Regional Director – Middle East

We believe in a world where the rights of displaced and vulnerable persons are protected during a crisis. We do this through our programmes, where we help meet immediate humanitarian needs, prevent further displacement, and contribute to durable solutions. At the root of our programmes are our solid technical expertise and specific sectorial knowledge aiming for the highest possible quality, whether in stand-alone or integrated approaches.

NRC is seeking a solid and inspiring leader who will further develop and strengthen NRC’s ability to assist and protect people in need in the region.

The NRC Middle East Region (MERO) covers four major protracted crises: Syria, Iraq, Palestine and Libya. The country programmes incorporate Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, and Libya, in addition to the recently established Human Mobility Hub in Tunis, hosted by the Libya country programme. The region has a budget of approximately USD 150 million and 2,200 dedicated colleagues.

Across the region, NRC delivers life-saving and principled longer-term assistance to people in need. Given the protracted nature of many of the crises, NRC has a focus on self-reliance and durable solutions with a particular focus on improving national policies and systems to support sustainable livelihoods, access to formal education and civil documentation for displaced populations. Another focus is to strengthen potential partnerships with International Financial Institutions, development donors with transition funding streams, and the private sector.

All countries in the region are united within the objectives of the NRC Global and the MERO Regional, four-year strategies. Delivering on the ambition of the MERO strategy is a key responsibility of the Regional Director.

The Regional Director position is an exciting opportunity to provide strategic and dynamic leadership for the Middle East Region.

You will be responsible for:

• Strategic and operational leadership to ensure the collective country priorities and approaches are relevant to the country specific contexts and wider humanitarian trends
• Ensuring that the programmes in the MERO region are managed and developed in line with NRC’s overall strategies and policies
• A leadership culture, a working and learning environment in line with NRC’s values and leadership/management framework
• Leading the Regional Management Team of county directors and the Regional Office team of technical professionals within programme, support, risk and compliance, advocacy and health, safety, and security.

You’ll be reporting to the Executive Director Field Operations in Head Office in Oslo and a member of the Field Operations Management Team. You will be a member of the Secretary General’s Extended Senior Management Group.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop, follow up and report on regional strategy in line with overall NRC strategic direction
• Approval of Country Strategies and compliance of Country Directors for their delivery
• Duty of Care to all NRC staff and partners. Promote a safety and security, and risk management culture, ensuring development of, and adherence to, plans and trainings in line with NRC policies
• Promote accountability, the highest standard of ethics, including safeguarding, and adherence to the Humanitarian Principles
• Contribute to NRC advocacy efforts, nationally, regionally, and internationally, and represent and profile NRC at the different levels
• Ensure that partner -and donor relations in the region are maintained and further developed in line with regional NRC strategy and targets
• Overall budget responsibility and authority for region, ensuring optimal use of resources. Responsible for the Regional Budget
• Hold Country Directors in the region accountable for assessing and responding to new emergencies
• Actively engage and contribute contextual understanding, ideas, and actions to the FOMT and ESMG

What you will bring:

• Minimum 8 years of relevant leadership/management experience within the humanitarian field
• Experience from working as top-level manager in complex and volatile contexts
• Broad network within the international humanitarian community and proven ability to represent an organisation at different levels
• Experience from delivering results in complex and volatile contexts
• Insight and awareness own leadership profile, strengths, and weaknesses
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in English, both written and verbal. Fluency in Arabic is an asset
• Knowledge of the context in the MERO region is also an asset

We are also looking for people who share our values:

• To be dedicated in what we do.
• To be innovative with our solutions.
• To act as one unified and inclusive team.
• To be accountable to the donors that make our work possible; the people that we exist to serve; and to each other… the members of our NRC family.

All employees of the Norwegian Refugee Council should be able to adhere to our Code of Conduct and the four organizational values: Dedicated, innovative, inclusive and accountable

We encourage applications from all qualified and interested candidates. For further details, please view the full job description HERE

We offer:

• Commencement: June 2023
• Contract period: 2 years
• Duty Station: Amman, Jordan. This is an accompanied duty station.
• Travel: Up to 30% within the region
• Salary/benefits: Grade 13 according to NRC’s general direction