Country Director job at ChildFund

Country Director

2025-09-05T10:41:19+00:00

FULL_TIME

Nonprofit, and NGO

Admin & Office

2025-09-30T17:00:00+00:00

 

Uganda

8

The Country Director strengthens internal systems to enhance operational efficiency, accountability, and organizational resilience, while also driving external systems change—working with partners and stakeholders to improve service delivery mechanisms, community structures, and coordination platforms. This dual focus ensures sustainable, scalable impact and more effective outcomes for children. Through bold and adaptive leadership, the Country Director fosters a culture of excellence, agility, and continuous learning, steering the Uganda Country Office toward greater self-sufficiency and competitiveness. Above all, they ensure that ChildFund’s values and safeguarding commitments are upheld across all operations, building a robust and adaptive organization capable of delivering lasting change.

Required Experience and Education

• University degree in a relevant field is required; a master’s degree in a relevant field is strongly preferred.
• At least 10 years of experience in management or senior management positions in the development sector.
• Demonstrated experience in the management of institutional grants and individual donors.
• Demonstrated success in securing funding from varied sources, with a strong emphasis on pre-positioning, strategic networking, and donor engagement. Expected level of effort in business development: 60% or higher.
• Experience in emergency programs and/or community development programs.

Primary Responsibilities

• Strategic Portfolio Growth: Lead the development and oversight of a   dynamic and impactful operational portfolio. Ensure a well-balanced mix of high-quality local partnerships, innovative programming, and diversified funding sources—including competitive grants, corporate partnerships, and local philanthropy. Ensure the portfolio prioritizes locally led development by strengthening the capacity and leadership of national and community-based organizations. Promote ownership and sustainability through equitable partnerships and inclusive decision-making. Drive strategic alignment and sustainability across all initiatives to maximize impact for children, youth and communities.
• Program Excellence and Innovation. Lead the design and delivery of evidence-based programs that align with ChildFund’s core models and standards. Integrate youth-led approaches into program design and delivery, ensuring meaningful participation of young people in shaping solutions that affect their lives. Promote continuous learning and adaptive programming across key areas including child safeguarding, monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL), disaster risk reduction (DRR), gender and social inclusion, and safety and security to ensure relevance, effectiveness and lasting impact.
• Grants and Project Management: Lead and oversee grants and project management processes with a particular focus on the strategic execution and management of larger, high-value grants. Ensuring timely and high-quality implementation of funded initiatives, maintaining rigorous compliance with donor requirements—including financial reporting, programmatic deliverables, and contractual obligations. Collaborate with internal teams and partners to strengthen pre- and post-award grant management, mitigate risks, and uphold accountability standards across all projects.
• Talent Leadership and Culture Building: Lead strategic talent acquisition, onboarding, and continuous development to build a high-performing and mission-driven team. Foster a high-performing, inclusive, and values-driven organizational culture that promotes excellence, collaboration, and accountability.  Create pathways for youth leadership and development with the Country Office and among partners. Support mentorship, capacity building, and innovation hubs that empower young changemakers.  Champion effective management, coaching, leadership development to strengthen individual and team capacity in alignment with ChildFund’s goals and values.
• Performance and Team Development: Lead, guide and mentor staff to achieve strategic outcomes and meet performance targets. Build and maintain a strong, cohesive senior leadership team that drives collaboration, innovation, and upholds a culture of accountability and excellence across the Country Office.
• External Representation and Advocacy: Position ChildFund as a leading voice on children’s issues in Uganda through strategic advocacy and high-level engagement. Represent the organization with government authorities, donors, INGOs, media, and other stakeholders to enhance visibility, influence policy, and strengthen partnerships.  Advocate for youth leadership in national development and humanitarian agendas. Build strategic alliances that elevate youth voices and influence policy. Leverage external platforms/forums to advance ChildFund’s mission, shape national discourse, and drive systemic change for children and youth.
• Resource Mobilization & Fundraising: Lead strategic resource mobilization efforts focused on expanding and managing a robust funding base. Actively pursue new funding opportunities through strategic networking, pre-positioning, and relationship-building with key influencers, donors, and private sector actors. Drive the growth of local fundraising and business development initiatives to support program sustainability and scale ChildFund’s impact.
• Operational Stewardship: Ensure the effective allocation and strategic management of financial, human, and physical resources. Collaborate with Global Shared Services to deliver high-quality support in finance, HR, and IT functions strengthening operational efficiency and accountability.
• Governance and Compliance: Maintain robust internal controls to safeguard assets and ensure compliance with donor requirements, national regulations and organizational policies.  Uphold principles of locally led development by ensuring governance structures and compliance mechanisms empower local actors and reflect community priorities. Promote culture of integrity, transparency and accountability across all operations, while proactively identifying and mitigating risks to protect the organization’s effectiveness and reputation.
• Knowledge and Learning: Promote a learning culture by developing and leveraging knowledge products that enhance program effectiveness and inform strategic decision-making. Encourage cross-country and global learning exchanges to strengthen organizational capacity and amplify impact
• Emergency Response: Ensure the development, maintenance, and regular updating of a comprehensive disaster preparedness and emergency response plan. Lead efforts to strengthen organizational readiness and resilience, enabling timely, coordinated, and effective responses to emergencies that impact children and communities.
• Safety and Security: Implement and uphold organizational standards, policies, and procedures to protect personnel, programs, and assets. Lead a proactive culture of safety and security risk management within the Country Office, ensuring continuous monitoring of security trends and timely action. Allocate adequate resources to support safe program implementation and cost recovery. Uphold ChildFund’s duty of care by promoting measures that support both physical and mental well-being of staff. Work closely with the global security team to ensure alignment with organizational standards and a coordinated response to incidents.
• Safeguarding: Remain alert and responsive to any safeguarding risks; acquire and apply relevant knowledge and skills to uphold ChildFund’s safeguarding policy and procedures. Promote strong safeguarding practices across all operations ensuring appropriate behavior, timely reporting of violations, and a culture of accountability. Lead the implementation of corrective actions—including disciplinary, legal, or other measures—in response to any breaches. Collaborate with relevant teams to follow up on findings, and regularly review policies, procedures, and protocols to identify and address gaps or weaknesses. Uphold the organization’s duty of care by fostering a safe and respectful environment for all staff, partners, and program participants.

Required Competencies

• Fluency in English with excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Comprehensive knowledge of the child protection and child-focused programming landscape and cultural context in Uganda.
• Demonstrated high level of proficiency in ChildFund’s Core competency areas including Teamwork, Communication, Results orientation, Decision making, resilience, and digital literacy.
• Demonstrated high level of proficiency in ChildFund’s Leadership Competency areas including strategic leadership, people leadership, partnership, change management, and design thinking.
• Proven ability to cultivate and sustain high-level relationships with diverse donors, including government agencies, UN bodies (e.g., UNFPA, UNICEF, WFP), and other key stakeholders.
• Deep understanding of and sensitivity to cultural dynamics within the country context with the ability to leverage historical context for strategic planning and external engagement.
• Skilled in articulating ChildFund’s value-add and evidence of impact, while promoting a collaborative, credit-sharing approach to partnership development.
• Strong record of team-building and mentoring capabilities, with a focus on knowing and developing staff, upholding accountability, cultivating a high-performance culture, and fostering inclusive and respectful workplace practices.
• Business-oriented approach to leadership, with the ability to identify opportunities, drive innovation, and scale impact sustainably.
• Exceptional presentation and storytelling skills to effectively communicate program outcomes, organizational impact, and strategic vision to varied audiences.
• Demonstrates assertiveness, confidence, and responsiveness, with the ability to set boundaries, and uphold core values.
• Skilled in opening doors, connecting influencers, and mobilizing advocates to advance ChildFund’s mission and visibility.

Strategic Portfolio Growth: Lead the development and oversight of a   dynamic and impactful operational portfolio. Ensure a well-balanced mix of high-quality local partnerships, innovative programming, and diversified funding sources—including competitive grants, corporate partnerships, and local philanthropy. Ensure the portfolio prioritizes locally led development by strengthening the capacity and leadership of national and community-based organizations. Promote ownership and sustainability through equitable partnerships and inclusive decision-making. Drive strategic alignment and sustainability across all initiatives to maximize impact for children, youth and communities. Program Excellence and Innovation. Lead the design and delivery of evidence-based programs that align with ChildFund’s core models and standards. Integrate youth-led approaches into program design and delivery, ensuring meaningful participation of young people in shaping solutions that affect their lives. Promote continuous learning and adaptive programming across key areas including child safeguarding, monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL), disaster risk reduction (DRR), gender and social inclusion, and safety and security to ensure relevance, effectiveness and lasting impact. Grants and Project Management: Lead and oversee grants and project management processes with a particular focus on the strategic execution and management of larger, high-value grants. Ensuring timely and high-quality implementation of funded initiatives, maintaining rigorous compliance with donor requirements—including financial reporting, programmatic deliverables, and contractual obligations. Collaborate with internal teams and partners to strengthen pre- and post-award grant management, mitigate risks, and uphold accountability standards across all projects. Talent Leadership and Culture Building: Lead strategic talent acquisition, onboarding, and continuous development to build a high-performing and mission-driven team. Foster a high-performing, inclusive, and values-driven organizational culture that promotes excellence, collaboration, and accountability.  Create pathways for youth leadership and development with the Country Office and among partners. Support mentorship, capacity building, and innovation hubs that empower young changemakers.  Champion effective management, coaching, leadership development to strengthen individual and team capacity in alignment with ChildFund’s goals and values. Performance and Team Development: Lead, guide and mentor staff to achieve strategic outcomes and meet performance targets. Build and maintain a strong, cohesive senior leadership team that drives collaboration, innovation, and upholds a culture of accountability and excellence across the Country Office. External Representation and Advocacy: Position ChildFund as a leading voice on children’s issues in Uganda through strategic advocacy and high-level engagement. Represent the organization with government authorities, donors, INGOs, media, and other stakeholders to enhance visibility, influence policy, and strengthen partnerships.  Advocate for youth leadership in national development and humanitarian agendas. Build strategic alliances that elevate youth voices and influence policy. Leverage external platforms/forums to advance ChildFund’s mission, shape national discourse, and drive systemic change for children and youth. Resource Mobilization & Fundraising: Lead strategic resource mobilization efforts focused on expanding and managing a robust funding base. Actively pursue new funding opportunities through strategic networking, pre-positioning, and relationship-building with key influencers, donors, and private sector actors. Drive the growth of local fundraising and business development initiatives to support program sustainability and scale ChildFund’s impact. Operational Stewardship: Ensure the effective allocation and strategic management of financial, human, and physical resources. Collaborate with Global Shared Services to deliver high-quality support in finance, HR, and IT functions strengthening operational efficiency and accountability. Governance and Compliance: Maintain robust internal controls to safeguard assets and ensure compliance with donor requirements, national regulations and organizational policies.  Uphold principles of locally led development by ensuring governance structures and compliance mechanisms empower local actors and reflect community priorities. Promote culture of integrity, transparency and accountability across all operations, while proactively identifying and mitigating risks to protect the organization’s effectiveness and reputation. Knowledge and Learning: Promote a learning culture by developing and leveraging knowledge products that enhance program effectiveness and inform strategic decision-making. Encourage cross-country and global learning exchanges to strengthen organizational capacity and amplify impact Emergency Response: Ensure the development, maintenance, and regular updating of a comprehensive disaster preparedness and emergency response plan. Lead efforts to strengthen organizational readiness and resilience, enabling timely, coordinated, and effective responses to emergencies that impact children and communities. Safety and Security: Implement and uphold organizational standards, policies, and procedures to protect personnel, programs, and assets. Lead a proactive culture of safety and security risk management within the Country Office, ensuring continuous monitoring of security trends and timely action. Allocate adequate resources to support safe program implementation and cost recovery. Uphold ChildFund’s duty of care by promoting measures that support both physical and mental well-being of staff. Work closely with the global security team to ensure alignment with organizational standards and a coordinated response to incidents. Safeguarding: Remain alert and responsive to any safeguarding risks; acquire and apply relevant knowledge and skills to uphold ChildFund’s safeguarding policy and procedures. Promote strong safeguarding practices across all operations ensuring appropriate behavior, timely reporting of violations, and a culture of accountability. Lead the implementation of corrective actions—including disciplinary, legal, or other measures—in response to any breaches. Collaborate with relevant teams to follow up on findings, and regularly review policies, procedures, and protocols to identify and address gaps or weaknesses. Uphold the organization’s duty of care by fostering a safe and respectful environment for all staff, partners, and program participants.

 

University degree in a relevant field is required; a master’s degree in a relevant field is strongly preferred. At least 10 years of experience in management or senior management positions in the development sector. Demonstrated experience in the management of institutional grants and individual donors. Demonstrated success in securing funding from varied sources, with a strong emphasis on pre-positioning, strategic networking, and donor engagement. Expected level of effort in business development: 60% or higher. Experience in emergency programs and/or community development programs.

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