Summary

The Senior Director, Labor will directly manage home office and program staff and ensure technical, programmatic, and financial compliance with donor-funded programs, including timely and high-quality delivery of milestones. The Senior Director reports to the Senior Vice President, Programs.

Description

Duties include providing leadership and support to labor-related projects, including child labor, forced labor, acceptable conditions of work, and international labor standards, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) and the United States Department of State (DOS), among other potential donors, particularly in Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico. The Senior Director must have broad knowledge of labor issues, trade unions, worker’s organizations and/or labor rights organizations, socio-economic and political issues, with expertise in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), and knowledge of labor provisions in U.S. free trade agreements (FTAs). 

The Senior Director will use sound judgment and political sense to facilitate decision-making, particularly when managing relationships with stakeholders. This includes engaging with the private sector, civil society organizations, government, and multilateral stakeholders to ensure holistic and sustainable program implementation. 

The Senior Director will also lead and support the pursuit of new business opportunities, responding to solicitations and requests for proposals from the U.S. government (USG), corporate foundations, multilateral organizations, and other funding sources. 

Roles and Responsibilities 

  • Serve as liaison between POA and donors. 
  • Monitor and manage program work plans and budgets. 
  • Hire and train qualified home office and field staff, as needed and appropriate. 
  • Directly supervise program staff. 
  • Lead start-up and closeout procedures for programs, ensuring compliance and donor requirements.  
  • Monitor project(s) to ensure contractual and financial compliance, as well as achievement of project deliverables and impact. 
  • Monitor program budget(s) and financial reporting of sub-awardees and conduct random spot checks and mini audits. 
  • In close coordination with field program staff, support management of sub-awardees  contractual and technical deliverables. 
  • Deliver in-person trainings and webinars to home office and field staff. 
  • Maintain electronic filing system of all program documentation, stakeholder contacts and deliverables, in a timely and organized way, consistent throughout the implementation of the programs. 
  • Ensure delivery of high-quality M&E plans, annual reports, mid-year/end of project performance reports, annual work plans, technical reports, internal and external evaluations, sub-award technical reports, special studies, and other reports as per the award requirements. 
  • Support and represent the Senior Vice-President, Programs as the operational focal point person for key institutional donors such as DOS, USDOL and USAID, among other potential donors. 
  • Prepare reports and talking points for the Board of Directors pertaining to the Labor Unit. 
  • Lead communication efforts with field staff and responding to questions from home and field offices regarding Partners and donor policies and regulations and award requirements. 
  • Oversee the development of yearly operating budgets and monitor program budget to meet the projected yearly spending goals and monitor burn rate. 
  • Monitor project’s progress to ensure that activities occur according to proposed timeline and provide guidance, as needed. 
  • Approve monthly field reports from sub-awardees to ensure compliance with reporting requirements. 
  • Lead and oversee knowledge management efforts of the Unit, as well as the Unit’s strategic communication efforts and materials.  
  • Provide oversight of contracts and agreements to ensure that all required documentation is in order, they are carried out according to schedule, and that payments are made in a timely manner.  
  • Work with field staff to ensure compliance with terms of reference.  
  • Guide and support programs/field offices to develop and review memos, contracts, agreements with sub-awardees, and addendums as needed. 
  • Process all wires and payments from home office to the field and contractors. 
  • Review, edit, and approve technical reports and draft project revisions for submission to donor, as needed. 
  • Travel to visit programs and oversee programmatic implementation, conduct reviews, provide operations support and build capacity on donor requirements. 
  • Review project deliverables and reports for timeliness, high quality, completeness and provides comments and technical input. 
  • Drafting and completing project approval requests, sub-awardees and grantee obligation and administrative modifications, procurement action requests, and submitting for approval. 
  • Provide input in technical proposal design and strategizing for proposal development processes. 
  • Provide input to fundraising efforts and donor relations. 
  • Oversee pre-teaming and teaming agreements with local partners and negotiate technical capacities and budgets as part of the proposal development process. 
  • Lead writing and editing technical documents for new opportunities including proposals, capability statements, and other documents. 
  • Lead and oversee the preparation of budgets and accompanying budget narratives. 
  • Gather intelligence for up-coming funding opportunities. 
  • Travel to gather information to design and develop new business opportunities. 
  • Support the Senior Vice-President, Programs in the approval process of wire transfers, financial reports.
  • Other tasks as needed and appropriate.

Qualifications and Minimum Requirements 

  • Master’s degree in in a subject relevant to international development, international relations and/or labor issues. 
  • Minimum of 15 years of experience in international development.
  • Experience managing teams, preferably remotely.
  • Experience managing multiyear multimillion dollar USG-funded programs.
  • Experience with USG sub-award mechanisms.
  • Ability to meet deadlines, multi-task, and strong attention to detail are required; and 
  • Proven experience with personnel management. 
  • Experience leading or contributing to technical narratives and other business development tasks. 
  • Ability to work and lead teams in a multi-cultural setting. 
  • Strong oral and writing skills in English and Spanish written, spoken and reading, excellent communication and analytical skills. 
  • Ability to develop high-quality full proposals (design, strategy, delegation of duties, etc.) and/or reports. 
  • Proven ability to develop and execute strategic plans for the unit that result in increased revenues and accurate unit spending in accordance with budget projections. 
  • Ability to manage 5+ staff, including remote supervision of field staff. 
  • Proven track record of raising public and/or private funds, if applicable to the position. 
  • Ability to competently cultivate relationships with new and established donors, partners, and/or other high-level stakeholders. 
  • Ability to represent unit at external functions/events (speaking engagements, serving on panels, etc.). 
  • Must be able to travel internationally to and from the United States without need for visa sponsorship. 
  • Travel up to 25%.  

Preferred 

  • Ability to develop high-quality full proposals (design, strategy, delegation of duties, etc.) and/or reports. 

Supervisory responsibilities: Chief of Party, Program Directors, Program Officers, Senior Program Officers, Associate Directors, Directors, and other specified program staff.

Core & Professional Competencies 
Universal  

  • Accountability: Holds self and others accountable for measurable high-quality, timely, and cost-effective results.  
  • Building Trust: Interacts with others in a way that gives them confidence in one’s motives and representations and those of the organization. Is seen as direct and truthful; keeps assurances, promises, and commitments.  
  • Cultural Competence: Cultivates opportunities through diverse people; respects and relates well to people from varied backgrounds, understands diverse worldviews, and is sensitive to group differences; sees diversity as an opportunity, challenges bias and intolerance.  
  • Problem-Solving: Breaks down problems into components and recognizes interrelationships; makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions. Compares data, information, and input from a variety of sources to draw conclusions; takes action that is consistent with available facts, constraints, and probable consequences.  

Universal Manager  

  • Delegating Responsibility: Allocates decision-making authority and/or task responsibility to others, as appropriate, in order to maximize the organizations and individual effectiveness.  
  • Decision Making: Makes choices by identifying a decision, gathering information, and assessing alternative resolutions. Takes responsibility for and demonstrates commitment to making appropriate decisions in a timely manner. Ensures that decisions are made based on policies, rules and organizational directives and solving the emerging problems.  
  • Coaching/Mentoring: Provides timely guidance and feedback to help others strengthen knowledge/skills areas needed to accomplish a task or solve a problem.  

Senior Management  

  • Creativity & Innovation: Anticipates and continually seeks ways to develop and improve for the organization and professionally as an individual, including staying current with tools, trends, and techniques. In senior roles, proactively finds opportunities for business growth and improvement.  
  • Strategic Leadership: Expresses a strategic vision for the organization; ability to motivate and persuade others to acquire that vision.  
  • Organizational Management: Maintains a broad view of the organization, monitoring progress and challenges and identifying whether organizational strategies are working effectively towards our mission, vision, and long-term sustainability. Supports the organization in adjusting activities based on results and feedback and takes responsibility to drive change processes where needed.  Enables the organization to adapt to a changing environment. Does this all while advancing organizational security.       
  • Conflict Management: Uses appropriate interpersonal styles and techniques to reduce tension and conflict between two or more people; able to size up situations quickly; able to identify common interests; facilitates resolution. 

Senior Director 

  • Ability to develop high-quality full proposals (design, strategy, delegation of duties, etc.) and/or reports. 
  • Proven ability to develop and execute strategic plans for the unit that result in increased revenues and accurate unit spending in accordance with budget projections. 
  • Ability to manage 5+ staff, including remote supervision of field staff. 
  • Proven track record of raising public and/or private funds, if applicable to the position. 
  • Ability to competently cultivate relationships with new and established donors, partners, and/or other high-level stakeholders. 
  • Ability to represent unit at external functions/events (speaking engagements, serving on panels, etc).

Distribution of Time 

  • 75% Labor programs. 
  • 25% Business Development.  
  • Travel Requirement Percentage: Approx. 25%; however, this may change based on organizational needs.

The above job description is an overview of the functions and requirements for this position. This document is not intended to be an exhaustive list encompassing every duty and requirement of this position; your supervisor may assign other duties as deemed necessary. 

Position is located in Washington, DC and the salary range for this position is $99,711.00 to $149,567.00 annually. This position is a hybrid position and will be required to report to the DC office once a week at a minimum.

To apply, please submit your resume and cover letter to Andres Obertello at aobertello@partners.net with the subject line “Senior Director, Labor – Candidate Last Name”. Please note that only finalists will be contacted.

Partners is Proud To Be An Equal Employment Opportunity And Affirmative Action Employer. Partners Does Not Discriminate In Employment On The Basis Of Race, Color, Religion, Sex (Including Pregnancy And Gender Identity), National Origin, Political Affiliation, Sexual Orientation, Marital Status, Disability, Genetic Information, Age, Membership In An Employee Organization, Retaliation, Parental Status, Military Service, Or Other Non-Merit Factor.