The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has worked across the Middle East, North Africa, and Ukraine (MENAU) region for more than twenty years, responding to some of the world’s most complex and protracted humanitarian crises.

Today, more than 75 million people across the MENAU are in need of humanitarian assistance, as conflict, displacement, climate change, and economic instability continue to disrupt lives and limit access to essential services. Vulnerable groups—especially women, children, and people on the move—remain most at risk.

With more than 1,000 staff working across Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Ukraine, the IRC delivers integrated programs that meet both immediate and long-term needs improving access to health, safety, education, and economic wellbeing, and helping those affected by crisis to survive, recover, and rebuild their lives.


The IRC launched an emergency health response in Yemen in 2012. Since then, and despite continued instability and conflict, the IRC has extended its presence throughout the country, implementing a diverse, integrated program of health, nutrition, WASH, protection, and cash programs. These programs prioritize local partnerships with both public institutions and civil society, and span emergency response, humanitarian, and recovery modalities, while serving vulnerable Yemenis including IDPs and returnees, migrants and refugees, women, children, and youth.

SCOPE OF WORK

 

The Country Director (CD) sets the strategic direction, leads all programs, emergency response, financial and operational matters, and oversees humanitarian access and the adherence to and application of security measures, as well as external relationships and partnerships in Yemen. As lead of the Senior Management Team (SMT), the CD ensures accountability of the SMT for the overall leadership and supervisory management of approximately 120 IRC staff and more than 400 incentive workers, programming, and operations, including program quality and accountability, stewardship of resources, staff safety and security, performance management, and external representation, for which the CD remains accountable.

Success in this position requires an individual with exemplary, demonstrated leadership abilities who deploys strong communication and interpersonal skills effectively, both internally and externally. The successful candidate will demonstrate strong contextual analytical skills and an ability to translate the impact of geopolitical developments and rapidly changing humanitarian conditions into operational priorities and effective responses. They will build a network of partnerships, diversify program resources, and ensure organizational readiness to respond to emerging and escalating emergencies while maintaining continuity of critical humanitarian services. They will be directly responsible for the overall coordination and strategic direction of the country program; providing oversight and coaching for directly supervised senior managers; leading country program teams to identify, design, and deliver responsive, high-quality humanitarian, emergency response, early recovery, and development programs; ensuring the efficient management of public grants and private funds for results, compliance, and focused, timely reporting; and overseeing financial management and compliance systems.


Major Responsibilities:

 

Leadership and Representation

  • Lead the country program by maintaining open and professional relations with colleagues, promoting a strong team spirit, and providing guidance, oversight, and resources to enable staff to perform successfully.
  • Lead strategic representation and positioning with national and local authorities at various levels; donors (including institutional, non-institutional and private), European Union; UN and other international organizations; international and local NGOs; and networks such as INGO coordination mechanisms and appropriate working groups. Develop and maintain a high level of understanding of donor priorities and planned funding.
  • Play a leadership role in efforts to improve humanitarian response coordination in Yemen
  • Provide leadership for strong, mutually beneficial, and effective partnerships with Yemeni organizations.
  • Seek out and pursue respectful and safe opportunities to raise the profile of the work of the IRC and its partners in Yemen, as well as the lives and the needs of the people the IRC seeks to serve.
  • Lead country program collaboration with colleagues in the IRC’s MENAU region to deliver regional programming and advocacy.
  • Ensure leadership and management processes enable the IRC to effectively adapt to contextual changes and fully leverage opportunities to expand humanitarian access and assistance.
  • Collaborate closely with regional leadership and neighboring country programs to address cross-border and regional issues coherently and effectively.

Strategic Direction, Program Quality and Growth

  • Set the strategic vision and direction of the country program is aligned with IRC’s strategy to serve more people with the most responsive and highest quality programming possible and secure the resources necessary to do so.
  • Ensure the strategy action plan is of quality, implemented and guides decision making, to achieve IRC’s ambitions in Yemen and contribute to IRC’s strategic objectives globally.
  • Ensure program quality through consistent use throughout the country program of rigorous assessment, design, and proposal development and review processes; comprehensive monitoring & evaluation, accountability and learning systems; staff development investments; and partner organization capacity strengthening.
  • Actively seek out and pursue opportunities to expand, in line with the IRC’s mission, humanitarian, resilience and development programming in Yemen, in terms of populations and areas served.
  • Develop a deep understanding of the geopolitical landscape and remain current on context analysis and develop responsive strategies to ensure the IRC mission can be carried out appropriately in case of contextual changes.
  • Ensure timely submission of competitive, responsive, and high-quality proposals, and support colleagues in negotiations with donors.
  • Lead implementation of IRC’s objective of expanding partnerships with Yemeni civil society organizations, and ensuring strong collaborative, principled partnerships that deliver effective and efficient program outcomes.
  • Remain current on national and regional issues impacting the country program and partners and develop responsive strategies to changing contexts.
  • Ensure the SMT delivers the leadership, management structures, staffing skills and approaches, and operational systems required to ensure a coherent “one IRC” approach to achieve Yemen and regional objectives.
  • Identify opportunities for appropriate expansion and growth of programs, supported by the acquisition and investment of human resources.

Emergency Response Management

  • Take primary responsibility for overall strategic and operational emergency response readiness and action for the country program.
  • Lead Country Context Analysis, Emergency Response Planning and Strategy Development as well as In-Country Emergency Response Teams
  • Ensure the country program maintains robust emergency preparedness and response capacity, including crisis management structures, clear decision-making protocols, and surge readiness to enable rapid operational scale-up or adaptation in volatile contexts.
  • Lead and oversee the management timely, well-coordinated, and principled responses to emergencies, including conflict escalation, displacements, critical incidents, and program disruptions.
  • Engage with Regional and Global Emergency Response Teams prior to, during and post emergency response, in line with organizational Emergency Guidelines.
  • Represent IRC with peer organizations, and other emergency response agencies operating in Yemen.
  • Ensure coordinated emergency response in the event of cross-border/regional emergencies.

Safety and Security Management

  • Take primary responsibility for overall management of safety and security for the country program.
  • Lead and oversee the management of all security risks and incidents, ensure timely, well-coordinated, and ensure primacy of the wellbeing and security of our clients, staff and partners. Create and maintain a culture of safety and security awareness throughout the country program, including training and briefings that prepare all country program staff for security incident prevention and response.
  • Keep security, evacuation, and contingency plans current and accessible to country program staff.
  • Maintain close coordination and communication with the Regional Safety and Security Director on safety and security concerns and evolving issues that could adversely affect IRC staff or operations.
  • Liaise with the regional office, with peer agencies and use the tools and information portals available to keep abreast of all security-related matters; In case of necessity, ensure adequate roll-out of emergency procedures.

Staff Management and Development

  • Supervise and mentor direct-report staff, including communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives and providing regular and timely performance feedback, and leading documented semi-annual performance reviews.
  • Provide direct oversight and guidance to multi-disciplinary teams across cross-cultural settings, ensuring performance excellence and alignment with strategic objectives.
  • Effectively manage staff across various functions and locations, including setting clear expectations, performance monitoring, and accountability frameworks.
  • Lead sensitive and complex staff-related conversations (e.g., performance issues, conflict resolution) with professionalism, empathy, and respect.
  • Mentor and coach high-potential staff to support career progression and leadership development within the organization.
  • Promote a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing across teams and departments.
  • Promote and monitor staff care and well-being. Support appropriate interventions in response to identified staff care needs of both national and international staff.

Stewardship and Operational Management

  • Drive operational excellence to achieve optimal efficiency and cost-effectiveness in all functions and operations of the country program.
  • Oversee the development, deployment and utilization of financial and operational policies, procedures, and systems to deliver compliance with IRC and donor requirements.
  • Ensure responsiveness and appropriate levels of in-person and remote support to all offices, especially in the areas of People and Culture, finance, and supply chain.
  • Provide timely and effective oversight of the Yemen country program’s financial position.
  • Maintain effective and coordinated budget monitoring processes for grant funds and discretionary funds.
  • Ensure a country-wide culture of safeguarding, grounded in accountability, transparency, and survivor-centered response. Provide strategic leadership to mainstream safeguarding across all country program operations and partnerships, in line with IRC’s Safeguarding Policy.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to:  Regional Vice President - MENAU

 

Position directly Supervises: A senior management team responsible for Programs, Operations, Finance, People and Culture, Field Management, and Safety & Security and Compliance and Risk Management.

 

Key Internal Contacts: Country Program: All staff, Region: MENAU Regional Team, Head Office: Crisis Response and Recovery Department (CRRD), Ethics & Compliance, Operations and Strategy, Finance, Global Philanthropy & Partnerships, Technical Excellence and General Counsel.

 

Key External Contacts: Partner organizations, host country government officials, public and private donor agencies, international and national NGOs, UN agencies


PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS:

  • Strong leadership abilities and interpersonal skills, and ability to deploy strong communications effectively, both internally and externally, and in emergency operational contexts. Ability to build networks, partnerships and diversify program resources.
  • Experience in a leadership role  in conflict settings and situations of constrained humanitarian access required.
  • Graduate degree in a relevant field.
  • At least 12 years of dynamically responsible international work experience, including leadership at the Country Director level of multi-site, multi-sectoral operations in a complex operating environment, with demonstrated responsibility for emergency preparedness, crisis management, and operational response. Preference for experience in the MENAU Region.
  • Fluency in English is required. Arabic is a preferred asset.

Demonstrated Technical Skills:

  • Superior communication skills, verbal and written.
  • Experience in managing security in a complex and rapidly changing security context.
  • Proven ability to negotiate and work with partner organizations.
  • Strong budget and fiscal oversight capacities.
  • Extensive representation and fundraising success, including prior experience with both institutional and private donors.
  • Established capacity to handle stressful situations in a healthy, constructive manner.
  • Ability to respond to multiple priorities in a timely manner, producing high-quality outcomes.
  • Prior work experience and a keen understanding of political complexities in Yemen and the Middle East and North Africa region is preferred.

Demonstrated Managerial/Leadership Competencies:

  • Demonstrated successful leadership and management experience with a multi-disciplinary team in cross-cultural settings, including active mentoring and coaching.
  • Analytical, strategic, and able to proactively develop solutions to complex challenges.
  • Comfortable with ambiguity and decision making in a fast-paced environment.
  • Effective in developing high-potential staff to achieve career growth and maximum contribution.
  • Proven experience in managing high-quality programming that meets the needs of clients.
  • Proven experience delivering appropriate levels of oversight of a portfolio consisting of a variety of complex, high-value donor-funded projects.
  • Experience building personal networks at a senior level, resulting in securing new opportunities for the organization.
  • Opportunity-awareness.  A successful innovative approach to unpredictable programming, operational, and funding contexts.
  • Ability to dispassionately represent program context, constraints, and successes to media, government, and other senior audiences.
  • Highly resilient and comfortable working in an insecure environment with restricted personal freedoms.

Ability to Travel: Position is primarily based in Aden, Yemen. Approximately 5-10 % outside the region for workshops, representation, and conferences.


Returning National Candidates: We strongly encourage national or returning national candidates to apply for this position. If you are a citizen of the country where this position is based and are currently residing outside of your home country, you may be eligible for an attractive relocation package. Eligibility is determined based on IRC's operational needs and specific role requirements. IRC strives to attract, motivate, and retain qualified national staff in our programs.

 

Accountability to Clients: IRC staff must adhere to the commitment of contributing to the sustainability and development of its (CR) Client Responsiveness Mechanisms, preserving the culture of prioritizing the needs of our clients and affected communities by systematically listening to their perspectives and using their feedback to make programmatic decisions and giving them greater influence over program design and delivery.

 

Diversity and Inclusion: at IRC MENAU, we are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. Organizations that are diverse in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, nationality, and perspective are validated to be better organizations. More importantly, creating a safe workspace environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best is the right thing to do. So, bring your whole self to work.

Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.


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