Area Manager, Ukraine, 100%

HEKS/EPER, Swiss Church Aid, supports projects designed to combat hunger, poverty and injustice in over 30 countries on four continents. HEKS/EPER also provides worldwide humanitarian assistance for victims of natural disasters and armed conflicts and supports the Church’s diaconal work in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. In Switzerland, HEKS/EPER champions the rights and causes of refugees and socially disadvantaged people. Through its development and social policy work in the fields of climate justice, access to land and food, migration, and integration, HEKS/EPER strives for systemic change – globally and in Switzerland.

With the onset of conflict in Ukraine following the Russian invasion on the 24 th of February 2022, 6.5 million Ukrainians (approximately 15% of the population) have been internally displaced while 3.3 million (approximately 8% of the population) have fled to neighboring countries. Major population centers are under siege with civilian infrastructure heavily damaged. Basic commodities are becoming scarce with critical services facing significant strain.

Therefore, we are looking for a proactive and experienced:

Area Manager, Ukraine, 100%

The Area Manager is responsible for management of the project activities in the designated area, aimed at emergency humanitarian assistance to the people affected by the full-scale war in Ukraine.

The Area Manager takes a lead in the needs assessment, design and implementation of the humanitarian response activities in the designated areas in accordance with humanitarian standards, HEKS-EPER policies and procedures and resources available. The Area Manager is responsible for supervising the field teams in the target regions and for overall smooth operation of the field bases. The Area Manager is responsible for the production/supervision of reporting as needed

Your main responsibilities:

• Under the guidance of the Field Coordinator and other relevant departments, you deploy all adequate tools that will allow project monitoring, programme line follow up and compliance with
• You follow Heks-Eper policies and frameworks, and the respect of contractual obligations towards donors
• You contribute with relevant technical expertise to the design and implementation of programme interventions.
• You ensure that the programs in the designated areas are implemented in accordance with the approved proposal and requirement of donors’ and HEKS-EPER strategy, policy and technical requirements
• You keep on overview of the programme budget for given geographical area of intervention and proposes the best ways of operations and operational efficiencies
• You work in collaboration with the field team and the Field Coordinator, contributing to the development of the operational strategy in line with the HEKS-EPER policies and the emergency population’s needs in the designated areas
• You contribute to the new project’s conceptions in collaboration with Grant Manager and Programme Team
• You direct management of field team Leads in the designated areas and overall supervision of field teams in those areas
• You participate in recruitment of the field staff in designated areas
• You ensures that the field teams in designated areas provide MEAL team and Grant manager with all relevant monitoring, evaluation and reporting documents requested
• You liasion with regional and local authorities, relevant partners and stakeholders, UN and NGOs at local and regional levels in the designated areas in order to build synergies and strengthen coordination of the humanitarian activities
• You supervise the overall security situation (monitoring the security environment; ensuring the application of procedures; managing any security incidents) at the field levels in the designated areas
• You ensure that all reporting requested by HQ/Donors is performed on time and efficiently

To be successful you bring:

• Master degree in humanitarian project management or other relevant
• Minimum 3 years of experience from working as a Senior Manager in a humanitarian context
• Previous experience from working in complex and volatile contexts
• Excellent communication skills as well as strong writing and reporting skills
• Promote capacity building and are able to help your team members progress and gain autonomy
• Oral and written English is mandatory, written and oral communication in French and Russia is an added value

What you can expect from us:

• An international position, it is a roving position within the Ukraine
• An opportunity to make a difference in this world
• An interesting and challenging position with scope for design
• Duration 3 months (possible extension)
• Attractive salary and compensation (R&R)