Contracts Readiness Director at International Rescue Committee

The Purpose of the Role

IRC is looking for a Contract Readiness Director to lead its contracts readiness initiative over the next year. The purpose of the role is to implement the Contract Readiness Roadmap, working with relevant department across the organization to ensure appropriate design and ownership of solutions. The position acts as a focal point within the organization for contract-related issues.

Key Working Relationships

The role will work closely with stakeholders across the organization, in particular AMU; Finance; Office of General Counsel (OGC); Operations; Crisis Response Recovery and Development (CRRD); and Resettlement Asylum and Integration (RAI). It will coordinate the Contract Readiness Working Group, Contracts Readiness Senior Vice President (SVP) Group, AMU Senior Leaders Group and Leadership Board as necessary. The positions holder will work on a day-to-day basis with the Contracts Readiness Project Manager.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Contracts Readiness (100%)

• Reviewing and updating the Contract Readiness Roadmap, as required with new actions and objectives as the organization evolves.
• Operationalizing the actions that have been identified in the roadmap, identifying timelines, departments / individuals responsible, resources required.
• Working with departments to ensure ownership of actions and appropriate dissemination of contracts readiness outputs.
• Working with SVP AMU and other senior leaders to prioritize between different activities where needed to ensure we facilitate our program teams’ ability to deliver impact for our clients.
• Leading Contracts Working Group meetings.
• Monitoring and reporting on progress against the Contract Readiness Roadmap to the Contracts Working Group, SVP Group and the Leadership Board.
• Convening decision-makers around critical challenges to ensure rapid resolution of open question and facilitate trade-offs between different perspectives where required.
• Working with other teams and departments to cost out changes that are needed, help build business case for further investment in contract readiness.
• Working with colleagues across the organization to ensure contract readiness outputs are embedded into existing processes, where possible.
• Acting as a focal point for contract-related inquiries from around the organization.
• To provide briefings to different organizational stakeholders to build awareness in the organization with regard to risks and challenges of contract implementation.
• Recruitment and line management of the Contract Readiness Project Manager.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Skills, Knowledge and Qualifications:

• Extensive knowledge with regard to commercial contracts in international development or humanitarian fields.
• Knowledge in the area of organisational change management.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including experience in speaking on relevant issues with internal and external audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively maintain relationships (e.g., with internal actors, peers, donors).
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex tasks and manage competing priorities. 
• Solid organizational and creative problem-solving skills: ability to be flexible and work well in a fast-paced multi-tasking team environment
• Understanding of project financial management
• Understanding of business development processes
• Effective people management skills: ability to lead staff and promote productivity in a pleasant work environment.
• Fluency in English, both spoken and written.

Experience:

• Extensive experience managing commercial contracts in a relevant international development or humanitarian field.
• Experience working with either UK Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) or US Agency for International Development (USAID). Other large international donor experience would also be considered.