Danish Refugee Council, one of the world’s leading humanitarian NGOs, is currently looking for a highly qualified Country Director for its Tunisia country operation.

About the job

The Country Director for Tunisia is ultimately accountable for all aspects of DRC’s Tunisia country operation. He or she is responsible for ensuring that the strategy, fundraising and organizational setup is adapted to the operational context. This entails leading the consolidation and development of the programme, continuing the process of developing solid impact measurement mechanisms and strengthening accountability initiatives. He or she delegates specific duties as necessary, while maintaining oversight and accountability. The Country Director leads, maintains team morale, safety and welfare, and manages resources.

This role has a country-wide focus and ensures compliance to DRC procedures and guidelines within the country. The role contributes to the development of country strategies, which are translated into action plans and day-to-day tasks for him or her and the country team. The role provides support and technical guidance to country operations while overseeing country activities.

Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

External Representation

• Represent DRC’s country operation to authorities, donors and others partners and take the lead in national NGO coordination forums;

• Strengthen DRC’s positioning nationally and regionally;

• Ensure that DRC maintains excellent and productive relations with all key stakeholders, especially beneficiaries, local authorities, the humanitarian community and donors;

Fundraising and Advocacy

• As the majority of the fundraising is done locally, the Country Director will have to meet high expectations in proactively leading the process of applying for funding and broadening the funding base in the very challenging funding environment of Tunisia;

• The Country Director will lead his or her team in writing project proposals and concept notes along with budgets, using existing assessments and reports, while remaining in line with the approved Strategic Programme Document;

• Lead in the team’s advocacy in all DRC key messages. 

Direct Managerial Oversight and Support 

• Ensure that key staff have clear and realistic performance-based management goals;

• Overall management of the operation and direct management for senior staff members, including coaching and mentoring, coordination between managers, recruiting, and development of staff;

• Ensure compliance with internal and external reporting requirements including procurement;

Security and Safety

• In close coordination with Regional Safety Coordinator, provide overall accountability for security of DRC’s staff, equipment and programmes, including development of and ensuring adherence to security procedures, monitoring of the security situation, analyzing and provision of recommendations; 

• Be accountable for ensuring that DRC country programme operates in a safe and secure manner;

Programme development, Accountability and Quality

• Lead the development of the programme within the direction set by the Strategic Programme Document, and not being constrained by the current limitations of existing programming and while ensuring DRC’s standard regulations and operational procedures (Code of Conduct, DRC Management handbooks, HAP standards etc.) are followed;

• Ensure close coordination with regional programming initiatives such as the Coordination Consortium Unit (CCU) and the Mixed Migration Centre (MMC);

• Guided by the Programme Handbook, ensure that programmes comply with the organizational quality and accountability commitments, continuously monitor and develop relevant accountability initiatives in the field as well as strengthening the effort to document the impact of activities and our presence;

Support Services

• Together with Support Service Team Leader, oversee finance and administrative services in the country operation by providing overall budget monitoring, financial management and expenses control including compliance with minimum DRC and donor requirements and ensuring that necessary systems are in place;

• Ensure effective and transparent management of the resources allocated by respecting and meeting all legal requirements in country;

• Together with the HR team, provide leadership support to staff and promote best practices in human resources management while providing coaching and counselling advice to staff when necessary and lead initiatives to develop staff capacity.

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to have extended experience in managing and representing a large and leading international organization to donors, external partners and authorities. Moreover, we also expect the following:

Required

• Minimum 10 years’ relevant work experience for a humanitarian agency or similar;
• Minimum 8 years’ experience on a senior management position, with proven leadership skills and competence in people management;
• Extended experience with advocacy and networking/ coordination with all stakeholders;
• Experience in financial, risk and safety management;
• Previous engagement in mixed migration and urban programming, and exposure to civil society programming would be an asset;
• Full professional proficiency in English and in French, and ideally in Arabic;
   

Desirable

• Work related experience in the North Africa and Tunisian context;
• Experience with enterprise resource planning;

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: 12 months

Band: D – Manager

Designation of Duty Station: Unaccompagnied

Start date: ASAP

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with Danish Refugee Council’s Terms of Employment for Expatriates; please refer to drc.ngo under Vacancies.

For questions regarding the vacancy please contact Colin Debarbieux (colin.debarbieux@drc.ngo).