Deputy Director - Disaster and Water Resilience Programme

• Suva-based position (Fiji)
• Attractive expatriate package
• Join the principal development organization in the Pacific region

Description

The Pacific Community (SPC) is the principal scientific and technical organisation in the Pacific region, supporting development since 1947. We are an international development organisation owned and governed by our 27 country and territory members. In pursuit of sustainable development to benefit Pacific people, our organisation works across more than 25 sectors. We are known for our knowledge and innovation in such areas as fisheries science, education, public health, geoscience, and conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

The Geoscience Energy and Maritime (GEM) Division provides advice, technical assistance, research and training support to Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs). There are four (4) areas of scientific programming within this division:

1. Oceans and Maritime Programme (OMP) – assists member countries with services that provide applied ocean science and knowledge for evidence-based policy-making and technical solutions for improved ocean and maritime governance, management and capacity development.
2. Georesources and Energy Programme (GEP) – assists member countries by applying technical knowledge in the areas of geoscience and sustainable energy use.
3. Disaster and Community Resilience Programme (DCRP) – assists member countries to demonstrate strengthened resilience through integrated action on disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, natural resource management and increased access to water and sanitation.
4. Earth and Ocean Observation Services – Promoting spatial data and systems analysis and capacity to improve decision-making to improve resilience and sustainable resource management.

The role – Deputy Director – Disaster and Water Resilience Programme will oversee the people and programs in the Disaster and Community Resilience Programme in the thematic areas of disaster risk management and water security. This involves providing high level leadership and management oversight, providing technical excellence across the thematic areas and functions of the programme, driving resource mobilisation and managing financial aspects of the programme and integrated programming within and across GEM and SPC.

The key responsibilities of the role include:

Leadership and management

• Provide people leadership, engagement, and operational guidance to contribute to the effective delivery of all projects within the technical programme.
• Design, implement and effectively deliver annual work plans and work plan reports for DCRP within budget and in accordance with established targets, results and outcomes.
• Develop guidance tools such as communities of practice, participatory workshops, learning events, templates, to enhance the project management capacity of the technical programme.
• Provide supervision of project level reporting and reviews to ensure Programme/project activities and budgets are executed in accordance with contractual requirements and approved budgets.
• Ensure that monitoring, evaluation, reflection and learning (MERL) activities and methods and are incorporated into project implementation and service delivery.

Technical excellence of functions and outcomes of the portfolio

• Provide technical leadership to develop the area of scientific and technical programming.
• Lead, coordinate and facilitate multi-stakeholder consultative approaches and forums to develop, negotiate and later evaluate and reflect on strategic/programmatic areas of work including at a high level for regional and national priority areas.
• Drive awareness of this capability with members and donors ensuring regional coordination and collaboration.
• Develop and maintain an integrated divisional work programme that focuses on technical and scientific priority areas of member countries and territories.
• Oversee and manage the outcomes of projects within the portfolio to deliver across the thematic and functional areas of DCRP and GEM.

Resource mobilisation and financial management

• Contribute to, drive and support mobilisation initiatives with funding agencies and advocate for long-term funding support for the work of the division among the donor community.
• Explore new work opportunities that align to new / emerging development priorities of PICTs.
• Manage budget allocations within areas of responsibility with appropriate costings in place; ensure the strategic direction of budget allocations is consistent with Divisional priorities.
• Ensure audit compliance levels adhere to SPC and donor standards in areas of scientific programming.

Integrated programming

• Learn from SPC ‘better practices’ to define programming approaches for the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes and projects that will contribute to long term development impact in the region.
• Investigate research and evaluate ‘best practice’ business processes to enable an integrated programming approach.
• Support and promote communities of practice, participatory workshops, learning events on programming policies to absorb the programming design approach into all potential opportunities across the technical programme.
• Identify strategic and development communications pieces through relevant channels to both documents, highlight and encourage the benefit of strong programmatic design into the technical programme.

For a more detailed account of the key responsibilities, please refer to the online job description.

Key selection criteria

Qualifications

• A Master’s degree from a recognised institution in a discipline relevant to project/programme management, international development, climate or disaster risk management, water and sanitation, or equivalent body of knowledge and experience.

Technical expertise

• At least 15 years of demonstrated management experience in a public sector or research environment in managing science related resources or a similar field, including financial management.
• Demonstrated ability to lead strategically with a solid understanding of programme management with prior experience working in Pacific Island countries and territories.
• Demonstrated experience in relationship building and working with a wide variety of donors and development partners with awareness of their policies and procedures.
• Proven history of successfully building and leading multi-disciplinary teams, including people of different national and cultural backgrounds, and demonstrated ability to manage professional, technical, and program support staff in a team environment, ensuring everyone’s role contributes to successful team outputs.
• Demonstrated experience of leading and coordinating high level strategic consultation processes for regional positioning across a relevant sectoral agenda.
• Proven ability to influence work collegially and in partnership with stakeholders and internal partners towards an agreed outcome.
• Demonstrated skills and experience in continuous improvement and facilitating innovation across teams.
• Demonstrated experience in strategic resource mobilisation with development partners to address gaps and needs of priority areas.
• High-level verbal and written communication skills and the capacity to represent SPC at regional and international forums.
• Proven ability in project design, management, and reporting.
• Ability to work constructively to resolve issues, concerns, or differences of opinion.

Language skills

• Excellent English communication skills (oral and written) with a working knowledge of French being an advantage.

Interpersonal skills and cultural awareness

• Ability to work in a multicultural, inclusive and equitable environment.

Salary, terms and conditions

Contract Duration – Until 14 February 2028 – subject to renewal depending on funding and performance.

Remuneration – The Deputy Director – Disaster and Water Resilience Programme is a band 14 position in SPC’s 2025 salary scale, with a starting salary range of 4,784‒5,980 SDR (special drawing rights) per month, which currently converts to approximately FJD 14,399–17,999 (USD 6,362–7,953; EUR 5,860–7,325). An offer of appointment for an initial contract will normally be made in the lower half of this range, with due consideration given to experience and qualifications. Progression within the salary scale will be based on annual performance reviews. Remuneration of expatriate SPC staff members is not subject to income tax in Fiji; Fiji nationals employed by SPC in Fiji will be subject to income tax.

Benefits for international employees based in Fiji – SPC provides a housing allowance of FJD 1,500–5,200 per month. Establishment and repatriation grant, removal expenses, airfares, home leave travel, health and life and disability insurances and education allowances are available for eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Employees are entitled to 25 working days of annual leave per annum and other types of leave, and access to SPC’s Provident Fund (contributing 8% of salary, to which SPC adds a 10% contribution).

Languages – SPC’s working languages are English and French.

Recruitment principles – SPC’s recruitment is based on merit and fairness, and candidates are competing in a selection process that is fair, transparent and non-discriminatory. SPC is an equal-opportunity employer, and is committed to cultural and gender diversity, including bilingualism, and will seek to attract and appoint candidates who respect these values. Due attention is given to gender equity and the maintenance of strong representation from Pacific Island professionals. If two interviewed candidates are ranked equal by the selection panel, preference will be given to the Pacific Islander. Applicants will be assured of complete confidentiality in line with SPC’s Privacy Policy.

Application procedure

Closing Date: 30 March 2025 at 11:59pm (Fiji time)

Job Reference: JM000848

Applicants must apply online at http://careers.spc.int/

Hard copies of applications will not be accepted.

For your application to be considered, you must provide us with:

• an updated resume with contact details for three professional referees
• a cover letter detailing your skills, experience and interest in this position
• responses to all screening questions

Your application will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed at shortlisting stage if all the above documents are not provided. Applicants should not attach copies of qualifications or letters of reference. Please ensure your documents are in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.

For international staff in Fiji, only one foreign national per family can be employed with an entity operating in Fiji at any one given time. SPC may assist on a case-by-case basis with submissions to Fiji Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their consideration and final approval. SPC cannot and does not make any guarantee whatsoever of approval for such applications to Fiji Ministry of Foreign Affairs and where an application is approved, the spouse or partner will subject to such terms and conditions as may be set from time to time by the Ministry.

SPC does not charge a fee to consider your application and will never ask for your banking or financial information during the recruitment process.

Screening Questions (maximum of 2,000 characters per question):

1. The Disaster and Community Resilience Programme includes work that covers Disaster Risk Management and Water and Sanitation. With that, describe what you consider to be an important integrated issue to address across the two areas in order to move this work forward in the Pacific region?
2. Please provide an example for your demonstrated experience and leadership in securing sustainable financing that meets an agreed national/regional priority in order to achieve meaningful outcomes?
3. In managing a large multisectoral team, how have you balanced competing priorities from external (members and donors) and internal shareholders to ensure mutually beneficial outcomes.