Humanitarian and Operations Director -- CARE International, Geneva , Switzerland

Position: Humanitarian and Operations Director (HOD)
Supervisor: Secretary General / CEO
Grade: V
Location: Geneva , Switzerland, or another global hub
Timing:July/August 2016

Background:

CARE International is among the world’s largest international non-governmental humanitarian relief and development organisations. Drawing on its 70 years of experience as both a practitioner and thought leader, CARE International operates in more than 80 countries worldwide, responding to disasters and fighting poverty and social injustice with long term development programs. CARE International, through the confederation, is working to deliver on CARE 2020 Program Strategy goals, assuring standards and quality implementation and program delivery, as well as influencing policy at global, national and local levels.

CARE’s humanitarian mandate states that: responding to humanitarian emergencies is an essential part of CARE’s work to fight poverty and injustice. CARE’s humanitarian mandate is central to our CARE International-wide Global Program Strategy endorsed by all members of CARE

International’s Board.

The goal of CARE International’s Humanitarian and Emergency Strategy (2013 – 2020) is to be a leading humanitarian agency having lasting impacts on the needs of poor women, men, boys and girls affected by humanitarian crisis and known for our particular ability to reach and empower women and girls in a humanitarian context. CARE works in over 80 countries world-wide and strives to meet the highest levels of quality and accountability in our programming building upon partnership approaches, ensuring accountability to affected populations, supporting our collective efforts through humanitarian advocacy and policy interventions, and consistently ensuring a gender lens to all of our work. We strive to reach people in need both in natural disasters as well as those in politically complex and insecure environments while ensuring that we are adhering to our humanitarian principles to deliver life-saving aid and support recovery and rehabilitation in a sustainable manner.

Position Summary:

The Humanitarian and Operations Director’s (HOD) responsibility is twofold: s/he is leading the harmonization of operational standards across the confederation, particularly with reference to country office work, which includes coordinating the Operations directors and cross functional teams from the implementing CI members for high quality operational implementation. And s/he leads CARE’s global operations, policies and systems for humanitarian preparedness, response, capacity development, partnership, external relations and accountability. A primary role of the HOD is to provide oversight and coordination of CARE’s responses to humanitarian emergencies including chairing response decision-making, ensuring CARE’s responses meet standards and coordination requirements, addressing problems when needed, mobilizing CARE-wide resources to support responses, including managing CARE’s Emergency Response Fund, and promoting learning and accountability. The HOD convenes and coordinates the Senior Operations executives from the operational lead members of the CI confederation on operational harmonization and standards; chairs a key operations and humanitarian leadership teams of the confederation; and CARE International’s Emergency Response Working Group. S/he is responsible forassuring strategic involvement with national CARE International members and country offices to provide overall humanitarian policy and strategy direction for CARE globally and mobilize CARE-wide humanitarian capacities in an interdependent way. She/he leads the development and updating of

CARE’s humanitarian policies, standards, systems, and strategies, including the integration of gender approaches, and also leads the strengthening of CARE’s shared humanitarian capabilities across the organization.

The Humanitarian and Operations Director is responsible for ensuring line management of humanitarian operations in new locations not led by current CARE Member Partners (CMPs) as well as leads on major corporate level responses (equivalent to IASC L3 responses) in a number of contexts. The HOD leads CARE’s humanitarian representation and advocacy work externally and guides CARE International’s media and communication function on humanitarian issues. This senior level position is responsible for managing CARE’s emergency group including a staff of 20 based in various locations, budgets and equipment, providing information and reports on CARE’s humanitarian work to the CI Secretariat, Board and external stakeholders; and coordinating operational harmonization and adherence to global operational standards.

The Humanitarian Operations Director reports into the CI Secretary General/CEO and forms a key member of the CARE International Executive Management Team.

Participation in CI Secretariat executive management & governance: Participate as a memberof the CI Secretariat’s executive management team and within appropriate CI governance committees and working groups. This includes contributing towards the effective management of the secretariat, its staff and resources, as well as the strong interdependent work of CARE’s fourteen members, a number that is expected to expand considerably within the next several years.

Key Contacts:

Internal: 

• CI Secretary General/CEO, Deputy Secretary General, Program Director, Fundraising, Communications, and Advocacy, Safety and Security and other members of the CI secretariat senior staff 
• Operations Directors/Vice Presidents of the Lead operational members of CARE International (Australia, Canada, France, Deutschland, USA); India, Peru and Thailand, and Program, Finance, Human Resources Directors of all CARE international members 
• Heads and coordinators of the humanitarian emergency function within CI members, both individually and collectively through the CI Emergency Response Working Group 
• Country directors and their lead member line management
• Staff of the CI emergency group (CEG) and of emergency units of CI members 
• Members of CI working committees
• National Directors of CARE member partners 

External: 

• Humanitarian directors and staff of UN agencies, other international NGOs, and the Red Cross/Crescent movement
• Institutional donors and governments (in coordination with CI Members as appropriate)
• Media, private foundations & donors, and the general public 

Working Conditions:

The CI Humanitarian and Operations Director is based within the CI Secretariat in Geneva, or another global hub. It is anticipated that the HOD spends up to 30% of his/her time travelling including to major humanitarian emergency situations in the developing world, often in unsafe and dangerous environments.

Qualifications: 

• At least ten years of senior management and leadership experience in both the humanitarian and development field with international organisations, including substantial experience working in developing countries 
• Demonstrated experience leading complex emergency responses and long term development programs 
• Experience working for international NGOs, Secretariats or confederated organisations. Demonstrated networking with major humanitarian actors and the humanitarian and development architecture, including the UN, governments, and institutional donors 
• Proven effectiveness in mobilizing and leveraging capacity from others, influencing and networking 
• Strong knowledge of the humanitarian sector including principles, trends, standards and laws, and understanding of how humanitarian work relates to longer-term development 
• A graduate degree in an appropriate field, or an equivalent combination of a bachelors’ degree and experience 

Skills and Core Competencies: 

• Outstanding leadership, management and team building skills 
• Political acumen to co-ordinate, facilitate and negotiate at all levels across a large and complex confederation 
• Advanced oral and written communication skills
• Policy, analysis, advocacy and representation skills 
• Systems and capacity building skills
• Excellent teamwork and inter-personal skills
• Fluency in English required and other major language skills desired 
• Familiarity with key humanitarian policies and frameworks , with a particular emphasis on gender and accountability 

How to Apply:

Interested and qualified candidates should submit their CVs and a covering letter of interest in English to cirecruitment@careinternational.org by February 27th, 2016. Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Moreinfo: http://www.care-international.org/get-involved/work-for-us