Chief of Operations, P4, FT, Dakar, Senegal, Education Outcomes Fund (EOF), Hosted Fund, Req: 561800

Contract

This is a P-4 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 131,270 USD and 169,245 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, OPPORTUNITY

The Education Outcomes Fund (EOF) is a fund dedicated to improving education and employment outcomes for children and youth globally. EOF pays primarily on the basis of the results achieved, ensuring that taxpayer-funded domestic resources, aid, and philanthropic funds are only used to pay for what works. This is a game-changing way to finance results in education, focusing attention and realigning systems on the most challenging but most important measure of a program's performance: whether it is improving lives.

How can you make a difference?

Purpose for the job: Under the leadership of EOF’s Director, the Chief Operating & Partnerships Officer is responsible for leading EOF’s Operations and Partnerships functions to ensure the efficient, effective, but also innovative use of EOF’s resources, mobilize funding, develop partnerships with governments, donors and sector-leaders, use communications and advocacy to achieve EOF’s strategic plan.

Key function, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

Operations and Finance

• Overall leadership of the Operations function in the EOF Secretariat.
• Lead the recruitment and professional development of the Operations team.
• Lead the annual budget and workplan process for the EOF secretariat, for Executive Committee approval and UNICEF Comptroller
• Drive, shape and continuously improve EOF’s planning and the production of all EOF deliverables.
• Provide budgetary oversight and financial control for the EOF secretariat, oversee monthly financial reporting and forecasting; lead the continual development and implementation of EOF’s operating and financial model.
• Oversee all external budget development processes, to ensure value-for-money, secretariat sustainability and project/program effectiveness.
• Provide leadership on EOF’s risk-management and safeguarding responsibilities (including as the Executive Lead for Safeguading and PSEA).
• Work closely with colleagues to ensure appropriate risk management procedures are in place to oversee risk associated with EOF’s strategic plan, both institutional and programmatic risks.
• Drive, shape and continuously improve EOF’s planning and the production of all EOF deliverables.
• Support the formation of time-bound teams to deliver on the operational needs of EOF, including the development on new policies, processes and ways of working.
• Oversee the HR process with the Secretariat, including the annual performance cycle, policy adjustment as necessary, and other HR decisions.
• Establish and lead informal meetings to review EOF’s immediate priorities in light of new requests for deliverables and external events.
• Support the formation of time-bound teams working across EOF units to deliver on particular projects.

Partnerships: Fundraising, Communication and Ecosystem Development

• Overall leadership of the Partnership function in the EOF Secretariat (which includes all fundraising, communications and advocacy, and ecosystem development for outcome funding in global education).
• Lead the recruitment and professional development of the Partnerships team – to drive success against EOF’s long-term strategic objectives. Builds and supports a culture of innovation to drive organizational growth.
• Lead the development and implementation of Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Strategy. Development and continual iteration of a comprehensive plan, targeting public and private sector audiences (in consultation with ExCom and leadership team).
• Develops annual workplan and budget, including partnership prospect pipeline, investment cases, cultivation and solicitation, and partnership management; ensures sufficient re-investment into fundraising activities; monitors work progress and ensures results are achieved on time and to required performance standards; ensures effective management of financial and human resources, in compliance within UNICEF financial rules and regulations.
• Provides guidance and direction for analysis, planning, implementation and management on all fundraising channels and partnerships, emphasizing achieving flexible and unrestricted resources.
• Lead the development of the programmatic pipeline, from ideation to the feasibility stage; including host country engagement (at Ministerial / Director General level) to build support and buy-in for scale outcome-based finance programs.
• Takes an active role in identifying, approaching and negotiating relationships with key public and private sector partners
• Represents EOF in meetings with key public and private sectors partners globally to advocate and promote EOF programme goals and objectives.
• Develop the communication advocacy strategy for EOF and lead its effective execution, ensuring integration and mutual reinforcement of this into broader organizational strategies.
• Define, measure and report against standard communications benchmarks, to ensure continuous improvement of EOF’s communications.
• Oversee the development of all EOF produced content, including periodic newsletters, EOF website, social media activity.
• Manage EOF’s external calendar of events, capitalizing on opportunities to raise EOF profile, toward the delivery of its mission.

Organizational Leadership

• As part of EOF’s leadership team, contribute to defining the vision for the organization and its annual goals and ensure accountability for their delivery.
• Contribute to the EOF’s organization strategy and day-to-day cross-functional decision-making, particularly at key inflection points on new partnerships or programs activities.
• Support the professional development of EOF team members and contribute to a culture of high performance across the organization.
• Advocate for the EOF approach and influence the education financing policy agenda through a wide variety of public speaking engagements, including at high-level meetings in the education sector and with the press.
• Ensure a positive working environment and high performance of the team through direct supervision of team members, chairing team meetings and retreats as needed.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in one of the following fields is required: economics, political science, finance, education or a related field.
• A minimum of eight years of relevant professional experience in education, project management, resource mobilization, partnership development, communications and advocacy, resource mobilization or related fields of work.
• Experience in implementing organizational initiatives in one or more operations management area including budget; financial management and reporting; facilities management; administration; supply and logistics management; information and communication technology; human resources.
• Direct experience in outcomes-based financing in international development.
• Experience working in start-up and/or scale-up environment, in the private or non-governmental sector.
• Experience working in a developing country is considered as an asset.
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Developing country work experience and/or familiarity with emergency is considered an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF’s Core Values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust and Accountability and Sustainability (CRITAS) underpin everything we do and how we do it. Get acquainted with Our Values Charter: UNICEF Values

UNICEF competencies required for this post are…

(1) Builds and maintains partnerships (2) Demonstrates self-awareness and ethical awareness (3) Drive to achieve results for impact (4) Innovates and embraces change (5) Manages ambiguity and complexity (6) Thinks and acts strategically (7) Works collaboratively with others (8) Nurtures, leads and manages people.

During the recruitment process, we test candidates following the competency framework. Familiarize yourself with our competency framework and its different levels: competency framework here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to include everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic. We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements. UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

UNICEF’s active commitment towards diversity and inclusion is critical to deliver the best results for children. For this position, eligible and suitable candidates from all backgrounds, genders, religions, nationalities and cultures are encouraged to apply.

The appointment for this position is limited to EOF, a UNICEF hosted fund. While UN staff regulations and rules, as well as UNICEF policies and procedures, apply to you during your appointment, certain provisions therein may apply to you differently due to the limited scope of your appointment. In particular, you will not be subject to rotation exercise as per the Executive Directive on Staff mobility and rotation (CF/EXD/2015-002) or any revision thereof. In addition, during your appointment in EOF, you will not be considered eligible for conversion to a Continuing Appointment as per UNICEF Administrative Instruction on Continuing Appointment (CF/AI/2017-002) or any revision thereof. In the event that your post is abolished, the priority granted, and other support provided to staff on abolished posts in staff selection processes will only be extended to posts within EOF and not to other posts in UNICEF.

UNICEF candidates: To return to a UNICEF appointment outside EOF, you will need to be selected in a competitive recruitment exercise. Upon selection for a UNICEF post outside of UNICEF-hosted funds, the period you have served with the UNICEF-hosted fund will count towards the calculation of the tour of duty in your duty station and eligibility for a continuing appointment.

External Candidates: To secure a UNICEF appointment outside EOF, you will need to be selected in a competitive recruitment exercise. Upon selection for a UNICEF post outside of UNICEF-hosted funds, the period you have served with the UNICEF hosted fund will count towards the calculation of the tour of duty in your duty station and eligibility for a continuing appointment.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance. Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments are also subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid). Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF. UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.