People & Culture Director

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

The IRC has operated in Syria since 2012, providing protection, health, economic recovery, and early childhood development programs in Idleb, Aleppo, Ar-Raqqa, Hassakeh, and Deir ez-Zor, with new programs expanding into Hama, rural Damascus, and Homs. With a team of over 750 members, the IRC has established trust and strong community relationships, ensuring access and effective service delivery. It plays a significant role in Syria’s NGO, donor, and coordination forums, holding key positions and adapting to the evolving context.

With the new transition under the new government, as of December 2024, the IRC has deployed a team to Damascus to set up operations and engage in coordination structures for newly accessible areas across Syria—including parts of NES, NWS, and other previously unreachable locations in South and Central Syria, adjusting operations to maximize coverage and efficiency.

Job Overview/Summary:
The People & Culture Director (PCD) is accountable for providing strategic leadership for over 5-600 staff and incentive workers in the Syria Country Program, across multiple geographical locations. S/he leads a highly effective People & Culture team to cultivate the desired culture within the Country program and ensure the talents and resources needed are in place to deliver on Country goals and effectively serve our clients. This individual is a key member of the Country Senior Management team (SMT) and serves as a strategic leader, advisor, and coach with a particular focus on ensuring a safe, inclusive, and welcoming culture for all people, organizational performance, and efficiency and effectiveness of people-related operations in the country.

The position holder operates within the scope of IRC management in partnership model and reports directly to both, Syria Country Director and Regional People and Culture Director – MENAU. The PCD will work closely with the Country Director (CD) & Regional People & Culture Director (RPCD) to drive the delivery of key P&C strategies, services, and infrastructure nationally for efficient and effective services at multiple levels. Finally, this position will drive the implementation and adaptation of P&C global initiatives and practices within the local context and in line with GEDI and Safeguarding values and principles.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic HR Leadership and Management
• Strategic leadership on all HR related matters, working with Country Director and partnering with SMT to ensure the IRC Syria Country Program embodies organizational culture and values and that all team members feel valued through all aspects of the employment lifecycle.
• Manage and lead the P&C team across all locations, and overall accountable for quality of services and success of the HR department’s progress against agreed goals. Monitor key P&C KPIs, analyzing monthly data to diagnose and identify priorities and evaluate effectiveness of HR functions.
• Serve as a model of supervisory excellence; provide strategic leadership and mentorship to direct reports, ensuring strong management practices cascade across the HR team., including communicating clear expectations, setting performance objectives, providing regular and timely feedback, and leading documented semi-annual performance reviews.
• Lead the performance management process, creating a plan to implement the annual and mid-year reviews. Ensure capacity-building frameworks (e.g., goal-setting, leadership development) are in place and effectively delivered across the program, utilize budgets to organize development activities and work one-on-one with managers and employees to create country-wide development plans.
• Support senior staff to pursue nationalization/regionalization of senior and middle management positions.
• Promote and actively participate in initiatives and efforts to foster team culture, through team engagement, inclusion and cohesion.
• Foster ongoing learning, honest dialogue and reflection to strengthen safeguarding and to promote IRC values and adherence to IRC policies.
• Provide strategic guidance on disciplinary frameworks, ensuring alignment with employment law and IRC policies. Ensure all legal obligations are fulfilled in Syria.
• Partner with IRC global investigations teams and the IRC Syria CD and Risk and Compliance Coordinator to ensure that recommendations arising out of all investigations, particularly disciplinary action against subjects, are actioned within the timeframe.
• Participate in and support staff meetings and propose and lead other staff engagement initiatives.
• Support the Country Director in other occasional strategic people related tasks that may arise.

HR Operations/Foundations
• Oversee the creation and tracking of P&C objectives at the Country Office, ensuring alignment with organizational goals.
• Actively engage in proposal design and grant review meetings, providing expert advice on organizational structure, position scoping, demographic and staffing analysis to build a robust P&C foundation that supports high program quality.
• Lead the follow-up on all organizational transition requirements after legal registration, ensuring full compliance with national labor law and regulatory frameworks.
• Oversee the review and alignment of employment contracts, HR policies, and practices with updated legal requirements.
• Ensure timely compliance with taxation, social security contributions, and other statutory obligations.
• Liaise with external authorities (e.g., Ministry of Labor, Social Security, tax authorities) and legal counsel to address any compliance gaps or emerging requirements.
• Provide regular reports and recommendations to senior management on compliance status, risks, and mitigation measures.
• Ensure the development and implementation of high-quality, context-specific strategies and practices in all relevant P&C areas while ensuring alignment with national law and IRV Standards
• Participate in budget preparation and provide strategic compensation analysis to attract high-quality talent.
• Oversee the annual compensation review process and compensation adjustments.
• Oversee exit management processes to ensure compliance, fairness, and retention of organizational learning and analyze turnover and exit interviews to make real-time, continuous improvement utilizing learnings to formulate retention strategies.

P&C Safeguarding
• Directly supervise and support the Safeguarding and SITP Manager, ensuring effective planning, implementation, and monitoring of safeguarding and inclusive practices in IRC’s policies and initiatives.
• Ensure Safeguarding commitments and priorities are integrated into People & Culture strategies, systems, and procedures (e.g. recruitment, onboarding, training, performance management).
• Collaborate with country and regional specialized safeguarding staff and Country SMT members to convene functional stakeholders within the country and promote adoption and progress of the Safeguarding Minimum Standards.
• Ensure all IRC staff are trained and oriented in Safeguarding, the IRC Way, reporting mechanisms and behavioral expectations, collaborating with the Safeguarding Manager function and Regional Safeguarding Advisor.
• Partner with IRC global investigations teams and the Country Director to ensure that recommendations from safeguarding investigations, particularly those involving disciplinary actions, are implemented in a timely manner.

Duty of Care
• Advise and provide guidance and support to all staff on duty of care initiatives, with the support of the Global Duty of Care department and RPCD, ensuring adherence to organizational standards as well as the Safety and Security Team to ensure best practice aftercare response to critical incidents
• Developing country program action plans aimed at enhancing morale and supporting the social, physical, and psychological well-being of staff.
• Maintain a healthy and empowering office environment that promotes open, honest, and productive communication. Implement an employee engagement and communication strategy tailored to suit remote management contexts, ensuring it supports effective interaction and staff integration across all levels of the organization.
• Promote and assess staff care and well-being. Model healthy work-life balance practices.

Key Working Relationships:

Position Reports to: Country Director and Regional People and Culture Director
Position directly Supervises: HR leads in Raqqa and Idleb

Key Internal Contacts:
 Country Program: Senior Management Team members
 Regional: Regional People and Culture Director, Regional P&C Coordinator and Regional Safeguarding Advisor
 HQ: People and Culture Team, Employee Relations, Comp & Benefits and Duty of Care teams

Key External Contacts:
 P&C/HR counter parts at other I/NGOs, Legal counsel, Government ministries and directorates, labor and social security authorities, etc.

Job Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in HR management, organizational behavior, international relations or development, MBA, Law or in related field is preferred, or any other equivalent experience relevant to the role.
• Minimum of 10–12 years of progressive experience as an HR practitioner, with at least 5 years staff management experience in a fast-paced environment covering recruitment, employee relations, compensation, training and development, and HR administration.
• Confirmed experience with an international organization or international experience.
• Demonstrated success as a HR professional in emergency response, conflict zones and/or humanitarian aid sector preferred.
• Demonstrated success in supporting key senior management and building strong, trusted relationships.
• Proven track-record of excellent management and leadership skills including capacity-building, coaching, mentoring, performance management and delivering individual and group training.
• Strong collaborator with effective interpersonal and analytical skills who can work seamlessly across countries, cultures, and organizational units required.
• Demonstrated ability to work, manage, and meet competing deadlines in a fast-paced, high-volume environment and on deadline; aptitude for problem solving and decision making needed
• English is required; Arabic language skills are preferred.
• Regular travel to the field Syria and attending regional/global workshops and meetings.

Standard of Professional Conduct: The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.