Project Director at International Rescue Committee

Position Summary: 

IRC is seeking a Project Director for a private foundation-funded five-year project in Kenya to improve children’s holistic skill development and well-being through improvement of the quality and equity of teacher professional development in refugee counties in Kenya.   The Project Director will be the leader of this groundbreaking initiative, responsible for ensuring the project delivers high impact programming for children.  The Project Director will coordinate across multiple partner organizations and IRC staff and be the primary representative of the project to all key stakeholders, government officials, and donors at coordination fora and other related meetings. The Project Director will ensure that the project achieves the expected results and is implemented in accordance with the donor agreement, donor regulations, and internationally recognized quality of assistance standards.
 
 Job Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic and operational leadership and direction, vision and direction, and define and implement activities to achieve the greatest impact toward project goals and objectives;
• Develop, review, and monitor in coordination with key project staff, annual work and performance plans to ensure long-term and short-term priorities are on track;
• Oversee technical direction and project delivery to ensure activities are in line with the performance framework and meet all standard operational policies and procedures;
• Oversee management of partners/subgrantees and provide financial and operations support that optimizes resources through sound budgets, consistent financial tracking, and timely submission of reports to the donor;
• Report to donor through both formal and informal debriefings, annual and semi-annual reports;
• Maintain active and cooperative relationships with all key stakeholders, including government officials, project partners, other implementing agencies, and related institutions;
• Recruit, hire, and manage national staff and consultants as needed to carry out activities. 
• Maintain a working knowledge of project financials, working with and supporting the financial officer to ensure that appropriate systems and procedures are in place and being follows.
• Represent the project and the organization in public and ensure distribution of information about project achievements and lesson learned;
• Support project staff by creating and maintaining a work environment that promotes teamwork, trust, mutual respect, and empowers staff to take responsibility.

 Requirements:

• Advanced degree from an accredited university in education international development, or related field;
• Minimum of 10 years of experience managing education programs for refugees or crisis-affected populations; 
• Experience managing large-scale, multi-million dollar, complex, multi-country, multi-partner projects;
• Experience working in East Africa and/or Kenya on education programming;
• Demonstrated success in staff capacity-building and in participatory, flexible, and gender-sensitive programming and implementation;
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written;
• Fluency in English required.