Deputy Director

Role Purpose

To support Lebanon’s objectives through leadership of the programmes’ and business operations’ teams to ensure effective compliance with British Council global standards and to ensure that our portfolio of programmes in arts, education, English and social development projects achieve the planned impact and deliver against income and surplus targets.

About us

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.

We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

Geopolitical/ SBU/ Function Overview

We have been in Lebanon since 1946 and have 50 staff, including colleagues from our regional and Syria teams. Our activities are broad based, including a growing Exams business and a substantial portfolio of grant, partnership and externally funded programmes and projects across our English, Education, Arts and Society sectors.

In everything we do we are seeking to strengthen relationships between people and institutions in Lebanon and in the UK and to create opportunities for them through our programmes and services. We work with many UK and Lebanon partners to deliver our objectives, ranging from governments, NGOs, examinations boards, universities and school networks, arts organisations and the wider private sector.

Main opportunites/ Challenges for this role

• To play a key leadership role in Lebanon and be a pro-active member of the country leadership team
• To lead the programmes team focusing on effective programme management and planning, and on strategic business development working with CD, programmes team and regional colleagues to agree priorities and to plan and monitor pursuit
• To lead newly formed business operations team in delivering key services for the directorate and ensuring compliance in a range of areas, including child protection and safeguarding, financial control (including fraud)
• To deputize the country director with full delegated authorities and represent the British Council at external events where appropriate. On certain days it may be necessary to work longer hours to cater for externally imposed deadlines

Main Accountabilities

Business development and partnerships

• Leading on development and mentoring of partnership and programme staff, to ensure their ability to undertake effective project management, partnership pursuit and relationship building is maximized
• Working with Country Director and regional colleagues to manage pipeline of partnership and FCR opportunities, to agree pursuit and coordinate preparation of project proposals
• Oversight of implementation of new FCR projects with responsibility for partner management
• Support Country Director and programme managers to develop and maintain active networks with key stakeholders and influencers
• Oversee and advise on all project scoping at a country level to ensure regional projects are translated appropriately to fit country context and priorities

Risk and compliance management

• Investigate any reported instances of non-compliance with agreed corporate risk management policies (e.g. child protection, security policies, financial protocols, anti-fraud measures), and takes appropriate remedial action, including escalation to more senior colleagues as required
• Responsible for ensuring that the country level organisation is fit-for-purpose and is designed and developed, in alignment with regional and corporate planning

Operations management and leadership

• Senior manager in-country accountable for building and maintaining clear, efficient and effective processes across the back-office functions of Business Operations, and resolving operational challenges as they arise, working closely with team leaders and regional structures
• Motivates and encourages team performance and set their development plan                                          
• Advise programme managers on operational planning and agrees priorities for country's operational activities, and supports team development towards effective business delivery and development

Planning and analysis

• Developing ambitious, realistic and simple metrics for measuring progress against Country Plan responsibilities – with associated SMART plans and targets co-designed and implemented with all relevant teams
• Task Management of Business Leads (Programmes and Business operations) for deliverables relating to office-wide performance targets for culture, efficiency and compliance
• Managing design and delivery of the overall Country Planning process – ensuring alignment with the Region and integration of planning best practice (e.g. re staff participation)

Key relationships

Internal

• Country Director
• Regional Project Managers in MENA and Sector Directors
• Lebanon projects team, English Project Manager and Marketing and Communications Manager
• Lebanon Finance team
• Arts Strategic Business Unit colleagues in MENA and the UK
• Education & Society colleagues in MENA and the UK

External

• Ministries (i.e. Culture, Education, Economy, etc.)
• FCO
• Heads of arts & culture organisations including organisations working on entrepreneurship
• Directors of EU cultural centres.
• Cultural leaders and creative entrepreneurs
• EU Delegation and other donors
• Civil society- NGO Directors, social activists, etc.
• Private sector for new business opportunities
• International organisations 
• Media contacts

Role requirements 

Threshold requirements

Passport requirements/ Right to work in country: Right to work in country and capacity to travel freely throughout the MENA region & to the UK (Assessment stage: shortlisting)

Direct contact or managing staff working with children? No

Person Specification

Language requirements (Assessment stage: shortlisting)

Minumum/ essential: 

• Fluent level of written and spoken English
• Fluent level of written and spoken Arabic

Desirable:

• Fluent level of written and spoken French

Qualifications (Assessment stage: shortlisting)

Minimum/ essential: 

• University degree and other relevant qualifications/ experience

Desirable:

• Masters in relevant disciplines

Role specific knowledge and experience (Assessment stage: shortlisting)

Minimum/ essential:

• Experience of managing operations (including finance and security) in high-risk, complex contexts
• Proven experience of negotiating and agreeing impactful partnerships with both public and private sector organisations
• Deep country insight on Lebanon, social, political, economic and cultural context
• Excellent external relations skills
• Experience of leading high-performing teams
• Experience in managing projects

Desirable:

• Working in both public, not for profit and private sector organisations
• Experience of working in a matrix management structure
• Experience in sector of operations of the British Council, notably education, culture or governance
• Experience of other MENA contexts

Role specific skills (if any) (Assessment stage: shortlisting and interview)

• Experience in managing and leading teams in an international context working in a multi-cultural organisation.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to prioritise tasks and meet deadlines
• Track record of building effective relationships with business leadership teams in the delivery of high quality and effective professional services
• Experience of developing and managing a range of complex internal and external stakeholder relationships
• Excellent commercial acumen and understanding of business strategy and practices
• Can demonstrate excellent management of administration and programme roles

British Council Core Skills (Assessment stage: shortlisting and interview)

Managing People (level 4)

Leads a large and varied team: experience of managing a substantial group to deliver annual business objectives. The team includes different professions and/or areas of business, and may cover multiple locations

Communicating & Influencing (level 4)

Uses influencing techniques: Uses formal and informal negotiating and motivation techniques to influence others’ behaviour and persuade them to think and act differently, while respecting difference of view and culture

Planning and Organising (level 3)

Develops annual plans: Develops and reviews the implementation of annual plans for a work group or function, taking account of business and customer requirements and reconciling competing demands

Managing Finance and Resources (level 4)

Plans and deploys resources: Negotiates and agrees the resources for a defined area as part of forward planning, monitoring progress and adjusting resources or priorities to meet goals

Managing Risk (level 4)

Develops a culture: Has track record of analysing potential risks, promoting risk awareness, and holding others to account for their practices

Developing Business (level 3)

Develops viable business: Defines and develops products / programmes / services which deliver British Council goals on impact, income and surplus within a defined area of business that responds to market opportunities and aligns to wider corporate strategies.

British Council Behaviours (Assessment stage: Interview)

• Being Accountable (Most demanding)
• Making it Happen (Most demanding)
• Creating Shared Purpose (Most demanding)
• Connecting with Others (Most demanding)
• Shaping the future (More demanding)
• Working together (Most demanding)