Kenya Country Director at Village Enterprise

Job Description

Key Result Areas

• Lead and Manage Country Teams
• Program Quality
• Project management
• Cross-functional Team Coordination
• Financial Oversight and Control
•  Safeguarding
• Other assigned responsibilities

Lead and Manage Village Enterprise Country Team

• Establish strong working relationships with managers and maintain high levels of motivation across multiple levels of country programming. 
• Support the building of organizational culture and the necessary systems that perform well across the completion of activities, scaling the program, delivering outcomes, and meeting goals.  
• In coordination with people and culture support in the recruitment, mentorship to staff,  regular feedback, performance appraisals, staff development, and other management issues.
• Policy Development and Implementation: Accountable for ensuring the successful design and implementation of necessary policies across relevant areas of operation.  This may include financial, human resource, operational, and safeguarding policies.  
• Assist in program development for Village Enterprise by identifying additional needs and contributing to the development of project proposals.
• Develop the capacity of staff to deepen their understanding of their roles and assist with career development.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where the whole team strives to achieve excellence.
• Develop and implement an annual operations plan for the country program and ensure field implementation goals are met. 

Program Quality

• Build a culture of accountability and performance that allows for exceptional delivery of the program
• Assist Regional Managers, Field Coordinators, and Field Associates with information, tools, and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Strategize and implement processes and activities which increase the impact of the Village Enterprise model across the different geographies of implementation. 
• Use the Adaptive Management System to capture program successes and challenges that will inform internal learning and program improvements and innovations. 
• Proactively identify and share real-time learning from the program implementation to inform potential changes in program design and support the influencing agenda
• Regularly conduct quality control visits to program implementation regions to identify areas for potential changes or course corrections; share out key findings with Village Enterprise internal team. 

 Project Management

• Collaborate with project teams to deliver on project milestones and outcomes
• Updates Wrike Project Management tool upon completion of tasks 
• Fulfill assigned roles on projects across the organization.  
• Ensure and support the implementation of the Village Enterprise Project Management Guide for projects in the country.  
• Meet with the Chief Programs Officer and COO every quarter to review Country goals 

Cross-functional Team Coordination

• Work closely with functional teams to ensure smooth implementation of the program
• Coordinate with the MEL team on data, learning, and documentation for program improvements 
• Collaborate with Finance team to develop, manage and oversee country's-budget
• Collaborate with chief governments officer, partnerships teams, and regional managers to build a relationship with the government, NGOs, and other stakeholders. , 
• Coordinate with the HR Coordinator to ensure adequate staffing at various levels of implementation.

Financial Oversight and Control

• Responsible for designing and developing annual budgets.  
• Accountable for the adherence to budget over the fiscal year.  
• Accountable for the implementation of systems and processes for financial accountability.
• Participate in budget reviews quarterly
• Approve budget expenditures for the country based on the matrix. 
• Support FA on the country and international audits. 

Safeguarding

• Safeguarding is everyone's responsibility at VE, and it begins with me
• Communicate and uphold VE safeguarding standards at the country level for all field employees, partners, and program participants.
• Ensure compliance with VE’s safeguarding policies 
• Report any incident of safeguarding in program operations for appropriate action/follow-up.
• Support in investigations and input as required during safeguarding disciplinary processes

Other Assigned Responsibilities

• May be called to support the development of new projects by participating in project design workshops, and providing key inputs such as writing technical sections and supporting budget development. 
• Represent Village Enterprise at conferences, events, and the government level when needed
• Assist with the roll-out of new initiatives, processes, and procedures from functional teams
• Ensure compliance with the country governments on registration, tax, and reporting to the different stakeholders.

The Country Director will:

• Have the necessary experience to succeed in their role.  This includes:
  • An in-depth understanding of our business owners and the challenges/opportunities they face.
  • The educational background that has created a base of understanding to be applied in the role.  This will be a combination of university-level degrees and a background in strategic management.  
  • Professional experience which demonstrates excellent performance and the ability to excel in the Country Director Role
• Will bring skills to provide strategic direction and manage the successful implementation of country-wide activities.  
  • Ability to set strategic direction within the context of Graduation programming 
  • Ability to manage and oversee the successful implementation of operations.  This includes designing operational plans and managing their execution.
  • Experience and ability to identify and implement activities with staff, participants, and external stakeholders using systems thinking in complete activities, achieve scale, and deepen the impact.  
  • Proven experience managing in a cross-functional team environment
• Enhance the Culture of Collaboration that Village Enterprise is based on.  

Key Performance Metrics include

• Timely, innovative, and high-quality implementation of the Village Enterprise Model to achieve outcomes
• Team members become increasingly effective and efficient implementers as a result of mentoring and coaching, driving impact and scale.
• Leadership and commitment to a culture of accountability and learning within the Country team
• Completion of Country Operations Plan
• Successful delivery of projects across the country.
• Village Enterprise becomes an increasingly significant player in the global graduation space as a result of innovative and effective implementation on the ground.