Plan International is an independent development and humanitarian organisation that advances children’s rights and equality for girls.
We believe in the power and potential of every child. But this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination. And it’s girls who are most affected.
Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners, we strive for a just world, tackling the root causes of the challenges facing girls and all vulnerable children.

We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. And we enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.
We have been building powerful partnerships for children for over 85 years, and are now active in more than 80 countries.



The Opportunity
This role will help to drive Operational Excellence across the West and Central Africa – WACA’s growing and complex portfolios. It will ensure continuous improvement across all the key management standards by providing strategic analysis on performance, supporting the functional people, process & system improvement implementation risk management and drive new solutions/initiatives for effective service delivery, contributing to Plan International’s global strategy In the West and Central Africa Region.

The Director of Operations will bring critical analysis, insights and implementation lead to drive strategy, growth, and operational efficiency within the organisation. S/he will maintain an organisation-wide perspective and support decision-making among WACA regional leadership. S/he will partner with other senior leaders within the region to strengthen Plan International’s programme performance by providing key insights on leadership to enable the organisation to determine progress towards our strategic ambition, ranging from strategic results frameworks to day-to-day operational excellence in fulfilment of the mandate of the WACA Region as a whole.


Technical expertise, skills and knowledge
• Master’s degree or higher in relevant field (financial management, IT, business analytics, supply chain management or business management and administration)
• Experience in operations director level role in Humanitarian/Development sector Strong business analytics skills in relation to business resources and solutions functional areas
• Experience of managing a workstream in a large transformation programme across diverse and complex organisations
• Experience in leading process re-engineering across diverse and complex organisations
• Ability to support high performing teams in multiple locations
• Results oriented management with Strategic agility to get things done
• Understanding of working in INGOs is an advantage
• Track record of identifying opportunities to remove cost and improve effectiveness
• Experienced at liaising and translating between technology and business needs

• Senior management/leadership in complex and global organisations with multiple stakeholders
• High financial literacy and ability to interpret and communicate complex data and reports
• Supply chain management experience or understanding
• Clear understanding of the impact of decisions taken across Plan International
• Proven capacity to analyse and understand complex situations and identify the core issues that need to be acted upon
• Strong interpersonal, communication and engagement skills.
• Proven ability to handle conflict situations in a constructive manner.
• Ability to build multi-stakeholder consensus in relation to complex situations with conflicting interest.
• Lean six-sigma black-belt qualified or equivalent level in other process methodology
• Able to use evidence to back decisions and form business cases
• Previous experience of overseeing planning cycles, performance reporting, and strategic decision making, either from a global or regional perspective.
• Experience of working with, supporting and influencing at leadership levels.
• French language essential / an advantage


Please follow the link to the full role profile: JD Director of Ops WACA Final.pdf
• Location: Preferred locations either: Togo, Benin, Cameroon, Burkina Faso or Ghana. Re-location will be offered if necessary.
• Type of Role: 2-year Fixed term contract
• Reports to: Regional Director – West and Central Africa
• Competitive salary and package available
• Closing Date: 24th September
• Anticipated 1st round interviews – 9th October 2023