Senior Operations and Administration Officer NGO Jobs – Farm Africa
Job Title: Senior Operations and Administration Officer
Organisation: Farm Africa
Duty Station: Kampala, Uganda
Duration & Hours: 5 month full-time, fixed-term contract: June 4 – November 11
About US:
Farm Africa, founded in 1985, is an international non-governmental organization working in Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania. We drive agricultural and environmental change to improve lives. Our strategy has three pillars: agricultural expertise, management and preservation of ecosystems, and the power of business to drive prosperity. We believe Africa has the power to feed itself and are helping make this happen by establishing and spreading the best farming and forestry techniques so that poor farmers and herders have more food to feed their families and to sell. We help smallholders manage their natural resources sustainably so that they can withstand climate change challenges and shocks and ensure their families have enough food in the future as well as now. Farm Africa works in partnership with communities, government, local and international organizations, and the private sector to innovate, learn and share best practices for maximum impact of our projects.
Job Summary: The Senior Operations & Administration Officer will be a key member of the Farm Africa Uganda Team, providing a high standard of administrative support for the procurement, human resources, logistics, security, IT, finance and facilities functions.
This is a fixed-term contract to provide maternity cover for the permanent job holder, and it is anticipated that the Interim SOAO will report for duty in early June 2024 accordingly.
Key Duties and Responsibilities: The key responsibilities of the Senior Operations and Administration Officer will be:
Human Resources
- Coordinate recruitment activities, ensuring roles are advertised, taking part in candidate screening and carrying out the duties detailed in the Ugandan recruitment checklist.
- Prepare employment contracts for new staff, and coordinate induction and onboarding processes (inclusive of procuring IT equipment, ensuring user accounts are in place) as necessary
- Brief all new staff on safeguarding policies and the Farm Africa Code of Conduct, ensuring that a signed copy of the latter is held on staff members’ file
- Where required, provide international staff with practical support to obtain entry visas and work permits
- Collate and maintain accurate personnel records for all Farm Africa Uganda staff, including leave and absence records
- Ensure that accurate records are kept of valid driving or riding permits required for staff to carry out their duties
- Where appropriate, support Farm Africa Uganda management with running disciplinary processes, taking minutes and providing guidance on policy and employment law
Assets and Insurance
- Create and maintain a database of all Farm Africa vehicles and motorbikes in Uganda, and ensure that they are comprehensively insured at all times
- Keep a record of all staff members requiring a driving or riding permit to carry out their duties, and ensure that they hold valid permits and copies are held on file
- With oversight from the FAM, take day to day responsibility for keeping health, workers compensation and all risks insurance policies up to date – adding new staff and assets as required
- Maintain UCO asset register, and keep an up-to-date record of asset registers for each project office
- Work closely with field teams to ensure that fuel tracking and analysis reports are prepared and shared on a monthly basis
- Act as the main contact point for the vehicle tracking software supplier
Administration & Logistics
- Provide general practical administrative support to facilitate the efficient running of the UCO including facilities mgmt. and oversight of casual staff carrying out domestic and security duties
- Organise hotels and transport for visitors, support SMT with transport requests
- Provide wide-ranging administrative and practical support to the Country Director & FAM as reasonably required, including supporting the FAM and CD with the process of renewing operational certificates
- Work closely with field offices to improve and streamline systems, processes and policies
- Maintain high standard of filling systems at UCO
IT Support
- Procurement of laptops and other related equipment for all FA staff in Uganda
- Ensure that all new laptops are fully configured with relevant software downloaded
- Ensure that email addresses and necessary logins are set up for all new staff
- Act as first point of contact for IT enquires from field staff
Procurement
- With support from the Finance & Administration Manage (FAM) lead the procurement process for new projects starting up in Uganda
- Provide ongoing procurement support to project teams, particularly with regards to items that need to be sourced from Kampala
- Create and maintain a list of pre-authorised suppliers for Uganda Country Office (UCO)
Finance Support
- Manage petty cash for the UCO
- Conduct monthly petty cash reconciliations o Act as a bank agent
- Responsible for filing hard and soft copies of financial documents including invoices, payment confirmations and receipts
- Support the Finance Manager with the payment of invoices and preparation of supporting documents
Qualifications, Skills and Experience:
Essential
- Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration, Human Resource Management or other relevant subject.
- A minimum of three years’ experience of providing administrative and/or logistical support within a busy office.
- Experience of information management and using Microsoft Excel to manage and store data and records
- Experience of maintaining HR/staff records
- Experience of leading or supporting procurements of both high and low value items.
- Experience of coordinating logistics and travel within Uganda and the region
- Experience of organising meetings and appointments for multiple different staff in an office environment
- Outstanding attention to detail
- Excellent IT skills with the ability to pick up new software and programmes quickly
- Excellent organisational skills with demonstrable ability to establish systems and processes
- Strong written and verbal communication skills including the ability to communicate with people from a broad range of backgrounds
- Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office programmes In particular Word, Excel and PowerPoint
- Able to work under own initiative
Desirable:
- A practical understanding of Ugandan employment laws
- Experience of managing office facilities
- Experience of managing causal staff
- Experience of supporting with disciplinary hearings and procedures
- Experience of coordinating recruitment activities, in particular scheduling and organising interviews, and obtaining references
- Supporting with finance tasks such as preparing invoices for payment
- Experience of working for an INGO
How to Apply:
To apply, please send a CV, salary history, and a two-page supporting statement detailing how you meet the person specification and your availability/notice period to ugandarecruitment@farmafrica.org including ‘Senior Operations and Administration Officer’ in the subject line.
NB: Please DO NOT send additional documents such as certificates and references with your application. Successful candidates ONLY will be required to provide these documents during the referencing process.
Due to the urgent requirement to fill this position, applications will be assessed and suitable candidates invited for interview on a rolling basis. This may mean that the position is filled before the closing date so qualified candidates are urged to submit their applications promptly.
Deadline: 1st May 2024 by 5:00pm