Who we
are
PEAS (Promoting
Equality in African Schools) is a UK
based charity/social enterprise with a
mission to ‘expand access to sustainably delivered, quality secondary education
across Africa’. PEAS establishes and operates low-cost secondary schools in
Uganda and Zambia in areas where access to quality secondary education is limited
due to cost and geographical barriers. PEAS’ interventions are built upon 3
pillars of education impact; Access, Quality and Sustainability. Since opening
its first schools in 2008, the PEAS network has grown to 30 schools, and we are
currently educating over 13,000 students. What’s more, external evaluations
have proven that although PEAS students come from poorer backgrounds and begin
secondary school academically behind their peers in other similar schools, they
are able make significantly more academic progress by studying in PEAS schools.
PEAS has a small
team of about 10 people in London who provide fundraising, programme and
management support to the country teams. PEAS has two country offices (a larger
one in Kampala, Uganda and a smaller one in Ndola, Zambia), who provide
management and programme support and supervision to the school networks. PEAS
Uganda has about 50 staff at the Country Office team and over 600 staff working
in the network schools. We work in close partnership with the governments of
Uganda & Zambia and local communities to help every learner in our schools
to gain the knowledge and skills needed to lead a fulfilling and socially
responsible life.
The Role
An outstanding
opportunity for an exceptional operations professional with strong financial
understanding and a proven track record of successfully driving organisational
strengthening to join a fast growing, value for money focused and
mission-driven organisation.
Reporting to the
Country Director, the Deputy Country Director of Operations will serve as an
integral member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) and will be responsible for
delivering organisation wide results on a day-to-day basis.
The role will work
closely with the Deputy Country Director of Programmes and Operations
department heads based in Kampala, and the equivalent Finance, Operations and
Support functions based in the PEAS UK office.
The position holder
will champion an organisation wide ‘value for money’ approach, driving
efficiencies and effectiveness both at the schools and support office levels
with a strong focus on sustainability. They will be responsible for Finance,
Operations and Human Resource leadership and delivery in PEAS Uganda. In
particular, the post-holder will lead the development and implementation of
PEAS ‘financial and operational management strategy’ which will involve policy
and guidelines development across these broad functions. This work will
facilitate and support organisation wide culture strengthening and programme
implementation thereby contributing to the achievement of organisational
strategic objectives.
Person
Specification
Essential
· Qualifications:
A Business or Accounting degree is strongly preferred as a minimum.
· Management Experience:
Minimum of 5 years senior management and leadership experience in an
operational and financial capacity – including managing departments of
professionals with high levels of technical expertise and managing through
others to deliver organisational improvements.
· Delivery and prioritisation:
Able to work well under pressure and deliver work with high levels of accuracy
to tight deadlines across a range of internal and external stakeholders while
balancing competing demands.
· Policy creation &
compliance: Experience in creating organisation wide policies
across finance, operations, and HR, together with overseeing operational
adherence.
· Experience with performance
management: Experience in utilising sound leadership and
management skills to ensure key deliverables are achieved on an individual,
departmental and organisation wide basis.
· Experience in financial
management: Experience in budget setting, cash flow management
and monthly management accounts reporting, together with overall management of
financial systems and processes.
· Financial regulation:
Knowledge and experience of financial regulatory requirements including
taxation, the financial year end process, the creation of statutory accounts
and liaising with external auditors and other stakeholders to ensure regulatory
requirements are met.
· Commercial sense:
Able to make high quality business decisions on a timely basis that ensure the
effective and efficient functioning of the organisation and ‘value for money’
for PEAS.
· Problem solving and thinking
strategically: Able to get things done by focusing on solutions
as opposed to problems and able to see the big picture while demonstrating
excellent attention to detail.
· Values driven:
Demonstrates PEAS values of effective, empowering, enduring, genuine &
collaborative.
· Great people skills:
Able to work effectively with staff of all levels.
· Excellent judgment and
creative problem solving skills
including negotiation and conflict resolution skills
· Excellent English
communication skills (both oral and written)
· Excellent IT skills
(i.e. Word, Outlook, Excel etc).
Application
process
Please submit a
cover letter (paying particular attention to the person specification) and
curriculum vitae to recruitment@peas.org.uk
Please
include all portions of your application in one attached document as a PDF
document, and use PEAS Deputy Country Director–Finance and Operations as the
subject of your email.
Only
complete applications will be reviewed and only qualified candidates will be
shortlisted and contacted.
Closing date
for applications: 8th July, 2016. 17:00 EAT.
Interviews
date will be communicated only to shortlisted candidates a week after closing
date.
