Aga Khan Agency for Habitat

An exciting opportunity to build the future

Chief Executive Officer  - Syria

The Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) has been established to ensure that communities in the Aga Khan Development Network’s (AKDN) operational area, live in physical settings that are as safe as possible from the effects of natural disasters, and that these physical settings are conducive for developing economic opportunities and have access to social and financial services. AKAH is establishing operations in Syria delivering programs in the areas of habitat improvement, water and sanitation, household renewable energy, and emergency preparedness and response.  AKAH’s mandate is to:

ensure that in areas of operation, communities are made as safe as possible through the implementation of structural mitigation programmes where necessary;
ensure that the communities’ homes in these settings are structurally resilient and able to withstand the effects of earthquakes and other natural disasters;
ensure that housing is developed in areas that are physically safe, or can be made acceptably safe, from the effects of natural disasters, and that the buildings themselves are structurally resilient to natural disaster events;
ensure that AKDN and community social infrastructure (schools, health centres etc.) are built in safe locations and that the buildings themselves meet specifications and standards for resilience to natural disasters;
Facilitate and or implement programs improving access to basic services i.e. water and sanitation infrastructure, waste management, household level renewable energy
ensure an effective state of preparedness and ability to respond to disasters in all prone areas, through actions aimed at improving community preparedness, weather and risk monitoring and improving physical access to, and communications with, risk prone areas.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) will be based in country and will provide strategic and operational leadership to the start-up of a new country unit for Aga Khan Agency for Habitat in Syria. This will include local set up of operational processes; hiring and managing the country team, oversee the preparation of annual budgets and be responsible for the development and implementation of annual and long-term work plans. The CEO will be a contributing member of the AKAH leadership team and the policy advisory committee of AKAH.

Qualifications and Experience

The successful applicant as a minimum will have:
Education: a post graduate qualification Masters level in a relevant or related field in International Development, DRR Emergency Response, Business Administration
Experience managing field units involved in a significant amount of programme implementation;
Experience managing an operation with a large and diverse (ethnically, culturally, religiously) workforce
Experience overseeing the preparation of large and complex budgets; and proven managerial skills with written and oral fluency in English
Personal Characteristics include:
Can live by the ethos of AKDN and display the values of AKAH – integrity, inclusiveness, respect, compassion and sharing, self-reliance, meritocracy, trusteeship, spirit of enquiry and engage other to live by these values
Resilient, adaptable able to make difficult decisions and solve problems with ambiguous information.
Innovative and creative
Takes personal accountability and collaborates effectively
Strives for quality and excellence in all that he/she does
Leads change towards a shared vision
Provides thought leadership
Safeguards the Agency and AKDN from risk
Qualified  applicants should apply on line through the AKDN website:
www.akdn.org/careers/1448775
Closing date 11 March 2019