Director – Education & Protection

As a recognized subject-matter expert and leader in Girls’ Education and Child Protection, this role will lead the development and execution of cutting-edge, evidence-based strategies and plans that ensure transformational and lasting change for girls in India, fulfilling the Girl Capital Mission of Setting up girls for success.

This role will be expected to navigate through ambiguity, simplify complex matters and will ensure that the team takes a more strategic, long term and systemic view in both managing existing partners, as well as building and enhancing the overall suite of strategic partnerships that are essential for success across the India strategy, while keeping an eye on external risk

Additionally, this role will:

• Manage a team of Managers and Analysts to develop and deliver high-quality, timely proposals and programs aligned with the Foundation Strategy and Mission Priorities.
• Lead an ecosystem level engagement with a wide range of government and non-government stakeholders, building deep, aligned partnerships, and leveraging resources to achieve the Mission.
• Oversee a high-quality portfolio of investment proposals and active programs that deliver CIFF’s India priorities and meet the corporate objectives of the CIFF Board.
• This role will be accountable for the design and delivery of the Mission ‘Setting up girls for success’.

Role’s responsibilities

Strategy & planning

• Responsible for strategy, portfolio development, and programme management of investments, ensuring alignment with the Foundation’s Mission on Girl Capital for India, with a focus on education and child protection.
• Provide up-to-date, professional, strategic advice to the Executive Team and CIFF Board on related issues, supporting the development of Foundation strategies, policies, and initiatives.
• Leveraging advanced subject matter expertise and experience, provide thought and action-oriented leadership to support the Girl Capital Missions, leading the development and review of the medium-term Mission plan & priorities to maximize CIFF’s impact with available resources.
• Lead the development and implementation of multi-year business planning for the Girl Capital mission and be fully responsible for the Executable Plan to ensure effective prioritization of resources and activities each year.
• Cross-Functional Initiatives: Take the lead on corporate, cross-cutting initiatives and projects as required by the Executive Team.

Programme Development, Delivery & Performance

• Oversee the development of successful investment proposals and the implementation of high-impact programmes by a team of Managers and Analysts, ensuring their work aligns with Foundation priorities, objectives, and business operations in terms of quality and timeliness.
• Allocate and monitor individual targets for pipeline development, new investments, and grant draw-down for all team members to ensure the team meets its objectives for programme development and delivery.
• Conduct regular reviews of investment proposals and programmes in delivery to monitor compliance with due diligence and risk management protocols, protecting the interests and reputation of the Foundation. Identify and take proactive corrective action when necessary.
• Ensure all investment proposals and programmes are supported by appropriate monitoring and evaluation processes, in accordance with the frameworks and guidance of the Evidence, Measurement & Evaluation (EME) team. This supports the development of rigorous evidence and analysis for CIFF’s advocacy, scaling-up, and mainstreaming agendas.
• Use deep experitise and experience to provide professional advice, specialist guidance, and mentoring support to colleagues within and beyond the team to enhance the skills, capability, and professionalism of the organization.

Responsible to deepen CIFF’s expertise, thinking and approaches to build sustainable partnerships in India to strengthen the ecosystem

• Ensure that appropriate procedures and frameworks are in place to support the effective leveraging and scaling-up of successful programmes and initiatives in partnership with various ecosystem partners.
• Review team processes and procedures to identify and implement improvements that increase operational effectiveness and efficiency.
• Lead the collection and analysis of team performance data and management information, in accordance with CIFF corporate frameworks and requirements, to enable timely and effective decision-making and planning.
• Personally manage an end-to-end portfolio of live programmes valued at approximately $75M and maintain an active pipeline of potential investments valued at around $75M per year, in accordance with sector priorities and plans.

Sector knowledge and profile-building

• Adopt an ecosystem approach to the Girl capital mission to lead, develop and maintain excellent external relationships within the sector specialism, always acting as a corporate ambassador for CIFF, to help build the organization’s reputation and profile as a professional, visionary, and collaborative philanthropy.
• Proactively maintain extensive external networks with experts and opinion-formers within the area of education and child protection (and/or geographical) specialism, to ensure the Sector team’s work is shaped by the most up-to-date insights and research.
• Undertake or commission sector-relevant research and analysis to inform the effective development, delivery and evaluation of programmes and initiatives.
• Working with the Partnerships and External Affairs team, contribute to the development and promotion of high-quality thought leadership, PR, and marketing materials to raise awareness about CIFF’s work within the sector, ensuring alignment with the Foundation’s communications and advocacy strategies in a risk mitigated manner.

Stakeholder and partner management

• In accordance with agreed account management principles and plans, identify, cultivate, and proactively manage relationships with nominated key partners/stakeholders, to support the achievement of Foundation and sector team objectives in a coordinated manner.
• Advise and support more junior colleagues in identifying, negotiating with, and managing appropriate programme partners (as required), to enable CIFF to maximize its philanthropic impact through effective collaboration.

Leadership of the team

• Provide compelling, consistent, and united leadership which creates clarity for all staff in the team and builds a sense of shared accountability for its success and that of the organisation.
• Offer inspiring and motivational leadership that role models CIFF’s Code of Respect and leadership behaviours and empowers and enables staff to deliver excellence.
• Adopt a coaching approach with colleagues which instills a culture of openness and trust, embraces diverse thinking, and encourages continuous improvement and learning.
• Provide ongoing support to all direct reports ensuring high performance is enabled through objective setting, clear accountabilities, coaching and regular review.

Key working relationships

• CIFF Board members
• Other CIFF teams – particularly EME, Africa Girl Capital and functional teams (e.g., legal, HR, finance)
• Global institutional partners/stakeholders
• National governments and local NGO partners in priority geographies working on education, child protection and related sectors.
• Research and academic institutions active within sector specialism

Management dimensions

• Responsibility for personal pipeline and delivery targets of c.$100M and c. $60M respectively, in addition to those for direct reports
• Contributes to the effective performance of the sector’s whole portfolio.
• Total staff numbers within the sector team: approximately 2

Requirements

Skills & Experience

• Recognised as a advanced subject-matter expert with significant experience in an area relevant to Girl Capital sector’s strategy focus of education and/or child protection (as evidenced via publications and/or previous programme delivery), with a track record of working successfully in one of CIFF’s priority geographies.
• Comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the development sector in India and as relevant, globally.
• Detailed understanding of using cost-benefit and ROI methodologies and metrics to inform strategy and business planning.
• Excellent people leadership skills and proven ability to motivate, develop and hold to account a small- to medium-sized teams of professionals.
• Effectively champions and promotes causes – credible and professional, always present the foundation’s programmes in a compelling way to engage the audience.
• Proven success in building and maintaining strategic relationships and working in partnership; has highly developed influencing and negotiation skills, and effectively collaborates to deliver maximum impact.
• Capacity to work in a range of cultural and socio-economic contexts, adapting style and approach appropriately and in a culturally sensitive manner to maximise effectiveness.
• Able to think critically and analytically to draw sound conclusions based on complex data.
• Experience of identifying and delivering business process improvements
• High-level of financial literacy

Source: https://apply.workable.com/ciff/j/11EE426EED/