Deputy Director of Operations At International Rescue Committee

Background

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

Job Description

The IRC returned to El Salvador in 2017, and expanded Humanitarian Response work to Honduras and Guatemla in 2019. IRC implements rapidly-growing, Protection-focused Humanitarian Response in Northern Central America, with technical expertise in responding to survivors of gender-based violence, women, girls and children, internally displaced families, migrants and returnees and the LGBTI+ population. The IRC is committed to working in partnership with national NGOs to design and implement high impact programs based on the best available evidence. IRC NCA’s core technical areas include: Women’s Protection and Empowerment, Education, Child Protection, Protection Rule of Law. IRC NCA’s leadership is based across the three countries, with a main office in San Salvador.

SCOPE

Reporting to the Country Director and serving as a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT), the Deputy Director of Operations (DDO) is responsible for leading and managing the operations teams located across Northern Central America – in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. In the IRC, the Operations department includes: Supply Chain/Procurement, Administration and Office Management, Safety, Security and Humanitarian Access, Information Technology. Additionally, the DDO will directly supervises the Field Coordinators who manage operations in each of the country offices. The DDO will contribute to high levels of teamwork and inter-departmental and cross-sectoral collaboration. Through her/his leadership, operations teams will work in close to collaboration with Finance and Programs to implement programs, respond to donors and partners, support capacity sharing activities with partners, and represent the IRC when needed. The DDO will be results-driven, guided by data analysis and will focus on designing efficient solutions and processes.

This position supervises the Field Coordinators, Supply Chain Manager, Information Technology Officer and the Safety & Security team. DDO will have close working relations with the Deputy Director Finance, Deputy Director Programs as well as Headquarters and regional staff.

LANGUAGES: Fluency in written and spoken Spanish; conversational English is required

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Management, Coordination and Leadership

• Work closely with the Country Director and other members of the SMT to ensure that a strong partnership is developed and maintained between Operations and Security; Programs; Finance and HR teams at both the Country and Field levels

· Actively contribute to and participate in management and leadership platforms such as the country leadership team and the senior management team.

• Be a champion for the implementation of the IRC strategy and ensure quality and meaningful participation of operations teams in strategy related activities.

• Lead the development and revision of program support and operational policies, procedures, and systems

• Lead cross-departmental risk identification, and mitigation actions that align with organizational and regional risk-management initiatives.

• In partnership with the Security and Access staff, ensure that field offices adhere to the security SoPs and country security management plans.

• Oversee and coordinate the functioning of the IRC NCA offices.

• Authorized Budget Holder for specific locations (D4).

Programs Support, Strategy and Business Development

• Work with CD and DDP to identify opportunities for program expansion and support development of funding proposals.

• Work with the CD and DDP on the Country Program Strategic Planning process.

• Provide added support to program coordinators as required.

• Ensure all new proposals have received thorough Operations review and appropriate operations platform is maintained

• Contribute to the operating budget and strategic planning; ensure grant burn rates are met as per the spending and procurement plans.

• Demonstrate leadership in obtaining efficiencies in shared and operational costs

Supply Chain &Administration

• Supply chain staff work effectively with other departments to improve planning such as procurement and distribution planning and a rational resource utilization

• Ensure supply chain processes are fully compliant with IRC policies and donor regulations.

• Undertake periodic national system reviews of procurement, asset, warehouse/inventory, suppliers and vendor contracts and communication systems to identify areas for improvement and compliance with IRC global systems.

• Provide support to all field and program teams to ensure all field offices are functioning efficiently and transparently and in compliance with IRC procurement guidelines.

• Review key/routine reports, (Supply Chain Monthly Reports, BvA tool, Procurement and Distribution plans, Closed grant and expired inventories) and provide feedback and recommendations to mitigate any potential risk.

• In partnership with Global Supply Chain team ensure that compliance risk in the supply chain processes is analyzed and implement internal and external audit corrective action plans and ensure that all supply chain are conducted in ethical manners.

• Review departmental key performance indicators and take appropriate action support in achieving the set objectives.

• Support implementation of Integra related to Supply Chain

Information Communications Technology

• Champion and provide leadership for the smooth roll out and utilization of IT core systems (Integra/ERP, PoweBI, and Information sharing and collaboration tools) and ensure that all requirements are met and resources are committed.

• Based on comprehensive needs assessments ensure that all digital data and information needs of operations and program teams are catered for, including the provisioning of hardware and software by following the IRC IT lifecycle.

• Uphold and promote IT Standards and policies regarding security, equipment, Internet bandwidth and network infrastructure and ensure and monitor compliance that the Country Program complies.

• Ensure that IT compliance monitoring processes are developed and effectively implemented.

• Support the IT staff to provide top-tier and effective services and support to the Country Office and across all field sites.

• Manage key supplier relationships and build strategic relationships with senior internal stakeholders, providing appropriated solutions for their needs.

Representation

• Represent IRC NCA in meetings as required, including government meetings, donor, and other partners.

• Actively develop and maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders at field level, including donors, government actors, UN agencies, international and local NGOs, and other relevant humanitarian actors.

• Establish a good rapport with local and national level administrative, labor, customs, immigration, security, and other officials to ensure that IRC projects conform to local laws and customs and security constraints.

Qualifications

• University degree in management or administration preferred, or equivalent work experience;

• Minimum of 6-8 years’ work experience managing operations in NGOs, national businesses or donor projects in Northern Central America.

• Experienced manager of multi-funtional teams

• Strong finance background in financial management, budget development and analysis.

• Experience in logistics, HR/Admin, and security management

• Experience managing operations and security in Central America.

• Strong interest in capacity building, both for the IRC Operations team and for IRC’s partners throughout the region.

• Demonstrated leadership with people management, including excellent interpersonal communications and negotiation skills

• Excellent problem-solving, analytical and decision-making skills.

• Strong computer skills, familiarity with IT.

• Flexibility, ability to work independently and meet deadlines.