(Senior) Global Director of Country Operations at GiveDirectly

GiveDirectly

  • Nairobi
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 12 days ago
What you’ll do:Strengthen Country Operations
  • Partner with CDs to ensure offices are well-structured, compliant and able to deliver impact at scale
  • Provide operational support to CDs across financial management, people/HR, compliance, procurement, administration, IT, security.
  • Support new country and project office setups, and responsible wind-downs.
  • Facilitate evolution of country office organigrams and talent management systems to strengthen leadership and long-term sustainability.
Ensure Global Standards & Compliance
  • Partner with GSS departments and CDs to embed global standards, systems and policies in country operations, and adapt them for local context.
  • Coordinate with Legal & Compliance to keep country registrations and statutory requirements up to date; support sourcing of legal counsel when needed.
  • Develop a compliance certification process for country offices, that clarifies CD’s accountabilities and provides assurance, through period verification, that county offices are meeting core operational and compliance standards.
  • Run periodic spot checks to identify risks early and support CDs in addressing them.
Coordinate with Global Shared Services (GSS)
  • Serve as primary contact for GSS functions (People, Compliance, Procurement, Corporate Audit, Security, IT, Risk).
  • Define and refine responsibilities and R&R between GSS and country offices.
  • Facilitate cross-office information flow and best-practice sharing.
Lead Risk & Crisis Management
  • Oversee non-program-specific risk monitoring and mitigation across countries.
  • Partner with GSS on ensuring CDs are monitoring and managing country-specific risks and maintaining a global risk register.
  • Backstop, lead, or participate in crisis management
  • Facilitate a culture of proactive risk management across all country offices.
Other Responsibilities
  • Join and represent Programs in regular GSS/country office coordination meetings.
  • Lead or contribute to org-wide initiatives to advance and evolve country office management.
  • Take on special initiatives and projects as assigned
  • Any other responsibilities as required
What you’ll bring:
  • Deep experience managing and maturing country offices, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa
  • Comfort in a fast paced and changing environment that lacks predefined playbooks and requires “figuring things out” where needed
  • Adept at financial and budget management. Bonus points for knowledge about financial modeling
  • Strong risk management experience, including crisis management
  • Expertise in HR, compliance, procurement, corporate audit, risk, IT, and country registration processes
  • Strong cross-cultural communication, stakeholder management, and comfort with matrixed organizations
  • Proven ability to create clarity and structure within evolving systems that can work in diverse contexts
  • Demonstrated ability to make data-driven decisions
  • Highly analytical and able to grip the details of country office management for ongoing rigorous systems building and cross country oversight.
  • Ability to get things done with limited resources and implement scalable solutions
  • Experience and aptitude leveraging new technologies and AI to advance organizational and country office effectiveness. Comfort taking an agile and iterative approach
  • Familiarity with INGO standards, donor compliance, and internal controls
  • Exceptional alignment with GiveDirectly Values and active demonstration of our core competencies: emotional intelligence, problem solving, project management, follow-through, and fostering inclusivity. We welcome and strongly encourage applications from candidates who have personal or professional experience in the low-income and/or historically marginalized communities that we serve.
  • Language Requirement: English. Additional Language Preferences: French, Portuguese, or Swahili
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