Deputy Country Director for Programme

Position description

People in Need (PIN) is a Czech-based international non-governmental organization (NGO) that has provided humanitarian and development assistance across more than 20 countries since 1992. Today, PIN stands as one of the largest organizations of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe, supporting vulnerable communities in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. PIN empowers civil society, advocates for human rights, and promotes social inclusion both at home and abroad.

About the role:

The Deputy Country Director for Program (DCDP) supervises the entire program portfolio. The DCDP is responsible for defining program development and implementation strategies, and planning on the basis of the overall Country Strategy, in close cooperation with Country Director, including formulation of new project proposals and continuous improvement of program’s implementation and quality.

Together with the Country Director, the DCDP represents PIN to donors, partners, authorities and other stakeholders, ensuring that PIN is recognized for its field experience and models of action. The DCDP cooperates closely with Deputy Country Director for Systems and Operations (DCDSO) to contribute to continues improvement of support processes, with Head of Communication and Advocacy Department (HoCA) to generate evidence and formulate key messages to influence the positive changes, as well as with Head of Safety, Security and Access (HoSA). Internally, the DCDP contributes to a positive working environment for PIN staff and ensures that continuous improvements and Safeguarding is integrated in programming and functioning of organization.

Internal relations:

• The DCDP reports directly to the Country Director who provides direction and general supervision. The DCDP serves as the line manager for Program Area Operations Director, Head of Grants and Reporting, Head of Quality and Program Development, Partnership Manager, Program Manager, Resilience and Recovery Coordinator, overseeing the work on Data Management team and Finance andf Administrative Coordinators and works closely with the DCDSO, HoSSA, HoCA, as well as relevant HQ departments and regional management.

External relations:

• In coordination with the Country Director, DCDP represents PIN in national and international events, meetings with donors, government partners, international organisations, local and national partners, regional and local authorities, other agencies, clusters, coordination bodies, etc. DCDP is alternate representing PIN in HCT.

Main Duties & Responsibilities:

Program strategy development and representation

• Lead the development and execution of the program portfolio in line with PIN Ukraine Country Program Strategy. This responsibility includes in particular the following tasks:
• Develop and regularly revise programmatic framework, vision, and outcomes, including support in building the relevant organizational, technical and HR capacity under all strategic program pillars;
• Analyze the relevant strategic orientations and review their expected impact, relevance and sustainability to inform the future projects;
• Initiate and review related research, context analyses and assessments to inform PIN strategy, advocacy, program development and implementation, and ensure timely sharing and circulation of relevant information to other PIN departments and external stakeholders;
• Network with a diversified range of local and international actors relevant to PIN programming, including donors, local and international organisations, coordination fora, WG, TF, Clusters and others;
• Identify strategic entry points and new approaches in line with a longer-term strategy, including recovery and development agenda;
• Develop models of action, propose pilots and formulate projects in cooperation with CD, DCDSO, HoCA;
• In close cooperation with CD, engage with relevant donors for funding opportunities, identify opportunities for new and alternative funding streams and lead the project proposals development accordingly;
• Review project proposals and actively participate in proposal development;
• In close cooperation with the Advocacy and Communication Director, participate in advocacy efforts on the relevant themes;
• Contribute to the principled and streamlined process of proposal development, through early identification of needs and possible response strategies, participation in Go-No Go decision-making with management team, proposal development support;
• Within the framework of the proposal development process, actively contribute content into new proposals, collaboratively working with the whole program team and other relevant departments.

Senior management:

• Participation in senior management meetings of the CP and strategic decision making, including incident and crisis management;
• Providing leadership support to program management team;
• Ensures the regular revision of the existing programme country strategy and its operationalization;
• Ensure that the overall program is designed, managed and implemented in conformity to People in Need’s policies, strategy and guidelines and appropriate to program needs;
• Support the development of an organizational culture that reflects PIN’s values, promotes accountability, safeguarding, and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up people to deliver outstanding.

Portfolio management:

• Ensure effective and focused on quality management of PIN’s program through line management of the program team, oversight of key processes and indicators, and reporting;
• Ensure that country program have sound implementation strategies and work plans;
• Ensure that projects meet high standards in terms of quality, and that appropriate technical standards are in place;
• Ensure humanitarian principles, conflict sensitivity, gender, protection and inclusion, environmental sustainability other cross-cutting themes as relevant are followed, and mainstreamed in all program, as well as the program strategic plans;
• In cooperation with program management, anticipate and mitigate risks and provide ad-hoc support through trouble shooting and addressing identified bottlenecks;
• Timely identify and determine the need for external support and involve new expertise as required to support country program development/improvement/strategy, and line managed teams in various phases of the program management;
• Ensure timely and adequate information exchange for grants’ tracking, proposal development, donor liaison and compliance, and for contributions to audits;
• Ensure timely and high-quality contribution to reporting to clusters, other coordination forma, donors and HQ from program teams, oversee data management for developing and maintaining the highest standards of data management, protection and sharing;
• Ensure effective cooperation with the MEAL Department to support an adequate monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning system, and good practices, as well as supports timely implementation of recommendations developed;
• Coordinate with Communication and Advocacy team for the identification of issues for evidence building to contribute to comms-advocacy strategy;
• Initiate or contribute to new partnership development through strategic guidance and oversight of the process of partnership development.

Learning and information sharing:

• Contribute to sharing of experiences, lessons learned, and good practice across sites and from other PIN country programs and promotion of learning from relevant best practices internally and externally;
• Ensure that all official program documentation is properly stored and available for the future;
• Ensure a smooth coordination and communication among the program staff and between the program and support staff;
• Ensure a collaborative work between the different program’s units.

Team management:

• In cooperation with the Country Director and Senior Management Team as appropriate, ensure the sound development of the program team’s structure and staffing in view of the program strategy and portfolio development, including scaling up and down the capacity, as appropriate for the response;
• Directly manage a diversified pool of national and international staff; ensure solid Performance Management and recommendations for capacity building;
• Lead the recruitment of key program staff as line manager, and validate other recruitments of program staff with due respect of high-quality standards and fair and unbiased procedures;
• Ensure team collaborative work and exchange of experience across the program structure; directly facilitate team work among line-managed staff and units, and recommend and ensure that team work and integrated approaches are streamlined in different levels and with other departments.

Security situation in Ukraine

Humanitarian workers continue to operate throughout Ukraine, although the front-line areas are being shelled almost constantly, and main cities are being targeted with missiles and UAVs quite regularly. PIN security SOPs require PIN staff to proceed to shelter should the risk level be assessed by the Security Department as the highest (launch of missiles or drones) and remain there until the air raid siren is cancelled, which cumulatively can be several times a week, occasionally for several hours at a time (although shorter periods are as well occurring). While air strikes that were targeting energy, infrastructure have finished after winter, they have succeeded in reaching their goals and are likely to resume in late autumn/winter. At the moment military and civilian objects are being targeted, including the west of Ukraine. While Kyiv enjoys relatively strong air defence systems that are intercepting most of the missiles and UAVs, other regions are covered much less significantly which results in bigger damage. Outside of the areas in the vicinity to the contact line, services such as medical care, shops, public transportation as well as restaurants or leisure facilities remain operational.

People in Need is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct and is committed to promoting the welfare of children and adults with whom People in Need involved. People in Need expects all staff to perform job duties and responsibilities in accordance with People in Need code of conduct and key policies (available at: https://www.peopleinneed.net/key-policies-4142gp). People in Need Staff will undertake the appropriate level of training.

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks.

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organization and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.

Qualifications

• University degree in a relevant field
• Solid leadership and staff management skills, with a proven track record of managing large and diverse teams and contributing to the capacity building of national and international staff
• Proven track record of leading an organization through change and/or transition
• Experience in early recovery, development and humanitarian programming, preferably in the region
• Strong understanding of the humanitarian-development-peace nexus and proven experience in its implementation
• Experience with strategic programme planning, project cycle management, people management, fundraising, project development and proposal development
• Experience with donor liaison and relationship management, with a good understanding of the institutional donor environment, including INTPA/NEAR/ENEST/FPI, ECHO, FCDO, US Government, BMZ, SDC, OCHA-administered humanitarian pooled funds, etc.
• Technical expertise in at least one of the strategic sectors is an advantage, particularly locally led development, civil society strengthening, social protection and inclusion
• Excellent networking, partnership-building and representation skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent spoken and written English
• Knowledge of Ukrainian is preferred; knowledge of Russian is an advantage
• Strong critical thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills
• High level of cultural sensitivity and ability to work effectively in diverse cultural contexts
• Strong ability and willingness to transfer knowledge and build the capacity of others
• Reliable, self-reliant and results-oriented, with a proactive, structured and systematic approach to work
• Ability to work effectively in difficult conditions and under pressure
• Familiarity with conflict-affected settings
• Willingness and ability to travel within the country

What PIN Offers:

• Working environment in a well-established humanitarian organization in a challenging context;

• Starting Salary and benefits based on PIN’s salary scale and HR policies: 3700 – 4000 Eur/month;

• Additional allowances include:

  • Monthly Subsistence Allowance of 1440 EUR;
  • Monthly Hardship Allowance of 400 EUR;
  • Accommodation provided by PIN/Monthly Housing Allowance up to 1000 EUR;
  • RnR Allowance of 350 Eur/cycle.

• Time off and Rest:

  • 25 days of holiday annually;
  • 10 sick days
  • Rest & Recreation (R&R) policy of 5 days x 3 cycles per year;

• Travel benefits:

  • Reimbursement of travel expenses with travel to the country of residence once every 6 months of work;
  • Reimbursement of costs of visas and vaccinations; assistance with the visa application procedure;
  • Reimbursement for the medical check-up before and after the deployment;
  • Travel health insurance covering medical care, incl. the repatriation;

• Health and Well-being:

  • 24/7 Medical Support available online;
  • Free psychological consultations available online;

Professional Development: Free access to e-learning platforms and PIN Learning Hub; PIN’s global Induction Training, and tailored capacity-building opportunities, including Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT);

Application instructions

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