Assistant Director, Deputy Head of Services | HK Talent Engage

Job description

Mother’s Choice is a local charity serving the many children without families and pregnant teenagers in Hong Kong. We join hands with our community to give hope and change the life stories of vulnerable girls and babies. Our vision is to see every child in a loving family.

CHANGE YOUR FUTURE AND THE FUTURE FOR CHILDREN IN HONG KONG. JOIN OUR TEAM.

Our staff are creative, collaborative, and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. They embody our core values and believe in our vision and mission. If you enjoy a work environment that is challenging, rewarding and making an impact, we invite you to consider a career with Mother’s Choice.
Position Description
As Deputy Head of Services (DHS), he/she will serve as the right-hand person to the Director, Services and Case Management (DOS) serving as delegate and deputy as required. He/she will be responsible for assisting the DOS in defining and implementing the organization’s strategic plan and standardized operating models to ensure quality services are being delivered sustainably and systematically to clients. This includes the oversight of any regulatory and compliance issues and our child protection policies and practice. He/she may represent Mother’s Choice with peer agencies, and the professional & academic sectors in order to communicate and share our vision and our approach.
The DHS must be a strong project manager, mission focused and process minded, able to oversee cross divisional teams and drive the successful execution of project plans. He/she should be analytical and possess strong critical thinking and planning skills.
As DHS, he/she will oversee the daily operation and running of all frontline services including Children, Youth and Family Services. He/she will ensure that our services are modeled on best practices and are delivered with quality and consistency through a data informed, systematic and sustainable approach. This includes putting in place documentation, training and systems and replicable processes for each of our programs and services.
He/she will be responsible for building a strong team of leaders for each of the services whilst fostering collaboration and identifying synergies and leverage across all service departments. He/she will partner with the service managers to grow and train their teams, to facilitate staff retention and succession planning, in partnership with the leadership team.
As an Assistant Director of Mother’s Choice and a member of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), he/she must uphold the vision and values of the organization, modeling and coaching new leaders and channeling the skills and expertise of the managers and their teams to enable Mother’s Choice to achieve the goals set out in its strategic plan.

Key Responsibilities

Deputy Head of Services:

• Participates actively in implementing programs and projects that meet organizational goals and objectives. Regularly and systematically evaluates the progress of projects and reports status to the DOS.
• Support the DOS with presentations to board, committees, peers and partners, grantors and other stakeholders.
• Lead, coach, develop and retain a high performing senior team (Managers, Assistant Managers and SSW) to operate and supervise the front-line team to uphold the best practices, as well as compliance to SWD’s requirement. Lead and enable the service managers to grow in their roles and responsibilities to facilitate staff retention and succession planning.
• Represent the DOS when required.
• Assists with specific projects that support the organization’s mission.

Strategic Planning:

• Work in partnership with leadership team to develop and monitor the progress our strategic plan and implementation roadmap. Ensure all department strategic plans and are in alignment, well-coordinated, and have the necessary resources. Work in partnership with DOS to monitor progress made on goals and timelines set.
• Work with the DOS and the broader organization to shape operational processes and procedures, focusing on program design, planning and delivery, data informed service planning, training, documentation and resourcing.
• Support the DOS and the organization in annual planning and budgeting for all services.

Children, Youth and Family Services:

• Manage all frontline services team, developing a broad knowledge of our core programs, services and supporting service leaders with any new projects and programs, contributing to the review of our models and practices.
• Provide supervision and support to the service managers ensuring the progress of each department to achieve their strategic goals and targets.
• Identify opportunities for collaboration across services and ensure resources are deployed effectively in partnership with Volunteer Engagement, Operations and Community Services.
• Design and implement continuous quality improvements within our programs ensuring quality of care, consistency, relevance and scalability.
• Audit and review key impact metrics in line with organization’s vision and targets.
• Work collaboratively with IT & Impact Measurement to ensure efficient and systematic collection of our service metrics.
• Ensure child protection measures are embedded and audited across all our services. Escalate all case management concerns to the DOS.
• Leverage the use of technology and training to enable efficiency gains, growth and data informed planning of services.

Requirements

• Educated to degree level (Master’s degree preferred but not essential)
• Minimum 15 years’ working experience, with some years in a similar capacity and managing a multi-disciplinary team.
• Good understanding of the operations of an NGO. (Previous experience in an human services organization is preferable)
• Must be passionate about the vision of Mother’s Choice that every child be in a loving family and aligned to the culture and values.
• Must have an empathy for the individuals for whom Mother’s Choice cares.
• Must share the commitment of Mother’s Choice in upholding the safety and protection of children as paramount.
• Excellent project management skills and experience gained from implementing new processes and change management initiatives.
• Process and action driven: a systems-thinker, can design and articulating processes and solutions, strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Can evaluate performance, prepare reports, and recommend/implement solutions using independent judgment.
• Demonstrable people management skills: can rally and develop people to collaborate effectively on a project or vision, by identifying and leveraging their skills. Is comfortable working with small teams, can seek consensus around mutual goals. Takes a collaborative approach working with people across multiple functions and a broad number of stakeholders.
• Must set a high standard and act as an example with a hopeful and a solutions-oriented attitude.
• Strong interpersonal skills, both verbal & written communications.
• Resourceful and takes ownership of deliverables.
• Must be bilingual, with both English & Chinese written skills.
• Has high professional ethical standards and is comfortable in a diverse and multicultural and international workplace.
• Demonstrates the highest degree of integrity and transparency.
• Passionate and driven with an interest in continuous learning and improvement.