Title
Deputy Country Director โ Support Services
Location
Chad/Sudan 50%, Field 50%
Travel
50% of Travel
Job Family and Level
Program Management and Leadership Family โ M9
Job Type: Senior Leader
Classification: Country Wide
Pre hire checks
This role is classified as requiring standard pre-employment checks
Scope
Responsibility
Country Level
Department
Supply Chain & Operations, Finance and HR
Reporting to
Country Director โ Sudan
Direct reports
SCO Managerโs, Finance Manager, HR Manager
Budget responsibility
Yes
Relationship management
SMT, Supply Chain Team, and all Department Head.
Context
Relief International (RI) is an international non-profit organization that partners with communities impacted by conflict, climate change and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and wellbeing.
Our team of more than 4,000 staff and local volunteers work in 14 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, providing Health and Nutrition, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), Education and Livelihoods programming that creates the foundation for community resilience.
We do this by working with local actors to develop safe and inclusive local programming that is evidence based, conflict sensitive, climate smart, and reaches those in need.
Relief International is an alliance of four organizations with one shared mission, comprised of Relief International, Inc., Relief International-France, and Relief International-Europe, which operate under a one-team concept under a single senior leadership team.
Job Profile
The Deputy Country Director โ Support Services (DCD-SS) is a key member of the Country Senior Management Team (SMT) and provides strategic and technical leadership across Finance, HR, and Supply Chain & Operations.
The position is responsible for ensuring that RI Sudanโs expanding portfolio and cross-border operations are supported by robust, compliant, and agile systems. This includes strengthening financial integrity, building HR structures that foster accountability and staff well-being, and maintaining a resilient, risk-informed supply chain that enables uninterrupted humanitarian delivery across Sudan and cross-border hubs in Chad.
The DCD-SS ensures operational excellence, compliance with donor and organizational policies, and proactive risk mitigation to enable effective delivery in one of the worldโs most complex humanitarian environments.
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as a core member of the SMT, contributing to strategic decision-making, country planning, and institutional risk management.
- Ensure that Sudanโs expanding operational footprint is supported by robust HR, Finance, and Supply Chain systems.
- Lead integration between support services and program teams to ensure strong alignment between operational capacity and programmatic goals.
- Support the Country Director in overseeing operational readiness for cross-border response and internal scale-ups.
Finance and Compliance
- Lead financial strategy and oversight to ensure efficiency, accuracy, and full donor compliance.
- Supervise all financial operations, budgeting, reporting, audits, and forecastingโand strengthen financial risk management systems.
- Implement cost-control mechanisms, improve grant tracking tools, and ensure accountability for expenditure across all departments.
- Support donor reporting and ensure timely financial submissions that meet HQ and donor standards.
Human Resources Leadership
- Ensure HR systems and structures are fit for purpose to support mission growth and staff welfare.
- Oversee recruitment, performance management, compensation, and learning frameworks across all offices.
- Ensure compliance with Sudanese labor law and RI global HR policies, maintaining equity, diversity, and inclusion in staffing.
- Build HR capacity and leadership pipelines for national teams, emphasizing retention and succession planning.
- Foster an organizational culture centered on ethics, care, and professional development.
- Integrate data-driven performance management, a culture of continuous improvement, and proactive risk mitigation into HR systems.
- Ensure HR policies are implemented, regularly updated, and accurately followed. Oversee all HR functionsโrecruitment, compensation, performance review, and trainingโensuring compliance and promoting gender and geographic diversity in hiring.
- Establish processes for organizational compliance with RI leave, record, and absence policies. Lead regular updates to the staff handbook to maintain relevance and legal compliance.
- Champion integrated performance management and development programs that align with organizational goals.
- Support a learning culture by enabling teams to address learning needs and ensuring access to development opportunities.
- Train the HR team organization-wide, embedding capacity building into daily activities. Foster an inclusive, respectful workplace and uphold high standards of conduct.
Supply Chain & Operations
Provide strategic leadership and oversight of all Supply Chain & Operations (SCO) functions โ including procurement, logistics and distribution, asset management, fleet management, and facilities โ ensuring that RI Sudanโs operational systems are agile, risk-informed, and strategically aligned with the country and global priorities.
Key Responsibilities:
- Strategic Direction & System Strengthening
- Develop and implement a multi-year Supply Chain & Operations Strategy, including country procurement plans, fleet strategy that enhances efficiency, transparency, and climate and conflict resilience across Sudan and cross-border hubs.
- Align country operations with RIโs Global Supply Chain Strategy, promoting standardization, localization, and continuous improvement.
- Lead the transformation of operational systems from reactive support to proactive, data-driven enablers of program impact.
- Reinforce and facilitate the Program Cycle Management (PCM) approach by ensuring Supply Chain provides complete and timely operational data โ including procurement plans, PR tracker updates, stock status reports, and distribution summaries โ to enable evidence-based program planning, delivery, and reporting.
- Governance, Policy, and Compliance
- Oversee the effective governance of procurement and logistics functions through the adoption of risk-based controls and strategic sourcing approaches.
- Ensure all operations are compliant with RIโs policies and donor regulations, while promoting simplification, efficiency, and value for money.
- Lead policy updates and adaptation to contextual changes, ensuring alignment with cross-border operational needs.
- Supply Chain Resilience and Optimization
- Establish systems that anticipate and mitigate supply disruptions, optimize routing and stock prepositioning, and ensure continuity during crises.
- Promote data-driven forecasting, supplier performance analysis, and market intelligence to strengthen procurement decision-making.
- Introduce digital and analytics tools to enable real-time visibility across the supply chain.
- Partnerships and Localization
- Champion a localization strategy for supply chain and operations โ strengthening the capacity of national staff, local suppliers, and community-based transport networks.
- Develop strategic supplier frameworks and partnerships with private sector actors to expand local sourcing and improve sustainability.
- Represent RI in strategic logistics coordination forums (e.g., LogCluster) to influence sector-wide supply chain harmonization.
- Risk and Sustainability
- Integrate risk management, sustainability, and environmental considerations (e.g., fuel efficiency, green procurement, eco-friendly fleet practices) into operations.
- Lead risk scenario planning, especially for cross-border and humanitarian corridors, and ensure business continuity systems are in place.
- Oversight and Performance Management
- Strengthen accountability through data dashboards, KPIs, and performance scorecards for all SCO units.
- Ensure that the SCO team focuses on long-term capacity building, staff development, and strategic workforce planning.
- Serve as the principal advisor to the Country Director on operational readiness and risk exposure related to logistics and procurement.
Risk, Governance, and Cross-Border Operations
- Act as the operational lead for cross-border planning and execution between Chad and Sudan.
- Ensure legal, logistical, and security compliance for staff and cargo crossing points (Tina, Adre, etc.).
- Oversee mitigation measures for financial, logistical, and compliance risks related to cross-border movement.
- Lead the internal Risk Management Committee for support services, integrating risk tracking into monthly and quarterly reviews.
- Ensure consistent application of RIโs ethical, safeguarding, and anti-fraud policies across all operational platforms.
Capacity Building and Leadership Development
- Strengthen the capacity of departmental leads and national teams in financial management, procurement planning, and HR compliance.
- Provide mentoring and performance management for all direct reports, promoting accountability and professional growth.
- Foster collaboration and problem-solving across departments to ensure collective ownership of mission priorities.
Team Coordination
- Participate as a member of the Country Office Senior Management Team under the Country Director's leadership, contributing to action planning, strategies, problem solving, and providing reports on Operations Department activities
- Coordinate all activities of the operations departments (Procurement & Logistics, IT, HR & Administration, Security), with the Programs Management teams to align operational functions with Rl's mission and support effective program implementation and working environments.
Staff Management
- Ensure managers adopt data-driven practices and risk analysis in logistics and supply chain management, with clear accountability metrics.
- Proactively develop the skills of RI staff to understand and utilize appropriate tools and services to design and implement quality programming.
- Visit Field offices on regular basis and work with field staff to identify operational needs and ensure that issues are raised with CD, Department leads and other staff, as needed, to ensure they are included in new budget development.
- Design and implement capacity-building opportunities to strengthen the capacity of RI Operations staff.
- Provide feedback through regular performance evaluations and ensure staff is held accountable in accordance with the RI Human Resource policies.
Other Tasks & Responsibilities
- Make risk management a standing agenda item in budget reviews, reporting, and donor compliance.
- Working with Security, make sure the practical and effective implementation of the country security guidelines are in place for all logistics activities.
- Monitor appropriate sections of the budget(s). Review Budget vs. Actual expenditure reports and give feedback to CD and other key staff as agreed.
- Review monthly Logistics reports and give feedback to all operations staff, Department Managers and other key staff as needed.
- Work in close collaboration with other members of the RI team; sharing information on the assessments and proposed interventions, providing overviews of logistics requirements for the development of project proposals and subsequent projects.
- Liaise with government, UN and other agencies as necessary. Represent RI at LogCluster and other relevant meetings.
- Comply with all relevant RI policies and procedures with respect to child protection, health and safety, equal opportunities and other relevant policies.
Behavior and Conduct
- Will ensure the highest standards of behavior inside and outside of work promotes the values in RIโs code of conduct and safeguarding policies
- Will be a model for ethical conduct standards for other team members
- Will ensure own actions and the actions of the teams members they manage do not impact the safety of the RI team and the vulnerable communities we serve
- Will ensure external stakeholders are aware of RI conduct and reporting mechanisms
- Report any concerns
Person Specification
Skills, knowledge and expertise required for the role.
Essential criteria
- Masterโs in business administration, Logistics, or related field.
- 7โ10 years in senior management with supply chain/logistics focus.
- International experience in emergency/fragile contexts.
- Proven track record in risk management, donor compliance, and cross-border operations.
- Experience with USAID, ECHO, UNHCR,EU.
- Strong leadership, staff management, and interpersonal skills.
- Fluency in English, Arabic & French.
Desirable criteria
- Arabic & French language skills.
- Experience with cash programming.
- Advanced IT/digital supply chain systems knowledge
RI Values
Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, as well as โDo No Harm,โ Relief International Values:
- Integrity
- Adaptability
- Collaboration
- Inclusivity
- Sustainability
- Strategic Direction & System Strengthening