Main Responsibilities of the Job
Business Winning
- Identify and secure new growth opportunities to build a stronger and more sustainable portfolio of contracts and programmes for CA in Kenya and across East Africa, particularly in the areas of Procurement, Inspections and Freight/logistics.
- Expand and fully utilise existing contracts to maximise the financial contribution of programmes to CA’s overall business performance.
- Seek new and develop appropriate partners and consortia to further strengthen CA Kenya’s market offering.
- Understand and develop access and trust with important and influential customer contacts.
- Exceed ambitious growth targets by embedding a sales-oriented growth culture across your team.
- Adopt and implement a Key Account Management approach to nurture and grow existing clients.
- Maintain and grow a senior-level network (C-suite executives, cabinet and principal secretaries and leaders within donor organisations), and broker new opportunities within this network.
Strategy
- Agree overall strategic direction for CA Kenya in line with Crown Agents’ overall global corporate growth strategy.
- Provide sound interpretation of local market information and be fully aware of local and regional political and economic contexts in determining opportunities and priorities.
- Feed into overall corporate strategy on an on-going basis as an active member of CA’s Global Leadership Group (GLG).
- Develop a thorough knowledge of clients and relevant local markets.
- Actively participate in the development of CA’s international office network
- Travel across the network as may be required to support the broader global business.
- Work with the Cluster Lead to set and implement regional strategy for our Supply Chain Services
Staff Management
- Manage, mentor and support CA Kenya staff; providing inspirational leadership to the country team, and ensuring clarity regarding CA and donors' values and priorities.
- Develop and protect a positive, sales-focussed culture for all client-facing staff within your team.
- Encourage and ensure effective communication within the Kenya office, and with the global business (with London and the rest of CA’s global network)
- Build a trusting, collaborative environment internally with CA Kenya staff role modelling CA's values of courage and authenticity.
- Manage human resources as per CA values, policies and guidelines as well as in-country labour legislation in respect of recruitment, terms and conditions, effective performance management and employee relations.
- In collaboration with the corporate HR department, ensure that all staff and managers are properly supported and developed to perform effectively in their roles and develop professionally.
Operations & Finance oversight
- Ensure adherence to correct governance in respect of company law and tax regulations.
- Oversee all financial management, audits, monitoring, and evaluation activities for all CA operations in Kenya.
- Comply with company management reporting requirements and ensure an effective management of risk.
- Oversee the maintenance of all CA Kenya resources including IT systems to facilitate effective operations, programme delivery and business development.
- Ensure prompt payment by clients and follow up any outstanding debts.
- Contribute to developing and managing an annual budget internally at CA Kenya, together with Country finance lead and regional team.
- Review and approve monthly operating advance request for office work prepared by financial lead for submission to HQ.
- Take responsibility for ensuring financial compliance in all programme spending.
Programme Delivery and Oversight
- Support and demand high quality and delivery standards to ensure positive, sustainable commercial and reputational effect for CA Kenya that can be leveraged to provide new leads or programme ‘build outs’.
- Oversee management, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of work plans to meet the changes, needs and realities based on programme; implementation/performance results, ensuring all tasks are completed at high quality and on time.
- Ensure quality implementation of activities in compliance with project contracts and in a way which means the expectations and requirements of CA’s clients.
- Bring relevant contextual knowledge and insights to programme delivery in relation to Crown Agents’ project activities in Kenya.
- Ensure project staffing, structure and reporting relationships are aligned with country needs, local context, and available resources.
- Work in close partnership with HQ delivery teams, including practice directors, relevant programme directors and those in the Programme Management Office (PMO)
Where applicable, the Job Holder shall:
- Undertake all procurement in compliance with Good Distribution Practice (GDP) in accordance with the provisions of our Wholesale Distribution Authorisation (Human) (WDA (H)) issued by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and our United Kingdom Controlled Drug Licence issued by the Home Office
- Ensure that all procurement is carried out using the relevant corporate IT system(s)
Governance
- Manage the affairs of the company in accordance with and adherence to the prevailing in-country laws as well as policy delegations of CA Kenya
- Ensure technical, financial, contractual, and political integrity are maintained to safeguard CA reputation.
- Ensure effective collaboration, coordination and internal partnerships with other CA projects, and departments to build synergies across programmes for maximum impact.
General
- Aware of and adhere to company quality standards and procedures in accordance with Crown Agent’s commitment to working to the highest quality standards and striving for continual improvement.
Safeguarding
- Be aware of and compliant with all the standards following Safeguarding procedures and policies. Promote Crown Agents’ speak up culture in order to protect the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
Any other duties as appropriate to the position, as agreed with your line manager.
Requirements
Qualification
- Relevant university degree required; Master's degree in related field preferred.
Experience
- Typically, we require a minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in a senior manager role. Previous experience as a Country Director is desirable. A demonstrable career focus on results through business development is a must.
- Track record of winning large contracts, particularly in the development arena
- A strong track record of securing business growth and establishing new and effective partnerships with clients.
- Strong interpersonal and soft skills such as delegation, communication, trustworthiness, empathy, team-working, leadership, listening and coaching.
- Being able to demonstrate emotional intelligence in leadership and management.
- Experience in winning large supply chain-oriented projects is desirable.
- Previous experience in managing a diverse team in a resource-limited setting.
- Attention to detail and ability to effectively perform multiple tasks and balance competing priorities often within a defined timeline.
- Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with senior-level stakeholders, particularly interacting productively, proactively, and comfortably with government directly and govt agencies, NGOs, private sector groups, FCDO and donor organizations.