National Director – Poland

Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI) is looking for a National Director (ND) to lead the National Organization in fulfilling its critical, complex role as a housing expert, convener, and lead implementer of innovative housing solutions. The National Director must be a compelling, transformative leader with significant NGO or development sector leadership experience.

The National Director is to be based in Poland with an expectation of national and international travel.  Candidates must have the right to work in Poland.

About Habitat Poland

Habitat for Humanity Poland is a foundation supporting vulnerable families to attain affordable and sustainable housing in Poland. The foundation continues the mission initiated by the Gliwice office in 1992. Habitat Poland established and is managing (i) a Social Rental Program, (ii) a program for converting vacant building spaces into housing solutions and (iii) a Habitat ReStore Program, which sells donated furnishings and distributes obtained in-kind donations. In 2022 all aspects of these programs have been adjusted and scaled up to respond to the ongoing Ukrainian refugee crisis. Habitat Poland also has considerable history and experience in policy intervention, which is the main pillar of its work in Poland. Advocacy work has been focused on improving policies and practices to increase the government’s capacity and resources to provide affordable housing to vulnerable groups.

The National Organization (NO) is a beacon of housing transformation, articulating a clear vision and strategy in support of national housing goals and Habitat for Humanity’s global mission. The NO convenes and leads public and private coalitions to implement innovative, evidence-based, systemic housing solutions; build public awareness and support; and secure institutional funding in support of these solutions. The NO is an expert in developing and implementing scalable housing solutions, empowering local communities in co-creating sustainable solutions and deepening sector knowledge of potential solutions and their impact on human development and poverty alleviation.

Job Summary

The National Director will need to demonstrate successful leadership experience encompassing the following:-

• Orchestrating wide-spread public and donor engagement and support of the organization’s mission and strategy through a clearly articulated value proposition.
• Building a highly competent, technical leadership team and empowering, agile organizational culture capable of developing and implementing organizational strategy.
• Leading a wide range of diverse internal and external stakeholders through complex organizational change.
• Building and leading multi-sector coalitions and strategic partnerships to successfully scale solutions and advocacy impact and expand funding support.
• Securing institutional funding to support evidence-based, innovative, scalable solutions.
• Navigating the complexity of matrixed NGO structures, demonstrating collaboration with and accountability to local communities as well as local and international governance structures.
• Overseeing operational excellence of a direct service organization, including safeguarding, financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and other quality controls

Key Responsibilities

Cast a clear and transformative vision of the future of housing to build public and donor support.

• Lead organization in developing a clear vision and ambitious strategy informed by articulated, strategic positions to housing deficits, national housing objectives, and Habitat for Humanity’s Theory of Change.
• Lead organization in developing strategic positions on national housing deficits and intersecting issues (e.g., urban development, climate change) to inform strategy development.
• Leverage a clearly articulated value-proposition to drive public and institutional donor engagement and support of housing deficits and proposed solutions.

Build a top-tier, people-centric leadership team and an agile, resilient organizational culture.

• Recruit a leadership team of highly competent, supportive leaders who can clearly demonstrate a history of driving organizational strategy through technical expertise and prioritizing the care and growth of their teams.
• Ensure that the organizational culture is inclusive and safe, finding strength in diversity of culture, background, and talent and respecting all employees equally.
• Champion an agile, transparent, people-centric organizational culture by modeling this culture together with the national leadership team. Build a cohesive, collaborative leadership culture that models effective decision-making and open, honest dialogue.
• Oversee the implementation of effective talent management, organizational development, and change management infrastructure and processes. As a leadership team, drive the development of critical mindsets and behaviors that support an agile, people-centric culture and integration of these expectations with talent management and development processes.

Oversee the implementation and growth of innovative, evidence-based programming.

• Lead organization in implementing and growing innovative, agile programming that delivers on organizational and national housing objectives.
• Secure institutional funding to support evidence-based, innovative, systemic housing solutions.
• Guarantee community empowerment and accountability in all programming through the implementation of the Theory of Change and refined M&E in all programming.
• Guarantee a responsive and agile approach to all programming through successful leveraging of sophisticated M&E, strengthening community and stakeholder accountability and continuously improving the organization’s evidence-based approach.

Leverage strategic partnerships to drive multi-sector, national and regional impact.

• Leverage Habitat’s global influence and coordinate with other regional National Organizations to grow key partnerships and strengthen advocacy efforts.
• Strengthen relationship and coordination efforts with national and local governments, NGO leaders, and other key development sector organizations.
• Cultivate and drive strategic, multi-sector coalitions for shelter innovation to advance and scale housing solutions.

Champion good governance and the highest standards of accountability, ethics, and operational excellence.

• Oversee the installation of and adherence to high-quality safeguarding, financial management, monitoring and evaluation, and other quality control measures. Ensure the organization’s ethical standards adhere to HFHl, international development, and national ordinance requirements.
• Champion an organizational culture of safety, inclusivity, and accountability. Ensure quality control measures, ethics, and related measures and practices function are integrated into staff training and talent management processes.
• Leverage previous experience with NGOs and matrixed governance structures to strengthen alignment and collaboration between NO board of directors and the global Habitat organization.
• Lead coalitions and implementing partners in establishing shared ethical and quality control standards to actively minimize the risk of harm to Habitat constituents and partners.

Competencies & Values

Strong candidates for the ND role will be able to clearly demonstrate how they have leveraged the following competencies and values to lead in previous roles.

Leadership Competencies

• Compels others through embodiment and clarity of vision, building widespread internal and external support and driving action through a clear articulation of a value proposition.
• Leads through ambiguity and transformation, modeling agile learning and supporting efforts to prioritize and support employees and stakeholders through change.
• Upholds the highest standards of integrity and ethics while navigating organizational conflict, critical conversations, and decision-making.
• Embodies trust and transparency by promoting a free flow of information throughout the organization and providing teams with the leverage to achieve goals and grow.
• Embraces rest and resilience as critical to mission achievement, supporting and growing efforts to listen to and be responsive to employee feedback.
• Fosters a culture of inclusion where diverse thoughts are freely shared and integrated.
• Deeply respects and embraces the autonomy and power of all individuals, treating community members and employees with the same respect as strategic external partners.

Technical Competencies

• Scoping the critical technical expertise to develop and drive a transformative strategy.
• Hiring and developing top-tier leaders who will drive organizational strategy and build the organizational culture needed to achieve this strategy.
• Building and growing strategic relationships with external partners, including multi-sector and multi-cultural leaders, local and national governments, and foundations and institutions.
• Agile decision-making, embracing flexibility and responsiveness as critical to organizational success.
• Aligning goals and strengthening the collaboration between local and international governance within a matrixed NGO system.
• Familiarity with change management and people infrastructure and processes required to successfully navigate through change.
• Familiarity with M&E, financial management, and other quality control infrastructure and processes required to maintain effective operations and programming.

Active support of HFHI Values:

• Humility – We are part of something bigger than ourselves
• Courage – We do what’s right, even when it is difficult or unpopular
• Accountability – We take personal responsibility for Habitat’s mission
• Safeguarding: HFHI requires that all employees take seriously their ethical responsibilities to safeguard our intended beneficiaries, their communities, and all those with whom we work. Managers at all levels have responsibilities to support and develop systems that create and maintain an environment that prevents harassment, sexual exploitation, and abuse safeguards the rights of beneficiaries and community members (especially children), and promotes the implementation of Habitat for Humanity’s code of conduct.

At Habitat for Humanity International, we embrace a history rooted in creating equity and take our mission seriously by courageously committing to a culture and workplace where all staff feel safe, welcome, visible, respected, supported and valued. As an equal opportunity employer, we realize that our success depends upon building an inclusive workforce of diverse perspectives and encourage people of varied races, ethnicities, national origins, tribes, religions, ages, gender identities and expressions, genders, sexual orientations, marital statuses, disabilities, veteran/reserve national guard statuses, socio-economic statuses, thinking and communication styles to work with us.

About Habitat for Humanity International

Founded in 1976, Habitat for Humanity International is a global Christian-based nonprofit organization which grew out of an intentionally multi-racial community in rural Georgia.  Seeking to put God’s love into action, Habitat brings together people of all faiths and people of no faith to build homes, communities and hope. Working alongside each other, we help families and individuals build and improve places to call home and achieve the strength, stability and self-reliance they need to build better lives for themselves. Habitat for Humanity seeks individuals who have a willingness to affirm these principles and values.

Habitat’s vision is of a world where everyone has a decent place to live.

HFHI works through a broad network of national Habitat organizations and other strategic partners, such as corporations, financial service providers, individuals, non-governmental organizations, foundations, and local governments, as well as private sector actors. HFHI supports program and project implementation by national HFH organizations and directly implements projects and programs regionally.

How to apply

Closing date: Open until filled

To apply please click ‘apply for job’

As part of the application process kindly submit an MS Word version of your CV and a cover letter. All application documents (cover letter and CV) should be submitted in English.

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