SAVE THE CHILDREN
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
JOB PROFILE
JOB TITLE: Director of Program Development and Quality
TEAM/ PROGRAMME: Senior Management
Team in Yemen
GRADE: TBD (competitive package)
LOCATION: Sana’a, Yemen
POST TYPE: Fixed term, two-years,
unaccompanied
CHILD SAFEGUARDING:
Level 3 - the responsibilities of the post may require the post holder to have regular contact with or
access to children or young people
ROLE PURPOSE:
The Director of Program Development and Quality shares in the overall responsibility for the
direction and coordination of the Country Office program. As a member of the Senior Management
Team (SMT) in Yemen, the Director of Program Development and Quality is responsible for
overseeing the development of high quality, innovative programs that deliver immediate and
lasting change for children and monitoring the quality of the implementation of those programs.
The Director of Program Development and Quality also leads in providing technical assistance
and appropriate monitoring and evaluation in emergency responses.
SCOPE OF ROLE:
Reports to: Country Director
Dimensions: Save the Children works throughout Yemen with offices in Sana’a, Amran, Dhamar,
Hodeida, Sa’ada, Taiz, Aden and Lahj. The current portfolio covers seven technical sectors and
totals roughly 30 million USD annually.
Staff directly reporting to this post: Technical Advisors, Proposal Coordinator, MEAL Manager
Budget responsibility: Several hundred thousand
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
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As a member of the Senior Management Team:
 Provide leadership of the Yemen Country Office
 Develop an organisational 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
 Establish, maintain, and improve active and regular working relationships with: host
government authorities, partner agencies including humanitarian and development donors,
and local and international NGOs
 Ensure that the Yemen Country Office complies with all Save the Children Management
Operating Standards and Standard Operating Procedures
 Ensure that all required support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the rules
and principles during emergencies, working closely with the Regional Office
Strategic Planning
 Provide strategic vision and direction to the Save the Children Yemen Program
 Regularly lead review sessions and revision of the strategic plan to measure progress and
reassess priorities
 Take a lead role in developing program strategies and annual plans ensuring coordination
of all technical input to country strategy, proposals and reports
 Lead in conceptualizing and designing cost effective, innovative and high quality programs
to serve difficult to reach children
15.9.2013
SAVE THE CHILDREN
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
JOB PROFILE
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Ensure that programs are relevant to children in Yemen and to the global program and
advocacy objectives of the Save the Children members
Design and implement effective partnership strategies, ensuring that every partnership is
formed in the context of the Theory of Change and is designed and managed so that the
partnership furthers achievement of Save the Children's global strategy and strengthens
local and national capacity to deliver for children
Program Design and Technical Assistance
 Ensure that the Yemen Country Office has a first class, multi-sectoral and dual mandate
program reflecting all priority technical and sector aspects of the Save the Children global
strategy
 Ensure the design and development of child focused emergency and development
programs of a high quality that contribute to the Country Office’s strategies and plans,
informed by child participation where possible
 Support the Director of Program Implementation in the implementation and monitoring of
all longer term technical goals, objectives and policies
 Ensure that the different technical sectors of the Country Office are coordinated,
integrated and support each other to optimize programs and projects
 Ensure that technical directors and advisors provide input into proposals and proactively
and regularly communicate planned requirements for program design and implementation
to relevant CO departments/functions
 Support the Director of Program Implementation in ensuring adequate resources are
secured for program activities from both grants and the private funds of Save the Children
members, including identifying strategic leads and concepts
 Ensure that all sectors apply a risk lens to program design and implementation in line with
the Save the Children policy on Disaster Risk Reduction
 Ensure appropriate levels of technical assistance and capacity building is provided to
partners
 Works with the Director of Member Service to seek the involvement of member technical
assistance
 Ensure excellent coordination and cooperation with incoming technical advisors as well as
surge teams during emergencies
Assessment, Monitoring and Evaluation
 Maintain a robust M&E system to measure achievement and progress toward program
goals and results
 Measure achievement and progress toward program goals and results through the M&E
system
 Lead on internal and external program/project evaluations as necessary and ensure the
execution of baseline, periodic, and final evaluations as necessary in coordination with
Director of Program Implementation
Knowledge Management
 Ensure learning by the country program from relevant best practice and assess
performance regularly against agreed program objectives and indicators
 Ensure learning by the country program from relevant best practice internally and
externally both nationally and globally and make learning from Yemen available for other
programs.
 Engage in relevant national and global networks
Staff Management, Mentorship, and Development – Program Development and Quality
 Develop a culture and focus on quality across the country programme, ensuring that
colleagues are recognized for their successes and supported in meeting challenges
15.9.2013
SAVE THE CHILDREN
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
JOB PROFILE
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Ensure appropriate staffing within Program Development and Quality department
Manage Program Development and Quality 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
Oversee that all technical sector staff proactively build and maintain technical skills and
competencies required for leading and/or advising first class programs – both
development and emergency programs
Manage the performance of all staff in the Program Development and Quality work area
through:
o Effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment
of clear, measureable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and
unbiased evaluations;
o Coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities;
o Recognition and rewards for outstanding performance;
o Documentation of performance that is less than satisfactory, with appropriate
performance improvements/ workplans
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
 Creates a managerial environment across the Region to lead, enable and maintain our
culture of child safeguarding
Ambition:
 Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves and their team, takes responsibility
for their own personal development and encourages their team to do the same
 Future orientated, thinks strategically and on a global scale
Collaboration:
 Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to; builds and maintains effective relationships
with colleagues, Members and external partners and supporters
 Values diversity and different people’s perspectives, able to work cross-culturally.
Creativity:
 Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
 Cuts away bureaucracy and encourages an entrepreneurial approach
Integrity:
 Honest, encourages openness and transparency, builds trust and confidence
 Displays consistent excellent judgement
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE AND ATTRIBUTES:
 Masters’ degree in Social Sciences or related field
 Minimum of 7 years’ experience in an NGO environment, including experience directing
and implementing programs for children in both emergency and development contexts
 Experience in more than one of the Save the Children priority sectors: education; child
protection; child rights governance; health and nutrition; food security and livelihoods;
emergencies.
 Demonstrated leadership and management skills in a complex international setting
 Significant experience leading strategic planning and in programme design and proposal
development
15.9.2013
SAVE THE CHILDREN
INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS
JOB PROFILE
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Strong understanding of different methodologies of monitoring and evaluation and
operational research and experience in developing integrated MEAL systems
Ability to effectively establish a learning culture within an organisation
Experience in successfully establishing and managing collaborative relationships and
partnerships with donors and government counterparts.
Strong representation and influencing skills
Experience of management of diverse workforce including effective performance
management and utilisation of capacity building, coaching, and mentoring skills
Demonstrated use of positive coping strategies in stressful environments
Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles
including rights-based approaches
Fluency in written and spoken English; Arabic language skills a plus
Date of issue:
15.9.2013
16 September 2013
Author : Casey Harrity