Director for Global Strategic Partnerships & Engagement

Are you a senior leader with experience in building global partnerships in the humanitarian and development sector and a strong strategic thinker who excels at forging lasting relationships to achieve shared goals? Do you enjoy creating results for others? Do you master making the complex simpler? Are you passionate about mobilizing for the displacement cause? Then the role of Director for Strategic Partnerships and Engagement at DRC may be your next challenge.

Who are we?

Danish Refugee Council is Denmark’s largest, and a world leading international NGO - one of the few with a specific expertise in forced displacement.

As of October 1, 2022, a new Division, will be established in DRC Headquarters, responsible for DRC’s global strategic partnerships and engagement with institutional donors, global foundations, and private contributors at global level. DRC’s two Representations in Geneva and Brussels will be a part of the division. Altogether the Partnerships, Engagement and Fundraising Division employs approximately 65 dedicated specialists who are working to increase DRC’s capacity and ambition to expand, deepen and strengthen partnerships and fundraising activities, in close collaboration with DRC colleagues from all around the world. DRC is therefore looking for a talented profile to lead the new division as Director for Global Strategic Partnerships & Engagement.

The Division will be part of DRC’s department for Programme, Policy & External Relations (PPE) and the Director will be a member of the PPE management group. PPE is responsible for DRC’s global programme policies and quality assurance and drives global advocacy, press & external communication efforts. Furthermore, the department is responsible for high-level global strategic engagement with partners.

About the job

DRC’s strategy 2025 sets clear ambitions for partnerships and fundraising to ensure that DRC remains able to mobilise successfully around the displacement cause. With more than 100 million people in the world being forcibly displaced, and a steadily increasing funding gap, the topic is of ever-increasing importance. In this strategic period, DRC works towards deepening relationships with institutional donors, establishing global strategic partnership agreements with relevant actors in the private sector – both global foundations, private companies as well as individuals - and engage in alliances with partners from both the development and humanitarian sector. The Director for Global Strategic Partnerships & Engagement will play a crucial role in addressing these strategic ambitions.

The position offers an exciting opportunity to join DRC’s senior leadership and develop and lead DRC’s endeavors towards further globalising and strengthening DRC’s partnership and engagement work. The position reports to the Executive Director for PPE. The Director will be responsible for setting the strategic direction for the Division, and leading senior managers responsible for the different functional units in the division. The Director will collaborate closely with and support the executive leadership of the organisation.

Covering a complex and broad competency area with many opportunities, the prime role of the Director will be to handle the balancing act of implementing and prioritizing long term initiatives in support of DRC’s strategy 2025, whilst also ensuring that there is capacity and agility to support local opportunities of strategic relevance that need global leverage and support. As the Division collaborates with many parts of the organisation, we are looking for a Director with a strategic, facilitating, and collaborative approach.

The Director line manages the DRC Representatives of Geneva, Brussels, and possible future Representative offices, the Head of Unit for Private Engagement, Head of Unit for Institutional Donors and the Global Foundations Team. More specifically the holder of the position will:

• Lead the Division’s accountability areas of nurturing, strengthening, and expanding DRC’s global partnerships, engagement, and fundraising activities
• Oversee the implementation of the strategies and workplans of the Representations in Geneva and Brussels in close collaboration with the Executive Director for PPE
• Support the development of an ambitious institutional donor engagement strategy and subsequently oversee the implementation thereof
• Support the development and implementation of a high-impact and global expansion strategy to enhance income from private contributors, foundations, and private sector partnerships within the strategic impact areas
• Develop shared value partnerships working with the private sector and foundations to identify business opportunities in addressing social challenges
• Develop a strategy for increased engagement with global foundations and engage in direct implementation
• Keep the wider organisation abreast of major global funding trends and changes, and related internal capacity challenges and requirements to succeed
• In close cooperation with the Secretary General and other senior leaders in DRC, represent DRC in relevant international fora and towards relevant external stakeholders with a view to influence policy, decision makers and donors relevant to our work

About you

To be successful in this role we expect you to have a proven track record within several of the above-mentioned areas of responsibility. It is very important for us that you have a strong understanding of programme responses within the areas of humanitarian and displacement work. Ideally you have a strong understanding of “the how” and you are a master of communicating “the why”. It is equally important that you have a strong strategic mindset, political clout and a proven record of diplomatic skills.

All employees should master DRC's core competencies: Communicating, Taking the lead, Collaborating, Striving for excellence and Demonstrating integrity.

Moreover, we also expect the following:

Required

• Significant senior level experience in working with global private partnerships from the humanitarian or development sector e.g., from an international NGO, UN or from a global foundation
• Significant experience with and understanding of the institutional donor landscape for humanitarian and displacement funding
• Entrepreneurial mind-set with the ability to build, develop and strengthen global private partnerships
• Experienced in leading leaders and change management
• Strong communication skills and the ability to co-create communication products
• That you thrive in complex and ambiguous environments and enjoy making the complex simple. You are proactive and always ahead of the curve in terms of strategic initiatives we need to embark on in order to fulfil DRCs ambitions
• Flexible and team-oriented colleague, willing to share responsibility and go the extra mile for your colleagues

• 10 years management experience, of which 3-5 should be in a senior leadership position
• Fluent in English, ability to speak and write Danish and/or French is an asset
• Strong networking skills
• University degree within relevant field of study

We offer

We offer an exciting role where you will have the possibility to define the role and how the tasks are performed. You will have a great deal of freedom to strategize and operate based on your expertise as long as the desired results are achieved and in accordance with the respective areas of responsibility.

Contract length: Permanent

Workplace: Borgergade, Copenhagen

Start date: As soon as possible

Salary and conditions will be in accordance with the agreement between DRC and Lederaftalen between Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening and Lederne (agreement for managers), which can be found here: www.lederne.dk. This is a national position for which local terms and conditions apply.

Application process

All applicants must send a cover letter and an updated CV in English. Apply online on our page Current Vacancies at www.drc.ngo.

Closing date for applications: 31 August 2022. We expect to start conducting interviews during week 34 in Copenhagen.

Further information

An elaborate Terms of Reference for the position has been developed during the process of establishing the new division. Interested applicants can request this document by sending an email to management coordinator Erik Olson at [email protected]. For further questions regarding the vacancy, Rikke Friis, Executive Director for PPE can be contacted by email [email protected], but please be aware that mails will not be replied before first week of August.

For further information about the Danish Refugee Council, please consult our website drc.ngo.