Deputy Chief Executive Officer

About Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT)

Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) is one of the most successful and impactful local conservation organizations based at UNESCO World Heritage Site Lewa Wildlife Conservancy (https://www.lewa.org/). NRT is a membership organization owned and led by 45 community conservancies in Northern and Coastal Kenya, which together comprise 12% of Kenyan land area. NRT was established as a shared resource to help build and develop community conservancies, to enhance people’s lives, build peace, and conserve the natural environment.

NRT was established in 2004 as a shared resource to help build and develop local community conservancies. The institutions are run by indigenous people – they not only give people a voice but provide a platform for developing sustainable enterprise and livelihoods related to conservation. NRT helps communities build resilience and businesses (e.g., BeadWorks) and has set up the first large-scale grasslands soil carbon project.

NRT’s Long Term Vision

NRT’s Mission is to develop resilient community conservancies that transform lives, secure peace, and conserve natural resources. while Its vision is ‘Thriving Communities and Ecosystems’ this Is further detailed and summarized as follows.

• NRT operates in a complex ecosystem that has historically underperformed on national development indicators.
• Complexity will only increase as long-term trends put more pressure on NRT regions (e.g., climate change, population growth, urbanization, outside-in investments)
• This will negatively impact livelihoods of local communities (e.g., pastoralism become more challenging), protection of natural resources and peace and security if the ecosystem does not adapt
• A successful NRT ecosystem of the future is defined by 20 priority topics clustered in 7 key themes: community-led institutions, peace and security, sustainable local economies, education, natural resources, health, and reliable energy
• To deliver on these priority topics, NRT takes on three complementary roles:
  • Center of Expertise, where NRT drives and advances the topic at HQ/region level
  • Trusted Coalition, where NRT supports CCYs to take the lead on a topic
  • Convening Platform, where NRT is involved in a topic through partners/government
• The long-term delivery model will look different from today: NRT will move from being a Center of Expertise on most topics to enabling others and acting as a Coalition/Platform

Job Summary

We are seeking at recruiting dynamic and experienced Deputy Chief Executive Officer to provide strategic leadership and oversight to all internal functions within our organization to enable us to serve our growing community conservancy membership effectively. The Deputy CEO will be responsible for overseeing finance, programs, operations, people, and internal audit functions. The individual will play a critical role in operational planning, execution, process streamlining, and resource management, while also focusing on organizational change management and transformation to enhance professionalization within the organization which is in the growth trajectory.

This is also an extension of the previous advertisement for the same role advertised directly by NRT and for which Oxford HR will review the applications received, as well as manage relevant communication for the process.

As a Key member of the Senior Leadership Team, the Deputy Director is responsible for providing strategic leadership for the organization by working with the Chief Executive Officer, the Board of Directors and other executive management to establish long-range strategic goals, plans and policies for optimal organizational success. As the Deputy CEO, you are also expected to:

• Develop, share, and infuse cutting-edge practices and thinking across organizational groupings and functions; align strategies and results with conservation priorities; and ensures that NRT is a powerful, professional, catalytic, transformative, high-performing organization with a pre-eminent role in the local, regional and even global conservation community.
• Provide leadership and supervision to all internal functions, including finance, programs, operations, people, science, and conservation.
• Work collaboratively with the leadership team to develop and implement standards and best practices to effectively marshal the organization’s human and financial capital to achieve organization-wide results on a global basis.
• Provide oversight and coordination to the diverse technical teams and matrix (regions, conservancies, programs) to ensure seamless execution.
• Ensure organisational systems enable efficient and effective execution of the strategic plan; evaluate options for digitization of organisation, need for an organisation wide ERP system.
• Oversee NRT’s support to improving conservancy field operations, staff and conservancy board capacity, governance, and technical programmes.
• Create and implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for all departments to streamline processes and ensure compliance with organizational standards.
• Lead annual planning, budgeting, execution, process streamlining, and resource management to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
• Motivate and lead a large number of decentralized, geographically dispersed employees that are experienced and dedicated in the various operational functions, ensuring effective actions at local, regional, national and international levels, and mobilizing the organisations’s considerable human and financial resources.
• Provide daily management, coaching and mentorship, and career development and training opportunities to all direct reporting staff.

Experience and Qualifications

• Master’s degree in business administration, Project Management and any other related field.
• Over 10 years proven experience in leading a dynamic organization, developing and driving strategy implementation and managing multi-disciplinary teams at a senior level.
• Strong understanding of finance, program management, risk management, human resources, and operational processes.
• Experience with INGOs and corporate sector.
• Experience with complex organization that required matrix management of technical teams across a vast landscape.
• Knowledge of methods and standards of business management experience conceiving and implementing strategic initiatives.
• Process management experience for a large organization

Desired Competencies

• Must have the ability to translate organizational policies and procedures into daily management practice.
• Adept at systems thinking and leadership.
• Must have excellent decision-making, multi-stakeholder management, strategic thinking, and interpersonal capabilities.
• Must possess high energy, forward thinking, creativity with high ethical standards.
• Must have the ability to work effectively and pragmatically under pressure within a variety of simultaneous initiatives and issues.
• Proven leadership, managerial and motivational abilities to implement a strategic vision and manage change to meet the needs of changing funding environments.
• Passion for community development, engagement, and wildlife conservation.
• Willingness to work in hardship areas and with diverse cultures.
• Must possess positive interpersonal, diplomatic and negotiation skills that can be applied to internal and external relationships.

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