Role Purpose
This role will enable a high-performing, decentralised team to refresh its motivation and deliver innovative, context-appropriate solutions for crisis-affected populations. It will focus on coaching Concern’s and partners’ Resilience and Durable Solutions Teams—particularly their leadership—to adopt new mental models, challenge assumptions, and test locally led aid approaches that expand program outcomes. It also requires clearly communicating complex concepts (e.g., trade-offs, cost-benefit analysis, cognitive bias) to build shared understanding, alignment, and confidence. The role strengthens leadership capacity, promotes adaptive programming, and ensures learning and evidence guide decision-making and influence wider humanitarian practice.
Key Responsibilities
Empower Concern's and Partners' Resilience and Durable Solutions Teams
- Innovate and make good decisions: Propose realistic but innovative means for expanding the mandate and ability of front-line staff to make strategic decisions and innovations. Support design of structures and incentives to make hard decisions and practice hyper-adaptation, including short- and long-term budgetary flexibility.
- Contribute to transformational changes in resilience and extreme poverty: Design and implement high-impact, multi-sectoral programmes. Reach for innovative new levels of program impact. Challenge traditional notions of cost-effectiveness by demonstrating transformational impacts through locally-tailored, locally-led programming. Challenge traditional notions of the value of scale by supporting programs that spread decentralized approaches for unique interventions rather than scale specific interventions.
- Productively Communicate: Tell the story of innovative approaches, results, learning, and contributions in a clear, memorable way. Evolve ahead of a changing aid industry to influence how others imagine their work.
- Elevate leadership from within: Ensure Concern staff develop team-leadership, adaptive-management, and organizational-change capabilities to take on senior roles.
Strategic Leadership and Programme Direction
- Provide leadership to resilience and durable solutions programming, ensuring alignment with organisational priorities.
- Source, develop, and test better approaches to building and sustaining team culture and organizational change.
- Apply systems-thinking frameworks (such as Cynefin Framework) and human-centred design principles.
- Articulate and design hyper-adaptive program and operational structures.
- Move beyond traditional Value for Money (VfM) models to demonstrate impact in complex systems, area-based programs, and mitigatory actions.
Advocacy, Influencing, and Representation
- Represent Concern in Nairobi, internationally, and in technical working groups, clusters, and coordination platforms.
- Develop position papers, briefs, and messages to support strategic advocacy and influencing efforts.
- Plan strategic events and visits where Concern staff can demonstrate their approach to and learn from other stakeholders.
- Support visibility of programme impact to donors, partners, and external stakeholders.
Donor Engagement and Resource Mobilisation
- Identify and pursue new funding opportunities aligned with Concern’s strategic priorities.
- Build and maintain strategic relationships with key donors and partners.
- Lead or contribute to the development of high-quality funding proposals — sourcing technical content from the team and strategically structuring flexible budgets.
- Ensure effective donor reporting and compliance requirements are met.
Knowledge Management, Learning and Evidence
- Lead documentation of programme learning, including case studies and briefs.
- Promote the use of evidence and learning to inform programme design and strategic direction.
- Support research, evaluations, and learning initiatives that advance the team's longer-term vision for its work in Somalia.
- Facilitate internal knowledge sharing across programmes and teams.
Coordination and Integration
- Contribute actively to country programme leadership and strategic direction.
- Proactively support Programme Director efforts toward effective integration, collaboration, and synergies across sectors and programme components.
- Support effective coordination with partners, consortia, and external stakeholders.
- Promote approaches that strengthen local ownership and partner-led design and implementation.
Qualifications and Experience
- Minimum 5–7 years of relevant experience in aid or social impact.
- BA/BSc/HND in a relevant discipline.
- Proven experience in programme design, portfolio management, and managing multiple teams.
- Strong communication and facilitation skills across diverse audiences.
- Excellent emotional intelligence (EI/EQ), empathy, and respect for others.
- Experienced in team culture- and leadership-building conducive to innovation and quality.
- Demonstrated experience in coaching, mentoring, or leadership development roles.
- Experience supporting teams to improve performance and programme quality.
- Experience working on large donor-funded programmes (e.g., FCDO, EU, Irish Aid, World Bank, UN agencies) and donor compliance concepts.
- Strong experience working with and strengthening local partners, including remote management.
- Proven ability to work collaboratively with, and represent an organisation to, external stakeholders at senior levels.
- Demonstrable understanding of and commitment to safety and security protocols in Somalia.
- Nairobi-based with availability for up to 50% travel to project locations in Somalia (security permitting).
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should apply online via Concern Worldwide Job Portal.
