Deputy Director International Development

Reporting to the International Humanitarian and Program Director, the Deputy International Development & Humanitarian Director will support and provide technical expertise to Veterinarians without Borders/ Vétérinaires sans Frontières VWB/VSF’s international development & humanitarian programming. This position requires a unique blend of strategic vision, operational leadership, and a deep commitment to our mission. The successful candidate will be responsible for overseeing the development, implementation, and evaluation of programs.

Strategic Direction

• Provide insights and guidance on how the designated programs fit into the overall VWB international program strategy.
• Work with designated staff and country offices to ensure programming is aligned with VWB’s strategic direction.
• Work alongside the Director to open new and emerging countries.
• Lead humanitarian efforts as they arise and develop innovative strategies to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of response efforts.
• Provide technical solutions to teams and partners, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply standards, best practices, partnership principles, and tools, helping to ensure high-quality implementation.

Program Management and Implementation

• Head the technical development and implementation of international programs under the designated portfolio to the highest standards and to the satisfaction of all stakeholders, including rural communities, funders, local partners, and project collaborators.
• Effectively coordinate with operations, finance, project, and communication teams to deliver exceptional results.
• Oversee the design, monitoring, and execution of projection implementation plans, annual work plans, and donor reporting to ensure funder and internal compliance.
• Provide overall direction and management to portfolio international program budgets and financial administration, where necessary resolve any contractual or budget issues with funders.
• Oversee VWB’s risk management strategy within the designated portfolio of international programs, ensuring the appropriate identification, mitigation, and response to potential risks.
• Guide the portfolio team in managing local partners strategically and in alignment with VWB’s localization strategy vision.
• Lead the start-up of programs in the designated portfolio alongside the program team.

Monitoring and Evaluation

• Ensure monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning are in place within the designated portfolio.
• Collect and analyze program data, capture and share lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to global learning and platforms.
• Work with the International Program Director to develop international metrics to measure organizational impact in key strategic pillars.
• Contribute to creating tools, systems, and processes for continuous improvement with a strong commitment to learning and feedback mechanisms.
• Promote systematic program learning to ensure that lessons learned are identified, effectively documented, and shared across country programs and the overall portfolio.
• Support monitoring and evaluation teams to ensure data and project learnings effectively inform current and future programming.

Business Development

• Collaborate with the team to identify and develop new opportunities within the selected portfolio.
• Support the development of strategic relationship management of funders and key stakeholders.
• Contribute to the development of the technical design for proposals. Support the preparation, design, submission, and approval of project concepts and full-fledged proposals.
• Advise on integrating donor strategies, priorities, and technical requirements into VWB/VSF’s approach.
• Support the development of new countries as needed and within the capacity of the teams.

Representation and Communication

• Act as VWB/VSF’s external representative with a range of key donors, policymakers, governments, public and private partners, and news media.
• Attend and participate in external meetings, workshops, conferences, etc., and brief the program team as needed.
• Organizes and participates in work groups, meetings, conferences, and consultations with other agencies and partners in humanitarian-related matters.
• Support public engagement activities and provide input for website updates and ways of profiling VWB/VSF for a wider audience.

Humanitarian Response

• Develop and manage response operations, providing technical expertise to ensure humanitarian programs are delivered according to international standards and utilize a gender-responsive and localization-driven approach.
• Monitors, analyzes, and reports on humanitarian developments, disaster relief/management programs, and emergency situations in VWB/VSF’s areas of focus; develops and maintains a “watch list” of countries with potential humanitarian crises.
• Leads the development and implementation of VWB/VSF’s livestock humanitarian response framework including disaster assessments and VWB/VSF’s international humanitarian response.
• Build and maintain positive donor relationships and strategic partnerships.
• Support country programs to ensure all tools, guidelines, and procedures required in humanitarian contexts are in place, understood, and utilized by VWB/VSF staff and partners.
• Conduct partner due diligence assessments and provide tools and plans to capacity-build key partners to improve operational efficiency. 
• Assist with all other necessary tasks to forward emergency operations and programming.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong program management & humanitarian responder with proven experience managing response operations in the field.
• Strong finance, grant management, and accounting software user skills are required.
• Knowledge of humanitarian codes, principles, and practice and experience in their use.
• Knowledge of design requirements and regulations for humanitarian donors required.
• Extremely flexible and have the ability to cope with stressful situations in humanitarian environments.
• Strong relationship management skills with the ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Ability to maintain performance expectations and strong working relationships in diverse cultural contexts and psychologically/physically stressful environments.
• Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving, and systems thinking skills, with a capacity to see the big picture and the ability to make sound judgments and decisions independently.
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills.
• Ability to work as a motivating member and a leader of a diverse team.
• Good supervisory skills.
• Demonstrated ability to provide leadership in strategic planning initiatives.
• Proven ability to analyze reports or issues and provide appropriate recommendations.
• Strong knowledge of effective management practices desired.
• Experience with staff care in humanitarian settings.
• Good technical writing skills.
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills.
• Proactive, resourceful, and results-oriented.

Preferred Qualifications

• Budgeting and management experience, including developing comprehensive budgets and proposal budget narratives.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.
• Experience in establishing and maintaining effective partnerships and building local organizations’ capacity.
• Knowledge of capacity-strengthening best practices. Proven expertise in coordinating operations management and procedures training programs to support the development of humanitarian response staff.
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation, and training, applying adult learning principles and practices.
• Knowledge of Integral Human Development, SPHERE standards, and Core Humanitarian Standards
• Knowledge/experience of integrating cross-cutting themes such as capacity strengthening, protection mainstreaming, gender, good governance, and peacebuilding.
• Knowledge and experience leading gender assessments and implementation of gender action plans, as an asset.

Basic Qualifications

• A minimum of five years relevant work experience with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, and a minimum of two years relevant field-based experience in Humanitarian Operations.
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in Humanitarian Response, focusing on finance and grant management. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure a proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in Humanitarian Response. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure a proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Experience in project design and proposal development. Experience in writing content for proposals.
• Knowledge of capacity-strengthening best practices.
• Experience with program monitoring, evaluation and analysis.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, and knowledge-sharing networks.

Veterinarians Without Borders/Vétérinaires sans Frontières is an equal-opportunity employer and values the diversity of our team. We are committed to inclusive and equitable employment practices and strive to create a workplace that supports diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Canada

Organisation:

Veterinarians without Borders North America