Deputy Team Leader - Programmes at Save the Children Nigeria

Save the Children is the world's leading independent organisation for children. We work in 120 countries. We save children's lives; we fight for their rights; we help them fulfil their potential. We work together, with our partners, to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Deputy Team Leader - Programmes

Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Contract length: 12 months

Role

• The Deputy Team Leader- Programme (DTL-P) is responsible for the direct oversight and overall management of SC's humanitarian projects in northeast Nigeria. The DTL-Programmes supports the Humanitarian Response Team Leader (RTL) by providing information on the progress of the programmatic interventions, providing direction to individual project managers on their projects and ensuring a multi-sectoral and/or integrated approach across programmes where feasible.
• The DTL-Programme's role includes supporting the Humanitarian RTL to identify needs and resources and elaborating programme recommendations for the emergency response in line with Save the Children Nigeria SMT and regional response priorities. The post-holder will take part in developing the response strategy and identification of the necessary resources for the response. In coordination with the Humanitarian PDQ Manager, the DTL-Programme will support project managers to incorporate the relevant thematic advisors to provide appropriate design, training and MEAL functions for programming in North East Nigeria. The DTL-P will establish working relations with other agencies, looking for opportunities for partnership and harmonisation of approach and with donors to ensure resources are made available to the response.
• The DTL-P will negotiate the positioning of the humanitarian response within the Country Programme and support the Humanitarian - RTL to ensure the suitable resourcing of the response, manage programmes or country support functions and negotiate and network at an international level. They will ensure that all relevant Save the Children policies and procedures with respect to child safeguarding, safety and security, code of conduct, equal opportunities and other relevant policies are in place. The post holder will play a strategic role in defining the effective scale up and management of Save the Children emergency programme to maximise impact and enable positive change for children.

Main Responsibilities
Programme Support:

• In collaboration with the Humanitarian Response Team Leader, assume overall oversight of the programmatic side of the SC Nigeria humanitarian response
• Ensure the large number of multiple grants (across the 5 sectors), contribute to the achievement of the response strategy ensuring strict compliance of programme activities with Save the Children national and global policies and procedures and with relevant donor regulations and agreements, SPHERE guidelines and the NGO code of conduct.
• Ensure the integration of other sectors to strengthen the quality and geographical coverage of the humanitarian response to include new areas of need and additional sectors like early recovery/resilience
• Take overall leadership and oversight on the management of response budgets of US$ 10-20 million of annual budget, keeping relevant stakeholders informed and ensuring any corrective actions are taken to meet donor guidelines
• Review all donor project reports as per the reporting matrix and work with the respective project managers to finalize drafts at field level before submitting to CO and SC Member
• Ensure all donor project reports meet the respective donors' guidelines
• Support on the revision of the response master budget for the Nigerian response, based on direction from the Team Leader and Director for Humanitarian Programme.
• In coordination with the TAs and the awards team, ensure the preparation of timely programme and donor reports on project activities in compliance with internal SC requirements and any relevant external donor requirements.
• Work with the TAs develop scaling up plans for programming, based on existing Nigerian experience and the experience during the early months of the response
• Establish project monitoring plans and systems for identifying and tracking the indicators and develop processes/procedures and forms to support monitoring and inform learning.
• Ensure optimal safety and security management procedures and practices are in place for the emergency response programme and continually monitor the safety and security situation, adapting staff safety and security procedures accordingly in collaboration and cooperation with the Safety and Security Coordinator in Borno.
• Through embedding direct and remote processes into each sector programme design, ensure strong accountability to beneficiaries
• Plan, identify and resource appropriate and effective structure & staffing needs for entire response (including ensuring that personnel policies are in accordance with national laws)
• Perform other tasks as outlined by the line manager

Capacity Building:

• Coach and train project managers on PCM to ensure coherent project management
• Ensure that all programme designs and budgets sufficiently incorporate pre-deployment training requirements and capacity building plans and performance management systems are in place. Ensure training plans include capability statements and measuring systems to allow the development of the requisite competencies in staff at each level to ensure timely delivery of a quality of response
• Coach and mentor international and national staff and partners and link in to wider organisational talent development mechanisms.

Representation & Advocacy & Organisational Learning:

• Represent Save the Children's emergency response on a national, regional and international level to donors, the media and members of the humanitarian community.
• Help shape broader sector strategies through influence of and leadership within inter-agency coordination forums, ensuring the specific needs of children are being addressed
• Regularly undertake high level representation and advocacy with Government partners and officials as well as donor representatives. Establish systems for communication with local Government partners, relevant line departments and community representations in the project area(s).
• Lead on organisational level operational practice, innovation and learning in consultation with Humanitarian team.
• Oversee the implementation of Save the Children policies and procedures with respect to child rights and safeguarding, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies

Qualifications and Experience

• Extensive experience (3-5 years) of working within a middle or senior management role within a complex country programme with an iNGO in an emergency response or fragile state
• Previous experience of managing programme teams in large-scale first phase emergency response is essential
• Education: MA / MSc level (or equivalent field experience)
• Middle or senior management experience of multi-national, multi-sector team.
• Experience of managing multi-donor, multi-site programmes (including ECHO, DFID and OFDA) of USD 5m+ in a first phase response at regional or country level
• Multi-site security management in insecure environments
• Experience of international level representation with key stakeholders, and co-ordination with other NGOs/UN
• Experience of international media representation and advocacy
• Experience of M&E and beneficiary accountability systems in large complex programmes
• Experience of developing and negotiating successful partnerships with institutional donors
• Proven ability to influence change at an operational and strategic level
• Politically and culturally sensitive with qualities of patience, tact and diplomacy
• Proven reporting and communication skills
• A high level of written and spoken English
• The capacity and willingness to be extremely flexible and accommodating in difficult and sometimes insecure working circumstances.
• Commitment to the aims and principles of SC. In particular, a good understanding of the SC mandate and child
• Focus and an ability to ensure this continues to underpin our support
• Knowledge in Hausa language
• Previous experience in northeast Nigeria or the Lake Chad basin
• Previous experience with Save the Children

Application Closing Date