Operations Manager London, England
Job description
Operations Manager - Centre for Disaster Protection
Background
The UK established the Centre for Disaster Protection in 2017 to provide a single, trusted, and impartial source for disaster risk finance advisory support, quality assurance, training, and learning. The Centre aims to strengthen resilience of countries to disasters through better preparedness and planning backed by risk-based financing arrangements. To do this, the Centre provides advisory services, training, knowledge and evidence generation, and innovative policy solutions that leverage partnerships across the development, humanitarian, and financial sectors.
Read more about us and our five-year strategyto 2025.
The Centre is funded with UK aid from the UK government and managed by DAI Global UK, with a physical hub in a WeWork serviced office in the City of London. We have a dedicated multidisciplinary team, who share commitment to our values of quality, impartiality, creativity, and challenge. We are a diverse, inclusive, collaborative, and empowering organisation.
The role
This is an exciting opportunity for a self-organised, driven, and proactive individual looking for a role in a purposeful, mission-centred organisation. This position is responsible for ensuring a high-quality support service is provided to the Centre by DAI as managing agent by providing effective operational support to the Centre team. This includes office management, project and financial management of the core operations budget and coordinating a broad range of DAI support services across HR, finance, travel, security, and facilities. This role is a fixed term contract until end of June 2025.
This role works closely with DAI support staff based in HQ and the Centre’s operations team (comprising this role, a Head of Operations, and two Project Managers). The role is a central point of contact for Centre staff needing support on navigating systems and processes to ensure quality and timely delivery of the Centre’s projects and activities. As such, this can be seen as a frontline/customer facing role critical and would suit someone with excellent planning and customer service skills who is able to anticipate needs and solve problems before they arise. The role supports and reports to the Head of Operations, and line manages an Executive Assistant (Operations).
Key Responsibilities
The role will be responsible for the following main duties:
· Office management : managing the Centre’s WeWork relationship and membership, inducting new joiners on the office protocols, and liaising as needed with DAI facilities team.
· Coordinating DAI support services : owning and managing the Centre’s central ‘Admin’ mailbox to ensure timely processing of support requests e.g. for travel, event management, IT issues, HR or payroll issues; and building excellent working relationships with DAI support team personnel to effectively plan and manage their inputs.
· Compliance: ensuring compliance with DAI policies and procedures, and making sure the Centre team is aware of and understands them through regular review and communication of the Centre’s Operations Manual and key process crib sheets; keeping accurate records of assets, policy compliance and training.
· Project and Financial Management : acting as project and financial manager of the Centre’s core operations budget (staff costs, office running costs) including identification of needs and managing commissioning and contracting of internal and external services, undertaking accurate forecasting and expenditure analysis and reporting, and identifying key risks and putting in place management and mitigation measures.
· Line Management : managing and overseeing the performance of the Executive Assistant (Operations), ensuring achievable objectives are set and assessed, with clear task setting, and provision of on-the-job coaching and mentoring.
Reasonable additional duties and tasks may be determined by the Head of Operations.
Skills and Experience
Successful candidates will be able to demonstrate:
· Excellent organisational and planning skills with ability to delegate effectively, multi-task efficiently, and prioritise workloads.
· An ability to work collaboratively with a wide range of colleagues and stakeholders, internal and external.
· An ability to communicate clearly and professionally across all forms of communication.
· Sharp attention to detail with foresight to anticipate potential problems and solutions.
· An expert grasp of Microsoft Office (especially Excel) and project management tools.
· Excellent financial management skills and ability to use budget management software (any prior experience with Oracle would be a bonus).
· Experience in managing projects including identifying and managing risks, procurement and contracting, developing recommendations for course correction and adaptation, and managing resources effectively.
· An ability to manage a small team, coach others and supervise a junior colleague in a way that helps them further develop their skills and capability.
Person specification
To excel in this role, you will be:
· Resourceful – committed to improving ways of working and thinking creatively and using initiative to solve problems.
· Professional – committed to upholding high ethical standards rooted in equity and fairness with ability to be responsive and action oriented.
· Intuitive – knowing when to escalate issues, when to delegate and when to call on others for support, and able to anticipate the needs of others and horizon scan for potential issues.
· Collaborative – friendly, approachable, sensitive to other cultures and with a positive, ‘can do’ attitude.
· Adaptable – able to be nimble and flexible to changing needs in dynamic contexts and open to learning from others and to sharing knowledge and learning with others.
The offer
After a successful probation period of four months, the fixed term contract will run until the end of June 2025, renewable if project funding is extended. The role will be contracted by DAI Global UK on behalf of the Centre as its managing agent.
Appointment of this role is subject to funding approval by the client.
We offer a competitive salary. Please state your salary expectations at application.
We offer a benefits package that includes 25 days annual leave (plus public holidays) and a contributory pension scheme.
The role will be based in our office in the City of London, but we are open to considering flexible and part-time working arrangements. Currently, Centre staff based in the UK are encouraged to work in the office at least five days per month but this may be reviewed in the future. The nature of this particular role does require physical presence in the office on a weekly basis. You will also need to have right to live and work in the UK – we are unable to sponsor work visas.
If you require any adjustments to be made to the interview or recruitment process, please contact [email protected] (please do not send applications directly to this inbox).
The Centre is committed to being a diverse, inclusive workplace and so we encourage applications from diverse background typically under-represented in this sector. DAI is a global development company with offices in the USA, UK, EU, Nigeria, Pakistan and Palestine, and project operations worldwide. DAI tackles fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability; it works on the frontlines of global development to transform ideas into action and action into impact. DAI is committed to shaping a more liveable world.
Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 25 months
Salary: £40,000.00-£50,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
Schedule:
- Monday to Friday
Ability to commute/relocate:
- London: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Application question(s):
- What are your salary expectations?
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
Application deadline: 18/05/2023
Reference ID: 7910
