Director Of Programs And Operations

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS AND OPERATIONS - Zambia Country Office

TEAM/PROGRAMME: Zambia Country Office Senior Management Team

LOCATION:  Lusaka 

GRADE:  NAT 1

Safeguarding:

Save the Children does not tolerate any form of exploitation, abuse, or harassment against any person. It is the responsibility of all employees and representatives to protect all people who come in contact with our organization. Save the Children commits to applying the same standards to all its employees and subject them to the same processes regardless of their position, influence, or reputation within or outside of the organization.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Save the Children International’s Diversity Policy, aims to promote equal opportunity in employment and to ban any kind of discrimination based on sex, age, social class, disability, HIV status, religion, race and ethnicity.

ROLE PURPOSE As a member of the Senior Management Team, the Director of Program and Operations oversee all program implementation and operational support to our program activities.  They share in the overall responsibility for the strategic direction and coordination of the Country Office.  The Director of Program and Operations in his/her capacity is responsible for Implementation of Education, Child Protection, Child Poverty, Health and Nutrition and Child Rights Governance programming plus any other thematic area that may be initiated in future. This role manages sub offices, emergency preparedness and response, supply chain and logistics management and safety and security to ensure timely, effective and efficient delivery of quality program activities to beneficiaries in Zambia.

SCOPE OF ROLE: 

Reports to: Country Director

Dimensions: This is a challenging senior role requiring a principled, dedicated, experienced and highly motivated individual who can help to drive forward our programs and ambitions. The role will build on an organizational culture utilizing a capacity building approach to strengthen established systems, policies and procedures, emphasizing an empowering strong project management, logistics and procurement support, and ensuring staff understanding and compliance meets organizational quality standards. 

The position has significant advocacy and external representation responsibilities with government, donors, media, programme partners and communities. In addition, joint responsibility for overall management of Save the Children Zambia, as a member of Country Senior Management Team.

We currently have one country office in Lusaka, one field office in Eastern province and four project offices (2 in Western, one Muchinga and one on the Copperbelt Province), with approximately 85 staff and a current operational budget of approx. $10 Million per year.

Staff directly reporting to this post: Field Office Manager, Child Protection/Social Protection Program Manager, Maternal newborn child health nutrition Manager, Child Rights Governance Program Manager, Humanitarian Response Manager, Supply Chain Manager and School feeding Coordinators.

Key Working Relationships:  Director of Programme Development and Quality, Head of Finance, Head of HR/Admin, Award and Partnership Manager and Audit risk and compliance manager.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:

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

• Leadership of the Zambia Country Office.
• Support the development of an organizational culture that reflects our dual 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, humanitarian and development donors, partner agencies including major institutional donors, and local and international NGOs
• Ensure that the required support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the rules and principles during emergencies, working closely with the Regional Office
• Responsible for program operations KPIs, working closely with other functions to achieve set targets.
• Contribute to ensuring that risk management and essential standards improvement plans are on track and contribute towards an efficient Country office delivering programs for children.
• Facilitate program managers to prepare timely and high-quality progress reports, program reports, and donor reports in a manner to allow review and consolidation efficiently.
• Participating in any Donor visit to project(s) within the country office portfolio, as required.   
• Carrying out the responsibilities of the role in a way, which reflects Save the Children’s commitment to safeguarding children, in accordance with our Code of Conduct and Child Safeguarding Policy.
• Ensuring the Zambia Country Office complies with all Save the Children Quality Standards and Standard Operating Procedures.

Oversight and Management of Program Operations

• Responsible for overall coordination of program operations and delegated responsibility for field delivery of high-quality programming in line with the objectives of the country strategy.
• Ensure that all programs are progressing in accordance with grant agreements and are completed within time and on budget and are of high quality.
• Support budget holders/project/program managers in ensuring proper project management of awards is consistently implemented for all awards. 
• Serve as overall budget holder for most programming; manage and support budget holders for individual projects and grants
• Ensure programs are implemented in ways responsive to the communities and children in line with Save the Children principles, values and strategic plan and following Save the Children compliance procedures. This includes working with government and national NGO-partners to strengthen national capacity
• Ensure preparation of timely and high-quality progress reports, program reports, and donor reports. 
• Coordinate overall funding process from both grants and SC members.  This includes developing funding strategies, creating grant proposals, and identifying strategic leads and concepts.
• Oversee operational functioning of all sub-offices.
• In close coordination with the Director of Program Development and Quality and Head of Finance, participate in program proposal development processes.
• Working with Director of Program Development and Quality, participate in conceptualizing and designing cost effective, innovative and high-quality programs to serve difficult to reach children. 
• Oversee all Partner led programs and facilitate internal and external engagements.

Logistics, Inventory and Procurement 

• Ensure that the CO logistics capacity and systems meet the SCI quality standards and are able to satisfy the programming requirements.
• Ensure appropriate and adequate emergency logistics procedures are detailed in the Country Office Emergency Preparedness Plan in order to enable rapid scale up 
• Manage the CO logistics department (fleet, assets, transport, supply chain, base setup etc.) are coordinated, efficient and responsive to the needs of program delivery.
• Manage all vehicles ensuring maintenance and insurance.
• Manage all assets for the organization including vehicles, generators, IT, and other high value assets.
• Ensure maintenance and replacement plans are in place and implemented for all assets
• Ensure goods and services procured are cost effective and of standard quality.
• Ensure procurement processes are effectively implemented and tracked and deliver the right products at the right time for the right price.
• Ensure all construction needs are delivered following Save the Children policies and procedures and are on time, on budget and of high quality.
• Work closely with the procurement team in negotiating the best deals with suppliers.
• Ensure proper record keeping, maintenance and control of inventory.
• Ensure proper documentation and recording of fixed assets of the organization.
• Manage the fixed assets.

Emergency Response Management 

• Strengthen the Zambia CO organizational readiness to respond to emergencies in line with global SCI emergency goal and benchmarks.
• Ensure that the CO designs, updates and implements a full set of emergency preparedness actions, drawing on SC member input and resources
• Mount appropriate and  timely responses at scale to all emergencies consistent with established benchmarks, plans and organizational policies, and in close cooperation with incoming surge teams
• Ensure that all CO staff across departments and sub offices are familiar with, adhere to and implement the procedures and processes detailed in the Rules and Principles for emergency response
• In coordination with Country Director and Director for Program Development and Quality maintain consistent and coherent engagement in key inter-agency emergency preparedness and response coordination mechanisms including the Cluster system.

Staff Safety and Security

• Work with Regional, Field and Project Offices to ensure that the staff and assets of save the Children Zambia are safe and secure.
• Ensure that all safety and security minimum operating standards are met.
• Coordinate preparation and implementation of staff security guidelines and support sub-offices in carrying out periodic security assessment and reports.

Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development – Program Operations

• Ensure appropriate and accountable staffing within Program Operations, including sub office staff
• Ensure that all staff understand and are able to perform their role in an emergency
• Manage Program Operations team; define expectations, provide leadership and technical support as needed, and evaluate direct reports regularly.
• Ensure the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff.
• Incorporate staff development strategies and Performance Management Systems into team building process.  Establish result-based system and follow up.
• Manage the performance of all staff in the Program Operations work area through: 
  • 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 less than satisfactory, with appropriate performance improvements/ work-plans  

SKILLS AND BEHAVIOURS (our Values in Practice)

Accountability:

• Holds self-accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values.
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities - giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved.

Ambition:

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages others to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically

Collaboration:

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

Creativity:

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks 

Integrity:

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Recommended a minimum of 7 years of management experience in a corporate or an NGO environment, including significant field operations experience running both emergency and development programs.
• Master’s      degree in development or      other social science.
• Robust experience of NGO emergency program cycle management, and with experience of working within a complex and matrix organization structure.
• A very good understanding of at least 3 of the sectoral programs and a working knowledge of the program priorities of the Country Office 
• Substantial experience in, logistics, including procurement, supply chain, fleet management & inventory
• Significant knowledge of international humanitarian systems, institutions and donors, and of procedures, accountability frameworks and best practices in emergency management.
• Substantial experience and knowledge of effective financial and budgetary control and securing and managing grants from major institutional donors.
• Solid project management skills related to organizational development projects and international, cross-functional teams with a proven history of delivering results
• Ability to analyze information, evaluate options and to think and plan strategically 
• An  in-depth understanding  of      national and  international  development  issues      in particular in relation to children.
• Previous      experience  of managing  and      developing  a  team      and  the  ability      to  lead, motivate and develop others 
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills 
• Fluency in written and spoken English 
• Ability and willingness to change work practices and hours, and work with incoming teams in the event of major emergencies
• Commitment      to  and  understanding  of      Save  the  Children’s  aims,      values  and principles  including rights-based approaches
• Willingness and ability to travel extensively in country

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

QUALIFIED APPLICANTS SHOULD ONLY ATTACH A COVER LETTER AND AN UPDATED CV.

The closing date for receipt of applications is Tuesday 30th September 2025. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Save the Children reserves the right to re advertise if suitable applicants are not found.

Save the Children is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer that does not engage in any practices which discriminate against any person employed or seeking employment based on race, color, religion, gender, national or ethnic origin, age, marital status and we will never ask that you pay for anything as part of the selection process or thereafter