Area of Assignment: Colombo, Sri Lanka
Work Arrangement: Office-based; candidates must be based in or willing to relocate to Colombo.
This manager leads a team of Partnership Facilitators who support partner organizations in strengthening local ownership, capacity, and resources to serve children and youth effectively within their communities. This leader's team is Compassion's primary liaison with partners, and is accountable for the Partnership Management core process, partner outcomes, and for mobilizing Compassion staff and resources necessary to strengthen partners and accomplish our shared goal. The primary purpose of this position is to provide direction through subordinate managers and staff, including hiring, discipline, and termination, as well as, coaching, performance management, assigning, checking, and approving work to achieve global strategies and objectives. The incumbent collaborates with other senior leaders and contributes to the development of functional strategy and makes decisions based on operational strategy and priorities.
- Acts as an advocate to raise the awareness of the needs of children. Understands mandate to protect children. Commits to and prioritizes child protection considerations in all aspects of work and decision-making. Abides by all behavioral expectations in Compassion’s Statement of Commitment to Child Protection and Code of Conduct. Reports any concerns of abuse, neglect or exploitation of children through Compassion’s internal reporting process and appropriately supports responses to incidents if they occur.
- Provides leadership and development to direct reports. Works with staff to foster an environment of professional growth, in alignment with compassion’s strategies and objectives. Consult with peer management and senior leaders to successfully align departmental resources and priorities across Compassion.
- Contributes to or prepares and administers the annual budget and departmental expenses, ensuring accountability for on-time completion of deliverables based on department objectives, SLAs, and other Compassion standards, ensuring compliance with regulatory and board policies.
- Selects, manages and develops assigned staff, establishing goals and objectives, coaching and managing performance, including discipline, motivation, and annual reviews; supports continuous learning and development that enhances individual performance and organizational capability.
- Leads direct reports and their assigned staff to be an effective part of partner facing teams. Builds the capacity of assigned staff to support the partner. Collaborates with peer managers to address issues and improve the effectiveness of partner facing teams. Makes their team’s work and plans visible to other teams or departments.
- Empower staff to respond to partner needs, prioritize work, and make choices that result in better relationships and more effective program designs. Models a culture of continuous improvement through learning that leads to greater program effectiveness.
- Demonstrates to team members a personal commitment to serve, respect, and empower the partner according to principles outlined in Compassion’s ministry philosophies. Builds a team that demonstrates the same commitment.
- Leads assigned staff to build partner ownership, capacity, and resources to serve children and youth in their context. Further, leads assigned staff to support the partner through the program cycle - needs assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation. Ensures team alignment with the Partnership Management core process.
- Monitors progress toward youth and church outcomes by reviewing facilitation work plans, project visit reports, partner feedback, Partnership Management strategic process objectives, and monitoring and evaluation data. Uses these metrics to identify opportunities for staff development and drive team performance improvement. Helps partnership facilitators evaluate fulfillment of requirements in the partnership agreement through regular visits and the use of standardized assessments.
- Manages application of the Partner Maturation Model, ensuring that there is capacity and freedom to adjust facilitation approaches. Ensures preparation and implementation of facilitation work plans that address each partner’s individual maturity and needs.
- Develops a team that advocates for partner needs and establishes relationships characterized by mutual respect, trust, and service that builds up partner ministry. Develops team capacity to establish collaborative relationships with partners, committees, and project staff that foster growth in partner maturity.
- Manages team collaboration with Program Support to ensure partner training and support needs are met, and that they are properly informed of appropriate Compassion resources. Manages the planning and conducting of cluster-level activities that facilitate relationships and shared learning, build collaborative relationships, and mobilize partners who can help train other partners.
- Leads team accountability for Compassion commitments to the partner, as well as accountability for programmatic and sponsor engagement deliverables. Ensures team coordination with those in Program Support and Business Support who have responsibility for Compassion’s role in those deliverables to ensure quality and completion. Addresses issues in support capacity with the appropriate manager.
- Models effective collaboration with Program Support to ensure child protection standards are met.
- Ensures staff and key stakeholders understand the child protection implications throughout the lifecycle of a partnership.
- Accountable for supporting, upholding, and engaging in Compassion's core "Cultural Behaviors" in all internal and external communication and relationships.
- Bachelor's Degree in a related field.
- 5+ years of relevant experience in partnership management, program management, community development, NGO operations, or a related field.
- Proven experience leading and developing teams.
- Strong stakeholder engagement, relationship management, and coaching skills.
- Experience managing budgets, resources, and operational priorities.
Demonstrated ability to collaborate across functions and influence outcomes in a complex environment. - Proficiency in Sinhala, Tamil, and English languages.
- Certification from a nationally or internationally recognized organization in a related field.
- May be required to travel up to 20% of normal schedule
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in a related field
- 5+ years of relevant experience in partnership management, program management, community development, NGO operations, or a related field
- Experience leading and developing teams
- Strong stakeholder engagement, relationship management, and coaching skills
- Experience managing budgets, resources, and operational priorities
- Ability to collaborate across functions and influence outcomes in a complex environment
- Proficiency in Sinhala, Tamil, and English
- Certification from a nationally or internationally recognized organization in a related field
What We Do
Compassion International is a Christian child development ministry aimed at releasing children from spiritual, economic, social and physical poverty in Jesus’ name. We are church-based: Compassion believes the Church is God’s chosen instrument to bring hope to a hurting world. We believe the strategic placement of local churches makes them best suited to address the holistic needs of the children in their communities. And only they can effectively deliver the Jesus-based teaching and whole-life care that children in poverty deserve. Compassion partners with 8,000+ churches in 25 countries around the world to deliver our holistic child development program. We are child-focused: Compassion’s ministry is focused on the individual child and his/her development. We offer this assistance irrespective of caste, creed, class or religion. At Compassion, we believe entire communities will feel the positive impact of our presence because what happens in the life of a child ripples throughout his or her environment. We are Christ-centered: Jesus is the core of our ministry and his life and teachings shape our programs. They reflect the spiritual commitments of our staff. And they guide how we love people, respect communities and cooperate with nations. We are committed to integrity: We hold ourselves to the highest professional and biblical principles in all aspects of our ministry and maintain the highest industry standards for our allocation of funds. Compassion and Compassion International are registered trademarks of the United States government
