United States of America: Vice President, Strategy

Requisition ID: req1006

Job Title: Vice President, Strategy

Sector: Strategy

Employment Category: Regular

Employment Type: Full-Time

Location: USA-New York, NY - HQ

Job Description

Background

The International Rescue Committee is at a critical juncture. A leading global humanitarian organization since its inception at the request of Albert Einstein in 1933, the IRC is almost 3 years into a major organizational transformation to modernize its infrastructure as well as develop a new strategic mission and vision. The Strategy team was created to work closely with the IRC's senior leaders to progressively turn that vision into reality.

The IRC has defined a strategic mission, vision and objectives, aiming to: increase the scale and speed of our response; build an organization that is focused on evidence, data and continuous improvement; design new breakthrough solutions; build the supporting tools and systems we need to succeed; and become thought and operational leaders within the humanitarian sector. Executing this change in an organization of 20,000+ people working in crisis-affected places across the world is a major undertaking. We are looking for someone who will be excited by the scale of the challenge, who combines sharp analytical and strategic skills with the ability to drive change in a large, highly dispersed organization.

Job Overview

You will play a lead role in enabling the IRC to deliver on its strategic ambitions. Your work will spread far and wide within the IRC and ultimately impact the lives of the people we serve - 23 million people worldwide in places affected by war and disaster.

This is a challenging and multifaceted position which requires exceptional skills in analysis, judgment and communication, as well as the ability to identify, recruit and develop top-tier talent. It requires high levels of comfort with complexity and ambiguity, a strong will and commitment to achieve impact, effective interpersonal skills at all levels of the organization, significant experience in tactical and strategic planning, and genuine comfort working with cross-functional, distributed, multicultural teams.

The VP of Strategy will, among other things:

• Promote understanding of the IRC's strategic vision across the organization
• Work closely with the senior leaders to define a high-level pathway to achieving that vision, and generate buy-in to that pathway
• Track the IRC's progress against the vision of IRC2020 and surface critical issues for attention and action
• Ensure that the strategic vision is interpreted and executed in a way that is consistent with the strategy's intent but that also responds to the IRC's evolving internal and external realities
• Lead delivery oversight of all strategic projects
• Use his or her prior sector experience and frequent field visits to bring credible field-focused perspective to their work
• Recruit and develop a strategy team of talented, motivated professionals who conduct high quality, targeted, priority pieces of work to support the objectives of the strategy. Empower the team to grow and lead, while ensuring clear accountability and successful achievement of the team's goals and promoting a coherent, positive overall identity and purpose for the team as a whole

Minimum Role Requirements

Experience & Achievements

• 10+ years of progressive experience with demonstrated distinctive performance
• Significant experience and/or academic training in organizational strategy
• Significant experience and/or academic training in humanitarian or international development
• Experience living or working in a developing country or significant travel in developing countries
• Experience designing and/or executing strategic change and organizational change management and large-scale, cross-functional projects
• Experience building a team and managing highly motivated, talented staff
• Demonstrated long-term personal interest in and commitment to achieving social impact
• A master's degree in a topic related to the role
• Proficiency in French and/or Arabic is a plus

Skills and Knowledge

• Familiarity with current debates and trends in the humanitarian and development sector
• First-rate analytical skills, exhibited through exceptional academic and/or professional accomplishments
• A relentless solution focus with excellent, proven problem-solving skills
• Demonstrated good judgment, with the ability to anticipate barriers and opportunities, and make the right choices when facing challenging tradeoffs
• An ability and instinct to proactively and repeatedly bring simplicity, structure and clarity to complex and ambiguous issues and situations
• A proven ability to work with a high degree of autonomy, taking personal initiative to bring about change while simultaneously being able to 'manage up' effectively (bringing managers/leaders into conversations at the right time, providing visibility into the issues of most importance and relevance to them, soliciting their input, and cultivating alignment around path forward)
• Outstanding verbal and written communication, with demonstrated ability to express complex ideas in simple terms, and to facilitate effective meetings with senior stakeholders on ambiguous topics
• A global outlook, with an ability to emphasize and communicate across highly varies contexts and cultures
• High levels of resilience and adaptability, and an ability to motivate and inspire direct reports, create an energized team environment and build trust and excitement in the director of the team

Please follow this link to apply: http://www.aplitrak.com/?adid=YXN0cmlkLm1hdGhldy4wMTEwNi4zODMwQGlyY2NkLmFwbGl0cmFrLmNvbQ