Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified Regional Head of Support Services

DRC has been operating in West Africa since 1998. The DRC West, North Africa and Latin America Regional Office (hereafter: WANALA RO) is based in Dakar, Senegal, and covers over twelve countries outside of Senegal. Led by the Regional Executive Director for West, North Africa & Latin America Region (hereafter: WANALA Region), the DRC WANALA RO oversees, supports and provides strategic directions for DRC’s Country Offices within the Region, which currently includes: Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Colombia, Libya, Mali, Mexico, the Niger, Nigeria, Peru, Senegal, Tunisia and Venezuela. Each Country Office can also be designated as a Legal Entity.

About the job

The DRC WANALA RO expects from the Regional Head of Support Services to be an experienced, highly-qualified and enthusiastic professional to provide high-quality professional guidance and direct support to DRC operations within the WANALA Region, while helping developing regional related policies, strengthening its processes and ensuring a high-level of internal and external compliance.

The Regional Head of Support Services position is based in Dakar (Senegal) but will have to travel extensively through the WANALA Region, potentially in all the countries mentioned above.

This position is a very senior managerial one and it belongs to the Regional SMT. This position requires a strong previous experience in financial management, HR management, audit management, Supply Chain management and risk management, within the humanitarian sector and/or international organization. This position also requests a solid understanding of the different procedures and policies in place. This position requires a full professional proficiency in French and English languages.

Under the management of the Executive Director of the Region, and following the strategic directions being discussed and established by the Regional Senior Management Team, the Regional Head of Support Services has a regional focus and provides the due support (including sometimes direct support) and guidance to each Country Office in order to ensure that the Region’s countries have efficient support services Departments and maintain a high level of compliance.

The Regional Head of Support Services in the technical referent and de facto technical line manager for each Head of Support Services within the WANALA Region. Furthermore, The Regional Head of Support Services should ensure a good and efficient cooperation, communication and collaboration with the different Support Services Departments at the HQ (in Copenhagen, Denmark), but also between the ones of the Regional Office and each country of the WANALA Region.

The Regional Head of Support Services achieve her/ his responsibilities by managing and coordinating the three Support Departments of the Regional Office: the Finance Department, the Human Resources Department and the Supply Chain Department. At the WANALA Regional Office, the IT responsibilities and tasks are included within the Supply Chain Department, while the administration-related tasks are shared between the Human Resources and the Supply Chain Department (the Regional Head of Support Services ensures that this sharing is efficient and harmonious).

For the DRC operations in Senegal (which do involve only the Regional Office, given that DRC does not have any programmatic activity in Senegal), the Regional Head of Support Services is, de facto, the Head of Support Services for the Regional Office (an Office with around sixty employees, including at least twenty-five international staff members)

Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

• Strategy Leadership & Coordination
  • To work efficiently and in good collaboration with the others Head of Support Services of the WANALA Region, especially in terms of information-sharing between the Programmes and the Support Services and the different Support Departments;
  • To visit regularly the countries covered by the WANALA RO and to provide technical guidance to the Head of Support Services in the countries covered by the WANALA RO, who report to a different manager;
  • To contribute to the annual planning and to the review of policies and processes;
  • To develop new policies, processes, procedures, guidelines and tools for the Support Services in order to increase efficiency and performance;
  • To participate in the development and implementation of regional strategies;
  • To facilitate the cooperation and communication between the different SMTs of the WANALA Region, and to ensure a common approach in regards to the Support Services between the Regional Offices and the different Country Offices.
• People Management
  • Lead the three Support Services Departments at the Regional Office. This includes people planning, performance appraisal, well-being and development;
  • Is in charge of the legal affairs for the DRC Regional Office in Senegal;
  • Act de facto as the Head of Support Services for the Legal Entity in Senegal (around sixty employees, exclusively for the WANALA Regional Office);
  • Participate in the recruitment of the Head of Support Services in the WANALA Region and contribute to their performance appraisals;
  • Participate potentially in the recruitment of any Manager or Coordinator position related to the Support Services in the WANALA Region (this responsibility can be delegated);
  • Assume the role of technical line manager for all the Heads of Support Services in the WANALA Region.
• Audit, Compliance & Accountability
  • To follow-up on every recommendation from internal audit, external audit, donor audit and any other compliance report for the WANALA Regional Office but also for every concerned Legal Entity of the WANALA Region;
  • To ensure that each Legal Entity of the WANALA Region has the tools (or the information) related to any audit, including any kind of due diligence assessment to be done;
  • To provide, when it is requested and/or deemed necessary, the guidance and/or support and/or training to the Legal Entities in regards to compliance;
  • To advise on how to reach the highest level of accountability and compliance (external and internal) in the Legal Entities of the WANALA Region, for every Support Department;
  • To organize regular “audit checks” by the relevant Support Services Departments in the Legal Entities that may request and/or need such kind of audit from the Regional Office;
  • To conduct regular controls ensuring that necessary systems and resources are in place to minimize any risk of fraud;
  • To investigate and/or ensure that the WANALA Regional Office has the means to investigate in case of any suspicion of misconduct in any Legal Entity of the WANALA Region;
  • To ensure an efficient cooperation with the Regional Code of Conduct & Safeguarding team within the WANALA Region;
  • To promote the knowledge, spread and respect of the DRC Code of Conduct and DRC key values within the WANALA Region;
  • To advise on and promote understanding and application of DRC policies, procedures and principles.
• Supply Chain & IT
  • Supervise the Supply Chain Department of the WANALA Regional Office;
  • Ensure that the technical support is provided by the WANALA Regional Office to each Head of Support Services and/or Supply Chain Manager/ Coordinator in each Legal Entity of the WANALA Region (this includes capacity-building, compliance monitoring, expert advice and review of documents;
  • Ensure the implementation of the Supply Chain policies, guidelines and procedures across the Legal Entities of the WANALA Region;
  • Support in developing Regional Supply Chain initiatives and policies;
  • Approve, after careful review, the purchases orders related to the WANALA Regional Office (according to the internal delegation of responsibilities);
  • Ensure that the substitution responsibilities of the WANALA Regional Office are duly assumed (up to the financial possibilities of the WANALA Regional Office);
  • Guarantee that the Supply Chain Department at the WANALA Regional Office ensure a quality assurance work, by providing formal and regular feedbacks to the relevant Legal Entities;
  • Is Accountable for the IT solutions, services and support (for users) across all countries and sites within the WANALA Region (this responsibility can be delegated);
  • Ensure that feedbacks from the Legal Entities, especially staff in the field with potential IT issues, are shared at the HQ level (especially in regards to cybersecurity, GDPR and connectivity issues);
  • Represent the WANALA Region in global IT management and act as the technical line manager for all the IT staff.
• Human Resources
  • To ensure a high level of accountability, transparency, compliance and ethics within the different HR processes, especially recruitment and performance appraisals, within the WANALA Region;
  • To participate in developing new policies, procedures and guidelines aiming at facilitating the work of the Human Resources Departments and streamlining the different tasks and responsibilities within DRC (between the HQ, the Regional Office and the Country Offices), while providing support for the “localization” of DRC global HR policies;
  • To guarantee the quality assurance for the Legal Entities of the WANALA Region, which means rightsizing the HR functions for Country Offices that could use substitution (managed by the Regional Office) and follow-up on the roll-out of DRC global HR initiatives;
  • To ensure that the budgets are aligned with people related policies;
  • To facilitate different trainings for employees, including management trainings and any initiative launched by the HQ;
  • To improve the inclusiveness and diversity (on every aspect: gender, language, origins, background, etc.) within the DRC staff while encouraging strong internal mobility to secure staff retention.
• Financial Management
  • To guarantee a comprehensive quality assurance of the regional budget, the global budgeting and reporting process;
  • To monitor that the Legal Entities (Country Offices) will perform financially. By financial performance, we mean that the Country Offices will respectively reach their targets and respect their obligations in terms of financial reporting, of follow-up of budgets, of cost control management and of monitoring of their financial commitments;
  • To ensure an efficient and strong budget follow-up and cost control of the projects managed by the WANALA Region;
  • To reinforce the financial rules and regulations in the WANALA Region and for each project managed by the WANALA Region, including the quality and compliance standards of the financial supporting documentation attached to every voucher;
  • To guarantee the quality review of the annual budgets provided by each Country Office of the WANALA Region, including the coherence, conformity and eligibility of the information provided by the respective Countries for their budgets;
  • To support, if needed and requested, and only in full coordination with the Finance Department at the HQ, the Country Offices in terms of financial closure, financial reporting and follow-up;
  • To contribute to the elaboration of the budgets in the projects proposals managed at the WANALA RO;
  • To review, when necessary, the budgets for the projects proposals developed by the Country offices covered by the WANALA RO;
  • To monitor the financial management of the WANALA RO, by following-up the budgets consumption and by controlling the funding coverage and costs engaged, while updating regularly the Master Budget of the WANALA RO;
  • To regularly analyze the financial data obtained at the WANALA RO level and also per country, and provide reliable and updated data to the Regional SMT (especially in regards to he prognosis and the Master Budgets).
• ERP System (DRC Dynamics)
  • To coordinate at the WANALA Regional Office level the implementation of DRC Dynamics in the WANALA Region (with other members of the Regional SMT);
  • To ensure an efficient support for each Country Office in terms of the implementation of DRC Dynamics for the support modules;
  • To organize, in good cooperation with the HQ, the training and support for the different Legal Entities that may need additional help in implementing the requested modules of Dynamics;
  • To monitor that DRC Dynamics is used or will be used at its full capacity at the WANALA RO.
• Risk Management, Legal Responsibilities & Others
  • To ensure the follow-up of all the potential legal issues for the WANALA Regional Office;
  • To maintain and update the Risk Register of the WANALA Regional Office (for Senegal);
  • To review and check the Risk Register of each Legal Entity and to participate in the dedicated meetings, in good coordination with the Regional SMT;
  • To support the Legal Entities for developing a Risk Management Plan that helps identifying the different risks and then contribute to develop/ implement a mitigation strategy;
  • To support the Executive Director of the Region and the Regional SMT in regards to issues related to audit, compliance and registration (for any Legal Entity, donor and/or authority)
  • To support in the development and formalization of any potential paper, policy, procedure and/or tool considered as necessary by the Regional SMT.

All the tasks mentioned above will be primarily done from DRC WANALA Regional Office but travels within the Region (in the countries of intervention) can represent a significant amount of time, potentially equivalent on average to thirty per cent (30%) of the working time per month. In addition to the above, the Regional Head of Support Services may be asked to carry out other duties requested by the Executive Director of the Region.

About you

To be successful in this role we expect that you possess the following:

• At least eight (8) years of senior leadership experience in operations management roles with at least two (2) years of experience in a similar role in an international NGO;
• At least five (5) years of people management experience in an international NGO or international organization;
• Diploma degree/University degree (Master) in International Development, Economics, Political Science, Public Affairs, Business Administration or Management, or another relevant field is required;
• Proven leadership skills and a competence in people management;
• Proven operational management experience and capability (including in conflict areas)
• Significant experience in procurement and tender processes;
• Significant experience of grant management and understanding of institutional fund-raising;
• Proven significant financial, information and systems management experience;
• Significant experience of risk management;
• Good understanding and experience of dealing with legal cases and legal regulations (especially labor law, fiscal law and GDPR);
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and influencing skills with a well-developed ability to motivate and persuade at high levels;
• Full professional fluency in French language (80% of the professional communication in this position will be done in French, including almost all the communication within the WANALA Regional Office);
• Proficiency (written and spoken) in English;
• Working knowledge of Spanish and other languages native to the WANALA region is an asset but not a requirement;
• Significant understanding of the different contexts of the WANALA Region;
• Excellent Computer Skills (MS Office, Internet) and an advanced proficiency in Excel are required.
• Ability to work in a multinational and multicultural environment
• Proactivity, with a sound commitment to teamwork and with a spirit of genuine collaboration
• Excellent communication skills, as well as patience and politeness, are required
• Multi-tasking and Organizational skills is a must
• Adaptable and Flexible
• Proven analytical and critical thinking skills
• Exemplary sense of ethics in the workplace
• Team-oriented & good sense of humor

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

Band: E

Designation of Duty Station: Accompanied (family package)

Start date: Between the 17th and the 30th of April, 2023

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for international staff or DRC National Staff salary scale; please refer to drc.ngo under Vacancies.

How to apply

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.

Please click here to apply

Closing date for applications: 27 March 2023

Applicants must be aware that DRC cannot employ, under an international contract, a citizen of the country in which she/ he is going to be stationed (in such case, the Republic of Senegal). In case of applicants with the citizenship of the country, the contract can only be a national one.

For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website drc.ngo.

Due to the urgency of the position, DRC has the right to recruit a candidate who matches the required profile before the above deadline.