Humanitarian Director

Established in 1977, GOAL is an international humanitarian agency dedicated to alleviating the suffering of the poor and the vulnerable and is currently operating in 14 countries world-wide. GOAL delivers a wide range of humanitarian and development programmes, ranging from humanitarian relief in disaster situations to supporting the development of healthcare services and building sustainable livelihoods. Since its foundation, GOAL has allocated more than €910 million to programmes in over 60 countries.

GOAL has an annual budget of approximately €170 million and is supported by a range of donors including the Irish Government, UK Government, USAID, the European Union, individuals, trusts and foundations. Informed by its track record over the last 40 years, GOAL remains committed to responding to humanitarian crises and tackling extreme poverty around the world.

GOAL identifies, develops and manages opportunities to work with others and further GOAL’s organisational objective of reducing extreme poverty and strengthening resilience through pro-active engagement with an array of global partners, such as donors (institutional and large foundations), international NGOs and commercial entities. GOAL is recruiting a Director of Developmentto drive key strategic and operational components of GOAL’s Business Development strategy.

Overview of the role

The Humanitarian Director will take on responsibility for the development and strategic growth of GOAL’s humanitarian work across the globe. This is an exciting role for an individual with a background in humanitarian, with a proven track record in growing portfolios as this role is strategically connected with the vision to growth GOAL’s humanitarian impact as it also focuses on new ways of working and responding to humanitarian crises across the globe.

The successful candidate will be responsible for the oversight of the emergency response unit and its strategy, and will ensure its objectives are supported corporately.

This role sits within the business development unit as it is supporting its new organisational strategy (2022 – 2025) that seeks to build more strategic partnerships with bilateral and multilateral donor agencies for greater programmatic impact. The role reports directly to the Director of Global Business Development.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the development and growth of GOAL’s humanitarian portfolio. This may include: identifying and developing business cases for growth strategies in new areas; ensuring timely and quality engagement with humanitarian donors across the globe; developing a culture of excellence and rapid response in our institutional humanitarian donor partnerships.
• Develop KPIs that support the implementation of GOAL’s global funding strategy. This will require the candidate to work with other departments and global teams across GOAL to achieve growth goals. The includes working with and influencing development staff, donor relationship managers, humanitarian response staff at global, regional and country levels to develop GOAL’s work with institutional humanitarian donor partners.
• Ensure excellent relationship with donors particularly with government institutions, bilateral/multilateral organisations and strategic partnerships with INGOs.
• Proactively promote GOAL through presentations and participation in global networks
• Ensure an excellent knowledge of the organisation’s humanitarian portfolio to leverage new opportunities.
• Create monthly performance reports on all activities related to ERU work and general business development for review by SMT.
• Work collaboratively across the organisation with program and technical teams, country offices and other departments to identify opportunities to grow and diversify GOAL’s humanitarian funding portfolio.
• Manage and motivate a diverse team and ensure ERU is well branded internally and externally through excellent communications.

Person Specification

Essential

• Leadership: Significant experience at managing teams in international organisations in emergency response, humanitarian, fragile and conflict-affected settings. Experience managing team members remotely, with the ability to motivate and support without day-to-day interaction.

• Previous Experience in Institutional Fundraising: The candidate should have at least 8-10 years’ experience raising income with institutional donors, particularly for multilateral and humanitarian funding from a diverse range of donors including USAID (BHA), BPRM, ECHO, FCDO, UN and other corporate/private foundations.

• Communications: The candidate needs excellent communications skills; verbal and written and presentation. The candidate must also be effective in influencing individuals and teams to align with the bigger vision.

• Sector Knowledge: Strong knowledge on global issues including humanitarian standards and policy, migration, refugees, conflict, emergency response is essential as is the ability to engage donors to support more effective responses.

• Technical, Analytical & problem-solving skills:

  • Strong research and analytic abilities, with a demonstrated ability to think strategically and have a thorough understanding of strategic programme development.
  • solid computer skills and knowledge of database programmes and dashboard analytics.

Other Considerations:

• A willingness to travel, sometimes at short notice to existing GOAL countries but also new locations is essential for candidates interested in this role.
• Arabic, French or Spanish language skills are highly desirable.
• Extensive overseas management experience within humanitarian and development contexts is essential.
• Candidates interested in further developing the role of technology in humanitarian contexts is also preferable.
• Candidates with strong people skills will thrive in this role, along with those who enjoy a dynamic fast pace work environment and the challenge of being challenged for personal growth.