POSITION: Country Director

LOCATION: Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

TYPE: Full-time (Local national hire)

CONTRACT START DATE: on or around February 1, 2025 (contingent on funding)

END DATE: On or around January 31, 2027 (possible extension, contingent on funding)

ABA ROLI is a non-profit organization that implements legal reform programs in roughly 50 countries around the world. ABA ROLI has nearly 500 professional staff working abroad and in its Washington, D.C. office. Active in Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1996, ABA ROLI worked on anti-corruption, criminal law reform and anti-trafficking, and legal education reform.

Job Summary

The American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) seeks local BIH nationals to apply for a Country Director to lead an upcoming United States Department of State-funded program in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) focusing on legal education and improving the criminal justice system in BIH.

The Country Director will be the lead implementer responsible for compliance with project timeline and outputs, as well as serve as operational head of the local ABA ROLI BiH office in Sarajevo. The Country Director will organize all project activities and manage day-to-day communications with local partners and stakeholders across the country. The Country Director will also monitor activities and lead frequent evaluation check-ins with ABA ROLI staff in Washington, DC and the Department of State in Sarajevo.

S/he will be a BiH citizen with in-depth knowledge of the country’s legal education reform process and criminal justice reform process and will have valuable contacts with local justice sector stakeholders and law universities.

Responsibilities

The duties of this post include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Managing ABA ROLI’s BIH program, including ensuring program goals are met, resources are utilized in accordance with budgets, and monitoring and evaluation are undertaken;
• Ensuring compliance with Department of State donor requirements and ABA policies;
• Initiating, nurturing and expanding working relationships with government counterparts (including the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education), law schools, Bar Associations, and others in BiH involved in the rule of law and legal education sector;
• Serving as point of contact for program with U.S. government (USG) representatives in BiH;
• Developing and monitoring budgets in cooperation with Finance and Program staff;
• Managing the field finance manager and overseeing procurement, vendor contracts and payments, ensuring all aspects are within ABA, USG, and BiH regulations;
• Providing financial oversight and administrative support for program start-up and close-out, including coordinating financial and administrative support for other program staff;
• Be ABA ROLI’s authorized signatory in BiH for its local office;
• Managing and tracking program budgets, produce monthly budget pipelines, expense reports, and cash requests for U.S. office;
• Managing program staff and providing coaching and development as required;
• Understanding the operational and political environment and keeping ABA ROLI team informed.

Qualifications

• Required at least seven to ten years of progressively responsible experience in international development and program management;
• Preferred Master’s in Law degree, required Law degree from an accredited university;
• Required Previous experience with the justice sector and legal education in BiH, and/or in the region;
• Solid and thorough understanding of the socio-political context in Bosnia and Herzegovina;
• Experience working with US government donor-funded projects, ideally with familiarity with U.S. regulations;
• Experience managing staff;
• Excellent interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to cultivate relationships with Bosnian government entities, academic institutions and other relevant stakeholders;
• Required strong written and oral communication skills and the ability to communicate effectively in English and B/S/H;
• High degree of organization, professionalism, integrity, trustworthiness and flexibility;
• Ideally, experience working in a non-profit/association/CSO setting.
• Ideally, experience creating and managing formal and sustainable professional networks.