Deputy Director

PeaceNexus Foundation is a Swiss operational foundation established in 2009. We help influential organisations increase their capacities to prevent conflict and build peace.

We focus on selected regions that are experiencing violent conflict or are at risk of lapsing into conflict, and that also have significant capacities for peace to build on. These include the Western Balkans, West Africa, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia where we provide advisory support to partners working at community, national or regional level to counter polarising trends that have triggered violence. We also work with international organisations to leverage their support for local peacebuilding, including in our regions.

Our vision is that governments, civil society, and businesses actively contribute to developing inclusive and peaceful societies.

Our mission is to strengthen the capacities of and collaboration between organisations to increase their contribution to reducing violence and building peace.

Our services include:

• Organisational Development for organisations with a mission related to building peace.
• Integrating Conflict Sensitivity and peacebuilding into the practices of organisations that do not focus on peace but have influence in conflict contexts.
• Business Engagement to improve how businesses mitigate conflict risks and contribute to building peace.

We value pluralism and individual rights and believe that honest, informed, and inclusive dialogue is key to achieving progress within organisations and society.

Roles and Responsibilities

Management Team

The Deputy Director will join the three-member PeaceNexus Management Team (with the Executive Director and Finance and Administration Director) that provides strategic, operational, and financial leadership under the oversight of the PeaceNexus Board.

Programme Management

The core of the Deputy Director role is to support (with the Executive Director) the regional and/or international programme teams to develop and implement coherent programme strategies in a professional and accountable way that enables informed risk-management and continuous learning and adaptation. Key responsibilities include:

• Supervise regional and/or international programme leads, and selected HQ staff.
• Support teams to develop annual work plans and budgets that are able to deliver the strategy.
• Support context analysis and adaptation in volatile environments to ensure the programme strategy remains relevant and able to deliver the Foundation’s objectives.
• Work with the teams to identify, develop, and manage partnerships that contribute to our strategic goals.
• Monitor the delivery of annual work plans for compliance with the Foundation’s policies, systems and processes and agreed budgets.
• Support teams to monitor, reflect and adapt as part of project management and to capture and share results and lessons learned internally and externally.

Operational Management

The Deputy Director also has responsibility for the operational management of the Foundation, in close collaboration with the Director of Finance and Administration. Responsibilities include:

• Ensure effective operational risk management and duty of care policies and systems are in place to manage staff security and wellbeing and to minimise operational risk.
• Support the Finance and Administration Director to ensure financial and administrative policies and systems are in place and are being implemented.
• Support the Executive Director in maintaining a constructive relationship with the Governing Board including by reporting on programme outcomes and plans.

Learning Management

The Deputy Director shares responsibility for creating a learning culture that promotes individual and collective professional development, in close collaboration with the Executive Director and programme staff. Responsibilities include:

• Implement HR systems that incentivise individual professional development and support to the development of colleagues.
• Support teams to deliver core services and enable adaptation and experimentation.

For more information, read the full job description on our website.