Deputy Country Director, Bangladesh

Helen Keller Intl

Job Announcement

Deputy Country Director, Bangladesh

(Dhaka, Bangladesh)

Guided by the remarkable legacy of its co-founder, Helen Keller, Helen Keller Intl partners with communities that are striving to overcome longstanding cycles of poverty. By delivering the essential building blocks of good health, sound nutrition, and clear vision, we help millions of people create lasting change in their own lives. Working in 20 countries – across Africa, Asia, Europe, and the United States – and together with a global community of supporters, we ensure every person has the opportunity – as Helen did – to reach their true potential.

We are seeking a Deputy Country Director (Deputy CD) in Bangladesh to provide leadership to nutrition programs and to work alongside the Country Director to represent Helen Keller, develop new programs, expand our programming and scale, and lead the country office and its programs in a manner that reflects our mission and values and ensures technical excellence in the delivery of all activities.

Individuals with Asia continent expertise and experience in one or more of the following areas are encouraged to apply: Health Systems for Nutrition, Food Systems for Nutrition, Market-based Interventions for improved nutrition, Food and Nutrition Security, and/or Resilience.

Country Program Overview

Starting in 1978 by promoting and implementing Nutrition programs, today, Helen Keller Bangladesh is implementing large scale food and health systems program work in Dhaka, Chittagong, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Sylhet, Sathkhira, Bogura, Pabna and Narayangonj through and with the government of Bangladesh, as well as national and international partners and NGOs, academic and research institutions, and the private sector.

Functional Relationships

Reporting to the Country Director (CD), the Deputy CD serves on the Country Management Team (CMT). The position directly supervises a team of professional level staff, works closely with colleagues at all levels of Helen Keller’s global management structure, especially the Programs team and may be called upon to participate in global working groups and/or steering committees.

Helen Keller’s programs require close relations with governments, partner universities and NGOs, private industry, donors, and UN agencies and the Deputy CD will represent Helen Keller at relevant external meetings.

Helen Keller has a matrixed reporting structure. Regular communication and a spirit of teamwork among colleagues, both hierarchically and laterally are essential to make this structure thrive.

Scope of the Position

The Deputy CD works alongside and supports the CD to develop country office planning and goals and backs up the CD in overall supervision of the country office. The Deputy CD contributes to securing funding for project activities for the country office and carries out a significant role in business development efforts. Apart from helping to optimize systems and procedures, the Deputy will also support the CD to ensure all aspects of finance and administration are fully integrated with the work of program teams to fulfill the Helen Keller mission and the objectives established in grants.

The Deputy supports the efficient realization of program objectives and activities by implementing sound management practices for optimal performance in all areas of financial and grants management, risk management, safety and security, office management, information technology, and human resource management in compliance with Helen Keller and donor policies. This may include working with project leads to support screening of sub-grantees, development of sub-grant agreements, and monitoring of their financial performance.

The position is based in Dhaka with periodic travel to field sites, as well as international travel for meetings and training.

Key Responsibilities

Overall Management and Leadership

• As a member of the CMT, participate in planning and direction setting for the country office programs, lending your unique perspective and expertise to the process, while listening to and integrating the expertise of others.
• Support the development of an Annual Program Plan that aligns with Helen Keller’s strategy, and budget.
• Collaborate with senior colleagues to ensure:
  • Sound planning, implementation and evaluation of programs and operations;
  • High-quality financial planning, management, reporting and auditing of programs, including thorough budget oversight;
  • Compliance with Helen Keller standards, policies and procedures, and processes across the portfolio, including performance management; and
• Compliance with donor requirements, including timely and accurate reporting of results and expenditures, and required interim and final reports.
• Participate in international work groups assigned to develop global policies and/or optimize systems and procedures.

Business and Project Development

• Work closely with colleagues to identify funding opportunities that support the country program objectives and support the CD to develop a fundraising strategy for the country.
• Contribute to project design and proposal development processes in close collaboration with the CD and the Business Development unit. This will involve writing up, independently or in collaboration with Regional Technical leads, major technical sections of the project proposal.

Program Oversight

• Oversee the design and implementation of effective work plans that allow for timely and ongoing review of all key outputs of the programs, with a particular focus on the nutrition portfolio.
• Ensure that project implementation is in accordance with Helen Keller established plans, policies and procedures and Helen Keller core values.
• Facilitate the integration with other projects and activities within Helen Keller as well as with other partners and government entities.
• Work with staff and partners to ensure strong Monitor & Evaluation (M&E) systems are in place for the development of regular project monitoring systems, the agency’s shared indicator system, as well as for special studies and project evaluations, including baseline, mid-term and end-of-project.
• Oversee research and special studies design and implementation with project staff and ensure dissemination of information with a focus on publications of major findings.
• Conduct field-level monitoring for quality insurance; providing timely and constructive feedback and support to Helen Keller and partner project staff; identify and seek necessary technical support for programs as required.
• Work closely with the CD to address all issues raised by Helen Keller staff, donors or respective line ministries regarding program implementation.

Team and Performance Management

• Model collaboration for your team: effectively consult and inform colleagues to maximize efficiency and knowledge sharing and integrate guidance and direction from subject matter experts in your office and elsewhere in the global organization to maximize performance.
• Mentor, supervise and evaluate project coordinators for assigned project portfolio and contribute to an atmosphere conducive to professional growth and development.
• Coordinate and develop terms of reference and supervise consultants and other technical support resources needed for program-related activities.
• Cultivate an atmosphere conducive to sharing of lessons-learned and to mutual learning among Helen Keller staff and among partners.
• Consult with and guide staff to achieve goals and ensure accountability to the people we serve, partners, colleagues and donors by providing ongoing feedback in a context of mutual respect.
• Provide guidance to program coordinators in supervising their project teams to implement high quality programs on time and on budget as outlined above.

External Representation / Coordination with partners

• Work with project staff to ensure partners are knowledgeable of Helen Keller’s technical and financial policies and procedures, and donor compliance requirements.
• Ensure that project staff have the skills and tools necessary to build partner capacity.
• Collaborate with respective line ministries and other organizations’ technical staff working in the sectors of interest to Helen Keller to build partnerships.
• Ensure that Helen Keller programs are recognized/promoted and implemented in accordance with national agendas.
• Participate in meetings and seminars within Helen Keller, nationally, and internationally as requested by CD.

Financial and Administrative

• Support and back up the Finance & Administrative duties of the CD including but not limited to:
  • Supporting the development and implementation of annual country budgets;
  • Ensuring timely submission of financial reports within the guidelines established by the Accounting and Grants & Contracts units of the Finance department;
  • Authorizing expenditures for grant or contract allocations and ensuring compliance with procedures required by grant or contract agreements; and
  • Managing the safety and security of staff and responding promptly to emergent issues.

Required Qualifications and Competencies

• Education: Masters’ degree or equivalent in public health or other relevant field, plus
• Experience: a minimum eight years managing nutrition projects and providing subject matter expertise to business and project development of nutrition programs for an international organization, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Substantial experience in implementing public health programming models as described in the country overview in Asia is essential. Prior work in Bangladesh a strong plus.
• Demonstrated ability to develop budgets, monitor financial status and manage administrative and financial activities of complex programs.
• Experience with monitoring and evaluation tools and systems.
• Proven track record with institutional strengthening and partnership building.
• Demonstrated ability in project design and proposal writing.
• Substantial experience with a variety of donors including USAID, and other government and foundation donors an advantage.
• Excellent oral and written English language skills, including the ability to synthesize complex technical and programmatic issues.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including an ability to:
  • effectively lead a team, communicate a vision, make timely and transparent decisions, and manage conflict; and
  • exercise diplomacy and tact as demonstrated in previous roles that required communication with a broad and diverse set of partners.
• An ability to work in challenging and insecure environments.
• Well established and practiced organizational and planning skills.
• Computer literate and proficient; including knowledge of data management and analysis.
• Collaborative, flexible and solution-oriented. An ability to maintain balance when under stress.
• Willingness to travel within the country to project sites, and to international meetings.
  • All staff must be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to travel internationally.
• Demonstrable respect for all persons regardless of religion, ethnicity, class or gender.
• Personal commitment to Helen Keller’s mission and goals and the values embodied by Helen Keller Intl’s co-founder, Helen Keller: compassion, rigor, grit, and integrity.
• Specific technical expertise and training experience in an area relevant to Helen Keller programming such as Health Systems for nutrition, Food Systems for nutrition, Market-based Interventions for improved nutrition, Food and Nutrition Security and Resilience.
• Experience with research design, data collection, analysis and manuscript preparation, with a particular focus on implementation research a strong plus.
• Demonstrated understanding of the synergy between the programmatic, operational, and financial components of public health initiatives.