Deputy Director, Global Operations Full-Time

A strategic and action-oriented steward for our global operations

About the position

Namati’s team of more than 150 big-hearted advocates is spread across six country offices and remote locations around the world, representing different languages, customs, legal systems, and operating environments. As we can continue to deepen our impact, we’re seeking a Deputy Director, Global Operations to join the team of our colleagues around the world dedicated to operational excellence, and ensure we have the systems and structures in place to meet our current moment, and build for the future.

The Deputy Director must be creative and think expansively, collaborating with Namati’s country teams to design Namati-specific solutions to infuse our processes and operations with our values, ensuring we are thoughtful in what we put in place, that we are integrated globally, and that we are continually building a stronger, more values-oriented, more mission driven organization. We’re looking for someone with a deep understanding of on-the-ground operations — someone who will take the time to understand our work and partner with our teams to build tactical systems — from financial operations, registrations, office management, office concerns, opening new offices, safety and security, to general policies and procedures, organizational systems, and team-wide communication — that are optimized for each of our varied operational contexts. In particular, the right person will start from the perspective of solving first for the realities of our colleagues on the frontlines: our grassroots legal advocates and partners.

The Deputy Director must bring strong and cross-cultural relationship-building skills, as well as a practical bias for action and problem solving. Part of this role is proactively identifying where needs are highest or capacity is lowest and finding solutions to bridge those gaps in execution.

Ultimately, we’re looking for someone who feels a deep resonance with our mission to bring justice everywhere and who will be relentless in building and supporting the organization to bring this mission to life.

Here’s some things you might have tackled last month in the role-

• Held a monthly call with each of Namati’s country programs and the COO and CFO to discuss finance/operations needs — including planning the agenda in advance and coordinating follow-ups;
• Researched best practices to help Namati reduce our environmental impact as part of a broader global greening initiative;
• Mapped out transportation reimbursement policies in each Namati country and key measures we would need to take to ensure they are consistent and equitable in each setting;
• Worked with the Kenya head of office and Namati’s People Operations Team to map operations staffing needs given the anticipated growth of that office;
• Held calls with key field team members in India and Sierra Leone to check-in on the implementation of short-and intermediate term measures to better protect frontline advocates from harm;
• Helped the team finalizing the International NGO registration process for our Kenya entity stay on track.

About you/must-haves for the position

• Track record of excellence in global operations. You likely have 5-7 or more years of experience in mid to senior level roles – somewhere at the nexus of operations, systems, project management, and people/HR – in global organizations. You are skilled at and comfortable with working alongside people from a variety of backgrounds and cultures;
• Efficient and organized. You’re highly organized and manage complex processes confidently and efficiently. You know how to work with input from a variety of stakeholders, while maintaining control, scope, and timeliness;
• Emotionally intelligent. You bring both good judgement and strong relationship-building skills to bear in analyzing complex situations, through a lens for the cultural and operational differences between different countries and programs;
• Ambitious and relentless. It’s in your nature to work tirelessly on a problem until you’ve seen through the solution that will best advance the ultimate aim of the project. You are a quick study who excels at learning to do things you’ve never done before;
• Aptitude for strategic thinking. You can see the forest for the trees, and never lose sight of the big picture even when you’re in the weeds executing tasks. You’ve worked through annual goal-setting processes and have experienced the power of ambitious, well-conceived and measurable goals;
• Collaborative and service-oriented. You greet everyone you encounter with a collaborative spirit, kindness, and empathy. This role in particular requires active relationship-building; it’s essential that Global Ops works in close collaboration with representatives from all across Namati, empowers them, and remains responsive to their unique needs and cultures;
• Learning and growth-oriented. You’re always seeking to better yourself and your work, and you will push yourself to the peak of performance to help fulfill our mission. In service of that growth, you welcome and delight in feedback from supervisors, peers, and anyone else.

About Namati

Namati is dedicated to placing the power of law in the hands of people.

For billions of people around the world, the law is broken. It’s an abstraction—or worse, a threat—but not something they can use to exercise their basic rights.

Namati is building a global movement of community paralegals who empower people to understand, use, and shape the law. These “barefoot lawyers” form a dynamic, creative frontline that can squeeze justice out of even broken systems.

In the past four years, Namati and our partners have worked with over 65,000 clients to take on some of the greatest challenges of our times: protecting community lands, enforcing environmental law, and securing basic rights to healthcare and citizenship.

We track data on every case and use that information to advocate for systemic changes, like better policies for land governance in Liberia, environmental regulation in India, and healthcare delivery in Mozambique.

And we’re joining forces for change. Namati convenes the Global Legal Empowerment Network—over 1,800 groups and 6,500 individuals from 168 countries learning from one another and bringing justice to communities in every part of the world.

For more about what it’s like to work at Namati, please see our Cultural Principles.

Location

We require this position to be based out of one of Namati’s global offices in Washington DC, USA; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Maputo, Mozambique; Nairobi, Kenya; Yangon, Myanmar; or New Delhi, India.

Please note you must already be legally eligible to work in one of these countries to be considered for the position.

Compensation

Namati offers competitive compensation in all locales where we operate. Final salary will vary based on the depth of experience that the selected candidate brings.

We also offer excellent benefits: while the exact terms vary somewhat based on country office, they always include health coverage, generous paid time off, retirement or old-age plan contributions, sick leave, and parental leave— or compensation for the same. All staff also have access to funds for professional development opportunities.