THE OPPORTUNITY
You will lead the strategic, technical, and operational direction for Plan International Kenya’s humanitarian preparedness, emergency response, and resilience initiatives, ensuring the organization is fully prepared to mitigate, prepare for, and address emergencies while fostering sustainable community resilience and advancing climate adaptation and nexus programming across all efforts.
Additionally, you will enhance PICK’s institutional capacity to implement high-quality, gender-transformative interventions in humanitarian contexts, advocate for climate-resilient approaches across all sectors, spearhead integrated nexus planning, and secure PICK’s strategic positioning within national, regional, and global coordination frameworks.
You will serve as PICK’s representative on national humanitarian and disaster risk reduction (DRR) coordination platforms, spearheading donor engagement and resource mobilization efforts for humanitarian and climate-resilience initiatives. Additionally, you will assist the Country Office (CO) leadership in aligning country-level response strategies with Plan International’s Global Humanitarian Strategy, Climate Change Adaptation Framework, and the integrated Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) nexus approach.
Manage all key operational tasks, ensuring seamless execution of daily, weekly, and monthly duties to uphold organizational productivity. Oversee team performance, fostering collaboration and accountability to achieve established goals. Develop and implement strategic initiatives that enhance efficiency and drive continuous improvement. Monitor progress against key performance indicators, adjusting strategies as needed to optimize outcomes. Serve as a primary point of contact for cross-departmental coordination, facilitating clear communication and alignment with company objectives. Ensure compliance with company policies, industry regulations, and safety standards. Identify opportunities for innovation and process optimization to support long-term growth and success.
Lead the strategic alignment of Plan Kenya’s humanitarian, resilience, and climate initiatives with international best practices, spearheading nexus-based programming, policy advocacy, and the protection of girls. Foster collaboration among multisectoral partners to ensure cohesive implementation, while sustaining a skilled and prepared emergency response team. Oversee the timely execution of analyses, comprehensive reporting, and robust accountability measures to uphold programmatic integrity and impact.
Design and provide leadership for humanitarian and resilience initiatives in crisis-affected regions, ensuring interventions are gender-transformative, climate- and conflict-sensitive, and inclusive. Oversee assessments, response planning, and implementation while strengthening disaster risk reduction (DRR), early action mechanisms, and climate-resilient livelihoods. Coordinate multisectoral efforts to uphold high-quality delivery, and champion protection, resilience-building, climate justice, and gender equality through advocacy and strategic engagement.
Lead emergency preparedness initiatives by conducting thorough risk analysis, developing early warning systems, crafting comprehensive contingency plans, and organizing simulations. Oversee robust coordination efforts, enhance surge capacity, and maintain procurement readiness to address potential crises effectively. Provide expert technical guidance during emergency responses and consistently evaluate national disaster risk assessments to refine and optimize response strategies.
Programs must be aligned with international standards and donor requirements, while accountability is reinforced through structured feedback mechanisms. Real-time learning is prioritized alongside the systematic documentation of best practices, and robust monitoring and evaluation frameworks—using MERL approaches—are employed to measure impact effectively. Additionally, strategies are continuously reviewed and adapted based on identified gaps, emerging challenges, and key lessons learned.
Support fundraising efforts and cultivate donor engagement by developing strategic initiatives, crafting compelling proposals, and fostering valuable partnerships. Secure essential grants, strengthen external relationships, and serve as PICK’s representative in coordination forums to bolster organizational visibility and expand its sphere of influence.
Enhance partner capabilities in emergency response, disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation, and integrated nexus programming; deliver expert mentorship and rigorous quality assurance; and advocate for locally driven preparedness and response frameworks.
Oversee humanitarian and resilience teams while providing mentorship and establishing transparent performance standards. Foster an organizational culture rooted in gender equality, continuous learning, professional accountability, and excellence. Additionally, maintain surge capacity preparedness and prioritize staff wellbeing during critical emergency responses.
Oversee budgets, financial planning, and grant compliance for humanitarian and resilience initiatives, guaranteeing precise and prompt expenditure tracking and reporting in collaboration with Finance.
Plan International maintains a comprehensive global safeguarding policy alongside robust standards for protecting personally identifiable information (PII), preventing sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse, and upholding gender equality and inclusion principles. You will be responsible for ensuring adherence to these policies among staff and associates within your designated area of responsibility.
You will be entrusted with assuming additional responsibilities as deemed necessary by your supervisor, based on operational requirements.
What we are looking for:
Applicants should possess either a Master’s Degree in Humanitarian Studies, Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster Risk Management, International Development, Public Policy, or a closely related field, or alternatively, a Bachelor’s Degree accompanied by a minimum of ten years of progressively responsible and relevant professional experience.
Seeking candidates with a minimum of eight to ten years of progressive experience in humanitarian response, resilience, disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate programming, or nexus initiatives, including at least five years in a senior leadership capacity.
A professional with a proven track record in overseeing emergency response operations within intricate environments, including droughts, conflicts, refugee scenarios, and disease outbreaks.
A solid grasp of technical principles is essential, including proficiency in relevant tools, systems, and methodologies pertinent to the role.
Climate adaptation and resilience frameworks encompass comprehensive strategies designed to mitigate the impacts of climate change and strengthen the capacity of systems to withstand and recover from environmental stresses. These frameworks involve assessing vulnerabilities, identifying risks, and implementing measures to enhance adaptive capacity across various sectors, including infrastructure, ecosystems, and communities. Key objectives include reducing exposure to climate-related hazards, promoting sustainable development practices, and fostering long-term preparedness to ensure continuity and stability in the face of evolving climate conditions.
DRR and early warning/early action systems play a critical role in minimizing disaster risks, enhancing community resilience, and mitigating potential impacts through timely interventions. These systems involve the development, implementation, and maintenance of mechanisms to detect, analyze, and respond to hazards, ensuring proactive measures are taken before crises escalate. Professionals in this field are responsible for integrating advanced technologies, fostering inter-agency collaboration, and strengthening institutional capacities to improve preparedness and response strategies. Strong analytical skills, operational expertise, and a commitment to sustainable risk reduction are essential for driving effective disaster risk management and early action initiatives.
Humanitarian actors must uphold core ethical standards, including the Sphere standards and the Core Humanitarian Standard (CHS), to ensure accountability and quality in crisis response. This commitment guarantees that assistance reaches affected populations with dignity, equity, and effectiveness while adhering to internationally recognized benchmarks for humanitarian action.
HDP Nexus, complemented by its integrated programming capabilities, serves as a robust platform designed to facilitate advanced data processing and analytics. This solution enables seamless integration with various data sources, empowering organizations to derive actionable insights through sophisticated analytical frameworks. Professionals utilizing this platform are expected to possess a strong foundation in data engineering principles, with expertise in programming languages such as Python or Scala being highly advantageous. Responsibilities include designing, implementing, and optimizing data pipelines, as well as ensuring the scalability and reliability of the underlying infrastructure to support high-performance computing tasks.
A candidate must demonstrate strong expertise in donor engagement and resource mobilization, supported by a proven track record in these areas.
Professional experience in representing organizations within national-level coordination frameworks is required.
We seek an individual possessing robust analytical capabilities, adept problem-solving techniques, excellent communication skills, and strong negotiation expertise.
A professional with a proven track record in team leadership and the development of partner capabilities.
Qualifications
BA/BSc/HND , MBA/MSc/MA
Experience Required
8 - 10 years
