Chief Programme Officer

Chief Programme Officer (CPO)

Location: Vienna /Austria

Duration: 5 years with possibility of extension

About us

SOS Children’s Villages, founded in 1949, is the world's largest non-governmental organization focused on supporting children and young people without parental care, or at risk of losing it.

Child neglect, abuse and abandonment is everywhere. Families are at risk of separation. Locally led, we work in more than 130 countries and territories to strengthen families who are under pressure so they can stay together. When this is not in a child or young person's best interests, we provide quality care according to their unique needs.

Together with partners, donors, communities, children, young people and families, we enable children to grow up with the bonds they need to develop and become their strongest selves. We speak up for each child's rights and advocate for change so all children can grow up in a supportive environment.

They contribute to the leadership of SOS Children’s Villages International (CVI) including enabling sound budgeting and financial management by leaders and managers in the two units: FCS (Federation Secretariat) and IDS (International Development Support).

Mission of the area

The Chief Programme Officer /IDS Lead is a member of the Executive Board of SOS Children’s Villages International. The CPO/IDS Lead’s primary responsibility is to enable and strengthen programme impact across the federation and its individual national members for the benefit of children. This includes leading the development and implementation of contract-based services that support members in meeting established minimum standards and ensuring that basic programme and service requirements are consistently achieved in line with federation expectations.

It does this through oversight and highest responsibility for four functions: overseeing facilitation of knowledge management in innovation, evidence & enabling Members and CVI run countries to deliver programme impact at scale. Leading, facilitating and delivering high-quality humanitarian response in emergencies / crises affecting children. Overseeing the delivery of high-quality contract-based services for children in countries directly managed and run by SOS CVI. Establish capacity building of Members so that they can be independently self-sustaining.

As part of the Executive Board the CPO/IDS Lead contributes to the Executive Board decisions is accountable to the International Board and Members for delivery of all the responsibilities of SOS CVI.

Total no. of direct reports: 8

Tasks and Responsibilities

SOS CVI strategic delivery:

• Together with the other members of the Executive Board, operationalizes and is responsible for delivering the overarching SOS CVI strategy as agreed by the International Board

Programme impact for children at scale:

• Oversees and lead knowledge management in innovation, evidence to enable Members and CVI run countries to take up and scale innovative programming, use research, learning and apply high-quality programme policy to deliver programme impact at scale.

• Responsible for, and at the request of members, facilitate and coordinate strategic international programmes/multi-country programming including advocacy programming, that groups of independent member associations and CVI-Run Operations request and opt in to deliver.

Member Development and Support Services:

• Responsible and oversight of provision of “on demand” support and services to members. This includes capacity and capability building to risk and growth members in programme and operations areas.

• Provision of other on-demand support services to supporting members (“PSAs”), sustainable members, and risk & growth members so that they drive impact and meet Federation and external compliance requirements.

• Maintain a contract structure that ensures the stable and sustainable funding of member-focused support projects via PSAs.

• Oversee member-focused support for members to achieve and maintain self-sufficient governance, income and operations. Includes support to Members to raise sustainable income through grant/institutional income development and individual giving and delivery of multi-member systems and global processes such as those enabling child sponsorship, digital fundraising, and CRM systems support.

CVI run / managed countries:

• Overall responsibility for ensuring that CVI-Run Operations are run for maximum programme impact and quality, and are compliant with policies and standards. (Programme funding for CVI-Run Operations is not part of SOS CVI’s budget and responsibility, but of respective location PSAs, who financially support those CVI-Run Operations.)

• IDS has