Regional Operations Manager at International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)

Job Purpose

• Reporting to the Manager, Preparedness and Response in the Africa office, the Regional Operations Manager (ROM) provides overall leadership and coordination and facilitates strategic support to ensure optimal coordination and management of resources required, mobilized, and allocated for the effective and efficient implementation of IFRC-supported operations related to Sudan and impacted countries in the Africa Region and MENA Region. The ROM will manage the surge team (6 to 10 staff) and coordinate closely with the Regional Management Team and the extended management team in the Africa and MENA Regional Offices, ensuring full cooperation and coordination on the use of expertise in the operation, which will be fully integrated into country-level and existing Regional Office structures.

Job Duties and Responsibilities
Operations Management and Leadership:

• Implement IFRC’s overall strategic vision related to the operations in Sudan and impacted countries, ensuring a federation-wide approach that maximizes the use of resources and engagement with the membership on all levels.
• Provide oversight to the analysis of the political, military, social, economic, and humanitarian context for the operation and use such analysis to inform appropriate changes to overall Operational Strategies, with support from Information Management and Humanitarian Analyst resources integrated in the structures of the two Regional Offices (Africa and MENA).
• Ensure, in close cooperation with the Regional Management Team, Heads of Country and Cluster Offices and Operations Managers, that the operation has a long-term vision and programmatic approach or framework, including in terms of National Society capacity building and development.
• Represent IFRC in interactions with relevant external stakeholders regarding the overall Secretariat and federation-wide work in Sudan and impacted countries.
• Implement the IFRC risk management framework for the operation, ensuring that risk management is incorporated into all management processes and activities in the operation.
• In conjunction with the Regional Risk Management Officer, ensure that risks for the operation are identified, managed, monitored, responded to, escalated when necessary, and reported on in a timely manner.Provide leadership and management of the overall Appeal and country-level operational strategies and country plans linked to it, in line with the strategic vision and always in support of and in complementarity with a federation-wide approach.
• Ensure that relevant internal stakeholders (Regional Senior Managements Team, Global Leadership Team, technical departments, and Reference Centres) and the Membership (National Societies receiving or providing international assistance) have been consulted in the formulation of strategies and plans and that the coordination with ICRC and external stakeholders is reflected.
• Convene and coordinate planning and budgeting meetings with Heads of Country and Cluster Delegations and Operations Managers and other relevant internal or Federation-wide stakeholders to ensure collaborative review and shared understanding of plans and funding requirements.
• Maintain an overall overview and analysis of appeal budgets to ensure allocations and usage of appeal funds is meeting needs with priority and is well balanced in terms of response, recovery and longer-term work, including National Society capacity building and development.

Resource Mobilization and Allocation:

• Engage with the Heads of Strategic Engagement and Partnerships (SEP) and coordinate with Heads of Country and Cluster Delegations and Operations Managers in the development and implementation of a fundraising strategy for the emergency response.
• Complement, as agreed with the Heads of PRD, partner and funding landscape scoping, partner engagement, and cooperation with key and emerging partners to mobilize support for the Appeal.
• Coordinate with the Heads of SEP and Heads of Country and Cluster Delegations and Operations Managers allocations of income received towards the Appeal to countries based on needs and present the Project Expenditure Approval Request (PEAR) to the Senior Management Team for their consideration and sign-off.

Job Duties and Responsibilities (continued)
Monitoring and Reporting:

• Engage with the Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (PMER) Managers and Heads of Country and Cluster Delegations and Operations Managers ensuring an adequate monitoring system to track progress or deviation of implementation vis-à-vis the approved Operational Strategies, and where there is deviation ensure that corrective measures are taken, or Operational Strategies are revised to align with evolving context.
• Engage with the PMER Manager, Finance Managers, Heads of SEP, and Heads of Country and Cluster Delegations and Operations Managers to ensure that that all standard and pledge-based Appeal reporting deadlines are met and that a Federation-wide approach is taken to reflect the global and local nature of the IFRC network.

Education

• University degree in relevant area or equivalent experience required.-Required
• Training in advanced disaster management-Required

Experience

• Demonstrated experience of successfully leading and coordinating large-scale humanitarian emergency response operations in a variety of contexts, preferably with the RC/RC Movement-Required
• At least 5-8 years of professional experience in disaster management, including managing staff. Required
• Experience working in a RC/RC National Society and/or Federation/ICRC.-Preferred
• Minimum 5 years of working experience in project management, including proposal development, budgeting, reporting, monitoring and evaluation. Required
• Experience in working with, or alongside, non-RC/RC humanitarian organisations in emergency situations. Required
• Experience in successful institutional fundraising and managing donor relations. Required
• Sound knowledge of, and commitment to, a holistic approach to disaster and crisis management, with a particular understanding of cash-based programming. Required
• Experience in working with UN Humanitarian Coordination Teams and clusters-Preferred

Knowledge, Skills and Languages

• Proven analytical skills and the ability to think strategically and under pressure, without access to complete information. Required
• Excellent political, diplomatic, communication and negotiating skills. Required
• Proven skills in strategic and operational planning, budgeting, and reporting. Required
• Ability to lead in unprecedented and/or ambiguous situations. Required
• Knowledge of grant and appeal management, risk management strategies and resource mobilization. Required
• Ability to scan and analyse an organisation’s strength of management, vision, and adaptive capacity.
• Results-oriented and demand-driven. Required
• Professional credibility, ability to work effectively across the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. Required
• Proven good judgment and ability to work with complete integrity and confidentiality. Required
• Fluent spoken and written English.-Required
• Fluent spoken and written French-Required
• Good command of Arabic (spoken and written)-Preferred
• Good command of another IFRC official language.-Preferred