Deputy Director - Georesources and Energy

Deputy Director - Georesources and Energy

SPC - Secretariat of the Pacific Community

Suva, Fiji

Description:

The Geoscience Energy and Maritime Division provides advice, technical assistance, research and training support to Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs). There are three (3) areas of scientific programming and two areas of focus within this division:

• Oceans and Maritime Programme (OMP) – assists member countries with services that provide applied ocean science and knowledge for evidence-based policy-making and technical solutions for improved ocean and maritime governance, management and capacity development;
• Georesources and Energy Programme (GEP) – assists member countries by applying technical knowledge in the areas of geoscience and sustainable energy use;
• Disaster and Community Resilience Programme (DCRP) – assists member countries to demonstrate strengthened resilience through integrated action on disaster risk management, climate change adaptation, natural resource management and increased access to water and sanitation.

The Deputy Director - Georesources and Energy will oversee the people and technical programmes within the functional area of scientific programming and drive the delivery of sustainable development outcomes across the focus areas: Energy Security and Resilience, Technical Risk Assessments Data and Information Management, and Training and Capacity Building. This role will work closely with the Deputy Director – Oceans and Maritime, the Deputy Director – Disaster and Community Resilience, and the GEM Team Leaders (Finance; Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning; and Communications and Knowledge Management) to support the integrated programming approach to achieve successful sustainable development outcomes.

The key responsibilities of the role include:

Leadership and People Management

• Provide people leadership, engagement and operational guidance to contribute to the effective delivery of all projects/initiatives within the technical programme;
• Provide guidance and supervision of project implementation, reporting and reviews to ensure programme/project activities and budgets are executed in accordance with contractual requirements and approved budgets;
• Work with GEM Director, Deputy Directors and relevant Team Leaders/staff to ensure lessons learned from previous projects inform the plans of new projects/activities;
• Support and develop scientific staff through individual and project/sector annual work plans, linked to the strategic objectives and outputs of the division.

Technical excellence of functions and outcomes of the programme

• Provide technical leadership to develop technical/scientific programming and resources in georesources and geo-surveys, energy and any related areas of work;
• Drive awareness of GEP’s capability with SPC members and donors/development partners ensuring regional coordination, resourcing and collaboration in development assistance;
• Design, implement and effectively deliver annual work plans within budget and prepare technical papers/briefings and progress/annual reports in accordance with established Key Performance Indicators;
• Resolve operational and/or technical problems ensuring that planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning (PMEL) activities and methods are incorporated into project planning, implementation and service delivery.

Resource Mobilisation and Financial Management

• Strengthen existing partnerships and explore and develop new partnerships to secure technical assistance, funding opportunities, volunteer services and complementarity of actions;
• Lead the resource mobilisation efforts of the portfolio and convene the internal GEP Resource Mobilisation Committee meetings on a regular basis;
• Contribute to the mitigation work within the SPC Climate Change Flagship and in the implementation of the Regional Pacific NDC Hub Strategic Plan;
• Drive and support resource mobilisation initiatives with donors/funding agencies and advocate for long-term funding support for the work of the division among the donor community.

Integrated Programming

• Contribute to a culture of collaboration, integrated programming and shared success;
• Promote the ‘One SPC Approach’ and learn from SPC ‘best practice’ business processes to define and enable an integrated programming for the design, implementation and evaluation of programmes and projects;
• Support and promote communities of practice, participatory workshops, learning events on integrated programming to inform work practices and potential opportunities across the technical programmes, divisions and the whole of SPC;
• Identify and support strategic communications pieces through relevant channels to both documents, highlight and encourage the benefit of strong programmatic design and to inform the public of SPC’s actions.

Key selection criteria

Qualifications

• A master’s degree from a recognised institution (and/or equivalent work experience) in management, renewable energy, energy efficiency and/or geoscience or related subject areas.

Technical expertise

• At least 15 years of demonstrated management experience in public or private sector or research environment in managing science related resources or a similar field, including financial management;
• Demonstrated ability to lead strategically with a solid understanding of Programme Management;
• Demonstrated experience in relationship building and working with a wide variety of donors, private sector and development partners with awareness of their policies and procedures;
• Proven ability to influence work collegially and in partnership with stakeholders and internal partners towards an agreed outcome;
• Demonstrated skills and experience in continuous improvement and facilitating innovation across teams;
• Exceptional verbal and written science and/or technical communication skills and the capacity to represent SPC at regional and international forums;
• Proven ability in project design, management and reporting;
• Ability to work constructively to resolve issues, concerns or differences of opinion.

Language skills

• Excellent English communication skills (oral and written).

Interpersonal skills and cultural awareness

• Proven history of successfully building and leading multi-disciplinary teams, including people of different national and cultural backgrounds, and demonstrated ability to manage professional, technical, and program support staff in a team environment, ensuring everyone’s role contributes to successful team outputs.

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