Operational Support Manager - Ukraine Response at Plan International

Role Purpose

• The conflict in Ukraine is resulting in a major humanitarian crisis with over 3 million people having fled to neighboring countries, and millions displaced within Ukraine. Plan International is responding to the crisis and working in partnership with civil society organisations in Poland, Romania, and Moldova to meet the key needs of those affected by the crisis as well as host communities.
• This position will play a key role in the support to country level activities and will provide technical support and guidance to Plan International teams and partners in Poland, Romania, and Moldova. The position will initially be remote but may well be based in one of the 3 countries in the future.
• The Ukraine Hub is a service-oriented structure to support initiation of activities, and to help find solutions to problems as and when arise. Creative thinking and identifying work arounds to problems faced will be a critical element of the role.

Dimensions of the Role

• The position will provide oversight to all operational support functions in the Ukraine Response.
• The role is the primary point of contact for operational support staff in Poland, Moldova, and Romania and will ensure response activities are in line with standard policies and procedures, and that where needed solutions to problems are identified and implemented quickly.
• The post holder will represent Plan International in external fora, ensuring the organisation is seen as a leader in gender focussed programming in humanitarian response.

Accountabilities

• Management and Implementation:
• Identify operational support requirements across all response locations.
• Ensure the establishment and maintenance all logistical infrastructure.
• Identify and analyse procurement and transport requirements including those of partners.
• Responsible for the movement of all goods and equipment to ensure efficient and timely delivery of response commodities.
• Input to the regular Ukraine Response sitreps.
• Ensure all in country legal requirements are met for each response location. Liaise with in-country legal counsel and Global Hub Legal team as needed.

Budget Development & Management:

• Working closely with the finance manager and Ukraine Emergency Response Director, develop and maintain response master budgets across all response locations.
• Oversight of budget utilisation. Working closely with Heads of Missions to ensure appropriate utilisation in line with donor agreements and timeframes.
• Schedule regular budget versus actuals review meetings, and agree key actions required.

Safety and Security:

• Work closely with the Safety & Security Specialist to ensure all locations have appropriate SOPs in place, and that safety and security risks are identified, and mitigation measures put in place.

Coordination:

• Represent Plan International in logistics coordination meetings, ensuring strong coordination and collaboration with partners, local authorities, UN/INGOs.
• Where needed provide support to partner organisations in playing an active role in inter-agency coordination mechanisms. Where possible support partners take on co-lead of such coordination groups.

Human Resources and Administration:

• Work closely with People & Culture team to identify personnel requirements and develop recruitment plans
• Provide response locations with HR support as operations scale up.

Capacity Building:

• Develop capacity building plans and provide training, coaching and mentorship to response staff and partners.
• Coordinate and/or implement trainings and briefings of Plan staff, partners and other key stakeholders on operational support functions and ways of working.
• Promote the application of best practice across operational support functions.

Coordination and Resource Mobilization:

• Build and maintain relationships with relevant government departments, UN agencies and NGOs.
• Establish/maintain new/existing relationships with key donors
• Support Plan’s country offices to build a diversified portfolio of funding.
• Support development and submission of quality proposals in response to identified opportunities.

Influencing:

• Contribute to relevant global advocacy and policy objectives with documented learning and evidence.

General:

• Ensures that Plan International’s global policies for Safeguarding Children and Young People and Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy including relevant Implementation Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility.
• This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and Plan International’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Technical Expertise, Skills And Knowledge
Essential:

• Knowledge of Sphere and the Red Cross/ NGO Code of Conduct. Requires general finance, administration, information management and telecommunication skills and proficiency in information technology/ computer skills.
• Previous logistics operations experience in complex humanitarian contexts.
• Comprehensive knowledge of the different elements of the supply chain and fleet management in humanitarian context.
• Capacity to develop work plans and budgets, negotiate contracts, take quick and relevant decisions.
• Experience in multi-donor funding environment
• Experience of capacity building with a variety of audiences.
• Excellent negotiation, representation, skills and the ability to work comfortably with an ethnically diverse staff
• Fluency in English, written and spoken

Desirable:

• Proficiency in Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian, or Moldovan languages.

Key Relationships
Internal:

• Operational support functions in the Ukraine Response Hub and in operational areas.
• Programme technical leads.
• Ukraine Hub
• National Organisations
• Global Hub departments (including humanitarian, finance, legal, funding).

External:

• Civil Society Organisations
• UN Agencies
• Institutional Donors
• Embassies.

Plan International’s Values In Practice
We are Open And Accountable:

• Promotes a culture of openness and transparency, including with sponsors and donors.
• Holds self and others accountable to achieve the highest standards of integrity.
• Consistent and fair in the treatment of people.
• Open about mistakes and keen to learn from them.
• Accountable for ensuring we are a safe organisation for all children, girls & young people

We Strive For Lasting Impact:

• Articulates a clear purpose for staff and sets high expectations.
• Creates a climate of continuous improvement, open to challenge and new ideas.
• Focuses resources to drive change and maximise long-term impact, responsive to changed priorities or crises.
• Evidence-based and evaluates effectiveness.

We Work Well Together:

• Seeks constructive outcomes, listens to others, willing to compromise when appropriate.
• Builds constructive relationships across Plan International to support our shared goals.
• Develops trusting and ‘win-win’ relationships with funders, partners and communities.
• Engages and works well with others outside the organization to build a better world for girls and all children.

We are Inclusive and Empowering:

• We empower our staff to give their best and develop their potential
• We respect all people, appreciate differences and challenge equality in our programs and our workplace
• We support children, girls and young people to increase their confidence and to change their own lives.

Physical Environment:

• Based remotely, working in a virtual hub. Required to travel to operational locations on a regular basis, sometimes at short notice.

Level of Contact with Children:

• Low contact: No contact or very low frequency of interaction.