Danish Refugee Council is a leading protection agency pursuing our mandate to protect and promote durable solutions to displacement-affected populations based on humanitarian principles. In the East Africa and the Great Lakes, DRC applies a regional approach with operational presence in Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. DRC Uganda’s strategic vision for 2025 is to be a leading innovator and collaborator with displacement affected communities in Uganda in their attainment of meaningful and sustainable solutions to displacement and the associated challenges they face – specifically, threats to their rights and exclusion from the resource and systems individuals and communities require to build self-reliance and resilience. DRC Uganda has operational presence in Northern and South-Western Uganda with an annual portfolio of USD 10 million that covers flagship programming under the Refugee Investment Fund, Uganda Cash Consortium and Northern Uganda Resilience Initiative.

DRC Uganda focuses on collaboration with civil society, refugee communities and local duty-bearers in the attainment of the country operation’s vision to contribute towards the achievement of meaningful with a target of increasing the number of projects implemented in equitable local partnership to 75% or more by 2025.

Overall purpose of the role and geographical scope:

The HoSS will ensure the existence of effective and efficient support services in the areas of Finance, Administration, Human Resources, IT and Supply Chain. The HoSS will play a key role in developing and implementing country specific strategies as well as improving operational systems, processes, and policies in support of DRC’s mission in Uganda. She/he will be a member of the Senior Management Team, with overall responsibility of program support and timely completion of annual performance indicators under support functions. She/he will play a significant part in qualifying and implementing initiatives coming from the global and regional DRC organizational development and financial accountability initiatives. Furthermore, the HoSS will ensure timely and appropriate communication with Area Managers, Base Managers, Sector Managers and Project Managers concerning all issues related to finance, administration, supply chain and human resources and work proactively to resolve differences and prioritize time-sensitive tasks.

This role has a country focus and ensures compliance to DRC procedures and guidelines within the country. The role - is a focal point for DRC Dynamics. The role provides support and/or technical guidance to country operations while overseeing country activities.

Responsibilities:

The Head of Support services works under the direct supervision of the Country Director based in Kampala and liaises with all program and operations across Uganda. S/he has the following specific responsibilities.

Management

Lead and manage the Support service teams Managers and technically manage area support Managers (including people planning, performance, well-being and development);
Manage, deliver and report on current operations programme support in geographic scope;
Establish high performing support teams ensuring high-quality approaches are maintained;
Develop and improve operational approaches, compliance, and systems, and support the Country Director to build and deliver effective and sustainable interventions;

Responsible for the strategic development, management and implementation of the support operations;

Ensure appropriate technical support is available to programs, in line with organizational priorities;
Ensure support for annual planning and review processes;
Direct responsibility for ensuring that the DRC Programme operates in accordance with DRC’s support function guidelines.
Operational management

Support the Country Director and the Senior Management Team in liaising with donors and authorities, especially as relates to issues of compliance, registration, and audit.
Oversee the operational support units for the country by providing strategic leadership and technical support to the areas under his/her supervision.
Supervision, audits and controlling and implementation of corrective actions related to DRC’s operational standards within support areas.
Ensure that DRC retains and continually develops its operational capacity to provide rapid emergency response in particular within its procurement and transport systems.
Actively contribute to the risk management plan and mitigations for the country that identifies the major financial and operational risks.
Ensure that all administrative and legal-related systems are accurate and maintained.
Work to build the capacity of the operational support staff throughout the operation through frequent in-service training sessions and mentoring support.
Contribute to the development and implementation of DRC’s global development initiatives.
Budget Management

Ensure that the Country Master Budget is updated on a regular basis and is used to adequately prepare project proposals or cost-cutting measures;
Develop country office support services budget including staff costs for all donor project proposals and track spending on regular basis to ensure budget is used according to plan.
Supervisor repsonsabilities

Supports the managers to coordinate the daily activities of each team to ensure workload is supported and prioritized appropriately.
Develops a capacity building and mentoring style of operations within the team offering trainings and opportunities within the organization for staff development.
Risk Management

Support the Country Director and the Senior Management Team in liaising with donors, auditors and authorities, especially as relates to issues of compliance, registration, and audit respectively;
Supervision, audits.,controlling and implementation of corrective actions related to DRC’s operational standards within support area;
Support Senior Management to ensure risk register is up to date and action plan is implemented accordingly.
Participate in audit kick-off and exit meetings and ensure cooperation at all time during every audit field works. Lead on providing management response on each audit report.
DRC Dynamics ERP System

Ensure ERP functionality is properly used by relevant staff;
Apply reports and data analytics from DRC Dynamics to improve overall performance;
Act as heavy user for most of the Projects & Finance functionalities.