Operations Director Non-profit Careers – CARE International

Job
Title:           
  Operations
Director
Organization: CARE
International
Duty Station: 
Kampala, Uganda
           
About US:
CARE International
is a leading global development and humanitarian organization. In 2014, CARE
worked in 90 countries around the world, supporting 880 poverty-fighting
development and humanitarian aid projects, reaching more than 72 million
people. CARE International in Uganda (CARE) works with others to make a
sustainable improvement in the lives of the very poor, with a focus on women
and girls. Our current program focusses on women and girls’ economic rights,
particularly financial inclusion and governance of natural resources women and
girls depend upon, and on their sexual and reproductive health rights,
including a life free of violence. Our programming is guided by our core values
of excellence, accountability, respect, integrity and transparency.
Job Summary: The
Operations Director provides leadership and direction for all Country Office
(CO) programme support functions under Administration (Inventory and Assets
Management, Transport and fleet management, Procurement, Logistics, ICT, Safety
and Security, travel management, visitors’ management, office management),
Finance (Grants and Contracts including the financial side of award and sub
award management, Accounting and Financial System Operations Management and CO
Data Processing) and Compliance and Risk management, including legal services.
The OPD will lead the Administration and Finance Departments with the ultimate
objective of rebuilding CARE Uganda operational capacity to support a major
scale-up effort in response to the South Sudanese Refugee crisis. In so doing,
the OPD will ensre the program support services are provided in a manner that
reflects CARE’s core values, builds capacity of staff and partners and a focus
on customer satisfaction.  The OPD will
ensure stronger collaboration between Program (both long term and humanitarian)
and Program Support. The OPD is a member of the SMT and reports to the Country
Director. 
The position
requires advanced management skills, excellent team building and people
coaching skills, extensive experience and in-depth understanding of
administrative support processes and compliance requirements. Furthermore, the
successful candidate must demonstrate an understanding of CARE’s programmatic
needs and concerns for ensuring effective administrative and financial support,
as well as strict commitment and adherence to CARE’s core values and promotion
of Gender Equity and Diversity (GED).
Key Duties and Responsibilities: 
Enhance performance
and efficiency of administrative functions:
The OPD is
responsible for effective, efficient and compliant administrative support
services in procurement, inventory & assets management, transport &
fleet management, Safety and Security, property including CO office spaces and
residences management, Safety and Security, IT, housing, maintenance and
security, travel, visitors’ management,. 
An essential role is to ensure application of relevant policies at all
levels while simultaneously ensuring cost effectiveness of operations.
·        
Ensure
all Administrative core functions are implemented in compliance with CARE’s and
relevant donor policies at Head Quarters and all field locations, with
particular attention to CARE’s West Nile humanitarian area of operations;
Analyze existing systems, structures and competencies and recommend adjustments
to increase overall operational capacity of the Country Office;
·        
Conduct
an analysis of existing ways of working with the objective to improve
cost-effectiveness and efficiency. 
Identify both cost-saving measures as well as areas for investment and
facilitate the institution of a “cost conscious” and customer
satisfaction orientation to service delivery.
·        
Ensure
all Administrative reporting requirements are met in a timely manner and with
required quality (e.g. monthly procurement spot checks, monthly procurement status
reports, procurement plans inventory and assets management reports, risk
register, monthly security reports, regular updates of Safety and Security
Management Plan with focus on West Nile SOP, communication tree, vendor
management and reporting, etc);
·        
Staff
& partners’ training and capacity building in Administrative functions.
There is an urgent need to provide capacity building support and training to
staff at all levels, at HQ and in field locations, particularly in West Nile.  A Functional Review was conducted between
July and November 2016 and led to a restructuring of the Administration
Function with new staff in restructured roles. The OPD is expected to support
capacity building of staff, new and restructured, in their respective roles and
responsibilities while strengthening team cohesion, particularly between
Administrative HQ and field based staff. See also responsibility 3.
·        
In the
light of rising tensions in Uganda and particularly in West Nile that is
hosting over 1 million refugees, special attention will be dedicated to
enhancing staff safety and security through frequent review of relevant
protocols, staff training informed by ongoing analysis.
·        
Particular
attention will also need to be dedicated to enhancing the performance of the IT
function so that it can support the growing needs of the country office in
terms of general connectivity and “smart” solutions to printing,
scanning, photocopying, data storage and archiving, data and documents safety,
etc; 
Financial Management:
The OPD provides strategic
leadership over the CO Finance function on the one hand through supervision of
the Finance Director while ensuring finance support in the field, and
particularly in West Nile humanitarian area of operations is enhanced.  S/he supports the Finance Director to ensure
the financial system is being effectively used by CO staff. S/He ensures
efficient process flows and controls over finance and accounting functions are
adequate, at field and sub & field office levels. S/he oversees and provides
support and guidance to the Finance Director to improve the Finance Department
performance in the following areas: 
PeopleSoft operations, workflows, roles and user management;
·        
Accounts
Payable, Treasury and Cash functions: These are critical functions to maintain
our operational capacity at all times but is of particular importance in the
emergency scale up project area.
·        
General
Ledger, Accounts Receivable and other modules: accountable for timely and
accurate journal entries (e.g. payroll, allocation, etc.), for proper recording
of cash receipts, and for adequate use of all modules (e.g. procurement, asset
management, etc.), reducing the risk of errors in donor reporting and
disallowed costs.
·        
Data
processing and period closing functions: accountable for ensuring that the
period closing processes defined for Business Units (BUs) are performed timely
and adequately; accountable for the preparation and submission of complete,
reliable and timely financial reports to CO managers and donors, local entities
and other partners as relevant; ensures that reports prepared by SSC  are completed and submitted timely;
supervises the quality and integrity of financial data.
·        
Budgeting
and Forecasting functions: ensures all budgets (e.g. restricted and
unrestricted, SPC budget, Sub and Field offices budgets, etc.) cover costs of
the organization and of doing business (field and sub office costs, SPC,
planned activities, etc) to strengthen CO financial health.
·        
Improved
interface between Administration and Finance leading to reduced delays in
payments of vendors;
·        
Accountable
for adherence to all financial aspects of the Award and Sub Award management
policies, particularly with new donors for the CO humanitarian response like
ECHO.  Supports program and humanitarian
teams to ensure costs are managed properly within the approved budgets and
donors’ financial management guidelines.
·        
Ensures
Grants Tracking Sheet, PeopleSoft Chart of Account are updated as often as
needed (grants closure, new grant);
·        
Ensures
financial performance of grants and sub grants is tracked, jointly with Program
Team and reports risks to SMT;
Ps structures and
staff coaching and development;
The OPD has the
responsibility to supervise, coach and appraise a multi-disciplinary team of
administration and finance, responsible for supporting a broad range of
programs, including a large humanitarian scale up. In the coming FY, we expect
an expansion of the CO portfolio, therefore the OPD will play a key role in
ensuring that the PS team can be developed in both individual skills, but also
in PS team numbers and structure to support the additional demands and changing
needs of programme implementation and particularly the specific demands of a large
scale humanitarian program. In order to maximises programme impact and address
some of the current operational weaknesses in the CO, the OPD will have three
capacity building priorities:
·        
S/he
will be responsible to ensure that all staff under his/her supervision are
fully versed in the fundamental requirements of their various roles and can
perform these functions to a consistent and high standard. S/he will be
responsible for the development of key leadership and management skills of
direct reports to improve their capacity, to develop increased responsibilities
and to further expand program support effectiveness, efficiencies and
responsiveness. The OPD will have responsibility for ensuring that program
support staff have access to the latest technical information about and
approaches on administrative management.
·        
The OPD
will support the development of efficient field office PS structures and ensure
that these are both staffed by high performing teams and effectively integrated
both with Kampala based PS functions, but also with Programming staff needs at
field level. The OPD will ensure that appropriate procedures and policies are
followed in the sun and field offices.
·        
The OPD
will ensure that each direct report develops realistic and strategically
focused annual performance plans which encompass existing commitments to donors
and government and are oriented toward accomplishment of the CO Business Plan,
GED objectives & emergency scale up. 
S/he ensures Unit Managers carry out timely reviews and spot checks and
that the results are documented and used for learning and to guide future
activities in the CO.
·        
The OPD
will work closely with the Program Director (PD) and CD to identify priority
areas for capacity building for programme staff. Using various existing
training manuals and resources, s/he will develop a practical plan for
administrative and financial management skills development for programme staff
which will address weaknesses in operational management, with a particular
focus on improved planning, maximising resource use and compliance to CARE’s
and donor policies and rules and regulations. This will contribute to improving
the learning interface and collaboration between the Programme and PS teams.
·        
In
addition, the OPD will work with the HR Manager to ensure an effective
orientation process for all new staff in Administrative and Financial
Management processes, in order to speed up the learning curve for both new
staff entering CARE and for staff preparing for changes in administrative
responsibilities due to a new role and/or new project, with a primary focus on
new humanitarian staff.
·        
The OPD
will actively promote Gender Equity and Diversity within the Administration and
Finance team by deliberately working on making the work spaces, ways of working
and organizational culture & policies attractive to women and people from
various backgrounds, walks of life, opinions, sexual orientation, etc  The OPD will be held accountable for
contributing to the ECSA Road GED objectives to attract and retain more African
female leaders in the organization.
Compliance/risk management
The OPD will:
Work closely with
Program team and other SMT members to manage risks and is the lead for
organizational compliance with Administration and Financial Management policies,
rules and regulations.  Specifically, the
OPD will:
·        
Facilitate
ongoing assessment of risks facing the CO, in general and particularly in
Administration and Finance, including the risk of fraud and corruption;
·        
Prepare
and regular updates the CO risk register and SSMP risks analysis;
·        
Accountable
for timely preparation and completion of audits and for ensuring any potential
finding is addressed quickly and generates knowledge to reduce future risks;
·        
Ensure
all statutory obligations of the host country, related to taxes, filing of
reports, of annual income returns, etc are met in a timely manner;
·        
Conducts
regular spot checks of both HQ and field based transactions, with focus on
humanitarian area of operations to identify risk of ineligible expenses and
disallowed costs in a timely manner and ensures timely corrective action;
·        
Ensure
Anti-Fraud and Anti-corruption policy as well as related reported and
investigation mechanisms are known to staff, vendors, partners and conduct
regular training on the same;
·        
Ensure
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse policy and related code of conduct as well as
CARE’s core values are known to all staff, vendors and partners and that a
culture of accountability and zero tolerance to wrongful conduct is instilled
in the organization, with priority to aid workers in the refugee settlements;
·        
Maintains
relationship with CARE’s local legal counsel and ensures CARE gets value for
money the legal services it is getting; 

Qualifications, Skills and Experience: 
·        
The
applicant must hold a University Degree in Administration, Finance or
equivalent field or equivalent combination of education and work experience
·        
A
minimum 5 years in a senior Program Support management position
·        
At least
3 years international experience in Africa
·        
Good
Information Technology skills and knowledge of diverse software systems
·        
Advanced
administrative management skills
·        
Advanced
Financial management skills
·        
Strong
coaching, mentoring, training facilitation, and team building skills
·        
Demonstrated
commitment to the principles of Gender Equity and Diversity
·        
Extensive
experience and in-depth understanding of administrative support processes and
compliance requirements
·        
Fluent
English (written and verbal)
How to Apply:
All applicants are
encouraged to send their application letters clearly articulating alignment
with the above profile and an updated detailed (CV) giving day time telephone
contacts and names and addresses of 3 (three) work related referees to
ugarecruitment@care.org
Deadline: 14th December 2018
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