As a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) in Kenya, the Director of Program Development and Quality is responsible for overseeing the development of high quality, innovative programs that deliver immediate and lasting change for children and monitoring the quality of the implementation of those programs.

• Support the development of an organisational culture that reflects our dual mandate values, promotes accountability and high performance, encourages a team culture of learning, creativity and innovation, and frees up our people to deliver outstanding results for children and excellent customer service for our members and donors
• Help design and implement a coherent organizational structure that is consistent with agency practices and appropriate to programme needs
• Help establish, maintain, and improve active and regular working relationships with: host government authorities, partner agencies including humanitarian and development donors, and local and international NGOs
• Ensure Kenya Country Office complies with all Save the Children Management Operating Standards and Standard Operating Procedures
• Ensure that all required support is provided promptly, at scale and in line with the rules and principles during emergencies, working closely with the Regional Office
• Work closely and collaboratively with the Director of Operations to ensure that all programmes are well resourced and receive timely support in a coordinated manner through the matrix management system.

• Provide strategic vision and direction to the Save the Children Kenya program
• Take a lead role in developing program strategies and annual plans ensuring coordination of all technical input to country strategy, proposals and reports
• Participate in conceptualizing and designing cost effective, innovative and high quality programs to serve difficult to reach children
• Ensure that programs are relevant to children in Kenya and to the global program and advocacy objectives of the Save the Children members

• Ensure that the Kenya Country Office has a first class, multi-sectoral and dual mandate program reflecting all priority technical and sector aspects of the Save the Children global strategy
• Ensure the design and development of child focused emergency and development programs of a high quality that contribute to the Country Office’s strategies and plans, informed by child participation where possible
• Support the Director of Operations in the implementation and monitoring of all longer term technical goals, objectives and policies
• Ensure that the different technical sectors of the Country Office are coordinated, integrated and support each other to optimize programs and projects
• Support the Director of Operations in ensuring adequate resources are secured for program activities from both grants and the private funds of Save the Children members, including identifying strategic leads and concepts: take a lead role in preparing concept papers and project proposals for fundraising purposes.
• Manage the proposal development processes effectively to ensure strong coordination with other CO teams, particularly Programme Operations (for field team inputs, logistics requirements, costings, etc.), Member Services (for donor requirements), Finance (for budgets) and HR (for staffing requirements).
• Ensure that technical advisors provide input into proposals and proactively and regularly communicate planned requirements for program design and implementation to relevant CO teams
• Ensure that all sectors apply a risk lens to program design and implementation in line with the Save the Children policy on Disaster Risk Reduction
• Ensure appropriate levels of technical assistance and capacity building is provided to partners
• Works with the Director of Member Service to seek the involvement of member technical assistance
• Ensure excellent coordination and cooperation with incoming technical advisors as well as surge teams during emergencies

• Maintain a robust M&E system to measure achievement and progress toward program goals and results
• Measure achievement and progress toward program goals and results through the M&E system
• Lead on internal and external program/project evaluations as necessary and ensure the execution of baseline, periodic, and final evaluations as necessary in coordination with Director of Operations
• Ensure accountability systems, especially for children, are in place and that the country office responds to, and incorporates, feedback into programming.

• Lead the development of an advocacy strategy for the Kenya Country Office.
• Support thematic directors to articulate their top priority advocacy objectives in line with the new Country Strategic Plan
• Identify key opportunities and events in Kenya for Save the Children to position itself as the leading organisation for children’s issues in the country
• Ensure that Save the Children receives national recognition for achieving proven and innovative national impact from well-managed child development programs and emergency response
• Oversee Technical Advisors and other program staff in their work, including development of a plan for achieving their priority advocacy objectives in both an emergency and development context.
• This should include guidelines on the meaningful and safe participation of children in advocacy, and support of the EVERYONE campaign.

• Ensure that every partnership is formed in the context of the Theory of Change and is designed and managed so that the partnership furthers achievement of Save the Children’s global strategy and strengthens local and national capacity to deliver for children
• Analyze potential partners using documented selection methods and ensure that all partners comply with Save the Children and donor requirements and regulations
• Ensure that the Kenya Country Office engages in mutual assessment, feedback and learning with partners and assist partners to engage in  knowledge building and advocacy
• Oversee program implementation of existing partners and ensure appropriate partners are engaged in emergency preparedness activities

• Oversee the Kenya CO’s operational research programs, deliver existing projects and develop new ones.
• Ensure the publication of results
• Spread information relating to the outcome of research projects widely and – in particular – to the Government and to other humanitarian and development actors

• Ensure learning by the country program from relevant best practice and assess performance regularly against agreed program objectives and indicators
• Ensure learning by the country program from relevant best practice internally and externally both nationally and globally and make learning from Kenya available for other programs through a central lessons learned database and regular sharing of project evaluations and operational research.
• Engage in relevant national and global networks
• In collaboration with the Director of Member Service and the IT team, provide documents and communications materials to be posted on an online/shared drive system that will enable SC staff to access centralized data, information and a resource library

• Ensure that all staff understand and are able to perform their role in a humanitarian response
• Manage Program Development and Quality team; ensure appropriate staffing, define expectations, provide leadership and technical support as needed, and evaluate direct reports regularly
• Ensure the recruitment, training, and promotion of staff as appropriate and ensure availability of appropriate professional development opportunities for staff
• Incorporate staff development strategies and Performance Management Systems into team building process.
• Establish result based system and follow up
• Oversee that all technical sector staff proactively build and maintain technical skills and competencies required for leading and/or advising first class programs – both development and emergency programs
• Manage the performance of all staff in the Program Development and Quality work area through:

1. Effective use of the Performance Management System including the establishment of clear, measureable objectives, ongoing feedback, periodic reviews and fair and unbiased evaluations;
2. Coaching, mentoring and other developmental opportunities;
3. Recognition and rewards for outstanding performance;
4. Documentation of performance that is less than satisfactory, with appropriate performance improvements/ workplans

• Holds self accountable for making decisions, managing resources efficiently, achieving and role modelling Save the Children values
• Holds the team and partners accountable to deliver on their responsibilities – giving them the freedom to deliver in the best way they see fit, providing the necessary development to improve performance and applying appropriate consequences when results are not achieved

• Sets ambitious and challenging goals for themselves (and their team), takes responsibility for their own personal development and encourages others to do the same
• Widely shares their personal vision for Save the Children, engages and motivates others
• Future orientated, thinks strategically

• Builds and maintains effective relationships, with their team, colleagues, members and external partners and supporters
• Values diversity, sees it as a source of competitive strength
• Approachable, good listener, easy to talk to

• Develops and encourages new and innovative solutions
• Willing to take disciplined risks

• Honest, encourages openness and transparency

• Recommended a minimum of 7 years of management experience in an NGO or similar environment, including experience directing and implementing programs for children in both emergency and development contexts, preferably with solid experience in more than one of the Save the Children priority sectors: education, child protection, child rights governance, HIV/AIDS, health and nutrition, livelihoods and humanitarian response
• Recognized leadership role in relevant technical areas at both field and country level
• Masters degree in Social Sciences, in an area of social development
• A general appreciation of the issues concerning the NGO sector, both development and humanitarian issues
• Solid experience of developing and managing monitoring and learning systems
• Good analytical skills. Effective negotiator, with the ability to positively influence cross departmental and cross sector working
• Credibility to lobby, influence and represent Save the Children at all levels
• Resource management, training , capacity building, coaching, and mentoring skills
• Ability and willingness to dramatically change work practices and hours, and work with incoming teams, in emergencies
• Commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s aims, values and principles including rights-based approaches
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English. Similar skills in Kiswahili and other local languages an advantage
• Willingness to travel to Save the Children’s field offices and operational areas on a regular basis