Capacity Building Team Leader

Vacancy Announcement

Organization Background

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities.

WCS Viet Nam Program Overview

WCS has been working in Viet Nam since 2006, focusing on strengthening the commitment, capacity and actions of the government of Vietnam to combat wildlife trafficking. Through support and cooperation to executive and judiciary sectors, including the Ministry of Public Security, Supreme People’s Court, Supreme People’s Procuracy, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the National Assembly, it has provided and shared intelligence on criminal wildlife networks which help generate well-informed decisions in enforcement operations. WCS Viet Nam have generated a wide range of reliable data on a number of related issues in illegal wildlife trade, trained and briefed about 4,000 law enforcement officers, policy makers, journalists, researchers and managers nation-wide and distributed a number of technical handbooks and guides. It has assisted central agencies in reviewing and proposing necessary changes to national legislation, criminal intelligence analysis systems, and inter-agency cooperation. WCS has also facilitated Government to Government dialogue through multilateral and bilateral collaboration efforts between Viet Nam and Asian, African and Latin American countries, to detect and respond to illegal wildlife trade networks. Its wildlife health expertise has been leveraged to address unregulated wildlife trade and mitigate pandemic threats through collaborative research, training, and policy development. Recently, WCS Viet Nam has also expanded to species conservation, focusing on finding and protecting Rafetus Swinhoei in the wild.

Job Summary

Under the supervision of the Program Manager, the Capacity Building Team Leader will manage the development and implementation of WCS Viet Nam’s capacity building program in order to improve the knowledge and skills of different law enforcement, judicial officers and other partners; and enhance the capacity of WCS Viet Nam staff to contribute to executing WCS’s CWT (Combating Wildlife Trafficking) strategy in Viet Nam. S/he will lead the implementation and scale up of the Wildlife Crime Leadership Initiative (WCLI), which focuses on building future influencers and leaders on combating wildlife crimes from law enforcement and the judicial system.

This Job Description is progressive in nature and shall be reviewed and amended from time to time to meet WCS Viet Nam program needs.

Major responsibilities

A. Capacity building program and the WCLI program scale up

• Leads the development and implementation of WCS’s strategy/plans of building capacity for relevant agencies to maximize the enforcement effectiveness;
• Ensures the quality and consistency of all capacity building activities in line with WCS Viet Nam and regional priorities in CWT;
• Leads the continuation of the onsite coaching plan for trained officers from the WCLI program and scaling up to the judicial system in Viet Nam;
• Monitors and evaluates the effectiveness of WCS’s efforts in building capacity for relevant partners and provides timely support;
• Oversees the knowledge management system of capacity building program deliverables (materials, tools and guidelines)
• Co-leads with HR coordinator on capacity building activities for WCS Viet Nam staff.

B. Networking and partnership

• Builds and maintains partnerships with key government agencies at the central and provincial levels in Viet Nam, research/academic institutions, NGOs and individuals to mobilize and engage them to capacity building and CWT;

C. Grant development and implementation

• Leads the team to develop work-plan and execute all grant activities on capacity building;
• Manages the team’s budget and relevant grant indicators as the approved work plan;
• Provides insights of capacity building needs and direction to the fund-raising activities and proposals development;
• Contributes and provides inputs to the grant reports and programmatic updates.

D. Management and supervision

• Contributes to the development of WCS Viet Nam policies and strategies;
• Supervises and assigns tasks to Capacity Building team members, and provides coaching, as appropriate;
• Supervises and assigns tasks to hire consultants as appropriate;
• Inducts properly and timely to new staff on WCS’s capacity building work and standards.

E. Others

• Acts as WCS’s representative at meetings and workshops as required;
• Performs other tasks as assigned by the direct supervisor.

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced degree in a relevant field such as education, biology, environment, project management;
• At least 5 years of working experience in relevant fields;
• Proven management and leadership skills;
• Networking and partnership building techniques;
• Report and proposal writing skills;
• Language: English and Vietnamese language is essential to effective performance in this position;
• Fluency in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint);
• Knowledge of Viet Nam law enforcement and judicial systems and their education systems
• Strategic thinker with excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills;
• Concern for wildlife conservation & environmental issues is an asset.

Application Process

Interested candidates, who meet the above qualifications shouldapply via link https://forms.gle/77PfS3ZV1XqNpdHbAlatest by 23:59 of 24 October 2022

WCS is an equal opportunity employer and the organization complies with all employment and labor laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination in hiring and ensures that candidates from all backgrounds are fairly and consistently considered during the recruitment process. We are dedicated to hiring and supporting a diverse workforce. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment and look for future team members who share that same value. The organization provides equal employment opportunities for all qualified candidates. The organization does not discriminate for employment based on age, color, disability, gender identify, national origin, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by laws and regulations.