Regional Director – Asia Pacific

Location: South East Asia – Hybrid Working (home working, with partner visits and extensive travel)

Duration: permanent, full-time

Closing date for applications: 7th August 2022

Start date: ASAP

Remuneration: Competitive based on experience

Reports to: Chief Executive Officer, based in the UK

Direct Reports: Country Director for Timor-Leste and colleagues working throughout Asia

Dotted line management: Technical support partnerships for effective alignment across a geographic and thematic working matrix

We rebuild tropical fisheries with coastal communities

Blue Ventures is a marine conservation organization that puts people first. We support coastal fishers in remote and rural communities to rebuild fisheries, restore ocean life and build lasting pathways to prosperity. Our work began two decades ago in Madagascar’s remote coastal communities and is growing globally. Across a dozen countries, we’re partnering with traditional fishers and community organizations to design, scale, strengthen and sustain fisheries management and conservation at the community level. We bring partners together in networks to advocate for reform, and share tools and best practices to support fishing communities across the globe.

Summary job description

We’re recruiting for a Regional Director to lead our growing work in the Asia Pacific region, supporting communities and partners in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Thailand and Timor-Leste.

Based in the region, the Asia Regional Director is responsible for overseeing the safe, effective and efficient delivery of Blue Ventures’ activities across the region. Setting the example for our culture and values, they lead a dynamic, multi-disciplinary, field-focused team of colleagues supporting communities and partner organisations across the region.

Driving continuous improvement in operational effectiveness, the Regional Director is responsible for creating a positive professional environment that protects, nurtures and develops the talents of our team. The position provides leadership, strategic direction, support and mentoring to country teams to ensure colleagues have the capability to deliver high-impact conservation outcomes.

The Regional Director plays a key role in advancing BV’s global conservation strategy, informed and inspired by lessons from the field and sites across the world for transformative change for coastal communities. The Regional Director is responsible for marrying this global strategy with the needs and opportunities of our regional team, evolving and implementing regional and national strategies through close community, staff, and partner engagement.

The Regional Director is accountable for ensuring that our activities are well designed, respond intelligently to community and partner needs, and are progressed on time and to budget through careful planning, decision-making and progress reporting. The role is also responsible for ensuring that BV’s overall commitments and workload are in line with our capacities and capabilities, and ensuring that adequate adjustments are made in good time according to need.

The role also oversees finance, operations and human resources functions to enable the effective, safe and efficient management of people and programmes, as well as ensuring risk mitigation and compliance with procedures. The UK support office is at the Regional Director’s disposal for these purposes, with an expectation of close collaboration so we meet our goals.

The Regional Director is the primary regional representative of Blue Ventures in Asia. They are accountable for ensuring the regional team’s input to BV’s communications and knowledge management and sharing efforts. And they are the go-to person for senior government, funder, private sector or civil society engagements, and will be expected to proactively manage these relationships to further BV’s goals. This includes public speaking and networking at all levels from local communities to international conferences, and facilitating and accompanying field visits where required. As well as overseeing Blue Ventures’ operations in the region the role provides strategic support and guidance to colleagues within our sister Indonesian organisation Yayasan Pesisir Lestari (YPL), based in Denpasar, Bali.

The Regional Director will serve as a member of the global senior management team and will report to the Chief Programmes Officer. This is a full-time role with regular overseas travel to work closely with colleagues, field teams and partners throughout the region.

To download the full job description please click here.