Head of Support Services Full-Time

Company Description

WeWorld is an independent Italian organization that has been working in international cooperation and humanitarian aid for 50 years. It supports people in overcoming emergencies, and it strives to guarantee that everyone can have a decent and dignified life as well as opportunities and a better future. WeWorld works in 27 countries around the world, including in Italy, with more than 120 emergency, humanitarian aid and development projects. Its activities mainly involve women, girls and young people, actors of change in every community for a fairer and more inclusive world. The organization operates in several natural and man-made crisis in various regions of the world. The emergency response, coordinated by the Humanitarian Aid Unit, is composed by multi-sectorial interventions comprising of WASH, EiE, CVA, Food Security, Protection, and others. The organization operates also in protracted crisis with provision of humanitarian aid through a prevention, emergency relief and rehabilitation approach.

Reporting Relationship: Country Representative

Location: Maputo with frequent missions on the field

Starting date: ASAP

Family Duty Station: YES

Working Context

WeWorld has been working in Mozambique since 2000 with development and emergency projects in the fields of education, food security, climate change resilience and DRR in the provinces of Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Zambezia, Manica, Cabo Delgado and Tete. WeWorld carries out emergency projects in the provinces of Manica and Cabo Delgado. It has been intervening in response to Idai and Kenneth cyclones (2019) to assist affected populations, in 2020 it also started intervention in response to COVID-19 and to strengthen the social cohesion and the peacebuilding in Cabo Delgado province. At present, our main donors in the country are Italy (AICS), the EU, the UN (UNICEF, WFP, UNDP) and the Swiss Cooperation.

Job description

The Head of Support Service will be responsible for the management of all support services departments (Logistics and Procurement, Finance and HR) in Mozambique for the administrative management of the projects funded by different donors implemented in Mozambique. Their responsibilities include financial reports, accounting, verification of supporting documents, procurement, logistics, human resources, planning and budgeting. It is required to work in close cooperation with the Project Managers and the Country Representative.

He/she will have the following tasks:

General

• Line manages and provides support and guidance to all support services’ staff in the country: HR, Logistics & Procurement and Finance.
• Supports the managers to coordinate the activities of the teams to ensure workload is carried up and prioritized appropriately.
• Supervises and verifies that deliverables and timelines related to grants, contracts, vendors, partners and internal procedures are regularly respected.
• Collaborates with the Regional Managers for setting goals and objectives for the support services’ departments, identifies strategic activities and designs support departments’ development plans.
• Supervises and coordinates the archiving of HR, Finance and Procurement &Logistics documents according to WeWorld guidelines.
• Ensures a high level of collaboration with all relevant stakeholders (technical working group, partners forum, authorities, communities, vendors, donors).

Process

• Ensures that key policies and Standard Operating Procedures guiding the support departments are developed and/or regularly updated as required and appropriately adapted to the context.
• Designs support services routines, procedures, and systems to increase efficiencies and grants a smooth collaboration and communication between Finance, Logistics & Procurement and HR departments
• On a regular basis, audits the support services processes, to highlight flaws and pressures, implements or strengthens systems of oversight and prevention of corruption and mitigate relevant risks
• Ensures that recommendations for improvements related to support services are implemented in a timely manner.

HR Management

• Ensures that all the support services’ staff is regularly trained according to specific training plans and needs.
• Monitors and ensures that Finance, Logistics & Procurement and HR teams are adequate to country needs in terms of number and composition of the staff.
• Ensures that a pro-active link between support services and program departments is established and well-functioning.
• Participates in analysing staffing needs & costs, compensation & benefits, and performance review practices.
• Supervises compliance with all WeWorld-GVC employment regulations relating to payroll, health insurance, work insurance, employee benefits.

Finance

• Ensures that accounting is recorded and monitored regularly.
• Ensures that the monitoring of projects’ expenditure level is performed regularly in compliance with donors’ guidelines.
• Ensures that financial reports are regularly and correctly prepared, according to donor’s and internal rules.

Procurement and Logistics

• Supervises the management of Procurement Procedures in accordance to WeWorld Global Procurement Manual and Donor Guidelines from planning to completion.
• Supervises operations of logistics in accordance with WeWorld Global Procurement Manual and Donor Guidelines, in particular assets management, fleet management, warehouse and stock management and Base management.
• Ensures that procurement and log reports in required format are timely and properly completed according to WeWorld Manual.

Budget management

• Supervises the preparation and monitoring of country budgets (staff core budget and logistics budget).
• Ensures an efficient use of the available resources for support services by guaranteeing that the cost allocation tables are in place and correctly updated and monitored.
• Acts as the support services’ focal point for budgeting in the preparation phase of programs/projects’ budgets and their revisions.
• Ensures the financial coverage to implement activities, pay salaries, suppliers’ invoices, running costs (etc), by guaranteeing a correct and constant update and monitoring of the country financial plan.

Safety and Security

• In coordination with the Country Representative, ensures implementation of safety and security measures in line with mission level SOPs and global Safety & Security guidelines of WeWorld.

Audit

• Supervises the preparation of expenditure verifications and audits, ensures a proper involvement of finance, Logistic & Procurement, and HR departments during the audit performance and grants a proper collaboration between different support services and program departments.
• Supervises the activities related to internal and external/donor assessments.

Any other task requested by the Country Representative, for an efficient and quality implementation of WeWorld strategy and projects in Mozambique, according to the needs of the mission.

Requirements

Qualifications and Knowledge

• Degree in Economics, Political Science or related fields.
• Good knowledge of main donors’ administrative rules and procurement procedures (ECHO, UE, UN, AICS).
• Knowledge of written and spoken Portuguese/Spanish.
• Full professional competency in Microsoft Office Suite, especially Word, Excel and Outlook.

Professional experience

• At least 2 year of previous professional experience in similar roles.

Skills and Abilities

• Planning, reporting, monitoring and evaluation skills.
• Organization and teamwork skills.
• Ability to support and train staff to enhance skills.
• Proactive and dynamic attitude.
• Ability to adapt and work under constraint, under pressure and in complex and multicultural contexts.
• Good listening and communication skills.
• Positive attitude to work, self-reflective, motivated, inspired, collegial.
• Strong commitment to the Mission of WeWorld.
• Demonstrates integrity with regards to NGO values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Desirable Requirements

• Previous professional experience in Mozambique.
• Excellent knowledge of written and spoken Italian.

Other Information

What we offer

Type of contract: a first 6 (six) month collaboration contract subject to verification of the achievement of specific objectives (these objectives will be agreed together with the Country Representative upon arrival on assignment); a second collaboration contract of 6 (six) months renewable, following the positive evaluation of the first six months of contract.

Economic conditions to be defined according to WeWorld Expatriates Compensation Policy: Base Salary (seniority/role held) + Contributions (role complex and hardship based on place of work; housing, schooling, flights for children and insurance coverage for children).

Other conditions: Tax Treatment: equal tax treatment between Italian and foreign residents is guaranteed

Annual leave: 2,5 days/month (working days)

Flight ticket: one return flight every 12 months of contract

Health insurance: covered

R&R: NO

How to Apply

Please send Cover Letter and CV.

The recruitment process may be closed early if a suitable candidate is found. Due to the large number of applications, we apologise in advance and will only respond to those profiles deemed suitable for the role.