Country Director

Role Overview

The Country Director leads Village Enterprise’s Kenya programme, setting its direction and ensuring its projects deliver strong, measurable results for households experiencing extreme poverty. Working with the country leadership team and regional and global colleagues, the Director oversees programme delivery, funding, government partnerships, financial and operational performance, risk, and staff development. The role also represents the organisation in Kenya’s economic inclusion sector and helps expand effective approaches to poverty reduction.

Key Responsibilities

• Set and periodically review the Kenya country strategy and annual plans, aligning organisational priorities with national and county development goals.
• Oversee the country portfolio’s quality, delivery, budgets, timelines, donor commitments, and performance; use monitoring, evaluation, research, and field feedback to address issues and improve results.
• Lead resource mobilisation with the Business Development team, guiding opportunity selection, proposal development, programme design, budgeting, donor relationships, and progress against revenue targets.
• Build partnerships with national and county governments, donors, research institutions, development organisations, and private-sector partners to support programme delivery and wider adoption of economic inclusion approaches.
• Provide oversight of financial planning, expenditure controls, forecasting, procurement, IT, logistics, administration, audits, statutory obligations, and business continuity.
• Identify and manage programme and organisational risks, including safety, security, duty of care, donor compliance, and legal requirements.
• Lead and develop the Country Leadership Team and wider staff, supporting performance, coaching, talent development, succession planning, employee wellbeing, inclusion, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Promote safeguarding throughout the programme, ensuring risks are addressed in planning and delivery and that concerns are reported, escalated, and managed according to policy.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Master’s degree in a relevant field, such as international development, business, economics, public policy, social sciences, agriculture, or finance; alternatively, a bachelor’s degree with at least 15 years of progressively responsible leadership experience.
• At least 12 years of senior leadership experience in international development, including oversight of complex programmes, multidisciplinary teams, and organisational operations.
• Demonstrated capability in strategic planning, programme management, financial and operational oversight, and organisational leadership.
• Proven experience securing institutional funding, developing proposals, managing donor relationships, and overseeing substantial multi-donor portfolios.
• Experience working with government, development partners, private-sector organisations, or research institutions to influence policy or strengthen systems.
• A record of delivering high-quality, compliant programmes while managing budgets, grants, contracts, organisational risk, and change.
• Experience representing an organisation with senior government officials, donors, boards, and other strategic stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of programme management, monitoring and learning, safeguarding, financial controls, risk management, and donor compliance.
• Understanding of Kenya’s development and policy context; familiarity with economic inclusion, poverty graduation, livelihoods, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, social protection, or food security is an advantage.
• Excellent strategic, financial, analytical, communication, negotiation, and people-leadership skills, with sound judgement and a commitment to integrity, accountability, safeguarding, and inclusion.

What We Offer / Why Join

This position offers the opportunity to guide a major country programme spanning direct implementation, government technical assistance, digital innovation, research, and systems strengthening. The Country Director will work across government, donor, research, and private-sector partnerships to advance economic inclusion and support sustainable livelihoods in Kenya.