Director of Operations, ACT Alliance

Duty station

Geneva, Switzerland

Role

L category (Leadership)

Starting Date

1 January 2021 (negotiable)

Initial Contract Duration

4 years

Position at (%)

100%

Reports to

General Secretary

Deadline for Application: 09 October 2020

About ACT Alliance

ACT Alliance is a coalition of more than 135 churches and affiliated organizations working together to create positive and sustainable change in the lives of poor and marginalized people regardless of their religion, politics, gender, sexual orientation, race or nationality. ACT Alliance is supported by 30,000 staff from member organizations and mobilizes about $3 billion for its work each year in three targeted areas: humanitarian assistance, sustainable development and advocacy action. The global ACT Alliance secretariat is based in Geneva Switzerland, Amman Jordan, Bangkok Thailand, Brussels Belgium, San Salvador El Salvador, Nairobi Kenya, New York US and Toronto Canada. Across all its offices, the Secretariat supports the work of ACT forums and members by fulfilling key functions of connecting, facilitating, promoting and leveraging the work of members and ACT national and regional forums. For more details about the general work of ACT, please refer to https://actalliance.org/

Major functions

The Director of Operations leads the secretariat’s work in the areas of Finance and Administration which includes the Human Resources (HR) functions, as well as that of IT systems and platforms. Furthermore, the function leads the Secretariat’s work on Quality and Accountability, Membership Management and coordinates the work on Resource Mobilization and donor relationship. The Director of Operations is the Secretariat and Alliance focal point for complaints.

Duties and Responsibilities

  • Ensure that the ACT governance and management have in place all relevant policies and procedures enabling sound management of finances and human resources within ACT secretariat
  • Establish guidelines for budget and forecast preparation, prepare and manage the annual budget in consultation with the Core Management Team (CMT)
  • Develop and maintain timely and accurate financial statements and reports in accordance with contract agreements with funders and generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)
  • Support the CMT in developing and implementing performance management systems and staff development
  • Develop and monitor risk management policies and procedures to ensure that financial, programmatic and organizational risks are minimized
  • Continuously develop and maintain sustainable, predictable and effective funding mechanisms to the Secretariat and coordinate donor relations to ensure appropriate financial stability of the Alliance
  • Oversee and supervise the HR administrative function of the organization, including property and facility management, safety at work, provision of furnishings and equipment necessary for effective operations
  • Ensure that the staff is informed, fully understand and comply with staff rules and regulations of the alliance
  • Lead the development and implementation of the membership strategy and policy
  • Lead the quality and accountability work in the Alliance, including complaints handling
  • Enables a culture of learning throughout the alliance, fostering learning communities, enabling learning spaces, facilitating linkages and promoting learning tools and resources
  • Builds synergies between ACT members in capacity development, quality and accountability
  • Is a member of the ACT Secretariat Core Management Team and the Global Leadership Team

Competences

Committed

  • Committed to the values of the ACT Alliance and takes pride in delivering on agreed priorities according to the highest standards individually and as part of a global team

Personal Effectiveness

  • Proactively finds innovative and creative solutions, is efficient and reliable, adapts to change and uncertainty, is decisive and acts with integrity

Working with others

  • Builds effective internal and external relationships, involves others when solving problems and treats others with consideration and respect in an alliance where faith is a key ingredient of people’s lives

Passionate

  • Passion for building and developing core skills for the role and contributes knowledge outside of immediate own role

People leadership

  • Effectively motivates, influences and develops others, drives high performance, inspires people to follow them and acts as a role model

Working relationships

  • The Director of Operations establishes and cultivates relations with staff within the decentralized Secretariat
  • He/she will liaise with and report to the General Secretary and manage the Secretariat Finance and Operations Team
  • The Director of Operations will work closely with his/her colleagues in the CMT, the regional representatives, as well as the Head of Policy and Advocacy, the Head of Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Representative in New York
  • Externally, the Director of Operations will liaise with the ACT Governing Board and relevant ACT members in connection with managing member relations and administration. He/She will also liaise with both external and internal donors.

Skills and experiences

  • Minimum of 10 years of experience in a finance and operations management role, including an international role
  • Relevant degree in finance administration, human resources, general management or business administration
  • Technical skills in all aspects of financial management, administration and HR including adequate knowledge of Swiss human resources legislation
  • Demonstrated ability to work in multi-cultural environment and/or multi-locational settings using a collaborative approach
  • Proven ability to set clear priorities and handle challenging workloads
  • Qualified user of financial management and information management systems and applicable administration software packages
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, fluency in English and good working knowledge of French
  • Working experience in a faith-based or ecumenical organization is an asset

TO APPLY

Interested and qualified candidates should send their CV and a cover letter, in English and by email only, to recruitment@actalliance.org by Friday 9 October 2020. Please put “Director of Operations” in the subject line and name your documents (attachments) “Firstname lastname CV” and “Firstname lastname Cover letter”. Female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.