Rwanda Country Manager – Village Enterprise

Employer: Village Enterprise
Industry: Nonprofit/International Development/Social Entrepreneurship
Job Title: Rwanda / Country Manager
Location: Rulindo District, Rwanda
Contract: Full Time, 2 years with the opportunity to extend
Reports to: Vice President, Africa Operations
Direct Reports: Field Associate(s)
Matrix Reports: Finance and Administration Coordinator, M&E Coordinator

This position is only open to Rwandan Nationals.

Organization Overview:

Village Enterprise’s mission is to end extreme poverty through innovation and entrepreneurship. By the end of 2019, Village Enterprise (VE) will have impacted the lives of one million people living in extreme poverty in East Africa. Village Enterprise’s new strategy focuses on ‘scale and impact’, and the organization has ambitious goals in both areas. Village Enterprise intends to impact the lives of twenty million people living in extreme poverty by 2030.

About the Job:

Village Enterprise’s Country Manager is a passionate highly dynamic, technically capable and strong leader. The Village Enterprise team is comprised of 200+ staff across various teams consistently working to increase the impact and scale of the Village Enterprise Graduation model and the Country Manager’s role is to ensure the successful implementation and results from the model.  The Country Manager will be expected to provide direct oversight and management of the field operations and will work closely with other cross-functional teams to ensure high quality and timely delivery of Village Enterprise goals. The Country Manager will engage in coordination and relationship management with key stakeholders. Village Enterprise prides itself on supportive, positive management, and the Country Manager is core to this culture within Village Enterprise.

Job Description

Key Result Areas

1. Country operations Management
2. Team Management
3. Cross-functional Team Coordination
4. Human Resources and Administration
5. Financial Oversight and Control
6. Assist other Functional Teams
7. Safeguarding implementation

Lead and Manage Country Level Village Enterprise Team

• Establish strong working relationships with the field staff to maintain high levels of motivation and facilitate the completion of program tasks in a timely manner, within the allocated budget, in ways that maximizes the impact of Village Enterprise model.
• Focus should be on an organizational culture (and the necessary systems) that performs well across the completion of activities, scaling the program, delivering outcomes, and meeting goals.
• Provide ongoing management and mentorship to staff, including regular feedback, performance appraisals, staff development and other management issues.
• In coordination with the HR team, assist in the development of job descriptions, identification, recruitment, hiring and technical onboarding of country staff.
• Policy Development and Implementation: Accountable for ensuring the successful design and implementation of necessary policies across relevant areas of operation. This may include financial, human resource, operational and participant safeguarding policies.
• Assist in program development for Village Enterprise by identifying additional needs and contributing to the development of project proposals.
• Develop the capacity of staff to deepen understanding of their roles and assist with career development.
• Assist Field Staff with information, tools and resources to improve performance & reach objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where the whole team strives to achieve excellence.

Program Quality

• Strategize and implement processes and activities which increase the impact of the Village Enterprise model across the different components of our model.
• Use the Adaptive Management System to capture program successes and challenges that will inform internal learning and program improvements and innovations.
• Proactively identify and share real-time learning from the program implementation to inform potential changes in program design and support the influencing agenda
• Regularly conduct quality control visits to program implementation regions to identify areas for potential changes or course corrections; share out key findings with Village Enterprise internal team.

Team Management

Operations and Project Implementation Management

• Develop and implement annual operations plan for relevant country ensure tasks listed in field implementation plan are being met
• Updates Wrike Project Management tool upon completion of tasks
• Fulfill assigned roles on projects across the organization.
• Ensure and support the implementation of the Village Enterprise Project Management Guide for projects in country.
• Meet with VP Africa Operations and COO on a quarterly basis to review Country goals

Cross-functional Team Coordination

• Work closely with functional teams to ensure smooth implementation of field implementation plan
• Coordinates with M&E team to draw up field training schedules for each cycle incorporating M&E activities.
• Collaborates with F&A team to calculate stipends for field team
• Provide needed support in trainings, workshops, refreshers and implementation of different pilots.
• Coordinate with Director of Talent Management to ensure adequate staffing at various levels of implementation.

Financial Oversight and Control

• Responsible to design and develop annual budgets.
• Accountable for the adherence to budget over the course of the fiscal year.
• Accountable for the implementation of systems and processes for financial accountability.
• Participate in budget reviews on a quarterly basis
• Review weekly planned expenses
• Approve office expenditures
• Work closely with F&A in weekly withdrawal of funds from Bank.
• Provide reporting to the F&A team on disbursements and any grants that go unfunded
• Support F&A on country and international audits.

Other

• May be called to support the development of new projects by participating in project design workshops, and providing key inputs such as writing technical sections and supporting budget development.
• Represent Village Enterprise at conferences, events and at the government level when needed
• Assist with roll-out of new activities, processes and procedures from functional teams
• Ensure compliance with the country governments on registration, tax and reporting to the different stakeholders.

Safeguarding

• Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility at VE, and it begins with me
• Communicate and uphold VE safeguarding standards at country level for all field employees, partners and program participants.
• Ensure compliance with VE’s safeguarding policies
• Report any incident of safeguarding in program operations for appropriate action/follow up.
• Support in investigations and input as required during safeguarding disciplinary processes

The Country Manager will:

• Have the necessary experience to succeed in their role. This includes:
  • An in-depth understanding of our business owners and the challenges/opportunities they face.
  • The educational background that has created a base of understanding to be applied in the role. This will be a combination of university level degrees and a background in strategic management.
  • Professional experience which demonstrates excellent performance and the ability to excel in the Country Manager Role
• Will bring skills to provide strategic direction and manage successful implementation of country-wide activities.
  • Ability to set strategic direction within the context of Graduation programming
  • Ability to manage and oversee successful implementation of operations. This includes designing operational plans and managing their execution.
  • Experience and ability to identify and implement activities with staff, participants, and external stakeholders using systems thinking in order to complete activities, achieve scale, and deepen impact.
  • Proven experience managing in a cross-functional team environment
• Enhance the Culture of Collaboration that Village Enterprise is based on.

Key Performance Metrics include:

• Timely, innovative and high-quality implementation of Village Enterprise Model to achieve outcomes
• Team members become increasingly effective and efficient implementers as a result of mentoring and coaching, driving impact and scale.
• Leadership and commitment to a culture of accountability and learning within the Country team
• Completion of Country Operations Plan
• Successful delivery of projects across country.
• Village Enterprise becomes and increasingly significant player in the global graduation space as a result of innovative and effective implementation on the ground.

Qualifications

We are looking for someone who can execute, work both independently and as a member of a team, and think big all at the same time.  Ideally we are looking for:

• Education
• A Bachelor’s degree with concentration in Community Development, International Development, Public Policy, Statistics, Business or other applied social research.

• 3+ years of work experience
  • Experience in a management/leadership role is required
  • Experience living / working / traveling in a developing country or emerging economy
  • Experience in project design, business planning, product innovation or other entrepreneurial activities
  • Experience in budget design and oversight.
  • Experience in managing a team of an innovative organization
  • Experience in adopting new technologies
• Critical Thinking & Analysis Skills
  • Must be a very strong critical thinker able to identify potential solutions to challenges in new environments
  • Must be able to use Excel to analyze data, budgets and financial reports
• Work independently and as part of a team

• Experience working effectively in a highly independent capacity – self-managing, taking ownership of goals, developing work plans and self-deadlines
• Experience working as part of a diverse team and willingness to work via email, skype and other Internet-based communications
• Strong writing and oral communication English skills required, as this role will involve report writing and training at times

• High-quality execution
  • Dedication to producing and executing high-quality projects, tasks and recommendations quickly, with a high level of accuracy and systematic attention to detail
  • Passion for innovative approaches to poverty reduction around the world, including but not limited to social entrepreneurship and business development in Africa
• Willingness to commit to living in rural areas of East Africa
  • This involves committing to relocating to Rulindo District
• Language: Fluency in English and Kinyarwanda is required;
• Other skills/experience desired, but not required
  • Experience in curriculum development: this role will require curriculum development for VE’s Training Program
  • Strong IT and database skills

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