Deputy Director/Head of Programs

With 75 years of experience, our focus is on helping the most vulnerable children overcome poverty and experience fullness of life. We help children of all backgrounds, even in the most dangerous places, inspired by our Christian faith.
Come join our 33,000+ staff working in nearly 100 countries and share the joy of transforming vulnerable children’s life stories!

Employee Contract Type:

Job Description:

The Deputy Director - Director of Programs (DD/DP) oversees World Vision Lebanon’s Programs Implementation (Operations including Sponsorship Programs), Program Quality, and Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) departments. The role involves enhancing programmatic coherence, ensuring technical excellence, fostering strategic programmatic growth, and upholding accountability to communities, partners, and donors. The DD/DP supports the National Director by providing strategic and operational leadership to WV Lebanon programmatic activities. The incumbent will champion integration across units to maximize impact for the most vulnerable children and communities in Lebanon, ensuring alignment with organizational objectives, standards, and policies. The DD/DP will ensure that WV Lebanon is accountable to all partners and that all work is of the highest standard, cost-effective, and adheres to the standards and policies of World Vision International and its donors.

Ensure Strategic Planning and Coordination

• As a member of the Senior Leadership Team, contribute to the overall success of WV Lebanon strategy and business planning.
• Lead in identifying strategically aligned programming opportunities through leveraging evidence and collaborating with staff to assess funding and partner opportunities to support program evolution and growth.
• Review, revise, and lead program operation resource development and acquisition strategies and plans.
• Forge strong relationships with peers in the WV partnership, advocating the position of WV Lebanon.
• Lead by example to ensure a culture of collaboration, trust, transparency, and coordination across multiple-units to ensure the highest quality program implementation and field impact.
• Ensure integration and leveraging of WVL’s extensive program learnings, program and research evidence and field perspectives into WV Lebanon’s strategic planning as well as positioning with donors and government officials to support funding cultivation and humanitarian response influence.
• Align WV Lebanon’s programmatic objectives to the MEER regional value proposition, specifically on: trusted delivery, effectiveness under pressure, deeper understanding of local communities and partners, and being results-driven.

Ensure Quality Management and Field Operations to Support Program Growth

• Lead program operations, including field response for both WVL sponsorship and grant initiatives.
• Lead a coordinated, integrated program-planning process to align WVL program operations strategy based on Lebanon’s operating context and beneficiary needs, ensuring operational feasibility and technical quality of program implementation.
• Responsible for program delivery on time, on budget, and within the expectations of national program leadership and donor compliance, including ensuring systems and processes are in place and active (e.g. BVA, staff meetings, lessons-learned exercises) to foster a culture of accountability, responsibility, collaboration, and shared purpose across the organization to support effective program impact.
• Collaborate with Senior Leadership Team members in Finance, Grants Acquisition and Management, Security and People & Culture colleagues to ensure program compliance and cross-functional communication to strengthen overall coordination.
• Lead by example through reinforcing humanitarian. and developmental principles and underscoring WV internal standards (including Our Promise).
• Ensure clear understanding and full accountability of all program operation staff vis-à-vis support office and donor compliance, including meeting all donor requirements.
• Collaborate closely with the Director of Finance to ensure that all audit reports and audit findings (are addressed in a timely matter, mentoring staff and leading efforts to design and implement action plans to address and correct any audit findings.
• Partner with the Director of Risk to continually monitor operational context, provide thoughtful analysis of program impact to inform daily operational decisions, and ensure the safety of staff, partners, and beneficiaries based on recommendations from Risk and in consultation with the National Director.

Leadership and Management

• Provide integrated program leadership to ensure a collaborative and coordinated approach across the program operations team that strengthens relationships with support units and cultivates a culture of high-performance, transparency, collegial support and respect, and accountability
• Identify, recruit, and retain high-performing staff in program operations. Lead by example to ensure compliance with World Vision's performance management standards and principles for direct reports and their teams, including team index compliance.
• Identify and recommend to the ND rapid solutions to resolve staff conflict and address duplication and other inefficiencies in program implementation and field operation.

Collaboration, Networking, and External Engagement

• Work closely with the National Director to nurture and cultivate relationships with major (government/private) donors and World Vision support offices, including recommendations on external engagement and strengthening overall systems and processes to support the ND in advancing WVL leadership and representation
• Lead design of an external engagement plan that ensures the country leadership is active, present, and visible with donors and support offices, embassies, and government ministries and officials.
• Support and guide staff in representing WVL at appropriate level coordination meetings and, when appropriate under the direction of the ND, with other INGOs, local organizations, and government officials.
• Support the growth of WV Lebanon’s program by cultivating good working relationships with significant relief/development donors.

Perform other duties as required

• In collaboration with the National Director and greater Senior Leadership Team, ensure that World Vision's security policies and protocols are implemented and monitored regularly vis-à-vis program operations.
• Ensure stewardship of the financial resources and people, in close collaboration with the Finance Director and P&C manager.
• Perform other duties as assigned by the National Director.

Minimum Requirements:

• Master's degree in humanitarian aid, international development, economics, rural development, social sciences or related field or relevant experience, in lieu of advanced degree.
• 10+ of years proven experience with International NGOs in emergency relief and development programming, especially in fragile contexts.
• Demonstrated program leadership (head of programmers, deputy country director, etc.) in a minimum of three country missions.
• Clear understanding of the Lebanese context and established relationships with key partners.
• Demonstrated experience collaborating effectively with local authorities, including ministries, municipalities, and other local stakeholders.
• Proven track record in a field related to humanitarian, development, advocacy, and campaigns leadership.
• Proven track record of delivering designated tasks on time and on budget.
• Proven track record of multicultural cultural teams in complex, cultural politically sensitive contexts.
• Proven track record of growing and managing multi-million-dollar budgets.
• Extensive experience in programme management and implementation of multi-sectoral emergency and development projects.
• Clear understanding and experience of the working donor major donor (traditional, non-traditional, contractors, and private sector entities), their perspectives, requirements, and standards.
• Proven track record working with commercial contracts and with development and humanitarian contractors.
• Excellent decision-making skills and ability to take calculated mitigated risks.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and relational skills, especially in a cross-cultural environment, and ability to analyze and solve problems, persuade, network, and negotiate.
• Excellent proven track record of donor relations with multiple donors.
• Strong planning and organizational skills and ability to prioritize.
• Outstanding team leadership personality and skills.
• Excellent analytical, organizational, and time-management skills.
• Must be able to represent World Vision to major program donors in a highly professional manner and writing

As a Christian organisation, World Vision is founded on the biblical principles that women and men, girls and boys are created in the image of God, and of Jesus’ love for all people without discrimination. This means that we recognise and affirm the equal worth, dignity and rights of women, men, girls and boys with and without disability and all applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, colour, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or disability status.

Applicant Types Accepted: