Vacant Positions at Cordaid International

Key Responsibilities

• HR Strategy & Organizational Development: You develop and implement global HR strategies aligned with Cordaid’s operational priorities, cultural transition, and commitment to Locally Led Development (LLD).
• People Management & Leadership Support: You support and advise managers and leadership teams on leadership development, performance management, team effectiveness, and organizational change processes.
• Workforce Planning & Effectiveness: You coordinate workforce design across domains and regions, developing scalable HR services that enable lean country structures while maintaining robust employee support and duty of care.
• HR Operations & Digital Enablement: You ensure the accurate, efficient delivery of HR services across the employee lifecycle and promote the effective use of HRIS, workflow tools, and people analytics to streamline processes.
• Talent Acquisition & Staff Development: You oversee recruitment, onboarding, talent development, and succession planning practices to attract and retain qualified professionals across the organization.
• HR Governance & Compliance: You ensure consistent implementation of HR policies, labor regulations, and the Cordaid Integrity Compliance Framework, mitigating HR-related risks globally.
• Employee Wellbeing: You oversee absence management, duty of care initiatives, and organizational health, contributing to safe and responsible working conditions in complex operational contexts.
• Team Leadership: You manage and coach HR personnel (including the HR Officer) in accordance with Cordaid’s management style, focusing on employee development, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications

• You have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Human Resource Management, Business Administration, Organizational Development, or a related field.
• You have a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in HR management, organizational development, or workforce planning within an international, matrix, or complex environment.
• You possess strong knowledge of HR governance, labor regulations, workforce analytics, and digital workflow platforms/HRIS.
• You have proven experience supporting organizational transformation, change initiatives, and distributed operating models.
• You have excellent advisory, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate human capital insights clearly.
• You are a collaborative team player with a “One Cordaid” mindset, capable of building trust across different regions, cultures, and organizational domains.
• You are accountable, empathetic, and committed to high standards of integrity, confidentiality, and ethical behavior.
• You are fluent in English, both spoken and written. Knowledge of additional languages relevant to Cordaid’s operational regions (such as French or Dutch) is considered a distinct asset.
• You recognize yourself in Cordaid’s mission and values.

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Key Responsibilities

• Partnership Stewardship: Lead the development of strong, equitable, and long-term partnerships with local organisations. Promote mutual accountability, trust, and shared learning, and represent Cordaid in strategic dialogues with key regional partners.
• Portfolio Leadership & Performance: Provide strategic oversight to the countries’ programme portfolios. Monitor portfolio health, quality, and sustainability, ensure alignment with regional strategies, and lead portfolio reviews to drive evidence-informed decisions.
• Country Engagement Models: Lead the implementation and coordination of Country Engagement Models across the region. Adapt engagement approaches to local contexts and partner capacities and manage transitions between different engagement models.
• Partner Capacity & Localisation: Strengthen the organisational capacity of local partners, promote locally led development principles, facilitate peer learning, and support regional innovation and localisation commitments.
• Cross-Domain Leadership: Collaborate closely with the Regional Business Development Manager, Regional Finance & Operations Manager, Regional Humanitarian Manager, and global units (Shared Services, Global Practices) to ensure integrated, responsive support for partners.
• Representation & Strategic Engagement: Represent the Regional Core with partners, regional institutions, and strategic networks. Promote Cordaid’s regional positioning and strengthen collaboration across the humanitarian-development-peace nexus.
• People Leadership & Culture: Create an inclusive, collaborative, and high-performing culture within the Regional Core. Coach staff, promote accountability, and model Cordaid’s values and leadership behaviours.

Qualifications

• You have a Master’s degree in International Development, Public Administration, Political Science, Social Sciences, or a related discipline.
• At least 10 years of progressively responsible leadership experience in international development or humanitarian organisations.
• Extensive experience working through local partners, managing complex regional or multi-country portfolios, and steering multi-stakeholder partnerships.
• A strong understanding of locally led development, partnership approaches, strategic planning, and organisational development.
• A proven track record in leading organisational change in complex environments and engaging effectively with institutional donors and regional stakeholders.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and influencing skills, with a demonstrated ability to influence without authority.
• Strong competencies in systems thinking, adaptive leadership, political awareness, and collaborative decision-making.
• You are fluent in English. Knowledge of additional regional languages is a distinct advantage.
• You recognize yourself in Cordaid’s mission and values.

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Key Responsibilities

• Regional Strategy & Leadership: Lead the HECSA regional strategy and ensure alignment with global strategies and locally led development commitments. Set regional priorities, guide portfolio and resource choices, resolve cross-functional bottlenecks, and contribute to organization-wide leadership through the Senior Leadership Team.
• Partner Ecosystem & Locally Led Development: Set the strategic direction for partnership practices and ecosystem development. Ensure mutual accountability through clear expectations, performance dialogue, and transparent feedback mechanisms, creating an enabling environment for equitable, context-driven partnerships.
• External Representation & Political Engagement: Represent Cordaid at the highest levels with governments, institutional donors, regional networks, civil society platforms, and private-sector actors. Use contextual, political, economic, and security analysis to inform organizational positioning and decision-making in sensitive environments.
• Portfolio Performance & Financial Resilience: Hold overall accountability for the financial health and performance of the regional portfolio against agreed KPIs (quality, partner satisfaction, risk management). Set priorities and make strategic trade-offs across countries, partners, investments, and opportunity pipelines.
• Humanitarian Preparedness & Response: Provide strategic oversight of the regional humanitarian portfolio, preparedness, and response readiness. Provide strategic direction during crises to ensure coherent regional decision-making and alignment with core international humanitarian standards.
• Risk, Safeguarding, Safety & Compliance: Ensure regional risks are identified, addressed, and escalated in a timely manner. Provide strong safety and security leadership, including duty of care for staff and partners, and collaborate with Shared Services to uphold formal compliance, legal, procurement, and HR policies.
• Quality, Evidence & Learning: Ensure that evidence, learning, partner feedback, and performance information are structurally embedded into regional decision-making, portfolio reviews, and strategic priority settings.
• People Leadership & Change Management: Lead, support, and develop the senior regional management team. Shape an entrepreneurial, open, and accountable regional culture, driving the implementation of new ways of working and embedding clear decision-making processes.

Qualifications

• You have an Advanced degree (Master’s or equivalent) in International Development, Political Science, Public Administration, Humanitarian Studies, or a related field.
• At least 10 years of senior leadership experience in Horn, Eastern, Central, or Southern Africa, or comparable fragile and politically complex contexts.
• Strong experience in regional leadership, strategic partnership stewardship, external representation, portfolio oversight, and resource mobilization.
• Demonstrated experience engaging with senior political, donor, government, civil society, and private-sector network actors.
• A strong understanding of locally led development, partner-led programming, humanitarian preparedness, risk management, safeguarding, safety, and compliance in fragile settings.
• In-depth knowledge of the application of Core Humanitarian Standards (CHS), Sphere standards, Pledge for Change, and Grand Bargain commitments.
• Proven ability to build strategic partnerships, support co-creation, strengthen funding pipelines, and lead multi-country or distributed teams through organizational change.
• You are fluent in English. Knowledge of French, Arabic, Portuguese, or relevant regional languages is a distinct asset.
• You recognize yourself in Cordaid’s mission and values.