Country Director

TITLE: Country Director

TEAM/PROGRAMME: West & Central Africa Regional Senior Leadership Team

LOCATION: Dakar, Senegal

GRADE: Tier II

CONTRACT LENGTH: Open Ended

CHILD SAFEGUARDING:

Level 3: the post holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process staff.

ROLE PURPOSE:

As a member of the West & Central Africa Senior Leadership team, you will have shared accountability for Save the Children’s international development and emergency programming in the region of a portfolio of $248 million (2021) through an organisation of over 2,500 people. To achieve our ambitious goals and breakthroughs for children, the leadership team will, in collaboration with Save the Children Members and in conjunction with the other regional organisations, aim to drive growth of the donor landscape to $3 billion in the coming years.

The Country Director will lead the transformation of the country office to a new operating model, whilst also delivering Save the Children’s strategy within the country through:

• Delivering quality programmes, including advocacy, for children; and
• Making sure we fulfil our commitments to our Members and donors

In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

SCOPE OF ROLE:

Reports to: Regional Director

Staff directly reporting to this post: 5 Direct Reports : PDQ Director, Finance Director, HR Manager, ACCM Manager and Operations Manager

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY :

As a member of the Regional Senior Leadership Team, contribute to strategic development and delivery of international programming, in both humanitarian and development contexts, in line with the Save the Children mandate, strategy and theory of change.

– Strategic Leadership

– Human Resource Management

– Programme Development and Management

– Financial and Admin Management

– Audit and Corporate Governance compliance

– Institutional Funding

– Security Management

– Representation, Communications and Advocacy

Any other duties as assigned by the Regional Director

QUALIFICATIONS

• EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS
• Experienced leader who has held senior positions in complex/high profile/ multinational organisations
• Experience of working with large, complex donors (USAID, EU, DFID etc.) to secure and/or manage new large-scale and/or competitive funding
• Understanding of key trends in international and humanitarian development
• Demonstrable ability to recruit, lead and develop high calibre specialist senior staff with a range of backgrounds and expertise
• Strong track record in building high performance teams and future successors/leaders
• Ability to manage and motivate self and others to respond to a significant and complex crisis situation in extraordinary circumstances, requiring swift action and rapid changes in priorities
• Innovative approach to solving a range of highly complex issues and galvanising buy-in to the solutions at all levels
• Proven experience in leading change in an organisation which has led to considerable results for the organisation and its stakeholders
• Good understanding of programme, financial and operational management processes
• Experience and knowledge of context and actors in WCA region.
• Fluency and speaking and writing in both French and English
• Commitment to the Save the Children vision, principles, mission and values
• Experience on humanitarian programs and ability to work in a volatile environment preferred.

Additional job responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities as set out above are not exhaustive and the role holder may be required to carry out additional duties within reasonableness of their level of skills and experience.