Global Investigations Director

Title: Global Investigations Director

Department: Ethics & Compliance

Location: UK, London or US, Washington DC (Remote, home based)

Reporting to: Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer

Direct reports: Global Safeguarding Lead and other technical case leads as assigned

Note this role works closely with Country Incident Management Teams

Budget responsibility: Not Applicable

* This role is classified as requiring advanced pre-employment checks

ABOUT Relief International.

Relief International (RI) is a leading non-profit organization working in 16 countries globally to relieve poverty, ensure well-being and advance dignity. We specialize in fragile settings, responding to natural disasters, humanitarian crises, and chronic poverty.

RI combines humanitarian and development approaches to provide immediate services while laying the groundwork for long-term impact and resilience. We focus on health/nutrition, education, economic opportunity, and water, sanitation, hygiene (WASH) programming while integrating protection, environment/climate change, and conflict mitigation in partnership with the communities we serve. We empower communities to find, design and implement the solutions that work best for them.

RI includes the three corporate members of the RI Alliance: RI-US, RI-UK, and MRCA/RI-France. Under our alliance agreement, we operate as a single, shared management structure.

About our Programs

RI is active in 16 countries around the world, including some of the most fragile: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen. Often, RI is the only organization providing assistance to highly vulnerable communities.

RI employs about 5,000 staff and auxiliary workers

97% of staff are local nationals and there are about 90 international (expat) staff.

2021 programs budget is about $125M

RI receives funding from a broad range of institutional donors – US,UK, Europe, and the UN, to delivery life-saving and resilience building programming with communities and local and international partners. RI supports solutions that reinforce and improve upon existing in-country systems. Where such systems do not exist or are chronically underperforming, RI’s crisis response lays the foundation for long-term, sustainable change.

Position Summary

Relief International is looking for a Global Investigations Director to ensure that ethics and compliance concerns that arise in our operations are handled with professionalism and integrity.

Your role will be to lead, guide and coordinate investigation activity across RI’s operations. This will be a highly-visible role that may interface with regional/country leadership teams, local incident management teams, global support office functions (such as legal, finance, security and human resources), major donors, and law enforcement officials.

Key Responsibilities and Duties

• Lead the assignment, prioritization and monitoring of investigative work, coordinating a pool of technical case leads (security, financial crimes, safeguarding, data protection, etc.)

• Undertake and lead investigations on behalf of the Global Support Office when higher levels of objectivity, resources or expertise are required

• Work with local country teams to formulate investigation plans (including interviews, document reviews, physical and electronic evidence analysis) and present investigation findings in a clear and accurate report

• Lead and coordinate the development of recommendations for corrective actions and improvements to RI’s internal controls and practices

• Support the CECO and General Counsel to ensure matters are properly disclosed and communicated to external donors and statutory authorities as required

• Foster professional and collaborative working relationships with law enforcement, including Office of Inspector General (OIG) personnel and donor counter-fraud/misconduct units

• Mentor and manage those involved in investigative activities

• Oversee the maintenance of the accuracy and timeliness of data housed in RI’s Incident Management System database

• Lead the development or revising investigative tools and templates based on best practices

• Deliver investigation training to field teams involved in investigations

• Assist with proactive risk assessments and internal audits

• Conduct analysis to determine trends and learnings from investigative activity and coordinate with the CECO to socialize this learning within Relief International, contributing to RI’s broader Ethics and Compliance program.

Safeguarding

• Uphold and promote RI’s commitment to ensuring the safeguarding and safety of the vulnerable communities we serve.

• Consistent with RI’s safeguarding and protection policies, contribute to ensuring that all those who come into contact with Relief International staff and the communities we serve can be trusted to work safely with them

• Support and develop systems that create and maintain an environment that prevents sexual exploitation and abuse and promotes the implementation of the Code of Conduct and safeguarding policies

• Work collaboratively with the RI departments to advocate for the inclusion of safeguarding activities and resources within program

• Ability to demonstrate knowledge of donor requirements of safeguarding standards and protection from exploitation and abuse

Culture and leadership

• Ensure a positive and productive work environment which is free from harassment and bullying.

• Ability to demonstrate sensitivity and understanding of diversity and cultural differences, gender issues and the commitment to equal opportunities

• Ability to demonstrate and uphold RI’s values and ethics

Other related tasks that may from time to time

Role requirements.

Experience and skills required for the role.

• Progressive experience in conducting investigations in an international environment

• Masters or postgraduate qualification in international development or equivalent would be an advantage

• Experience in the NGO sector or grant-supported organizations, regional and international organizations, or the inspector general function within a large government organization

• Demonstrated fluency with topical matters that may be the subject of investigations, including fraud, corruption, procurement integrity and trade sanctions. Additional experience with misconduct in other areas such as safeguarding, human trafficking and labour standards is a plus

• Experience with investigation teams in remote locations and high-risk settings

• Experience scrutinizing financial, electronic and forensic evidence. Ability to perform forensic data analytics and use data visualization tools a plus

• Knowledge of Smartsheets and PowerBI a plus

• Demonstrated proficiency with government grants, public/private donors and finance management

• Excellent relationship management skills and ability to communicate in all forms (written, verbal, negotiation, presentation skills, etc.)

• Willingness to travel, sometimes at short notice, as required

• Degree in accounting, law, business, criminal justice or related discipline

• Professional designations such as CFE, CPA, CIA, CCEP a plus

RI Values.

Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as well as “Do No Harm,” Relief International Values:

We value:

• Integrity

• Adaptability

• Collaboration

• Inclusivity

• Sustainability

How to apply

• To apply for this post, click on the “Apply” button in the job advert page
• You will be asked to upload a CV and Cover Letter. The cover letter should be no more than 2 pages long and explain why you are interested in this post with Relief International and how your skills and experience make you a good fit.

Note the closing date as per the job board listing, however, please apply immediately as we will be reviewing applicants on a rolling basis and may withdraw the position before the job board closing date.

Please apply by uploading your cover letter and up-to-date CV on our website .

COVID 19: To ensure a safe workplace, RI follows government requirements, and in some locations a mandatory vaccination policy applies. When working or traveling on RI business, all staff, contractors and visitors must follow the rules and entry requirements of the country.

As this role is US based a mandatory policy for COVID 19 vaccination will be required by the post holder.

Due to limited resources, only short-listed candidates will be contacted

Relief International has a zero-tolerance policy for unlawful harassment, sexual exploitation and abuse. Relief International is committed to protecting our staff and the communities we work with from abuse and harm including sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and sexual harassment.

All staff are expected to abide by our Code of Conduct.

Recruitment to all roles in Relief International include a criminal records self-declaration, references and other pre-employment checks, which may include police and qualifications checks.