Head of Security, Resilience & Technical Operations - Africa at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Role Summary

• This role is responsible for the design, delivery and monitoring of Security, Resilience and Technical Operations (SRT) best practice standards and support. The purpose is to ensure that the regional portfolio is meeting their Duty of Care obligations, are consistently building the level of maturity required to maintain operational resilience, business continuity and crisis management capabilities and are empowered to effectively manage technical operations, including new country start up.
• As well as working closely with the Internal Operations team and Institute counterparts, the role has direct line management responsibility for the relevant Regional Security and Technical Operations Advisors. This role requires a focus on empowerment, capacity building and technical mentoring to operationalise contextually appropriate frameworks.

Key Responsibilities

• The Head of Security, Resilience and Technical Operations is either directly responsible for implementing the duties below or provides oversight of staff and/or departments that perform these functions.

Core Areas

• Support the development and enhancement of SRT global frameworks that deliver simple, and effective guidelines, monitoring their operationalisation in the regional portfolio
• Ensure countries are working to best practice standards and regional roles are empowered to delivered contextualised and relevant SRT support
• Conduct regular quality assurance, including in-country technical assistance visits, supported by capacity building and technical mentoring to ensure active SRT management in the regional portfolio
• Highlight and drive required updates to central policy to ensure that the Institute is efficient and meets duty of care obligations.
• Conduct training needs assessments, develop and deliver relevant training in the regional portfolio
• Build networks with other SRT regional portfolios to foster and encourage learning
• Work with Country Directors and Regional Security and Technical Operations Advisors to empower Operations Assistants at country level
• Build an accurate evidence base to support SRT business cases and aid Institute counterpart’s decision making
• Support the development of SRT Objective and Key Results (OKRs) in line with the strategy and workplans
• Be confident in escalating operational demands and specific support needs
• Deputise for the Director of Security, Resilience and Technical Operations, as required
• Cover any other duties, where capacity and availability permit and where they are communicated and agreed in advance, with the Director of Security, Resilience and Technical Operations
• Work with People Operations to embed safeguarding policies and procedures in the regional portfolios

Security

• Support the Director of Security, Resilience and Technical Operations in the enhancement and implementation of the Institute’s Security Risk Management Framework
• Ensure that the regional portfolio is meeting their Duty of Care obligations by supporting the Regional Security and Technical Operations Advisors to identify gaps and develop and implement enhancement plans
• Oversee the delivery security risk management culture and implementation, including tracking the development and implementation of Essential Security Packages
• Work with Regional Security and Technical Operations Advisors to ensure the correct balance of security strategies in relation to the nature, type and frequency of threat
• Lead on the technical delivery of security and operations advisory to high-risk countries
• Act as the lead in context and threat assessments, risk assessments, contingency plans and stakeholder and traveler briefings, for non-normal travel situations
• Maintain an active security network, proactively engaging with the relevant governments, security forums, agencies and organisations to ensure active monitoring and response to emerging threats within the regional portfolio
• Advise on and conduct successful access negotiations in both new and existing countries in the regional portfolio

Resilience

• Work closely with the Director of Security, Resilience and Technical Operations to increase the Institute’s capacity to identify and manage enterprise level risks
• Support the Director of Security, Resilience and Technical Operations to build the crisis management capacity of the Institute through policies, procedures, training and special contingency insurance
• Ensure that the regional portfolio is empowered to consistently build the level of maturity required to maintain operational resilience, business continuity and crisis management capabilities.
• Build a calendar of trigger events, including elections, within the regional portfolio and support Regional Security and Technical Operations Advisors to deliver tailored contingency plans for the relevant countries
• Act as the security lead or regional specialist on the crisis management team
• Act as Duty Officer as part of the SRT team roster to ensure that the Global Emergency Number is appropriately staffed
• Support or lead the review of incidents and ensure that lessons are identified, and corrective action plans are created, implemented and monitored

Technical Operations

• Support the Technical Operations Coordinator, Facilities Manager and Regional Security and Technical Operations Advisors to develop, implement and maintain the policy, capacity and systems to deliver effective logistics, fleet management, asset management and facilities management
• Build accurate evidence bases, business cases and bid analysis to ensure efficiency and cost-effectiveness around SRT related international procurement projects
• Work with Finance Operations to ensure that policies, protocols and resources are contextually appropriate for, and implemented in, the regional portfolio
• Support the Travel Manager to ensure that travel policy and protocols are fit for purpose within the regional portfolio, including empowering the Regional Security and Technical Operations Advisors to deliver and maintain the policy commitments
• Work with relevant stakeholders to identify and manage the risks surrounding events held in the regional portfolio
• Undertake, or support, remote research and scoping missions for new country start-up projects, including the identification of contextual factors, threats, risks, mitigations, contingencies and programme design, delivering clear advice to the Institute on risk appetite considerations
• Work with Institute counterparts to identify, manage and implement SRT special projects

Representation and Coordination

• Work with peers in People Operations, Digital Operations, Legal Operations and Financial Operations to enhance global frameworks, regional empowerment and operational agility
• Deliver high quality technical advice to the Institute
• Work in partnership with regional operations and security advisors to ensure that they have the required knowledge, understanding and support to deliver policy and procedures on the continent
• Act as a trusted critical friend to Managing Directors, Regional Directors, Regional Head of Operations and Country Directors, building relationships that enable them
• Support Managing Directors, Regional Directors and Country Directors in the development of SRT related budgets

The Ideal Candidate
This is a leadership role requiring an exceptional candidate:

• With significant and demonstrable security risk management experience in multiple country contexts and at a regional level, in the government, government advisory, management consulting or non-profit sectors
• With strong operations management experience in multiple country contexts, in the government, government advisory, management consulting or non-profit sectors
• Who has a deep understanding of the legal, moral and contractual elements of Duty of Care, at all organisation levels
• Who has demonstratable experience of implementing and monitoring global Security, Resilience and Technical Operations frameworks
• Who has managed incidents and critical incidents, including guiding crisis management teams to deliver effective responses and embed incident-based learning
• With a track record of leading high-performing teams and proven ability to build, inspire and retain teams to achieve exceptional objectives, in varied country and programme contexts
• Who has qualifications in and/or experience of implementing, ISO 31000 (Risk Management) and PRINCE2® Project Management models and understands how to effectively contribute to cross team collaboration and projects
• Who is a skilled written and verbal communicator and influencer, from executive office level through to technical level, is adept at speaking to senior leadership, knows how to navigate ambiguous environments and is comfortable at managing up and beyond hierarchy
• Who has the ability and confidence to work independently and as part of a committed and interdisciplinary team
• Who is strategic, entrepreneurial, can challenge the status-quo and develop plans for successful delivery of challenging objectives.
• Who understands and practices the importance of integrity and confidentiality
• Who is pro-active, solution orientated and delivery focussed, acting as a thought leader and change agent within and beyond SRT and Internal Operations
• Who ideally understands information security and digital security contexts, risks and mitigations.
• Who is ideally proficient in some of the common languages spoken throughout the regional portfolio
• Who has deep residential experience in some of the countries in the regional portfolio