Human Resources Advisor (Leadership and Capacity Building) - Syria

NRC is assisting more than 500.000 people inside Syria providing over 1,7 million humanitarian services per year. Using innovative approaches, working through strong field offices and dedicated staff, NRC is reaching some of the most vulnerable communities in hard to reach areas across all of Syria.

NRC’s Syria Response Office is located in Amman, leading the response across the country through strategic leadership and dedicated support. In line with NRC’s new strategy for 2018-2020, we are expanding, changing and renewing our team to ensure we are able to scale up and help more people in better ways.

With this anticipated evolution of the Syria Response Office, we are looking for new team members to support us in this next step. To help build a cohesive team NRC is currently recruiting for the following four key positions:

1)    An experienced leader to be our Head of Support, managing strategic initiatives and change processes aimed at making our operation fit for purpose and able to reach our goals.

2)    A passionate HR Manager who will develop and lead our strategic HR work across NRC’s Syria Response. It is a strategic leadership role with a broad scope who will work through others to ensure that NRC’s most important resources - our staff – are taken care of and able to perform to their best.

3)    A Special Advisor for Leadership and Capacity Building, who will be based in Damascus and travel across Syria to give strategic support to our leaders, as well as lead on the important work of developing NRC’s next generation of national managers inside Syria.

4)    A hard working and motivated HR Coordinator to lead our HR team in one of our largest Area Offices. The HR Coordinator is responsible for the overall implementation of NRC’s HR systems and procedures and will have a direct impact on our work to assist and protect Syrians in need.

The recruitment processes will be done in parallel to ensure we hire new team members with complementary skills and experience since these positions will work closely together.

Position Description:

A key component in NRC’s long-term strategy inside Syria – and NRC Globally – is to build national managers, especially women. The reason is simple: we believe NRC will be better at reaching our objective of assisting and protecting vulnerable Syrians if we have more national managers of the highest caliber. To get these leaders, we will work hard to find the right candidates, but also invest over time in talented and committed staff who we want to give more responsibility.

To resource this strategic objective, NRC has decided to hire an HR Advisor for Leadership and Capacity Building, who will be based in Damascus and travel across Syria to give strategic support to our leaders. The overall task will be to lead the important work of developing NRC’s next generation of national managers inside Syria.

Working closely with Area Managers, HR teams and team leaders in various fields (e.g. Security or Shelter managers), the position will also lead on developing and coordinate capacity building initiatives of NRC staff within various areas across Syria.

Although the position is primarily dedicated to only leadership support and capacity building, the person will be part of the NRC’s Syria Response HR team. Together with HR Manager, the person will develop and implement a fast track national managers training programme as a strategic project in NRC’s strategy for 2018. Further, together with HR teams across NRC’s Syria Response, the person will identify initiatives and improvements to ensure increased retention of talented and committed staff. She or he will be expected to stimulate, document and share lessons learned and best practice on leadership initiatives and capacity building. The position will liaise and cooperate with Global and Regional initiatives and actively contribute to NRC’s Global Strategic Initiative related to Talent Management. When HR manager is on leave, this position will be Acting HR Manager for NRC’s Syria Response.

Our ideal candidate:

NRC is looking for a person with passion and expertise in training and mentoring different types of staff, both experienced managers and junior national staff. The person must be motivated to work from Damascus and experience from working in complex contexts is preferred. Knowledge of Arabic will be a strong asset, even only limited. Organizational skills and experience in project management will also be a great added value.

Key Professional competencies:

• Passion for and minimum 3 years of experience with capacity building, coaching and mentoring, hereunder experience with developing leaders/managers
• Project management experience
• Knowledge of the context in Syria would be an asset
• Knowledge of Arabic will be a strong asset
• Excellent facilitation skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• HR experience advantage, but not necessary

For more information related to the position responsibilities please refer to the full Job Description, attached at the bottom of the page.

Additional Information:

Candidates are encouraged to apply early, as applications may be screened prior to the vacancy deadline

Contract period: 24 months

Duty Station:  Damascus, Syria

Salary/benefits: According to NRC’s salary scale and terms and conditions

Approved health certificate will be requested before contract start

NB: Please enter the geographical location in the "Company name" field for both company and location on your application.