Head of Department Operations

We’re looking for a collaborative and influential individual to join us as Head of Department Operations in our Global Programmes division here at Save the Children UK.

If you’re a brilliant leader, driven by ensuring teams are highly motivated and at their most effective, and passionate about delivering maximum impact for children, we’d love to hear from you!

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the Global Programmes Division

The Global Programmes Division works with Save the Children International colleagues and local partners, combining and optimising resources for maximum impact. Through our resilient partnerships model and technical expertise, we design appropriate, high-quality humanitarian and development programmes, that drive sector level change and provide immediate and lasting impact for children around the world. We take pride in developing processes and tools that underpin our data driven decision making, ensuring we work in the most inclusive, effective, and efficient way possible.

About the Role

We currently have two exciting opportunities to join the team. As one of two new Head of Department Operations, you will be working with either the Programme Quality and Impact (PQI), or Programme Partnerships department within our Global Programmes division, playing a key role supporting teams at the heart of our international programming work.

These are varied and rewarding positions, spanning operational leadership, strategic planning, and people initiatives within the department and supporting the development of a high performing, effective team.

You will drive major system and culture change initiatives at departmental level in support of these priorities, as well as leading initiatives to enhance our ongoing operational effectiveness, and the engagement of staff in our organisational communications, people and culture agendas.

You will also work closely with the Division Operations team to ensure appropriate alignment across the division, as well as with multiple stakeholders across the organisation, building effective relationships at all levels.

In this role, you will be responsible for:

• Leading Strategy, Planning and Programme Management across your department, developing and overseeing delivery and monitoring of department annual plans to deliver on organisational priorities.
• Guiding strategic decision-making on resource planning, operations, and prioritisation.
• Project management of strategic and prioritised projects and working groups, involving a range of stakeholders across the department, division, and wider organisation, to ensure high-quality planning, delivery, reporting and communications.
• Change Management, Systems & Process improvement: representing and advocating for the needs of the department, influencing and adapting systems and processes to ensure efficient and effective delivery of divisional and organisational initiatives.
• Developing, overseeing and supporting others in engaging cross-divisional and departmental communications.
• Financial management: effective management of the Departmental budget by leading on annual budgeting, forecasting and monitoring and ensure effective systems and procedures are in place for cost-recovery.
• People & Culture: supporting the divisional Director and leading on departmental People initiatives to advance inclusivity and diversity within departments and ensure that People are well-supported and motivated.

About you

You’ll be a strong team-player with an empowering and collaborative working style and excellent interpersonal skills. Solutions-focused, you’ll bring a creative approach to problem solving and be passionate about ensuring teams are at their most effective in order to ensure we deliver maximum impact for children.

To be successful, you’ll demonstrate:

• Strong programme or project management and operational experience at a senior level, related to internal organisational programmes/projects or related to donor-funded programmes/projects.
• Experience leading the implementation of systems, people or change initiatives in an agile way.
• High-level expertise in in developing efficient and effective teams, including to influence teams and individuals who are not line reports.
• Excellent planning, management and coordination skills, with the ability to organise a workload comprised of varying tasks and responsibilities.
• The ability to build effective trust-based relationships and networks at a senior level.
• Strong budget and finance management skills.
• Experience designing or delivering risk management.
• Strong ability to manage multiple activities at once and to resolve conflicting priorities.
• Experience in a similar complex / large organisation, ideally with knowledge of the international development / charity sector.

Please note: We are recruiting for 2 Head of Department Operations via this posting and will be considering applications for both positions concurrently.

Please note: To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Ways of Working: This position can be performed remotely within the UK, but there are likely to be times when you will be required to come to your contracted office in Farringdon, London (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter). This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team and is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building.

Please note: travel costs to your contracted office will be at your own expense.

Flexible Working – We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be “Free to Be Me”. We are not looking for just one type of person – we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think.

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences – of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability – help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.

To see our full statement please visit this link: https://jobs.savethechildren.org.uk/our-policies/diversity/