JOB DETAILS

LOCATION: Erbil, Iraq

CONTRACT TYPE: Global, Fixed Term – 12 months, contract renewable

JOB FAMILY: Programme

ONE OXFAM GRADE:   C1     

DEPARTMENT:

TEAM: Oxfam in Iraq, Country Management Team

SALARY:  As per Oxfam Salary Scale

HOURS: Full-time role, 40 hours per week

FLEXIBLE WORKING

‘We believe flexible working is key to building the Oxfam of the future, so we’re open to talking through the type of flexible arrangements which might work for you. The working base and country of employment would be restricted to locations where Oxfam GB is a registered and legal entity.

COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organization.

DEPARTMENT PURPOSE:

The Programme Team is overall responsible, and accountable for the development, design, management, and monitoring of country programmes for Oxfam in Iraq. The Programme Team is responsible for ensuring that the Oxfam country programmes align with the Oxfam Country Strategy (OCS) and address priority needs and contextual trends.

The team is tasked with designing programmes that are relevant and responsive to the country’s needs, considering the political, economic, social, and cultural context. This requires a thorough understanding of the local context, including the needs of vulnerable communities and the challenges they face. Additionally, the Programme Team is responsible for effectively managing and monitoring the implementation of these programmes to ensure they are delivered efficiently and effectively. They must ensure that the programmes are in line with the Oxfam in Iraq’s overall objectives and outcomes and that they contribute to the organization’s mission of ending poverty and inequality.

The Programme Team works closely with other teams within Oxfam in Iraq to ensure coherence and alignment with the overall strategy. They must also engage with external stakeholders, including partners, donors, and government agencies, to build relationships and secure support for the programmes. Furthermore, the Programme Team must ensure that the programmes are sustainable and have a lasting impact on the communities they serve. This requires a focus on building the capacity of local partners and communities to ensure they can continue to benefit from the programmes long after Oxfam’s intervention has ended.

The Programme Team plays a crucial role in ensuring the success of Oxfam in Iraq’s programmes. Their responsibilities range from design and development to management and monitoring, ensuring alignment with the Oxfam Country Strategy and addressing priority needs and contextual trends. Their work is critical to advancing Oxfam’s mission of ending poverty and inequality, and it requires close collaboration with other teams and external stakeholders to achieve lasting impact.

TEAM PURPOSE:

Oxfam has been working in Iraq since the 1990’s responding to both humanitarian crises as well as to development needs. In 2025 Oxfam implements work through 2 offices in Anbar and Erbil. Our humanitarian and development priorities in country are Climate Justice, Economic Justice and Gender. The role ensures cross-cutting technical leadership and integrated program delivery.

Across these themes, our programmatic approach is:

·       Continually looks to improve quality and lead through innovation.

·       Mainstreams gender and ensures women’s rights are at the heart of everything Oxfam does.

·       Establishes and maintains transformative partnerships to facilitate local leadership

·       Promotes complementary advocacy, where possible, to influence systemic change

The Head of Programmes will play a pivotal role in ensuring efficient, effective, and sustainable program delivery. This includes leading program design, development, and implementation while working closely with the Funding Coordinator (BD and Grants) to secure program funding and drive new program development.

JOB PURPOSE: Head of Programmes will play a pivotal role in ensuring efficient, effective, and sustainable program delivery. This includes leading program design, development, and implementation while working closely with the Funding Coordinator (BD and Grants) to secure program funding and drive new program development.

As such, the Head of Programmes has a crucial role in strategy development and adherence, and is responsible for ensuring that policies, systems, and people are continuously and accurately working in a coordinated manner to ensure that a coherent and comprehensive program is designed and implemented.

The position is also responsible for cross-cutting programmatic information management, sound design of and overseeing assessments, monitoring, and evaluation, and ensuring that information collected is reflected upon, used to improve ongoing projects, and is incorporated into consistently high-quality grant proposals and reports. S/he also plays a key role in fundraising activities and external representation, alongside the Country Director, and acts as the primary focal point for Oxfam’s programming portfolio in Iraq.

In order to ensure successful program implementation, the Head of Programmes needs to have an in-depth understanding of the country context and be able to identify and analyse key issues in order to develop appropriate strategies and ensure effective implementation. S/he should have strong interpersonal and communication skills and be able to work collaboratively with both internal and external stakeholders, including the government, NGOs, UN agencies and other key actors. Furthermore, it is important that the Head of Programmes is able to work in a dynamic and challenging environment and is able to work both independently and as part of a team.

The Head of Programmes is a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT) and is expected to be committed Oxfam’s vision and values and lead with integrity. The position holder has to demonstrate strong leadership skills and be able to manage, motivate and inspire their team. They must also be able to analyse complex information and make sound decisions and be able to develop and maintain effective relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

We are looking for an experienced professional with a passion for delivering quality programming to ensure our success in Iraq

JOB REPORTS TO

Country Director

JOBS REPORTING TO THIS JOB

4-5 Programme and Technical roles will report to this position including the Programme Manager and the Senior Policy and Advocacy Officer.

BUDGET RESPONSIBILITY

GEOGRAPHICAL SCOPE

Iraq

DIMENSIONS OF THE ROLE

Head of Programmes is responsible for developing a long-term vision and strategic planning to achieve significant impact through high-quality programming and leadership. The role involves supporting the fundraising team and the policy and advocacy team, and lead where appropriate, strategic engagement with partners. The successful candidate coordinates and oversees delivery of agreed plans and programmes, integrating humanitarian response and development programmes with policy and advocacy based on the One Oxfam programme approach.

The Head of Programmes must be able to deal with complex, non-routine, and unexpected management tasks and problems. They represent Oxfam in coordination meetings and critical external relationships with municipalities and governance structures, humanitarian stakeholders, and interagency coordination. The successful candidate shows an ability to analyze and communicate complex information to a wide audience. The individual must also demonstrate decision-making that is strategic and operational, requiring significant levels of judgment based on technical and management experience, and a range of external and internal factors.

The Head of Programmes must demonstrate well-developed abilities to motivate and persuade at many levels and recognizes the support required to manage change. They are a role model for their team in this process. The role impacts and influences within the country programme and influences the diverse internal/external target audiences both at country and above country level, requiring proven communication, facilitation, and representation skills.

The individual will manage staff and have budgetary responsibility for multiple programmes, involving strong operational management experience and capability. They will provide specialist advice to country and regional management on humanitarian and development issues and possibly interface with media/public on humanitarian and development issues. In-depth knowledge of the principles underlying the key purpose and role of programme leadership, coordination and management is required to make decisions affecting the team and which may impact more widely in the division/programme.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES (Technical, Leadership, People and Resource management)

Strategic Direction and Leadership

·       Develop Oxfam’s long-term vision and provide a clear strategic direction for the development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of Oxfam’s programme under its three strategic goals of the humanitarian-development nexus and ensure strong linkages to influencing work in Iraq.

·       Work with the CD to develop Oxfam’s Country Operating Plans and Budget and support the CD in monitoring overall performance against and delivery of the Country Strategy in Iraq.

·       Support and maintain strategic alliances and partnerships with a wide range of stakeholders including national and local authorities, donors, multilateral agencies, partners, as well as within Oxfam confederation (partner affiliates, knowledge hubs, Global Humanitarian Team, etc.)

·       Maintain an analysis of the evolving country context and use this to inform interventions.

·       Provide leadership and management on Oxfam’s programming in Iraq, including fundraising, appropriate allocation and management of resources, programming quality, accountability, and performance management.

·       Remain up-to-date, and aware of ongoing contextual and funding trends in the region and provide regular updates on these trends and analysis of how they may affect Oxfam programming.

·       Ensure systematic documentation of learning from Oxfam’s programs in Iraq, contributing to Oxfam’s internal learning and external influencing efforts.

Programme design, implementation, and quality

·       In coordination with programme team and under the guidance of the Country Director, to lead on developing country programme strategies, objectives, and activity plans.

·       Lead on programme design and proposal development, ensuring full participation of influencing department and support departments.

·       Maintains the overview of the programme funding pipeline and needs, clearly communicating Programme funding needs and priorities, maintaining, and developing new and existing donor relationships.

·       Ensure programme quality implementation of programmes in a consultative, participative, and transparent and gender sensitive way.

·       Ensures that budgets/projections are drawn up for all activities, and that costs are kept within budgets and programmes are cost-efficient, providing a monthly financial projection.

·       Responsible for ensuring that Oxfam meets all contractual obligations and achieves high quality proposal and donor reporting on time.

·       Take measures to limit risks to the programme, including security, safeguarding, reputational, financial and harm to beneficiaries.

·       Ensure that learning is incorporated into on-going and new programmes.

·       Ensure adherence to Oxfam’s policies and programme standards including humanitarian standards as well as compliance with Oxfam’s Common Approach to MEL and Social Accountability (CAMSA) and partnership principles.

·       Ensure ongoing constructive relationships with partners and allies, and work with diverse teams to strengthen partner capacity, adopting a strategic, proactive perspective on how to achieve partner led approaches to achieve sustainable change.

·       Embed Oxfam’s partnership principles into every step of program implementation.

·       Ensure systematic partner assessments are conducted in collaboration with partners, with development plans created and implemented. Allocate appropriate resources to support partner development within workflows under their management.

• Support the Oxfam in Iraq in relevant programme research and knowledge generation ensuring the integration of cross cutting, regional and global issues.

·       Provide guidance to the programme team regarding tools and strategies to ensure that programming is based on input from communities, a thorough understanding of the context, and technical best practices.

·       Work with colleagues in country program, region and HQ to identify funding opportunities and develop competitive, responsive proposals that meet internal standards, apply Oxfam’s strategy/ies and are donor compliant; meet with donors to discuss current and potential funding opportunities.

·       As a senior budget holder for the country programme, ensure timely spending, compliance, and procedural controls are rolled out across the country programme.

·       Through the provision of leadership support to the in-country grants team, and in close collaboration with the Finance Team, develop evidenced based and cost-effective funding applications.

Essential

•       A proven record of effective leadership, especially in conflict/post conflict contexts. Ability to challenge, motivate and develop a team through periods of programme change.

•       Ability to work with significant levels of autonomy and make prompt and sound decisions.

•       Proven analytical skills and ability to work with others to develop strategy into action and communicating and influencing this to a wider audience.

•       Knowledge and experience of promoting gender equity, and an active commitment to promoting the interests of marginalized people in all aspects of programme work.

•       Experience of programme planning, and competent use of project management tools.

•       The ability to meet agreed deadlines in a stressful and fast paced environment, will be critical.

•       Proven experience of effective management of complex humanitarian situations, including managing finances, staff and funding of the programme (contract design and management).

•       Experience of managing staff: challenging, motivating, developing and inspiring team members

•       Evidence of professional excellence in related sectors (Livelihoods, WASH, Gender, Protection and Advocacy).

•       Sensitivity to cultural differences, and the ability to work in a wide variety of cultural contexts.

•       High-level interpersonal and communications skills.

•       Ability to influence and liaise effectively with key stakeholders and representation in high profile environments.

•       Fluency in written and spoken English is essential.

•       Sympathy with the aims and objectives of Oxfam.

•       Commitment to humanitarian principles and action.

•       Commitment to Oxfam’s equal opportunity and gender policies.

The most relevant leadership competencies for this role are:

·       Self-Awareness: Understanding personal strengths and limitations to foster effective relationships and team dynamics.

·       Mutual Accountability: Promoting shared responsibility and collaboration to achieve organizational and program goals.

·       Strategic Thinking and Judgment: Making well-informed decisions and shaping strategies to maximize program impact.

Key Qualifications and Expertise

Leadership and Role Modeling

·       Demonstrates exemplary leadership qualities, serving as an inspiring role model for team members, program units, and peer managers.

Creative and Analytical Thinking

·       Proven expertise in strategic planning, with the ability to influence and shape program strategies, significantly contributing to the country program’s vision and goals.

·       Exhibits creativity and innovation in both conceptual and analytical thinking, driving forward new ideas and solutions.

Programme Management Experience

·       Extensive experience in international program management, including budgeting, planning, and full program cycles, ideally within an international NGO.

·       Demonstrated supervisory and managerial expertise in leading complex programs in developing countries, managing multi-year projects with budgets of 5 million or more per year.

Stakeholder Engagement

·       Skilled at engaging and influencing stakeholders (internal and external) at all levels and across various functions.

Communication and Influence

·       Possesses exceptional communication, negotiation, and representation skills, effectively influencing diverse internal and external audiences.

·       Demonstrable experience in developing donor relationships and managing all aspects of donor reporting, ensuring transparency, accountability, and effective communication.

Policy and Strategic Influence

·       Proven ability to influence high-level policy decisions externally, leveraging strategic insights and expertise.

·       Success in shaping departmental and organizational strategies to align with broader institutional goals.

Risk and Crisis Management

·       Successfully managed large-scale risks and crises, ensuring effective resolution while minimizing operational disruptions.

National and International Representation

·       Recognized nationally and/or internationally as an organizational representative, particularly within specific geographical or thematic areas of expertise.

Work-Related Travel

·       Willingness to travel at short notice, often under challenging circumstances, to meet program needs.

Commitment to Values and Equality

·       Deep understanding of and commitment to Oxfam’s core values, including gender equality, diversity, and social justice, ensuring these principles are embedded in all activities and interactions.

Desirable

•        Arabic language skills highly desirable.

•        Knowledge of the Iraqi and Middle Eastern context

•        Knowledge and understanding of Oxfam’s programmes in emergencies and development.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Most importantly, every individual in Oxfam needs to be able to:

·       Live our values of INCLUSION, ACCOUNTABILITY, EMPOWERMENT, COURAGE, SOLIDARITY and EQUALITY (read more about these here)

·       Ensure you commit to our ORGANIZATIONAL ATTRIBUTES (including adhering to the Code of Conduct):

1. Be committed to our feminist principles, and to applying them in your day-to-day behaviour and your work. Be ready to keep learning, with accountability to those who experience oppression as a result of their identities, such as their gender, race/ethnicity, disability, class, or LGBTQIA identity.”

2. Be committed to undertaking Oxfam’s safeguarding training and adhering to relevant policies, to ensure all people who come into Oxfam are as safe as possible.

Competencies

Description

Decisiveness

We are comfortable to make transparent decisions and to adapt decision making modes to the context and needs.

Influencing

We have the ability to engage with diverse stakeholders in a way that leads to increased impact for the organisation We spot opportunities to influence effectively and where there are no opportunities we have the ability to create them in a respectful and impactful manner.

Humility

We put ‘we’ before ‘me’ and place an emphasis on the power of the collective, nurture the team and play to the strengths of each individual. We are not concerned with hierarchical power, and we engage with, trust and value the knowledge and expertise of others across all levels of the organization.

Relationship Building

We understand the importance of building relationship, within and outside the organization. We have the ability to engage with traditional and non-traditional stakeholders in ways that lead to increased impact for the organisation.

Listening

We are good listeners who can see where deeper levels of thoughts and tacit assumptions differ. Our messages to others are clear, and consider different preferences.

Mutual Accountability

We can explain our decisions and how we have taken them based on our organizational values.  We are ready to be held to account for what we do and how we behave, as we are also holding others to account in a consistent manner.

Agility, Complexity, and Ambiguity

We scan the environment, anticipate changes, are comfortable with lack of clarity and deal with a large number of elements interacting in diverse and unpredictable ways.

Systems Thinking

We view problems as parts of an overall system and in their relation to the whole system, rather than reacting to a specific part, outcome or event in isolation. We focus on cyclical rather than linear cause and effect. By consistently practicing systems thinking we are aware of and manage well unintended consequences of organisational decisions and actions.

Strategic Thinking and Judgment

We use judgment, weighing risk against the imperative to act. We make decisions consistent with organizational strategies and values.

Vision Setting

We have the ability to identify and lead visionary initiatives that are beneficial for our organization and we set high-level direction through a visioning process that engages the organization and diverse external stakeholders.

Self-Awareness

We are able to develop a high degree of self-awareness around our own strengths and weaknesses and our impact on others. Our self-awareness enables us to moderate and self-regulate our behaviors to control and channel our impulses for good purposes.

Enabling

We all work to effectively empower and enable others to deliver the organizations goals through creating conditions of success. We passionately invest in others by developing their careers, not only their skills for the job.  We provide freedom; demonstrate belief and trust provide appropriate support. We give more freedom and demonstrate belief and trust, underpinned with appropriate support.

SAFER RECRUITMENT

Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and promoting the welfare of children, young people and adults. Oxfam expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment through our code of conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us. Offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks.