Operations Director & Lead Consultant At Safer Access

Term: 6-Months (With extension to 1-year renewable)

Duty Station: Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Direct Supervisor: Managing Director

Field: Security, Humanitarian, Development

Experience Level Required: 5-8 years working in a security management role, 3-5 years working in the humanitarian/development sector, 3-5 years working in an operations manager role,

Supervisory level Position: Yes

Number of Direct Reports: 1-10

Education Level Required: Bachelor Degree in related field

Linguistic Competency Required: French (spoken and written, fluent), English (spoken and written, proficient)

SUCCESSFUL CANDIDATE NARRATIVE:

The Safer Access Consulting Operations Director (Burkina Faso) is a position designed for a middle manager to develop into a senior manager within a security & risk consultancy specializing in serving the humanitarian and development community within the Sahel context. The successful candidate will come from a government or humanitarian/development sector background with no less than 5-years of experience and no more than 8-10 years. Geographically, this is a position specifically for someone with 3-5 years of experience working in Francophone Africa, who is prepared and excited to relocate to Burkina Faso during a tenuous and critical time in the country’s and region’s future. Personally, the candidate is a leader with a strong work ethic and is a self-starter who can work with little to no guidance. Moreover, they desire to hold the responsibility of designing and implementing the systems that will improve on the efficiency of an already successful security & risk consultancy. He or she has equality, decency, and integrity as among their highest values. They understand that given the dynamics of working in a challenging security context, that their mental and physical well-being are important aspects to their personal and professional success. A successful candidate would feel very comfortable and would thrive in a culturally and gender aware and diverse atmosphere. Furthermore, they would be at their core one who desires a 50/50 balance of office/field time and who would be eager to deploy on a task at short notice. Ultimately, the ideal candidate is someone who desires the opportunity to learn the operations director position, and perfect their ability to be a security & risk consultant.

COMPANY PROFILE:

Safer Access Consulting SARL, based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, is an industry leader in providing intelligent risk management consultancy services to the Humanitarian, Development, Private and Governmental sectors throughout the Sahel region and internationally. Safer Access’ main focus and objective is to assist our clients in achieving contextually intelligent and human focused risk management and business continuity solutions in the most insecure and operationally challenging environments. Significantly, Safer Access is a pioneer in the development of Sahel oriented security and risk assessment strategies, safety and security plan design as well as hostile environment awareness training. Safer Access envisions a long standing presence in Burkina Faso and the Sahel region, throughout the current security crisis and beyond. safer-access.com

JOB DESCRIPTION:

The Operations Director & Lead Consultant position is a senior position within the Safer Access Consulting company. The Operations Director & Lead Consultant (herby referred to as the Ops Director) will be in-charge of the day-to-day consultancy and operations management of the Safer Access regional office in Burkina Faso as well as primarily providing oversight or direct interaction with Safer Access clients and consultants. The Ops Director will administer general office and consultancy operations: As such all human resources, operational, budgetary and logistical aspects of the Safer Access Sahel regional office will be led by the Ops Director. The Ops Director will also be responsible for the smooth running of the Safer Access information operations department. As the Ops Director is also the Lead Consultant, depending on how the Managing Director has assigned tasks, the Ops Director may act as a Lead Consultant on key consultancies. These consultancies may include HEAT course deliveries, security and risk assessments as well as (but not limited to) security plan review and design. In circumstances where consultancies are fielded by consultants, the Ops Director will act as the liaison point or ‘back-stop’ between the consultant and Safer Access to ensure that the consultant is enabled with what they need to be successful, as well as conducting revisions of deliverables and follow-up with clients as is required. The Ops Director will initially be expected to work with the Managing Director to restructure the HR and Finance systems and then recruit and delegate those systems to an appropriate team. Given that the practice of mentorship is considered a core value of Safer Access, it is expected that the Ops Director be engaged in the mentorship of staff members and consultants as among their core responsibilities. Importantly, as the Ops Manager is a senior position, the successful candidate will be expected to apply a portion of their time to business development initiatives. As a key member of the Safer Access team the successful candidate will be a face for the business, as such their initiative and desire for growth will have a direct impact on how Safer Access is received and grows within Burkina Faso and throughout the region.

KEY JOB DESCRIPTIONS, RESPONSIBILITIES & DELIVERABLES

The following job description subtitles and responsibility/deliverable points below will be the criteria which the Operations Director & Lead Consultant will be evaluated on but it is not the limit to potential tasks which could be assigned by the Managing Director. The following tasks and responsibilities should be seen as core guidelines and not limits.

Operations Management:

· Manage the day-to-day functionality of the Safer Access Consulting regional office,

· Manage the Safer Access office staff,

· Manage or delegate the settling operational costs and procurement of operational and administrative equipment,

· Ensure that office environment, health, safety and information security standards are being adhered to,

· Be aware of all current and up-coming projects,

· Be aware of developing situations throughout Burkina Faso and Sahel countries,

· Host or meet with any potential or current clients,

· Provide a monthly accounting report for basic office operating costs.

Consultancy / Project Management:

· Organize, book or prepare all administrative and logistical requirements for up-coming consultancies,

· Brief and prepare consultants prior to their deploying on a task,

· Interact on a daily basis with deployed consultants to ensure that there are no issues with consultant welfare, logistics or deliverables,

· Ensure that all consultancy wide deliverables are being reviewed and delivered according to their deadlines,

· Be prepared to provide consultancy status updates,

· Provide debriefings with consultants who have completed their tasks.

Information Management:

· Be prepared to provide spot briefings pertaining to the general situation or developing situations,

· Write/review security advisories and reports pertaining to the general situation or developing situations,

· Write/review/translate daily, weekly and or monthly security reports,

· Ensure the Safer Access databases are updated,

· Ensure the Safer Access social media platforms are updated.

Lead Consultancy Role:

· Be the lead consultant in tasks as so assigned by the Managing Director,

· Complete all deliverables as defined in the client contract.

Business Development:

· Interact when possible with potential business development contacts,

· Update the business development contact roster,

· Provide de-briefings to the Managing Director on all business development meetings held.

POSITION PRE-REQUISITES

Required Qualifications and/or Experience:

· Linguistic Competency Required: French (spoken and written, fluent), English (spoken and written, proficient)

· 5-8 years working in a security management role,

· 3-5 years working in the humanitarian/development sector,

· 3-5 years working in an operations manager role,

· Have been employed as a security skills trainer,**

· Professional level understanding and application with MS Word, Excel, Power-point and Outlook,**

· Bachelor’s degree or equivalent,

· Valid driving license,

· Basic accounting and human resources skills, knowledge and experience,

· Strong analytical and practical problem-solving skills,

· Strong supervisory abilities, and demonstrated capacity of teamwork and of coordination with relevant actors,

· Very good inter-personal and writing communication skills,

· Ability to organize work efficiently and deliver assignments in a timely manner often under time constraints.

Preferred Qualifications and/or Experience:

· Have led or participated in the delivery of 3-5 Hostile Environment Awareness Trainings,

· 3-5 years of experience as a security consultant,

· Master’s degree or equivalent,

· Advanced accounting and human resources skills, knowledge and experience.