Senior Portfolio Adviser (Middle East and Northern Africa) in Operations

Are you motivated by ensuring adaptable, efficient, and well managed humanitarian programmes and operations then you might be our new colleague.

Danish Red Cross is present in 20 countries in the Middle East, Northern Africa, Europe, Asia, and Africa. We are working in contexts of high fragility, vulnerabilities, and humanitarian needs. With a 2023 turnover of around 1 Billion DKK, we continuously strive to increase our capacity to ensure Impact and Localization. This through adaptable, efficient, and well managed humanitarian programmes, country operations, and partnerships in high-risk environments.

The Portfolio Team in the International Operations Unit is looking for a new colleague – a humanitarian professional with strong coordination and advisory skills and experience in risk and portfolio management to support a set of DRC country operations in the Middle East and Northern Africa. We currently have country offices and partnerships with the National Societies in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Syria.

As Senior Portfolio Advisor your role is to support the assigned country offices to enhance operational effectiveness, monitor and mitigate risk, engage in troubleshooting, and ensure alignment with DRC’s strategic objectives and ways of working. You will be HQ responsible for country specific risk management, issue management, business continuity, and operational peer reviews. You will play a key role in ensuring oversight of the country operations in Mena, follow and coordinate HQ level support. You will moreover be expected to engage in global non-country specific tasks contributing to systemic improvements across the organisation.

The position is placed in Copenhagen in the operations unit that counts 15 colleagues with line management reference to the Head of Operations and technical reference to the Team Coordinator of the Portfolio unit. The Operations Unit comprises members from 8 nationalities, spanning 5 decades in age, and diverse professional backgrounds. We nurture a supportive inclusive culture that champions professionalism, innovation, and leadership while promoting collaboration across the organization. Emphasizing work/life balance, we seek to ensure that every team member feels valued and empowered to thrive.

Your main tasks/responsibilities are:

Portfolio development and advice

• Advise on portfolio development and coherence, holistically considering strategy, partnerships, operational risks, and resources available to the operations.
• Support and take HQ lead on Operational Peer Reviews and business continuity in the operations.
• Stay abreast of strategic and contextual developments in the countries and communicate to management, other units and departments, and externally when relevant.
• Engage with relevant colleagues in business development, disaster response, and programme strategy to ensure holistic oversight and support.

Country office support

• Entry point for specific tasks and day to day support
• Support issue handling and coordination (when risks materialize)
• Support remote monitoring frameworks
• Promote adherence to and knowledge of DRC’s policies and procedures in the assigned countries.
• Perform missions to the countries of engagement to contribute and provide support for the well-functioning of the operation.

Operational risk management

• Support and advice to country offices on identifying and elevating risks, engage in high risk management and be HQ lead on operational risk monitoring and management
• Support in business continuity plans and contingency planning

Cross cutting responsibility

• Lead the delivery of cross-cutting tasks on behalf of the Portfolio Team, e.g., Risk Management system responsible, engagement in a policy development or a tasks force on issues such as remote monitoring and cash transfers.

We are looking for someone with the following competences:

• Relevant academic background
• Minimum 5 years’ professional experience from humanitarian and development organizations.
• Minimum 2 years post-graduate and full-time experience from one or more field operations, preferably multiple different settings.
• Significant experience with operational risk management, operational support, and coordination of development processes.
• Experience with managing and implementing donor-funded projects and programmes.
• Good understanding and experience with operational financial management (from a project/portfolio management and budget holder perspective), EU/ECHO, DANIDA and other major institutional donor grants.

Furthermore, you have:

• Ability to adapt, learn quickly, solutions oriented, and work independently in a fast-paced unit.
• Strong analytical skills with attention to detail.
• Strong communication and coordination skills and ability to work with people across the organisation and different cultures.
• Excellent English language skills, Danish, French or Arabic an asset.