COUNTRY DIRECTOR LEBANON & MIDDLE EAST COORDINATOR (LOCAL POSITION)

Swisscontact is present in Lebanon since 2019 and currently has the largest Swisscontact portfolio in the Middle East region. We are looking for a

Country Director Lebanon & Middle East Coordinator (local position)

Place of work: Beirut, Lebanon

Employment start: 1st of February 2026 or by agreement

Contract duration: 1 year; with option of renewal

Do you relish leading and mentoring a dynamic team of sharp professionals? Are you a development professional with an appetite for leading an exciting and ambitious program in a challenging context?

As Country Director and Middle East Coordinator you represent Swisscontact in Lebanon and Jordan and potentially in Syria and serve as the organisation’s most senior- leader in the country/region. You are accountable for ensuring the successful implementation of all projects, in terms of client satisfaction, high-quality technical delivery, and the achievement of development outcomes and business results. You ensure that all operations, administration, and compliance systems meet internal policies as well as external legal and quality requirements. You provide strategic leadership to the country office with around 10 technical and support staff and drive the development and diversification of the project portfolio, including leading and coordinating the acquisition of new projects in alignment with our regional and global strategy.

Tasks

• Represent Swisscontact to donors, partners, government counterparts, and other key stakeholders in Lebanon and Jordan ensuring visibility, credibility, and alignment with national priorities.
• Lead business development efforts in the Middle East by building on Lebanon’s strong team, existing networks, partnerships, and ongoing projects to pro-actively identify, pursue, and secure new projects within the nexus in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.
• Provide strategic and technical oversight to our project portfolio in economic development in the Middle East
• Mobilise internal experts and external consultants to achieve the business targets.
• Contribute to the regional knowledge development by supporting learning, cross-project synergies, and internal lessons learned and best practices.
• Lead cost management, financial oversight, and risk management for the country operations, including annual budgeting and financial planning of the Middle East region.
• Oversee administrative and finance functions including overall office operations, internal controls, compliance, audits, procurement, HR, and reporting.
• Ensure understanding and compliance with Swisscontact’s Code of Conduct, Operations Manual and Local Security Plan, and regularly update relevant documents in line with internal and contextual shifts.

Requirements

We are looking for a person of integrity with strong self-awareness, entrepreneurial spirit, eminent communication, networking and negotiations skills who is used to work independently and in fragile environments and takes accountability for his/her decisions and actions

• Strong leadership skills and experience in coordinating interdisciplinary and intercultural project teams

• At least 8 years of experience in leading and managing projects and/or multi stakeholder initiatives in development cooperation, ideally in Private Sector Development and MSD

• At least 5 years of experience in administrative procedures and financial management
• Strong knowledge of the Middle East context and at least 5 years' experience in this context or in the Arab world

• Strong proven experience of acquisition/business development (ability to develop proposals and new business) 
• Experience with the Swiss and other bilateral international donors
• Either strong experience in working in or with the private sector or strong knowledge in managing economic development projects
• Strong network and good reputation with key donors, INGOs, NGOs, UN agencies and companies in the Middle East
• Perfect English is a must, knowledge of Arabic is a strong asset, French is an advantage 
• In depth understanding of all aspects of Project Cycle Management (including financial management)
• Good understanding of gender equality and social inclusion, conflict-sensitive programme management and good governance.

Swisscontact offers attractive working conditions in an international and multicultural context. We see our work as a joint effort in an agile organizational culture: mutual respect, trust and teamwork.