Area Manager At Danish Refugee Council

Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified Area Manager in Ukraine.

The Area Manager role has an area focus and ensures compliance to DRC procedures and guidelines within the area. The area is defined as the government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts as well as Zaporizhe and Dnipro oblasts, as well as any advocacy and capacity building activities driven from in Kyiv but which substantially, directly affect the aforementioned oblasts that make up Eastern Ukraine. The Area Manager role contributes to the development of area strategies, which are translated into action plans and day-to-day tasks, and provides support and/or technical guidance to base operations. The Area Office is located in Mariupol with large Base Offices in Sloyansk and Severodonetsk, two demining operational bases in Lysychansk and Schastia as well as the legal assistance office in Kyiv. Substantial travel is required (approx. 50% travel).

About the job

The overall purpose of the role is to:

• Lead area activities and create results which impacts displaced people in Ukraine and conflict affected population in eastern Ukraine.
• Enable and oversee the implementation of policies or activities of an operational nature within the area of operation, in particular supply chain, finance, administration, HR and safety policies.
• Enable a productive and accountable relationship with beneficiaries, communities’ leaders, representatives, relevant governmental authorities, NGOs, and UN Agencies

Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Management

• Line manage area support(excluding safety staff) and program staff ensuring inter-department co-ordination
• Closely coordinate with the senior management team ensuring regular information flows
• People management of direct reports (including development, people planning and performance). Particularly with regards to programme managers, this should be done in close collaboration with the Head of Programme.
• With team leaders manage the programme activities budget lines; ensuring effective and efficient use of resources including financial, human and all assets
• Ensure overall dissemination of and adherence to DRC policies, procedures, guidelines, systems and standard practices
• Provide leadership in overseeing supply chain, finance and administration and office services activities and ensure their timely/efficient delivering. In particular, ensure that processes area are unified and harmonized across all offices/bases in the Area and that the base and satellite offices receive adequate and timely support.
• Ensure that DRCs code of conduct, reporting mechanism and complaint response mechanisms are well understood by staff and other stakeholders and are well functioning at the field level. The AM will typically be the arbiter for complaints received at the field level which do not constitute misconduct.

Representation, coordination and reporting

• Primary DRC representative in the area of operation and attend all relevant fora/meetings in order to strengthen DRC’s position
• Foster relationships with Government authorities and civil society in the area of operation
• Maintain close working relationships with donors, national and international organizations and local counterparts
• Comply with internal reporting requirements, contribute to, and provide quality assurance of external reports from area of operation

Programme development

• With the close cooperation of the HOP and programme managers, support the process of adapting DRC national strategy to the local context and circumstances
• Provide regular analysis on the context and humanitarian situation in the area for the development of project proposals and safety assessments in cooperation with the Head of Programme

Safety

• Ensure a safe and secure environment for DRC staff, beneficiaries and assets by ensuring the local security procedures are up to date and SOPs are being followed in line with the SMP and DRC policy, and in close coordination with the Safety and Security Specialist and the Country Director
• Head of the Mariupol Incident Management Team and member of the country Critical Incident Management Team

As Manager the post-holder is responsible for the following:
• Accountable for achieving DRC’s strategic goals and objectives within the area of responsibility
• Accountable for making significant decisions on what the unit does: its purpose, functions and role, and for making commitments and decisions that require the expenditure of significant unit resources.
• Accountable for people management of direct reports, generally at least 3 employees. This includes hiring & firing, objective setting, probation, performance appraisal, development of staff, managing performance, including poor performance, etc.
• Accountable for making sound decisions based on DRC policies, MOPs, standards, and the advice of technical experts in DRC

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to possess the following:

Required

• Master’s degree in political science, international development, economics or other relevant field
• Minimum 7-10 years’ experience in relevant field overseeing humanitarian and development multi-sector, multi-donor programmes in complex and volatile environments.
• Strong leadership skills and a competence in people management At least 5 years’ experience in people management
• Practical and extensive financial, Human Resources and administration management
• Substantial work experience in the areas of emergency, early recovery and development, especially with displaced/refugees communities and conflict affected communities outside of a camp-setting.
• External stakeholder management (especially with local authorities)
• Proven excellent communication and report writing skills
• Full professional proficiency in written and spoken English,

Desirable

• Experience in post-soviet countries is a distinct advantage.
• Russian or Ukrainian language skills are not mandatory, but are a distinct advantage

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies:

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

Demonstrating integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer

Contract length: 24 months

Band: E

Designation of Duty Station: Mariupol (Donetsk oblast) l Non-family Duty Station

Start date: 1 September 2021

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates. For questions regarding the vacancy please contact brieuc.le-merle@drc.ngo. Applications sent by email will not be considered.