TEAM/PROGRAMME: Program Operations, Ethiopia

LOCATION: East Area Office 

Head of Program Operations is expected to travel to SCI field and project offices

GRADE:  1C

POST TYPE: National

Child Safeguarding:

Level 3:  the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:   The Head of Program Operations is a senior role at the Area Office and a member of the Senior Area Management Team, responsible and accountable for the leadership and management of AO/FO program operations, Awards and partnership management, MEAL, and supply chain management. He/ She will oversee the implementation of Area/Field programs, management of staff, and resources, and establish excellent working relationships with partners.  S/he will support the Area Director (AD) in coordinating the development and implementation of Area office strategies and annual operational plans, and enforcing consistent implementation of projects, MEAL, partnership, and supply chain as well as Humanitarian responses.

Reporting to the Area Director, the role supports and facilitates key relationships between the Area Office (AO) Operational team and Field office team as well as the Country Office (CO) Awards and partnership, MEAL, supply chain, and humanitarian response team. He/she also works closely with other CO units (PDQ, HR, Finance, and Safety & Security) with the Field Managers, and Area-level support functions (Finance, HR/Admin, Supply Chain, Safety and security etc.). The role holder will be expected to oversee humanitarian planning and response in the Area Office.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Area Director

Positions which report to this role: AO MEAL Manager, AO Awards and partnership Manager (now vacant) and AO Supply Chain Manager. The role will also lead Humanitarian response in the Area office. Overall area office The role may also have project management, budget holding and budget management role.

This role Will closely work through matrix management with CO Awards, partnership and Humanitarian Senior Managers and directors, as well as with Field Operation managers and AO Finance and HR Managers

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

Leadership and management

• Closely works with the AD and supports the improvement of ways of working to ensure accountability, facilitate support and collaboration between AO-FO and CO in particular with CO supply chain and Awards  management

• Assist the AD to develop Area Office up-to-date, context-based and achievable Emergency Preparedness Plan (EPP)

• Support the AD in management support of Field Offices within the Area Office, including safe programming and implementation of quality programs 

• Closely work with Partnership and Awards Team on the coordination Award support at FO level and partnership management

• With support from the CO Humanitarian team and under the leadership of the Area Director, ensures appropriate and timely responses to all emergencies consistent with established benchmarks, plans and organizational policies, and in close cooperation with field team.

• Covering the Area Director during his/her absence

• Lead (technically) the Humanitarian responses ongoing in the Area

• Coverage of  Head of Offices and Field Managers in their absence

• Supports the Field Managers/their team to ensure that all relevant staffs across all work sectors are familiar with, adhere to and implement the procedures and processes of emergency response standards and guidelines (CHS, SPHERE, Protection Mainstreaming etc)

Human Resources Management

• Work closely with the Area HR and Safeguarding Manager as well as the Area Director to Support all managers in recruitment, induction, placement, promotion, training/development, and separation/termination

• Supports to enhance staff performance through mutually agreed performance management plans, and performance monitoring, learning & development initiatives, and timely management actions, 

•  Ensure that SCI safeguarding policies and procedures are implemented in all offices and by all staff and ensure safe programming. 

• Will supervise AO MEAL Manager, Supply Chain Manager and Awards and partnership roles as relevant

• Will closely work through matrix management with CO Awards, partnership, and Humanitarian Senior Managers and directors, as well as with Field Operation managers and AO Finance and HR Managers

Budget, Finance and Awards Management

• May Serve as budget holder for programming in the area when delegated or assigned

• Ensure that all projects do have all project management plans including phased budget, DIP, MEAL plan, HR Plan and Procurement plans which are realistic and accurate

• Regularly Monitors programme budgets through rigorous budget and finance monitoring practices/weekly spending/BVAs with participation of all key functions involved in projects.

• Closely works with BHs, FoMs and finance to ensure that budgets are spent and charged to their respective budget heads and grants by diligently reviewing the financial (AGRESSO) reports at least every month and bringing to the timely attention of the AD and AO Finance Manager any major budget concerns

• Supports budget holders to Efficiently and successfully manage the grant cycle by putting in place robust mechanisms to start, implement and close grants in line with donor as well as Save the Children’s policies

• Coordinates adequate support to and monitoring of all projects in AO and coordinate and seek support from CO Awards, Partnership, supply chain and other functions

• Ensure that grants are managed as per Save the Children’s and donors’ requirements including the quality and timely submission of reports

• Assists working with colleagues in the PDQ department to ensure the preparation of timely and high-quality progress reports, program reports, and donor reports.

• Frequent visit to all the field offices under the area office, systematic review and prioritization of programmatic and support needs from Area and CO. 

• Liaise for on time implementation of agreed improvement plans

• Will be responsible to oversee and manage all AO level and FO level MEAL functions are delivered, including all MEAL KPIs/MIs/RFT and Project On Track[PoT] are followed, MEAL reports are on time, 

• Oversees the MEAL System roll out and Management, Learning and Knowledge Management, and ensures FO have Technical Support and Capacity Building and participate in Programme design, research, evaluations, assessments 

Compliance and Risk  Management

• Supports AD and FOMs to Ensure full  compliance with SCI policy and procedure on HR, SC, Finance, Program and Security Management

• Frequently travel to the field and proactively assist on Risk Management- safeguarding, compliance, humanitarian accountability etc. as part of the Area SLT responsibility. 

• Participates on Regular planning and Implementation of Area and  Field office Risk Management Plans

• Ensure internal systems and processes are consistently adhered to and meet the purpose

• Supports the provision of management response on internal and external audit findings, and follow up its implementation

• Supports the AD to ensure follow up of improvement actions identified from monitoring visit  by CO and RO team are implemented in a timely manner

• Supports the AD in ensuring partners and SC staff understand and implement Save the Children's policies and procedures including child safeguarding, procurement, fraud and whistle blowing.

Change management and Way of Working support to AD

• Support AD in implementation of the CMP per the guidance, approved structure and approved staff plan

• Regular monthly BVA review meeting for all projects by each field office, document actions and track and upload to SharePoint

• Act as Vice Chairperson at AO SLT and ensure engagement in all SLT meetings and action tracking

• Supports the AD to ensure all WoW documents are adopted and used at AO/FO level

• Facilitate Internal and External meetings mapping by FO and AO level and document, ensure participation and regular attendance of mapped internal/External meetings

• Support AD in implementation of the AO-FO monitoring and supervision plans implementation and use of the standard tools for plan, ToR and report at all level

Networking, Partnership and Representation

• Represent the organization with external stakeholders to ensure excellent working relationship  with key government partners, UN agencies, donors and other INGOs as relevant

• Work with partners and Save the Children staff to ensure that effective mechanisms are in place to listen to, act upon and address children's and communities' concerns/recommendations through active participation by children and communities in project design, monitoring and evaluations

• Ensure that partners understand and implement Save the Children’s policies and procedures including child safeguarding, procurement, fraud and whistle blowing.

• Ensure effective representation in all relevant meetings: clusters, working groups, NGO Consortium, etc

• Engage in the partner selection processes and closely follow the performance of partners by closely monitoring partners and know the performance of partners, identifying areas of support.

• Advocate for the localization agenda referring the Localization policy and Localization and partnership (L&P) strategy. 

• Assist partners in their respective regions to assume the leadership/co-leadership role in various cluster/sub-cluster meetings, and in any other similar platforms. 

• Participate in the partnership annual review meeting and contribute to the discussions. 

• Support the local and national actors in the system strengthening and organizational capacity development. 

• Actively participate in joint partners monitoring visit

Staff Safety and Security Management

• In collaboration with the Area Director and the Field managers and the Security Focal Points, proactively monitor the political and security situation at both national and local level and report as relevant 

• Involved in the sharing of security related information, in review of guidelines, protocols and developing security plans 

• In close collaboration with the Area director , the Field Managers and the Security Focal Points, report and manage any significant security incident 

• Adapt to security constraints and ensure that staff are adequately aware of security risks and management issues in order to deliver projects for children.

• Support the Area Director to ensure that all safety and security minimum operating standards in country guidelines and procedures are met by all field offices. Promote a culture of security awareness and a shared duty of care amongst staff in area teams

Job Requirements

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor degree in Business Administration, Management, Development Studies or other Social Sciences

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• Minimum of 10 years management experience in a corporate or an NGO environment, and at least 3 years in senior program operations leadership or program management role or relevant experience

• Experience in strategic planning and operationalizing into achievable targets and outcomes

• Ability to drive, adapt to and mange change. Strive for continual improvement and organizational excellence;

• Experience of working within a complex and matrix organisation structure

• Proven experience of development and humanitarian program management and MEAL oversite

• Analytical skill, ability and tact to deal with complex problems

• Good understanding of the humanitarian landscape and complexities, procedures and accountability frameworks and good practices in emergency management.

• Substantial and proven experience and knowledge of effective financial and budgetary control

• Ability to analyze information, evaluate options, think and plan strategically.

• An Indepth understanding of national and international development issues particularly in relation to children.

• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.

• Fluency in written and spoken English.

• Flexibility for unforeseen demands, willingness to spend up to 50% of time in visiting field offices

• Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles including rights- based approaches

How to Apply

Application Information:

Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application, and include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations. 

Use the below link to apply :  CLIK HERE

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our global anti-harassment policy.