Head of Operations

The Danish Refugee Council (DRC) is a leading protection agency with a mandate is to promote and protect durable solutions to conflict and displacement affected populations on the basis of humanitarian principles and human rights.DRC is implementing a multi-sector response to support Ukraine refugees, IDPs and host populations both within Ukraine and in the neighboring countries of Poland, Romania and Moldova and wider Europe.

DRC has been operating in Ukraine since 2014, following previous operations in the 1990’s and between 2007-2013. Over the years, DRC successfully maintained its presence in the government-controlled areas (GCA) and adapted its programmes to provide early recovery and durable solutions to people affected by the conflict (IDPs and communities living along the contact line), as well as reduce the threats of explosive ordnance with a growing humanitarian mine action programme.

Due to the ongoing conflict that began in Feb 22, Ukraine is experiencing one of the largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. Currently, there is an estimated 6.3 million displaced people who have crossed international borders and 8 million internally displaced people. DRC has operational offices in Lviv and Chernivtsi in Western Ukraine, Dnipro in eastern Ukraine, and explosive ordnance clearance operations in Chernihivska oblast, and a planned base in Kyivska oblast. The country office is in the process of moving back to Kyiv. Other future areas of operations may include Kharkiv and/or Poltava, Chernihiv.

DRC currently employs over 250 staff in Ukraine and will continue significant scale-up in 2022 to implement emergency response in the Protection, Livelihoods, Shelter/NFIs and Humanitarian Disarmament and Peacebuilding (humanitarian mine action) sectors, using direct interventions, support to duty bearers and civil society organizations (CSOs), and partnerships with CSOs. DRC will continue and adapt its durable solutions portfolio to the evolving context.

About the job

The Head of Operations (HoO) is overall responsible for ensuring the timely and compliant delivery of DRC’s programme activities in the field, as outlined in the Strategic Programme Document, Sector Strategies and Area Strategies, and in line with the programme technical guidelines and advice deriving from those documents and the work plans for individual grants.

A key member of DRC Country Office’s Senior Management Team, the Head of Operations works collaboratively with the Heads of Programmes (HoPs) to ensure that the programme strategies they are responsible for preparing are realistically achievable, and sufficient technical guidance and support is available to implement the grant components of those strategies effectively. The HoO also works collaboratively with the Head of Support Services to ensure that processes to enable smooth delivery of operations in the field (e.g. HR, Admin, IT, Finance, Supply Chain, etc.) are being consistently applied and improved. The HoO also coordinates closely with the Safety Manager and Access Coordinator to ensure operations are conducted safely and in line with humanitarian principles wherever they are implemented.

Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

Strategy, Management and Programming::

• Assist the Head of Programmes and the Head of Humanitarian Disarmament and Peacebuilding (HDP) and other colleagues in development of achievable Strategic Programme Document for DRC Country Office
• Oversee development of Area Strategies by the Area Offices within frame of SPD & Sector Strategies
• Line manage Area Managers responsible for implementation of different sectoral activities including but not necessarily limited to Protection, Capacity Building, Basic Assistance (Cash and NFIs), Shelter, Economic Recovery. While Mine Action does not fall under the direct responsibility of Area Managers, close collaboration with the HDP teams will be essential.
• Supervise, monitor and evaluate the implementation of the area office programs to ensure that activities are implemented in accordance with agreed strategies, principles, implementation plans, DRC guidelines and donor requirements

Operations:

• Collaborate with HoSS and HoPs to prepare Area Office-level budgets within context of country Master Budget
• Coordinate submission of combined purchase requests in Dynamics where necessary in line with procurement plans
• Cooperate with HoSS to coordinate other ongoing operational processes as required
• Oversee budgets delegated to Area Managers as next-level manager
• Engage with Access Coordinator to improve consistency and proactiveness of access negotiations

Safety

• Delegated responsibility from the CD to work with Safety Coordinators and Area Managers to ensure oversight of implementation of Safety Risk Management System in the Area Offices areas-of-implementation

Accountability:

• Champion a positive approach to gender and diversity mainstreaming in DRC’s area office operations (inc. Gender and Diversity focal points)
• Support the role out of accountability processes in the Area Offices (inc. CoC, BFMs and PSEA focal points)

Representation:

• Represent DRC Country Office in relevant forums at Area Office level (when more senior representation is required)
• Represent DRC Country Office in relevant forums at Country level as requested by the CD (e.g. INSO, AHF, ADF, etc.)
• Act up as acting Country Director from time to time when CD is absent (on rotational basis with other SMT staff)

Key Deliverables:
• Full delivery of grant outputs in line with grant targets
• Full expenditure of area office level funds in line with assigned budgets
• Accurate and timely reporting of necessary data and other information according to PMT schedules, Audit plans and other operational reporting requirements

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to possess the following:

Required

• University degree in relevant field;
• 5 years senior management experience
• Previous experience as an Area Manager essential
• Strong people management skills
• Strong operational background (finance, HR, safety)
• Fully expert in written and spoken English

Desirable

• Relevant master’s degree
• Previous experience is post-soviet countries or in Ukraine
• Fluency in relevant national languages

In this position, you are expected to demonstrate DRC’ five core competencies:

Striving for excellence: You focus on reaching results while ensuring an efficient process.

Collaborating: You involve relevant parties and encourage feedback.

Taking the lead: You take ownership and initiative while aiming for innovation.

Communicating: You listen and speak effectively and honestly.

Demonstrating integrity: You uphold and promote the highest standards of ethical and professional conduct in relation to our values and Code of Conduct, including safeguarding against sexual exploitation, abuse and harassment.

We offer

Contract length: 12 months

Band: E

Designation of Duty Station: Non-family Duty Station

Start date: 1 September 2022

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates; please refer to drc.ngo under Vacancies. For questions regarding the vacancy please contact [email protected]. Applications sent by email will not be considered.