About Corus:

Corus International is the parent of a family of world-class organizations working to deliver the holistic, lasting solutions needed to end extreme poverty once and for all. We are a global leader in international development, with 150 years of combined experience across our brands. Our nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries include IMA World Health and its fundraising brand Corus World Health, Lutheran World Relief, CGA Technologies, Ground Up Investing, and Farmers Market Brands. Our more than 800 employees around the globe are experts in their fields and dedicated to helping the world's most vulnerable people break the cycle of poverty and lead healthy lives.

At Corus we believe that good only grows stronger and we reflect that belief in our workplace culture. We value every employee's specialized area of expertise and nurture professional growth. We promote an engaging and supportive work environment, where employees feel enabled and driven to innovate, learn and collaborate. And because our subsidiaries often function as partners, our employees have the opportunity to work across our enterprise family.

Corus is committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in our worldwide workplace, and we believe that social justice and respect for the human dignity of every person are fundamental to all we do as an organization.

Further details about the organization can be found at: https://corusinternational.org

Job Location - Fully remote from any US location; Washington, DC or Baltimore, MD is preferred

Job Brief:**

Position Summary: The Senior Humanitarian Director, Operations (SHDO) will be a key member of the Humanitarian Assistance (HA) team and responsible for leading business functions of the emergency operations across the organization. The incumbent will focus on streamlining organizational agility and emergency response capacity by working across multiple departments and units, regional offices and country offices. During humanitarian crises, the SHDO will play a role of a deployable team leader (unless otherwise designated) and will support the scale up, surge and launch of the emergency response in both countries of Corus's presence as well as in new geographies. S/he will be responsible for the budget oversight and close collaboration across the team to forecast, maintain up to date balances and advise the Chief Humanitarian Officer (CHO) on the allocations, commitments and outstanding balances to achieve the department goals.

Key Result Areas:

  1. HA Operations - Business Functions
  2. Business Development
  3. Emergency Projects/Grants Management

The success of this role is measured by the following KRAs:

  • Improved organizational agility in emergencies
  • Improved business development processes and success rate
  • Improved and streamlined business functions and support to country teams and the regions

Roles and Responsibilities:

Humanitarian Operations, Leadership and Management:

  • Provide effective and efficient administration of Humanitarian Team's business functions (grants, budget, emergency project(s) implementation;
  • Oversee Material Resources program with strategic and operational planning and guidance, lead development of the annual pipeline and monitor partner and MR distributions, shipment, etc.
  • Lead HQ HA operations processes such as liaison with procurement, HR, HQ operations, etc and provide guidance and serve as an expert for the field-based HA operational needs.
  • Lead deployment, needs assessments, and operational start-up of humanitarian programs
  • Support existing country teams with in-country scale up, coordination and external engagement in emergencies
  • Keep track of and be responsible for the HA fiscal dashboard
  • Contribute to the HA theory of change/value proposition and lead organizational operational agility and improvement of the processes conducive to HA expansion and optimization (e.g lead HA inputs into existing policies and procedures, suggest adjustment and creation of new SOPs as relevant).
  • Support CHO in developing and rolling out relevant HA strategies, approaches and direction.

Grant and Project Management:

  • Manage emergency projects across Corus regions by working across relevant departments and staff to monitor the financial data (budget burn rates), project deliverables (targets, indicators), use of unrestricted/designated funds and allocations, no-cost and other requirements (especially for the institutional donor funding).
  • Ensure Phoenix and other relevant data entry enable project fund codes and spending (as required input from the HA team)
  • Represent HA in commonly discussed themes and meetings, ensuring standardization of the policies and procedures, request for waivers and other pertinent application of rules and regulations (specific by the donor).
  • Be the focal point for BHA and other USG or institutional grants ensuring communication on behalf of the project with the relevant donor HQ (e.g. submission of the project reports, no cost extension requests, other waivers and approvals, etc.

Surge Support and Team Leadership in Emergencies

  • Act as a team leader and provide emergency start-up/ scale up support to countries / regions in question by leading the deployment needs, on the ground planning, sourcing of the technical expertise (in collaboration and consultation with the CHO), supporting the country offices in rapid hires, procurement, etc.
  • Represent Corus and its affiliates during the onset of the emergency response in relevant country/regional fora (e.g. clusters, technical groups, NGO meetings, Humanitarian Country Team meetings etc) and ensure smooth handover to the incoming permanent emergency response management, in country.
  • Forge new or reinforce existing partnerships with other key stakeholders at the country and regional level (INGOs, UN, local NGOs, etc) and ensure Corus affiliates (LWR/IMA) are plugged into all relevant discussions and capitalize on partnership efforts in response to the emergencies.
  • Provide on the ground guidance and capacity building to the local teams on essential emergency response standards, expectations, guiding principles.
  • Support local partner selection (as relevant) and due diligence process to allow for timely, quality and impactful emergency response.
  • Manage emergency projects across Corus regions by working across relevant departments and staff to monitor the financial data (budget burn rates), project deliverables (targets, indicators), use of unrestricted/designated funds and allocations, no-cost and other requirements (especially for the institutional donor funding).

Business Development

  • Work closely with the BD HQ team in tracking trends in humanitarian donor strategies, opportunities and solicitations
  • Lead or contribute (as required) to the conceptualization of the new opportunities, specifically with BHA and other institutional donors; Engage and collaborate through CHO support as deemed necessary.
  • Lead technical design workshops (unless determined otherwise) and support BD HQ team in soliciting technical information and inputs from relevant parts of the organization for the concept note/proposal submission.
  • In collaboration with CHO, regional HA coordinator(s) and other relevant staff within Corus, contribute to the HA outlook production (secondary desk review and analysis of countries in crises).
  • Ensure relevant charges and financial calculations are provided to Cost and Pricing and relevant Finance departments.

Supervisory:

  1. SHDO will report to the Chief Humanitarian Officer
  2. SHDO will supervise the Senior Program Associate and any future operations positions as the team expands.

Education & Experience:

Requirements which may include minimum and preferred educational and job-related experience, computer proficiencies, required certifications, language requirements (speaking, reading, and writing) etc.

  1. Bachelor's degree in social studies, humanitarian studies, public administration or equivalent mix of academic background and practical experience; Master's degree preferred
  2. Demonstrated (at least 10 years) experience in project cycle management
  3. Demonstrated (at least 10 years) experience in budget management
  4. Demonstrated understanding and knowledge of the humanitarian operations, architecture and coordination mechanisms
  5. Demonstrated experience of the HR and/or field humanitarian operations

Qualifications:

1. Budget management skills

2. Project cycle management skills

3. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

4. Effectively dealing with ambiguity

5. Strong oral and written communication skills

6. Teamwork and collaboration - matrixed approach

Other Duties:

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive list of activities, duties or responsibilities for the position. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice. All positions are required to perform any additional tasks assigned by the supervisor. Global positions that are bound by contracts will not be changed without notice and approval.

Working Conditions, Travel and Environment

  • The duties of the job require regular attendance at least 5 days/week. The employee must be available to work outside normal office hours or on the weekends as required.

  • This position must be able to travel as required for standard domestic and international business purposes. While performing the duties of this job in different locations, the employee may be exposed to precarious settings under high security risks and/or very basic living conditions and outside weather conditions, as well as to infectious diseases. The employee will be required to deploy at a short notice (given the nature of the humanitarian crises) and should be available and comfortable travelling to fragile, austere and conflict zones.

  • The employee shall maintain all relevant and required vaccination up to date and ensure proper clearance as required by the destination before, during and after the deployment (as needed).

  • HEAT training will be required as part of the minimum deployment standards, especially for Level 4 State Department defined countries and as further required by Corus.

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Zero Tolerance to Abuse

As a member of the Corus Family, each employee is expected to:

  • Help to develop and maintain an environment that welcome and develop a diverse workforce.
  • Foster a work environment where everyone feels valued and included.
  • Support employees' evaluation and promotion processes based on skills and performance.
  • Promote a safe, secure, and respectful environment for all members of Corus family, stakeholders in general, and particularly for the communities we serve.
  • Follow Corus Code of Conduct helping to prevent any type of abuse including workplace harassment, sexual abuse and exploitation, and trafficking in persons.
  • Adhere to the Organizational Core Values

Corus International prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type and affords equal employment opportunities to employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability status, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by U.S. or International law.

This vacancy is archived.

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