Agency Director Mexico

this position is no longer available

To apply, email your résumé to:
Ana Maria Arevalo, Global Telent Growth Director
amarevalo@children.org

Reports to: Regional Director and Local Board of Directors (President)

About Children International

Children International is a nonprofit humanitarian organization working to eradicate poverty around the world. At CI, we believe that ending poverty starts with children. Without help, children in poverty become adults in poverty. Our vision is to bring people together to put an end to that through programs focused on health, education, empowerment through life skills and, ultimately, employment. Ours is a unique, long-term, customized approach that allows us to stay with our children for the first two decades of their lives. We’re in it for the long haul because we know that the 220,000 children we support in 10 countries around the world deserve a fighting chance.

Children International’s work is made possible by generous and caring sponsors, donors, corporations, more than 9,000 dedicated volunteers and approximately 1,600 employees. To ensure our programs give children the best possible chance of breaking the poverty cycle, we are elevating our practices for growing our people talent worldwide. That’s where you come in.

Position summary

The Agency Director role represents the highest leadership position at each of our country locations around the world. This inspirational leader will guide the CI team in Mexico to fulfill our vision: “Bringing people together to end poverty for good.” The Agency Director is employed by CHILDREN, a locally registered organization with offices and operations in Mexico. CHILDREN is an affiliate of Children International, a global development organization based in Kansas City, USA.

This position reports to the Regional Director and local Board of Directors and is responsible for leading the Agency to achieve established child and youth impact results. The leader will accomplish this by defining and executing the Agency’s strategy, overseeing the implementation of our Program Results Framework and building operational excellence.

As a progressive and innovative leader, you will strive to create a high-performance, values-driven culture. You will model CI’s values, promote staff development and advocate for accountability and collaboration among our employees and volunteers. You will be responsible for ensuring operational effectiveness and adherence to internal controls and child protection policies to preserve the ongoing integrity of our operations. You will champion experimentation and problem solving, build strong partnerships and encourage continuous improvement with key stakeholders (children, families, volunteers and other community organizations) to give our children and youth the greatest opportunity for success.

We are looking for a passionate advocate for children, a leader who thrives on unleashing others’ potential. Top candidates will be exemplary leaders with a superb operations acumen and a good understanding of child and community development and sustainability.

This position is critical to the future of Children International. It promises to be challenging, but you’ll see the rewards of the work in the eyes of the youth who graduate from our programs and in the gratitude of employees who have grown and developed under your leadership to make it happen. If you heart is beating a little faster at this point, you could be the person we are looking for.

Key Accountabilities/Scope

The Agency Director's key accountabilities are:

Lead the Agency to achieve established child and youth impact results by defining and executing the Agency’s strategy.
Overseeing the implementation of CI’s program offering and building operational excellence.
Strive to create a high-performance, values-driven culture by modeling CI’s values, promote staff development and advocate for accountability and collaboration among employees and volunteers.
Ensure operational effectiveness and adherence to external regulatory laws and guidelines, internal controls, child protection policy and other safeguarding policies to preserve the ongoing integrity of our operations.
Champion experimentation and problem solving, build strong partnerships and encourage continuous improvement with key stakeholders (children, families, volunteers, and other community organizations) to give our children and youth the greatest opportunity for success.
Strictly observe confidentiality and strong ethics with respect to all beneficiary, staff, volunteer information/data.
Comply with and ensure adherence to the agency’s policies, safety and security protocols and child safeguarding norms and guidelines by self as well all stakeholders both internal and external.
Promote diversity and inclusion, value other cultures, and demonstrate respect while relating with all organizational constituents irrespective of their race, color, faiths, gender, sexual orientation, age, caste, disabilities, experiences, beliefs and ethnicity.

Roles and Responsibilities

Board Administration and Risk Management

Serve as liaison between the local Board and CI International. Coordinate meetings with the Board of Directors in accordance with policies established in the Articles of Incorporation and CI guidelines; maintain minutes and statutory records.
Engage with the Board of Directors on all governance and compliance matters effectively. Conduct official correspondence with Statutory authorities on behalf of the Board as well as jointly with the Board as appropriate.
Work with the Board President and other members to facilitate nomination of new members on the Board post resignation of present members or due to rotation required by the society's rules and Memorandum of Understanding.
Work closely with the Board and other key staff to identify, evaluate, and mitigate the risks to the organization's people (clients, staff, management, volunteers), property, finances, goodwill, and reputation.
Design and implement appropriate systems and controls to minimize potential business, financial, compliance, reputational and other significant risks facing the Agency.

Strategic planning and execution

Engage with regional and corporate officers in broader organizational strategic planning.
Lead successful strategic planning and execution around the Program Results Framework prioritizing the areas of greatest need for the Agency.
Lead the Agency’s annual work planning process. Advise and support the key staff to make decisions about programmatic components (materials, resources, personnel, costs, and partnerships) to continually improve and innovate on quality and efficiency of field operations.
Oversee daily operations of the agency, ensuring performance and productivity.
Proactively lead change within a complex, ever-changing work environment. Look ahead for change opportunities and generate innovative ideas to advance programs and presence in the sector.
Contribute to the Agency’s thought leadership, including managing self-reflection efforts to ensure that the organization is continuously iterating, learning and improving in program delivery.
Actively identify, analyze, and optimize existing business processes to improve services to the beneficiaries.
Ensure Agency financial stewardship, key performance metrics, child impact results and outcomes.
Coach the Agency in goal setting and results delivery.
Drive growth in the areas of constituent base, programs, partnerships, and budget outlay.
Ensure compliance with Child Protection protocols and policies.
Develop and implement systems for impact measurement and timely reporting.

Financial planning, management and compliance

Ensure adherence to all statutes, CI policies, business ethics, code of conduct, statutory regulatory guidelines, local laws, and regulations. This includes key financial controls, auditing, purchasing and the segregation of duties.
Work with the managerial team and other key staff to prepare a comprehensive annual budget that duly supports the Agency’s annual work plan. Supervise that the funds of the organization are administered according to the approved budget and plan.
Assure the accuracy and integrity of the Organization’s financial reporting and disclosure requirements. Oversee internal controls and ensure sound bookkeeping and accounting procedure.

Stakeholder Engagement, Partnerships and Community Relations

Communicate strategy and results to the Agency’s employees and report key results to regional and corporate officers.
Build strong relations and networking with colleagues in headquarters and other agencies. Partner with other Agencies to share best practices, learnings and other approaches to stakeholder engagement.
Network and build alliances with external partners, government and other NGOs.
Represent the organization effectively. Ensure the mission, programs and services are consistently presented in a strong, positive image to relevant stakeholders including volunteers, beneficiaries, and sponsors to enhance the organization's community profile.
Deepen and refine all aspects of communications—from web and social media presence to external relations with the goal of creating a stronger brand.
Ensure the Agency complies with Sponsor Relations requirements and promote and end-to-end understanding of the business.
Handle CI donor visits, accompany special sponsor visits and promote adequate execution and reporting of special donations.

Enable High-Performance Value Driven Culture

Hire, lead, develop, coach and retain a high-performance senior management team that is best fit for the organization in terms of skills, competencies and leadership behaviors.
Develop the skill level of Agency staff members for current and new roles.
Model and ensure Agency core values are nurtured and inculcated across team members and promote a high-performance value-driven culture characterized by compliance, ethics, inclusivity, and integrity.
Develop and empower a learning culture that addresses Agency challenges and solves problems.
Proactively lead the agency teams especially key staff, through change by championing improvement initiatives, agency-wide changes, or CIKC originated change projects.

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND KEY SKILLS

A Bachelor’s degree, advanced degree preferred, with a minimum of 15 years of which at least 3 years are with relevant management and operations experience.
Proven track record in managing funds, multi-disciplinary teams, information systems, external agencies and working with a Board of Directors.
Exceptional leadership capabilities with the ability to inspire, influence, develop and empower diverse teams and stakeholders.
Experience of supporting the organizations work, to adapt critically and strategically to address an ever-changing work environment. Embrace and foster a positive outlook toward change.
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (both written and verbal in English), with a history of inspiring collaboration across various functions.
Results-oriented with demonstrated ability to execute strategic objectives.
Demonstrated ability to achieve outcomes within established resources and work effectively in a flat organization.
High level of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook.

ATTRIBUTES

Self-motivated and proactive with a high level of compassion, empathy, and passion to work on complex social causes specially the cause of children and youth. a commitment to making a difference in the world
Comfort working in multiple environments from our community centers to the neighborhoods where our children and youth live, to the Board Room.
Actively pursues learning and self-development. Willingness to constantly update themselves with the latest development in their field of expertise; seeks feedback; modifies behavior in light of right feedback.
Believes in collaboration and teamwork
Promotes diversity, values other cultures, and demonstrates respect for a wide range of faiths, beliefs, experiences, and ethnically diverse populations.
Ability to project and maintain a calm work atmosphere while concurrently operating in a time and deadline intensive, customer-driven environment.
Exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity reflective of a leader within an outstanding organization.

In addition to the above, the following are highly desirable in the ideal candidate:

Past experience of working with a development organization.
Coaching and mentoring knowledge and experience.
For Latin America, fluency in spoken English and advanced writing skills.

Travel Requirement: Willingness to travel around 5-10% of time

We firmly support the principle and philosophy of equal opportunity for all individuals, regardless of age, race, caste, gender, sexual orientation, creed, disability etc. Our talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to promoting diversity within the organization, alignment to our vision, mission and values as well as protecting children and vulnerable youth from abuse and exploitation.

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