Senior Manager, Operations, Africa Region at Evidence Action

Duties and responsibilities
General Management & Leadership

• Lead development of the region’s operations strategy, with a particular focus on enabling growth and mitigating operational risk in close coordination with country leads.
• Lead the development, review, and maintenance of regional operations, IT, and procurement goals, objectives, and operating procedures ensuring that these include clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
• Provide leadership, direction and functional guidance to the operations team including setting team and individual objectives.
• Ensure quality staff hires in the unit with high performance of direct reports
• Promote a culture of high performance, high quality and continuous improvement that values learning and feedback;
• Responsible for developing/refining and regularly reporting on key performance indicators and metrics to management concerning the regional operations support activities and capacity/gaps.
• Work in close coordination with the country and departmental leadership and remain responsive to their needs;
• Provide leadership in identifying, evaluating, and recommending operations related projects to improve process efficiency.
• Foster a culture that encourages creativity, proactive solutions, accountability, and results.
• Ensure team and individual recognition.
• Direct the training of country office administration and operations teams to ensure they remain up-to-date on best practices and company policy and procedure requirements.
• Provide timely inputs to senior management on team performance and highlighting challenges with any team members.

Operations

• Ensure staff are proactively trained on all key operational policies, systems, and processes required to effectively and appropriately conduct their roles and responsibilities. These include policies and practices on information management, inventory management, etc. Seek opportunities to reinforce and monitor adherence to operational policies, systems, and processes as needed.
• Actively work with regional leadership, country leads, and the regional operations manager to assess risk and develop mitigation strategies to operational risks in accordance with the organizations risk framework and practices.
• Provide leadership in managing sensitive relationships and negotiations with key vendors, including landlords, key service providers, etc.
• Guide and support the Regional Operations Manager in liaising with country leads and country operations capacity to ensure:
  • office lease agreements are being tracked and effectively managed
  • office budgets are being tracked and adhered to
  • asset registers are being actively and appropriately managed
  • requisite company insurances are in place and reviewed/updated regularly
  • vehicle pools are actively being managed in a cost-effective manner
  • administrative services are provided efficiently and effectively
  • all requisite workplace safety and security are being adhered to
  • emergency management and threat monitoring protocols are in place
• Work closely with the Regional Director, Finance and Administration to track and actively manage country level registrations and governance requirements
• Work closely with country leadership to review, update, or establish operations systems for all country offices and provide appropriate training on those systems
• Provide leadership to the IT Manager in ensuring understanding of and compliance to the Global IT policy across the region.
• Provide leadership in reviewing and establishing regional IT SoPs for the provision of IT support and maintenance in the region and monitoring their implementation.
• Provide leadership in reviewing and updating SoPs for service and maintenance of IT equipment in the region
• Actively work with regional leadership and country leads to assess the IT needs in the region and develop appropriate plans and budgets to address any gaps in consultation with the global IT team.

Procurement

• Oversee the Procurement Manager in the formulation and updating of existing procurement policies and procedures, and monitoring their implementation.
• Provide leadership in reviewing and establishing robust vendor due diligence procedures.
• Provide guidance to the regional and country operations teams in sourcing cost-effective services and holding vendors accountable.
• Provide leadership and guidance in management of annual procurement planning with a focus on ensuring cost-effectiveness and efficiency.
• Provide leadership in managing sensitive relationships and negotiations with key vendors, including landlords, key service providers, etc. to ensure excellent service provision and cost-effectiveness.
• Provide leadership in continually assessing the organization’s procurement needs for the Africa region and developing plans and budgets to address any gaps.

Skills

• Strategic and tactical critical thinker with good analytical and problem-solving skills.
• A confident decision-maker who can communicate directions and solutions clearly to both technical and non-technical staff.
• Understanding of the business role of operations functions within the programs and organization, and to set objectives based on that.
• Demonstrated leadership in managing others.
• Metrics-driven performance philosophy.
• Good English - written and verbal competence.

Key performance Indicators

• High quality, appropriate, and well-managed implementation of operations, IT, and procurement services across the region.
• Over 90% satisfaction rating from both internal and external partners on the efficiency of the operations unit in terms of management of partner relations
• Demonstrated Cost-effectiveness in all lease engagements and logistics management in the region.

Qualifications

• Minimum Master’s degree in Business Administration, Finance or related field.
• Experience managing a shared services function in a multi-national context is desired .
• Experience in the of Google Suite applications as well as in handling of web-based management systems is desirable.
• A Minimum of 7 years work experience in a position with similar responsibilities in a multinational organization.
• 5 years of experience working with international organizations, managing a mid-size team of experienced professionals across locations;
• Self-directed and self-motivating personality, with proven ability to manage demands from multiple clients while adhering to deadlines and priorities;
• Highly motivated to achieve exceptiona