Country Finance and IT Director – Yemen (National-International)

The Organisation

We employ approximately 25,000 people across the globe and work on the ground in over 100 countries to help children affected by crises, or those that need better healthcare, education and child protection. We also campaign and advocate at the highest levels to realise the right of children and to ensure their voices are heard. 

We are working towards three breakthroughs in how the world treats children by 2030:

• No child dies from preventable causes before their 5th birthday
• All children learn from a quality basic education and that,
• Violence against children is no longer tolerated

 We know that great people make a great organization, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children.  We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive workplace where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.

We need to keep children safe so our selection process, which includes rigorous background checks, reflects our commitment to the protection of children from abuse.

Save the Children International seeks to always be a child safe organization through fulfilling its obligations to the community and through programme implementation carried out by the organization for safeguarding children and to improve the living standards of the child.

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Position: Country Finance and IT Director – Yemen

Location: Sanaa, Yemen

Grade: 1

Contract Length: 2 years - renewable

The Opportunity:

As a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) in Yemen, the Director of Finance shares in the overall responsibility for the direction and coordination of the Country Office (CO).  The Director of Finance in his/her capacity will be accountable to the Country Director for overseeing the Finance function and co-accountable with other senior leaders for risk management –in both emergencies and development programming contexts.

SCOPE OF ROLE

Reports to: Country Director

Staff reporting to this post:

-              Deputy Finance Director.

-              Financial Accounting and Treasury Manager. 

-              Technically line managers Project Finance/Awards Managers

Role Dimensions: The Save the Children International (SCI) Yemen Country Office (CO) has an annual budget of around USD 80 million and growing, working mainly on the humanitarian response to the ongoing conflict and its impact including more recently on the cholera outbreak. The CO has over 700 staff and 1400 volunteers and works in eight governorates in the north, centre and south of the country through six field offices (and two sub-offices) in addition to the main office in Sana’a.

Key Areas of Responsibilities

As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, contribute to:

• Leadership of the Yemen Country Office.
• Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our full spectrum mandate values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors
• Help design and implement a coherent organizational structure that is consistent with agency practices and appropriate to program needs.
• Help establish, maintain, and improve active and regular working relationships with host government authorities, partner agencies including humanitarian and development donors, and local and international NGOs.
• Ensure Yemen Country Office complies with all Save the Children’s Quality Framework Essential Standards and Standard Operating Procedures
• Ensure that all required support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the rules and principles during emergencies, working closely with the Regional Office

Planning and Budgeting

• Assist the Country Director (CD) in the management /administration of the Country Office resources and its sub-office(s) including (a) the formulation of country work program and resource allocation, (b) providing effective support and guidance to the Senior Leadership Team and other key program staff during planning and allocation exercises; (c) monitoring implementation of donor agreements and resource utilization. Highlight variances, provide analyses and recommend resolution or reallocation of resources.
• Work along with the SMT in developing plans to meet funding and programming needs. This includes diversification of funding resources.
• Identify and effectively manage all key risks, especially financial, related to delivering the Country Office program. Develop mitigation plans at proposal stage.
• Ensure correct level of budget authority exists within Country Office and Field Offices
• Manage financial aspects of budget development for new proposals. 
• Ensure appropriate and adequate emergency finance procedures are detailed in the Country Office Emergency Preparedness Plan in order to enable rapid scale up.
• Ensure budget holders understand their responsibilities (e.g., through training)
• Ensure Field Offices receive adequate support to operate efficient accounting systems, including timely receipt of monthly budget variance analysis by budget holders, timely answers to queries and scheduling tasks and deadlines.

Financial Accounting, Reporting, and Control

• Manage the Country Office financial systems and provide the SMT and all budget holders a monthly update on the budget variance analysis.
• Ensure with the SMT that systems are in place for the control of all assets, funds, equipment, property, and facilities; submit timely financial reports to Centre. Regional Office and donors as required.
• Ensure that effective systems are put in place, and regularly reviewed, to allow adequate financial management and control including:
• Annual accounts and tax statement preparation.
• Accounting and management information systems.
• Cash and cash flow management and control in particular gain/losses on currency exchange.
• Financial procedures during emergency responses, including meeting all relevant responsibilities in the Rules and Principles for Emergency Response.
• Expenditure procedures, especially around procurement.
• Documentation of all controls and procedures.
• Finance training for staff in the field and partners as necessary.
• Availability of funds for Field Offices and the Country Office
• Monitor accurate and timely submission of financial reports and attachments to members, donors and government regulatory agencies.
• Ensure quarterly effort reporting is prepared with major variances discussed with Regional Office and centre.
• Coordinate submission of control reports, respond to findings and recommend resolutions or action plans.
• Lead and participate in the development of finance policies and procedures to be able to maintain a well-financially controlled environment in both development and emergency contexts.
• Coordinate and assist CD and the Internal Controller during any internal or external audits. 
• Ensure monthly financial reviews (MFRs) are prepared, reviewed with SMT, and submitted to Regional Office regularly.

Financial Reporting

• Monitor completion of financial reports for awards. Ensure proper accounting and closing of books upon receipt of completed reports and documents from Field Offices and partners.
• Provide guidance to finance and non-finance staff and coordinate efforts to ensure compliance with donor agreement requirements and conditions.
• Work with budget holders to estimate funds request on a timely basis to ensure resources are in place for carrying project activities; and that reporting requirements and deliverables are met.
• Ensure Country Office treasury operations are adequately managed.
• Ensure that donor financial reports are aligned with donor requirements.
• Prepare monthly financial and analytical report and ensure submission of all required reports with RO.
• Prepare audited financial statements after the year end organize all statutory and donors audit as per set time frames.

Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development 

• Responsible for appropriate staffing within finance teams 
• Responsible for making sure all Finance staff understand and are able to perform their roles in an emergency.
• Manage Finance team; define expectations, provide leadership and technical support as needed, and evaluate direct reports regularly.
• Responsible for the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff.
• Manage the performance of all staff in the Finance work area through staff development strategies and Performance Management Systems.  Establish result based system and follow up.
• Develop staff through the following methods.
  • Effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measurable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations.
  • Coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities.
  • Recognition and rewards for outstanding performance.
  • Documentation of performance that is at standard and above and less than satisfactory, with appropriate performance improvements/work plans.

Risk Management

• Participate in the preparation of Quarterly Risk Management Register in consultation with SMT in accordance with the SCI Quality Framework Essential Standards
• Undertake the financial risk assessments of all new partners and monitoring of on-going risk in coordination with SMT.
• Support CD and SMT in keeping analysis of the internal and external risks and threats and appropriate mitigation measures up to date.

Information Technology

• Supervise administrative function to ensure the smooth import of capital assets, monitor visa/work permit process and accommodation for expatriate staff and visitors
• Ensure sophisticated, efficient, cost effective Information Technology Systems are in place which is also in compliance with SCI Quality Framework – with a specific focus on ensuring sufficient primary and backup connectivity and bandwidth in CO and all Field Offices
• Strive to support programmes with innovative IT solutions to support their work
• Responsible for ensuring CO internal and external communications systems function effectively and efficiently and that sufficient backup communications and redundancies exist.

Qualifications and Experience:

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Qualified finance professional preferred (recognised accounting qualification such as CIMA, ACCA, CPA) with experience of operating in a global and complex organisation
• Recommended a minimum of 10 years senior management experience in an International NGO environment, including experience in the development of strategic and operational support services plans and their implementation in a professional work environment over a sustained period of time.
• Ability to plan and organise a substantial workload that includes complex, diverse tasks and responsibilities in both development and complex emergency contexts.
• Willingness and ability to dramatically change work practices and hours, and work with incoming surge teams, in the event of emergencies.
• Demonstrated credibility with colleagues and stakeholders at all levels of an organization.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English 
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to demonstrate skills in leading a multi- disciplined team through a period of change.
• Leadership skills, including the ability to supervise and motivate qualified professional staff with strong personal value systems.
• Analytical, decision making and strategic planning skills and the ability to handle multiple priorities.
• Ability to coach, mentor, delegate appropriately and provide developmental guidance to supervised staff.
• Team building skills.
• Competent level skills in core IT applications, particularly MS Office.
• A commitment to the values and principles of Save the Children.
• Experience working to developing countries.
• High level of commitment to the principles of development and to the organizational and programmatic goals of Save the Children.

Desirable

• Fluent in Arabic.

Application Information:

Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application, and include details of your current remuneration and salary expectations.  A copy of the full role profile can be found at www.savethechildren.net/careers/apply

“Save the Children is an equal opportunity employer. Women are strongly encouraged to apply”