Country Director, Nigeria at Crown Agents

Sector: Project Management Office

About the Role

• Crown Agents, the British not-for-profit international development company, is looking for a dynamic leader to take responsibility of the overall leadership and growth in the CA Nigeria office, providing strategic direction and effective oversight to the CA Nigeria team.
• This is a great opportunity for an experienced, values-driven development professional, who can bring strong track record of successful management and delivery across both the public and private sectors.

Function Of Department

• To deliver high quality impactful programmes that support development progress in Nigeria and meet the needs of Crown Agents’ clients
• To grow Crown Agents’ business in Nigeria particularly within the Supply Chain Cluster, engaging with the local market to secure new and profitable work that will expand our footprint in the country and provide a sustainable income stream for the company

Main Job Purpose 

• To engage proactively and effectively with clients and other key external stakeholders in the Government of Nigeria and in the international sector to promote CA’s business and generate high quality market intelligence for growth
• To work in partnership with colleagues across the global business to identify and secure profitable new business opportunities in the country, contributing to the company’s overall growth targets

Main Responsibilities
Strategy:

• Agree overall strategic direction for CA Nigeria in line with Crown Agents’ overall global corporate growth strategy
• Provide sound interpretation of local market information and be fully aware of local and regional political and economic contexts in determining opportunities & priorities).

Business Winning:

• Identify and secure new growth opportunities to build a stronger and more sustainable portfolio of contracts and programmes for CA in Nigeria particularly in the areas of Procurement and Inspections
• Expand and fully utilise existing contracts to maximise the financial contribution of programmes to CA’s overall business performance

Staff Management:

• Manage, mentor and support CA Nigeria staff; providing inspirational leadership to the country team, and ensuring clarity regarding CA and donors' values and priorities;
• Manage human resources as per CA values, policies and guidelines as well as in-country labour legislation in respect of recruitment, terms & conditions, effective performance management and employee relations

Operations & Finance oversight:

• Oversee all financial management, audits, monitoring, and evaluation activities for all CA operations in Nigeria
• Contribute to developing and managing an annual budget internally at CA Nigeria, together with Country finance lead and Regional team.

Programme Delivery & Technical oversight:

• Support and demand high quality and delivery standards to ensure positive, sustainable commercial and reputation effect for CA Nigeria that can be leveraged to provide new leads or programme ‘build outs’
• Oversee management, delivery, monitoring and evaluation of work plans to meet the changes, needs and realities based on programme; implementation/performance results, ensuring all tasks are completed at high quality and on time.

Qualification

• Relevant university degree required; master's degree in related field preferred

Experience:

• Typically, we require a minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in a senior manager role. Previous experience as a Country Director is desirable.
• Strong interpersonal and soft skills such as delegation, communication, trustworthiness, empathy, leadership, listening and coaching.
• Being able to demonstrate emotional intelligence in leadership and management.
• Experience in winning and successfully executing on Supply Chain, Procurement and inspections projects
• Being inclusive and collaborative in a team environment
• A strong track record of securing business growth and establishing new and effect partnerships with clients
• Previous experience in managing a diverse team in a resource limited setting.
• Attention to detail and ability to effectively perform multiple tasks and balance competing priorities often within a defined timeline
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with senior-level stakeholders, particularly interacting productively, proactively, and comfortably with government directly and govt agencies, NGOs, private sector groups, FCDO and donor organizations.
• Demonstrated strategic agility, diplomacy, conflict management, team building, written and oral communication, and negotiation skills.
• Excellent communication skills
• Considerable experience in working with host country governments, NGOs and private sector to move the programme forward and leverage resources
• Prior experience and success directing similar or larger international donor- funded projects.
• Technical capability and a strong professional understanding of procurement services and/or value for money auditing services preferred
• Familiarity with public procurement, tendering for public contracts and contract management
• Demonstrated strategic planning skills.
• Ability to travel as required to support the progress of programme activities.
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of working for international.

About What's on Offer
Crown Agents offers a competitive benefits package.