Director, Incident Management & Investigations

Role Overview

This senior leadership position is accountable for building and directing the Foundation’s incident management and investigations function, ensuring that every case—from safeguarding concerns to fraud and misconduct—is handled with rigor, impartiality, and care. You will lead large-scale and sensitive investigations while also shaping the policies, methodologies, and risk frameworks that prevent harm and protect the Foundation’s mission. Your oversight will directly safeguard vulnerable beneficiaries and strengthen trust across programs, partners, donors, and regulators.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and implement the Foundation’s incident management and investigations strategy, aligning it with safeguarding priorities, program delivery, and enterprise risk management objectives.
• Own the complete incident lifecycle, including intake, triage, containment, investigation, remediation, and post-incident reviews for high-severity cases.
• Lead or direct fact-finding investigations into safeguarding violations, fraud, misuse of funds, staff or partner misconduct, and program integrity lapses, coordinating external investigative consultants as necessary.
• Develop and maintain investigation methodologies covering interviews, evidence handling, chain of custody, documentation standards, and whistleblower protection.
• Collaborate with Legal, Human Resources, IT Security, Compliance, Internal Audit, Programs, and Communications to ensure legal alignment, seamless coordination, and timely, appropriate stakeholder communications.
• Conduct root-cause analyses and recommend corrective actions, then track closure of remediation actions through incident records, timelines, and dashboards.
• Build and deliver training programs that raise awareness of fraud, misconduct, and incident response while fostering a culture of integrity, accountability, and learning.
• Report on incident trends, investigation findings, and lessons learned to senior leadership and governance bodies, ensuring systemic improvements are embedded into Foundation policy and practice.

Requirements & Qualifications

• 7–12 years of progressive experience in investigations, safeguarding, compliance, or NGO operations, with leadership experience required.
• Bachelor’s degree in law, criminology, social work, public administration, human rights, or a related field; relevant certifications such as CFE, CISM, CISSP, GIAC, or specialized safeguarding credentials are strongly preferred.
• Direct experience in international development, humanitarian, or philanthropic settings, with demonstrated capacity to handle incidents involving vulnerable beneficiaries.
• Proven ability to coordinate with external legal counsel, law enforcement, and safeguarding authorities while maintaining confidentiality and legal compliance.
• Deep knowledge of investigative techniques, including witness interviewing, evidence preservation, chain-of-custody documentation, and digital investigation tools such as eDiscovery and data visualization platforms.
• Strong familiarity with safeguarding frameworks, incident response principles, enterprise risk management concepts, and donor reporting requirements.
• Superior analytical, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills, including the capacity to make difficult decisions under pressure and manage sensitive information with discretion.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with confidence presenting to senior leadership, boards, and external parties while upholding the Foundation’s values.
• Demonstrated personal integrity, courage, cultural sensitivity, and the ability to lead cross-functional teams through complex, emotionally demanding situations.