Country Director, Kenya at SNV Netherlands Development Organisation

Founded in the Netherlands in 1965, we have built a long-term, local presence in many of the poorest countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Our global team of local and international advisors work with local partners to equip communities, businesses and organisations with the tools, knowledge and connections they need to increase their incomes and gain access to basic services - empowering them to break the cycle of poverty and guide their own development.
Position

SNV seeks an entrepreneurial, results-oriented, seasoned people leader who will lead the Kenya & Burundi country teams in enabling and delivering high quality impact programs.
SNV offers the successful candidate a challenging position, leading a well-established team in a two different and exciting development contexts. The current EUR 70 million program portfolio includes support from the Embassies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands Ministry of Development Cooperation and European Union, as well as from development banks, foundations and private sector investors.
The Country Director is responsible for leading and enabling the country programs with and through their teams and local implementation partners. It is a multi-faceted role, focused on upscaling and strategically strengthening the country position with an ambitious country strategy, ensuring high-quality delivery of operations, and securing adequate funding to sustain and grow opportunities to deliver impact. The Country Director needs to be well informed about national and international development priorities and steer the sectors and themes in response to these priorities. The Country Director is expected to forge partnerships and alliances between SNV and important national and international actors and stimulate collaboration for impact. He/she will be the face of SNV in the country and ensure its positive image and visibility.
The Country Director leads, coaches and supports their country management team (CMT) and inspires a total team of 150 team members in 5 offices across Kenya and Burundi. Building capabilities to deliver our 2030 ambition is a key deliverable for the CMT.  The Country Director is a key member of SNV’s global senior leadership team, making meaningful contributions across the wider organisation to further shape and enable the future of SNV.

Summary



SNV seeks an entrepreneurial, results-oriented, seasoned people leader who will lead the Kenya & Burundi country teams in enabling and delivering high quality impact programs.
SNV offers the successful candidate a challenging position, leading a well-established team in a two different and exciting development contexts. The current EUR 70 million program portfolio includes support from the Embassies of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands Ministry of Development Cooperation and European Union, as well as from development banks, foundations and private sector investors.
The Country Director is responsible for leading and enabling the country programs with and through their teams and local implementation partners. It is a multi-faceted role, focused on upscaling and strategically strengthening the country position with an ambitious country strategy, ensuring high-quality delivery of operations, and securing adequate funding to sustain and grow opportunities to deliver impact. The Country Director needs to be well informed about national and international development priorities and steer the sectors and themes in response to these priorities. The Country Director is expected to forge partnerships and alliances between SNV and important national and international actors and stimulate collaboration for impact. He/she will be the face of SNV in the country and ensure its positive image and visibility.
The Country Director leads, coaches and supports their country management team (CMT) and inspires a total team of 150 team members in 5 offices across Kenya and Burundi. Building capabilities to deliver our 2030 ambition is a key deliverable for the CMT.  The Country Director is a key member of SNV’s global senior leadership team, making meaningful contributions across the wider organisation to further shape and enable the future of SNV.

Duties and Responsibilities
The selected candidate will be responsible for the following tasks:

Strategic leadership of the countries and current and future programmes within the overall parameters of SNV’s global strategy;
Strong and supportive people leadership enabling the country team: creating and nurturing an environment that supports high performance, continuous learning and teamwork at all levels;
Representation and profiling: building partnerships and maintaining excellent relationships with donors, partners, local governments, businesses, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders;
Oversight and quality assurance of project implementation (including project director roles) ensuring the delivery of impact to the satisfaction of key stakeholders and compliance with SNV’s and the donor’s financial standards and monitoring protocols;
Business development to grow the country position and its programs, ensure financial sustainability of SNV Kenya and Burundi and ensure a high-quality project design;
Collaboration with other SNV countries to effectively exploit opportunities for synergy, deliver at scale (including multi-country projects), exchange knowledge and strengthen SNV’s position;
In addition, the Country Director fosters innovation of SNV products and services: facilitates learning, documentation and evidence-based knowledge development in collaboration with SNV’s global team and partners; and ensures collaboration with renowned knowledge institutes and networks.

Qualifications
To be considered for this role, the following aducation and experience is required:

Master’s degree or equivalent in a relevant discipline;
At least 5 years of relevant leadership experience at a senior, end- responsible level.
Knowledge and understanding of the international development context in East and Southern Africa , including familiarity with key financiers and actors in SNV’s three sectors and core thematic areas.
Proficiency in both written and spoken English and French is required.
Strong business acumen accompanied by an innate people-centric focus;
Ability to coach, lead, stimulate, and inspire professionals in a development context, ability to manage remote leadership dynamics;
Self-starting professional, with entrepreneurial skills and data-driven approach to business leadership
Demonstrated business development experience on large tenders and grants from multilateral development agencies, banks and bilateral donors;
Excellent track record in mobilising resources from the public and private sector, including strong networking and positioning skills at multiple levels;
Proven ability of establishing partnerships, consortia and fostering relationships with government at multiple levels;
Proven track record in project management including familiarity with donor-funded project procedures and processes;
Excellent interpersonal skills, culturally aware, inclusive and open-minded;

Additional Information

Contract Type: Fulltime position
Contract Duration: 3 years initial assignment, with the possibility to extend to 6 years
Desired Start Date: as soon as possible
Duty Station: Nairobi, Kenya