PEOPLE AND CULTURE DIRECTOR

PEOPLE AND CULTURE DIRECTOR - SYRIA

SUMMARY

31 Mar 2026

21 Apr 2026 - 23:59 UTC

Syrian Arab Republic

Human Resources

Permanent

Full-time

APPLY

Title: People & Culture Director - Syria
TEAM/PROGRAMME: People and Culture
LOCATION:  Damascus

CONTRACT TYPE: National or International    CONTRACT LENGTH:  one year and renewable 
CHILD SAFEGUARDING: 
Level 3: the role holder will have contact with children and/or young people either frequently (e.g. once a week or more) or intensively (e.g. four days in one month or more or overnight) because they work in country programs; or are visiting country programs; or because they are responsible for implementing the police checking/vetting process for staff.
ROLE PURPOSE:
The People & Culture Director provides strategic leadership for people management, organizational development, and workplace culture within the Syria Country Office. As a member of the Senior Management Team (SMT), the role plays a critical part in strengthening leadership capacity, organizational effectiveness, and an inclusive and high-performing workplace culture in a complex humanitarian and recovery context.
The role leads the development and implementation of a forward-looking People & Culture strategy that supports the Country Office’s transition toward national leadership, partnership-based programming, and sustainable impact for children. The position ensures that the organization attracts, develops, and retains high-performing and diverse talent while fostering a culture of psychological safety, accountability, continuous learning, and collaboration.
The People & Culture Director also leads initiatives that strengthen leadership development, staff wellbeing, and duty of care, ensuring a safe, respectful, and inclusive working environment for staff, volunteers, and partners.
The role plays a key role in supporting the Country Office through organizational change and strengthening leadership and culture during a period of operational transition.
SCOPE OF ROLE: 
Reports to: Syria Country Director
Dimensions: Supports the strategic management and organizational effectiveness of the Syria Country Office, overseeing people management and culture across a portfolio of approximately USD 30M operating across multiple access points.
Staff directly reporting to this post: 3 direct reports (HR Manager, Employee Relationship Specialist and Admin Coordinator), with potential addition of L&D/Talent Advisor
KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABILITY:
1.    Organizational Development and Leadership Strengthening
•    Serve as an active member of the Senior Management Team, contributing to the overall strategic direction of the Syria Country Office.
•    Lead the development and implementation of a comprehensive People & Culture strategy aligned with the Country Strategic Plan and evolving operational context.
•    Provide strategic advice to SMT on organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, and leadership development.
•    Ensure people management practices support programme impact, operational effectiveness, and organizational sustainability.
•    Promote Save the Children values and ensure leadership behaviours reflect organizational standards.
2.    Organizational Development & National Leadership Strengthening
•    Lead the development and implementation of a national leadership development and succession strategy to support sustainable nationalization and strengthen leadership capacity across the Country Office.
•    Design and implement structured learning and development systems, including leadership training, mentoring, coaching, and career development pathways.
•    Support SMT and senior managers to strengthen leadership practices, decision-making, and team management capabilities.
•    Promote a culture of continuous learning, reflection, and adaptive leadership across the organization.
3.    Organizational Culture, Inclusion & Staff Wellbeing
•    Champion a healthy and inclusive organizational culture that promotes psychological safety, mutual respect, and accountability.
•    Promote feminist leadership approaches and inclusive leadership practices that encourage participation, transparency, and shared responsibility.
•    Lead initiatives aimed at improving staff engagement, collaboration, and trust across teams and locations.
•    Develop and implement staff wellbeing and duty of care frameworks appropriate for high-risk and high-stress environments.
•    Strengthen support systems addressing burnout, stress management, and mental health awareness.
4.    People Operations & Talent Management
•    Provide strategic oversight of all HR functions including workforce planning, recruitment, talent management, compensation, and performance management.
•    Ensure HR systems and practices support both humanitarian response and longer-term recovery programming.
•    Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion across recruitment, talent management, and leadership representation.
•    Ensure effective performance management systems that promote accountability, feedback, and professional development.
•    Lead and manage the People & Culture team, providing clear direction, technical guidance, and professional development support.
•    Provide leadership oversight of Country Office administrative services, including visa management, visitor coordination, accommodation arrangements, and related administrative processes.
•    Supervise the Administration Coordinator and ensure administrative systems support effective operations and compliance with organizational policies.

5.    Employee Relations, Safeguarding & Ethical Workplace
•    Provide leadership oversight for all employee relations matters including grievances, disciplinary cases, and workplace investigations.
•    Ensure employee relations processes are handled fairly, consistently, and in compliance with SCI policies and local labour law.
•    Provide strategic advice to SMT on complex employee relations issues and organizational risk.
•    Promote awareness and adherence to Code of Conduct, safeguarding standards, anti-harassment, and whistleblowing policies.
•    Ensure a safe, respectful, and inclusive workplace environment for staff, volunteers, and partners.
•    Monitor employee relations trends to identify systemic risks and recommend preventative actions.
•    Honest, encourages openness and transparency
 
QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE
•    Minimum of ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in Human Resources, including senior management or director-level roles, with oversight of HR functions and administrative operations.
•    Significant experience working in international or multicultural organizations, preferably in fragile, conflict-affected, or humanitarian contexts.
•    Postgraduate degree in Human Resources, Social Development, Organisational Development, Business Administration, or a related field (preferred).
•    Solid understanding of the NGO sector, including both development and humanitarian programming contexts.
•    Demonstrated experience in reviewing, drafting, and implementing HR policies, procedures, and guidelines, including the development and strengthening of HR systems (including ORACLE and other IT systems).
•    Proven experience in leading and managing HR-related projects, including organizational change initiatives and system improvements.
•    Strong knowledge of safeguarding standards and best HR practices related to safeguarding, duty of care, and employee conduct.
•    Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to identify trends, assess risks, and propose strategic solutions.
•    Effective negotiation and influencing skills, with demonstrated ability to work across departments and sectors at senior leadership level.
•    Proven ability to plan and manage a substantial and complex workload, balancing diverse priorities across development and emergency contexts while maintaining strong attention to detail.
•    Demonstrated experience in resource management, capacity building, training, coaching, and mentoring of staff and managers.
•    Demonstrated experience working with and leading multicultural and national teams in complex or politically sensitive environments.
•    Flexibility and willingness to adapt work practices and hours in response to emergency situations, including supporting surge and rapid scale-up operations.
•    Strong commitment to and understanding of Save the Children’s mission, values, child rights-based approach, and safeguarding principles.
•    Fluency in written and spoken English & Arabic is required 
•    Demonstrated experience leading organizational culture change or transformation initiatives.
•    Proven experience in leadership development, learning systems, and capacity building in complex organizations.
Working at Save the Children International
Save the Children is the world's leading organisation for children, employing ~25,000 staff. We save children's lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. Through our work in 116 countries, we put the most deprived and marginalised children first.
We know that great people make a great organisation, and that our employees play a crucial role in helping us achieve our ambitions for children. We value our people and offer a meaningful and rewarding career, along with a collaborative and inclusive environment where ambition, creativity, and integrity are highly valued.
The work here is challenging but is also immensely rewarding. At Save the Children, you will be in good company, working with talented, like-minded individuals who are determined to ensure that all children survive, learn, and are protected. Your contribution will help ensure children's voices are heard at the highest levels, and that we achieve our global strategy, Ambition for Children 2030, and reach every last child.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Equal Opportunities
DEI is core to our vision, values and global strategy. Save the Children is committed to creating a truly diverse, equitable and inclusive organisation, and one which will support us in our vision to ensure every child attains the right to survival, protection, development, and participation.
We are committed to equal employment opportunities, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race, colour, ethnic origin, nationality, disability, marital or civil partnership status, gender reassignment, pregnancy and maternity, caring or parental responsibilities, age, or beliefs and religion. We are committed to diversifying our staff to better represent the communities we serve and actively welcome underrepresented groups to apply.
Reasonable adjustments will be made should any candidate invited to interview require this.
Application Information
Please attach a copy of your CV and cover letter with your application. A full copy of the role profile can be found here via the job listing. It is recommended that you save a copy of the role profile as it will no longer be available after the advert closes.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and the job advert may be closed earlier than advertised subject to the volume of suitable applicants. Please submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.
Due to the high volume of applications we receive, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Candidates who are successfully shortlisted should expect to hear from us within 2 weeks of the advert deadline.
Our recruitment process:

1. Application review by our recruiting team based on your CV and cover letter
2. Two-stage competency-based interviews with the hiring team
3. Some recruitment may include an additional assessment or case study stage, or a third-stage interview
4. If successful, you will receive a conditional offer of employment, followed by your contract subject to passing background checks

We need to keep children and adults safe so our selection process includes rigorous background checks and reflects our commitment to the protection of children and adults from abuse. All employees are expected to carry out their duties in accordance with our Code of Conduct and all policies and procedures relating to Anti-harassment, Health and Safety, Safeguarding, and DEI and Equal Opportunities.
Save the Children does not charge a fee at any stage of the recruitment process.

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