Context

Habitat for Humanity is a global not-for-profit provider of housing for low-income families in need. Established in 1976, Habitat for Humanity has changed the lives of people all over the world. Today, Habitat for Humanity works in thousands of communities around the world and has built, rehabilitated and repaired over one million homes, helping more than 35 million people. Our vision is a world where everyone has a safe and decent place to live.

In Australia, Habitat for Humanity Australia (HFHA) provides a range of services to disadvantage individuals and families. Our services include the Brush with Kindness (BWK) volunteering program, disaster resilience and recovery, and partnerships to provide and improve housing solutions.

Disaster resilience and recovery assists families and individual exposed to natural disasters like bushfire and supports communities to be prepared for future disasters.

BWK is a home maintenance and repair program working in partnership with accommodation services and disadvantaged people. The program mobilises teams of volunteers to conduct landscaping, maintenance, painting and minor repairs. This work improves accommodation for people experiencing homelessness and enables resources to be redirected to other projects.

Habitat for Humanity Australia also works in partnership with housing providers, community service agencies and other organisations to increase housing solutions and improve existing housing and support services.

About the role:

The Head of Australian Programs leads a team that develops and executes HFHA’s Australian Program strategy in collaboration with communities, corporations, government, NGO partners and other HFHA employees.

We are looking for an experienced leader who can execute our current program of work and who also has the capability to deliver our three-year strategy of:

• Building a sustainable, scalable, home-building program to meet the needs of vulnerable communities within NSW/QLD.
• Tripling the impact of our existing program offerings such as Brush with Kindness, Disaster Recovery and Disaster Resilience.
• Strongly positioning HFHA in the specialist homelessness/social housing sector for partnerships/grants.

The Head of Australian Programs is member of the HFHA leadership team and contributes to successful overall operations of the organisation within Australia.

Our Australian programs currently include:

• Delivering a nine-bedroom domestic violence accommodation centre and housing units in Tamworth
• Disaster resilience and recovery programs (for bushfire and floods)
• Running volunteer programs to repair and renovate crisis accommodation and participate in disaster recovery

The Head of Australia Programs ensures systematic approaches to program development and implementation, financial planning, program quality, monitoring, evaluation and continuous improvement. The role is responsible for developing and maintaining key relationships with other not-for-profits, government and donors. The position reports to the CEO and receives strategic guidance from a subcommittee of the Board.

Essential Selection Criteria:

Leadership experience and knowledge within the social housing, community services, disaster resilience and recovery and/or construction sectors.

• Ability to assess potential worksites and determine site requirements for project completion.
• Makes well-formed decisions based on analysis, experience and judgement.
• Demonstrated leadership and management skills and experience, in particular experience managing a diverse and distributed workforce.
• Capability in managing risks and opportunities in project execution.
• Experience in managing to a budget and delivering mid-scale projects.
• Has a drive for results: is known for setting stretch goals and achieving them.
• Effectively copes and adapts to changing environments and circumstances to deliver the best possible outcomes.
• Demonstrated ability to build and manage complex and diverse stakeholder relationships.
• Interpersonal capacity to deal with the needs of economically and socially disadvantaged people.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, with the ability to successfully represent HFHA in a variety of situations.
• Ability to work as a member of a team and autonomously.
• Strong networking skills to build and manage diverse internal and external partnerships.
• Ability to think creatively and to leverage opportunities that come from strategic partnerships.
• Enthusiastic, positive, self-motivated, proactive and demonstrated empathy with the Christian ethos and values of Habitat for Humanity.
• A willingness to travel to various project locations in NSW and QLD.

Desirable Criteria: one or more of the following

• Building/construction qualifications.
• Engineering qualifications.
• Running a business in construction or home maintenance.
• Experience in emergency management.

Other Requirements

• Habitat for Humanity requires that all employees take seriously their ethical responsibilities to safeguarding our intended beneficiaries, their communities, and all those with whom we work.
• Given our vision and working with disadvantaged communities’ successful applicants for these roles will require to be fully vaccinated against Covid 19.

• The successful applicant will need to provide evidence of a clear criminal history and adhere to HFH's Code of Conduct, policies and procedures including the Child Protection Policy.
• HFHA is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to the principle that people should be employed upon the basis of merit and that we will use all reasonable endeavours to not discriminate on the basis of sex, sexual preference, marital status age, religion, race, disability, pregnancy and carer responsibilities.
• To be eligible for this position, you must have an appropriate Australian work visa.

To submit your application, click Apply Now. 

To obtain a full job description please email Michelle Duby at [email protected], using the subject line: Head of Australian Programs enquiry via EthicalJobs.