Country Director for Ukraine At Caritas Czech Republic

I. Information about the position

Name of position: Country Director for Ukraine

Expected length of employment: at least 12 months with possibility of extension (long-term cooperation preferred)

Type of position: Full-time

Place of employment: Kyiv, Ukraine (with frequent travels around the country)

Start date: ASAP

II. Organizational context

Caritas Czech Republic (CCR) is a non-profit non-governmental organization with field activities in 27 countries (Europe, Asia, Middle East and Africa) and an extensive social services program in the Czech Republic assisting more than 100,000 clients. CCR is a member of the international network of the Caritas Internationalis and cooperates with a number of international and local partners.

In Ukraine, CCR have been engaged in emergency response since the very beginning of the Russian aggression the last year. We focus on shelter and non-food items provision, health care and WASH.

III. Responsibilities

Country Director (CD) is responsible for the strategic development of the country program, ensuring productive and smooth relationships with key partners, overall administration of the country team and office and quality control of projects´ implementation. More specifically, the CD will be tasked with the following:

Strategic development of CCR country program

• Formulate and update CCR emergency response strategy in line with the changing context;
• Develop the CCR country portfolio, including but not limited to securing new funding;
• Build conditions for expansion of CCR country program to new sectors;
• Monitor the humanitarian, socio-economic, political and security situation in the country leading to the identification of existing and emerging needs and proactively propose further CCR interventions;
• Keep abreast with donors’ strategies, develop strategic partnerships with donors and present CCR’s country strategies and achievements;
• Provide leadership in formulating project proposals in line with the country context and the CCR country strategy;
• Identify potential new operational directions (technical areas, geographical coverage, partnerships) in developing CCR country programme;
• In close coordination with the Headquarters (HQ; in Prague, the Czech Republic), take initiative in strengthening the mission’s technical capacities and its profile.

General management and coordination

• Provide overall management of the mission in line with the CCR internal regulations;
• Ensure quality controls are in place in all CCR country projects;
• Coordinate with the country and HQ teams to ensure the mission fulfills all in-country legal requirements;
• Ensure that appropriate security rules and mechanisms are in place and followed by all staff members and visitors;
• Participate in regular visits of field activities;
• Provide support to and oversight of local partnerships in line with technical and ethical regulations of CCR (including but not limited to regular meetings with partners and provision of feedback to HQ team);
• Provide regular update on the progress of the country program to the CCR HQ.

Human resources management

• Provide administrative oversight of human resource management in the country team;
• Ensure all country office-level documents are updated, staff are aware of them and all relevant soft and hard copies of key documents are stored securely;
• Support professional development of the CCR country team;
• Ensure performance reviews are carried out by line-managers in the country team;
• Adopt and encourage a pro-active approach to addressing and resolving any HR-related issues in a transparent and positive approach;
• Plan and provide oversight of the recruitment of new country office personnel.

Financial supervision

• Ensure regular review of the country program cash flow and expenditure forecasts;
• Ensure regular monthly follow-ups are duly prepared at the project level and analyzed at the country office level by the finance staff leading to prompt resolution of identified challenges and problems;
• Ensure procurement policies are followed at all times as per the CCR Procurement Manual.

External relations

• Participate in relevant coordination meetings and update all relevant stakeholders on the CCR country program;
• Update the Embassy of the Czech Republic about current and planned activities;
• Ensure visibility of CCR country program.

IV. Qualifications and competencies

Required

• Experience in international development and/or humanitarian assistance;
• Experience working in a large humanitarian response preferably a conflict and/or protracted conflict context or / and experience in humanitarian/development work required;
• At least two years of successful experience at the senior management level in overseas postings;
• Proven experience in managing diverse, multinational and multicultural team;
• Track record of managing relations with a variety of donors;
• Experience in project proposal development;
• Excellent communication skills in English (oral and written);
• Strong leadership, analytical/critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

Recommended:

• Working knowledge of Ukrainian is desirable and/or Russian language (oral and written) is an advantage;
• Experience with the political, social, and economic context of Ukraine is desirable and / or contextual knowledge and understanding of the war in Ukraine is desirable;
• Master’s or bachelor’s degree in a relevant field;
• Experience in Eastern Europe.

V. What we offer

• Career development in a value-driven professional organization, suitable especially for dynamic professionals;
• Opportunity to apply and further develop creative and independent working approach;
• Remuneration reflecting the results achieved;
• 25 days of paid leave / year, in addition to official public holidays;
• In case of expatriate staff, compensation of the costs related to the relocation.