Head of Support Services Jobs at Danish Refugee Council in November 2024 includes a detailed overview of the key requirements, duties, responsibilities, and skills for this role.
The Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified Head of Support Services for Tanzania & Burundi.
About the job
The role has overall leadership responsibility for DRC’s operational management in Tanzania and Burundi within Finance, Administration, HR, Supply Chain, and Information Technology (IT), and deputizing for the Country Director as requested and/or needed. The role requires a demonstrated ability to develop long-term vision and strategic planning, provide leadership for DRC’s operations, and a high level of financial and operations planning. The role is directly responsible for ensuring that DRC’s program in Tanzania and Burundi operates in accordance with DRC’s operational standards as expressed in the DRC Operations Handbook and other guidelines in DRC.
Your main duties and responsibilities will be:
- Support the Country Director and the Senior Management Team of DRC in Tanzania and Burundi in liaising with donors and government authorities, especially where it relates to issues of compliance, registration, and audit;
- Manage the operational support units for the country operation, in finance, administration, HR management, Supply Chain and IT in the country office as well as the field offices, by providing technical support, capacity building and strategic leadership to the areas under his/her supervision;
- Develop a risk management plan for the country that identifies the major financial and operational risks and implement a mitigation strategy. Ensure that all administrative and legal systems are accurate and kept up to date;
- Advise managers on HR-related issues, offering guidance on employee relations, recruitment, and performance management;
- Manage annual salary and compensation review process and compensation adjustments;
- Lead and manage the support services managers (including people planning, performance, well-being and development). The team is composed of Support services managers (Finance managers, Supply Chain manager, HR Coordinator and various Support Services Team Leaders);
- Supervise, spot-check, audit, control and implement corrective actions related to DRC’s operational standards within the areas of operation to ensure full compliance, this includes month-end closure, timely sharing of financial reports and creation of budgets for new proposals;
- Ensure that DRC retains and continually develops its operational capacity to scale up and scale down its ability to provide services with a particular focus on procurement;
- Put in place and maintain a well-functioning Master Budget for both Tanzania and Burundi. Frequently update the Country Office budget prognosis;
- Ensure DRC ERP functionalities are properly rolled out and used by relevant staff;
- Ensure quality and timely creation of new budgets in Dynamics.
About Kibondo/ Kigoma:
The Kigoma Region in Tanzania is bordering Lake Tanganyika and has a relatively low population density. The refugee hosting area within Kigoma hosts over 200,000 refugees, mainly from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In Kibondo/Kasulu the climate is mild, the environment is green, and in general the situation is safe. Kibondo is a small rural town with limited services. Currently the R&R cycle is every 10 weeks.
About you
To be successful in this role, we expect you to have extensive experience in management and have worked both strategically and operationally with several of the tasks above. We hope to hear from you if you have proven leadership skills and strong experience in people management and have at some point in your career worked with different donors or support sectors. Moreover, we also expect the following:
- Minimum of 5 years work experience in a similar role with an INGO with an annual budget of over 10 million USD
- Relevant university Master’s degree (e.g. international development, economics) with specialization in administration management
- Proven experience with an ERP system
- Proven significant financial, information and systems management experience
- Significant experience in procurement and tender processes
- Understanding of and experience with institutional fundraising and experience working with key humanitarian donors like UN agencies such as UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF and other donors like EU, ECHO, and US government donors
- Prior work experience in the East Africa Great Lakes region is an asset
- Full professional proficiency in English; French and Kiswahili fluency is an asset;
- Prior experience with DRC as a HoSS is an asset
- Willingness to travel and live and work in remote areas.
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: 24 Months of Contract, with possibilities of extension
Band: E1
Designation of Duty Station: Kibondo, Tanzania with frequent travel to Burundi
Start date: February or March 2025
Application process
All applicants must upload a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English. Applications sent by email will not be considered.
Closing date for applications: 5th December 2024
For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website, drc.ngo.
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