Opportunity Description
This work will focus on supporting locally rooted efforts around the world to advance goals related to gender, race, and power and connecting these local efforts as appropriate. Areas of exploration will include identifying, supporting, and connecting these efforts and leveraging them to advance democratic principles.
Role Purpose
Directors are highly accomplished, well-networked in their field, and bring deep experience in their geographic and/or thematic area of specialty. Director of Programs oversee individual opportunities for their duration and are accountable for delivering on its outcomes as well as for the management of their teams at the highest level of professionalism.
The expectation is that the Directors will be strong managers, as well as subject matter experts for this specific opportunity, able to build teams and work closely with the Program VPs, Managing/Senior Directors and their fellow Director colleagues in building a collaborative culture of both risk-taking and teamwork.
A Director may be designated by the Program VPs to serve as a Geographic Lead to coordinate OSF’s high-level approach to the geography and ensure a consistent and informed presence in a given area.
In select cases, a Director might oversee more than one opportunity.
Key Responsibilities
As Director of Programs, you will:
- Accountable for articulating a creative and exciting opening to make impact in the world into a workable project plan for implementation according to established criteria
- Extensive experience working on the intersection of Gender, Race, and power issues in multiple country contexts
- Demonstrate experience of working with women political leaders and parties, including elected leaders particularly in the global south
- Demonstrate substantive knowledge and experience in the provision of coordinated support and management of rights-based programs aiming to advance intersectional equality
- Extensive experience working on the intersection of Gender, Race, and power issues in multiple country contexts
- Experience of working with women political leaders and parties, including elected leaders, particularly in the global south
- Substantive knowledge and experience in the provision of coordinated support and management of rights-based programs aiming to advance intersectional equity
- Substantive experience and knowledge of working on racial justice issues
- Evaluate an opportunity based on established metrics for MEL and ability to pivot to ensure the required outcomes are being achieved
- Ensure appropriate financial, risk, and legal management and control are articulated during the planning and implementation phase, and work with all relevant stakeholders to develop mitigation plans
- Oversee and manage the opportunity team, including external partners
- Engage with embedded staff from other OSF teams in close cooperation with senior leaders
- Articulate budgetary and workforce needs for opportunity leveraging internal and external resources, as required
- Monitor and regularly report on the progress of an opportunity to the Managing Director of Programs and other senior OSF leaders
- Leverage OSF’s work globally and employing the strategic capabilities of impact investment, strategic litigation, and advocacy to the opportunity
- Represent the given opportunity issue externally at all levels, and grow a network accordingly that includes actors beyond the social sector into national and local governments, multilateral organizations, faith-based groups, grass-roots organizations, philanthropy, local experts, academia and think tanks, etc. to advance the opportunity. Depending on the opportunity this might include developing strong relationships with other funders and bringing them as partners into the opportunity
- May be designated as a Geographic Lead representing OSF’s work in a critical geography (country or region) and leading a Geographic Policy Group, that defines OSF’s strategic approach to the priority geography and ensures a consistent and informed presence
People Responsibilities (Total Team/DRs )
Yes
Key metrics
N/A
Key internal relationships
Program Teams; Managing Director Programs; Managing Director Core Partner (+ teams); Grants Management; Advocacy; SEDF; Comms; Strategic Litigation; Operations; OGC & Risk
Key external relationships
External partners, public and private sector leaders
Qualifications
Essential:
- Educated to a degree-level (or equivalent)
Desirable:
- Post-graduate education relevant to the types of Opportunities that Open Society Foundations will invest
Experience
Essential:
- Prior experience at both local and global level in leading social change and system-change work in civil society, government, multilateral institutions, and/or the private sector that has resulted in positive societal impact
- Direct experience and knowledge of working in gender, race and power issues in the Africa, MENA, Latin America, Caribbean, Asia Pacific and Eurasia regions would be an advantage
- Knowledge and understanding of global racial and reparative justice, global south Feminist, human rights and justice spaces
- Experience and/ or familiarity with impact investment, economic empowerment and entrepreneurship programs to empower marginalized and/ or excluded gender, racial, indigenous or ethno-religious groups
- Extensive expertise in the specific topic area as set out in the “Opportunity Description” above
- Prior financial ($20m+), legal and risk accountability at large-scale programmatic level
- Network across the social sector in national and local governments, multilateral organizations, faith-based groups, grass-roots organizations, philanthropy, local experts, academia, and think tanks
- Proven people management experience (of individual contributors and external partners)
- Prior experience leading programmatic or organizational level change within organizations and/or systems that have gone through significant transformation
- Experience in multiple sectors and knowledge of philanthropic tools such as advocacy and communication, strategic litigation, and social impact approaches
Competencies
Functional Competencies:
- Ability to design and plan complex programs/opportunities involving cross collaboration and articulating the time, budget, stakeholder and success measures
- Skilled in building strategic external partnerships that promote OSF’s interests and align to its strategic objectives
- Able to nurture relationships with external partners whilst exercising considerable discretion
- Skilled in drafting and managing a proposal development process
- Knowledge of grant making best practices and the field of philanthropy
- Ability to build synergies, strengthen movements, and identify and fill capacity gaps across fields
- Demonstrate care and concern about partner organizations and the people who work in them
Personal Competencies:
- Leadership capability and discipline; able to manage programs of work effectively, deliver on purpose and lead change
- Able to build consensus with diverse audiences/stakeholders
- Possess cultural sensitivity to work respectfully and effectively in different settings
- Able to build consensus with diverse audiences/stakeholders
- People leadership; able to attract, grow and engage talent within direct teams
- Demonstrates commitment to OSF’s core values of humility, commitment, collaboration, respect, inclusivity and integrity.
- Commitment to continuous learning and growth in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, antiracism and social justice
- A network weaver who routinely thinks about the web of connections and recognizes that our organization is uniquely positioned to convene and engage partners by collaboration
Languages:
- An excellent knowledge of English
- Knowledge of other languages (appropriate to the location and/or opportunity focus) are preferred
Subject to local laws, regular employment contracts may be converted to fixed-term contracts to align with the intended duration of the employment for the purposes of working on that opportunity; or alternatively the current permanent contract will be kept in place, with a side letter confirming the duration of the assignment to the time-limited project.