Background
The Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) is an internationally operating conservation organisation based in Germany that has been supporting conservation projects in Africa, South America, South East Asia and Europe for many decades. Following its mission to conserve wildlife and ecosystems focusing on protected areas and outstanding wild places, FZS concentrates its work on:
- Strengthening protected area operation in key ecosystems
- Capacity building for effective ecosystem management
- Development of policies, plans and awareness to support protected areas
- Development of monitoring to increase the understanding of ecosystem processes
- Involvement of local communities in the management and sustainable use of natural resources
About the FZS Africa Programme
The mission of the Africa Programme is to maximise FZS’s conservation impact by safeguarding large wilderness areas of high biodiversity, for both their intrinsic value and their contribution to the social and economic well-being of present and future generations.
The heart of the programme lies in Tanzania’s Serengeti, where FZS’s renowned Director, Bernhard Grzimek, began working in the late 1950s and where he filmed the 1960 Academy Award winning documentary “Serengeti Shall Not Die,” thus introducing Serengeti to a global audience.
The FZS projects are field based, long-term, guided by science and built on partnerships with governmental conservation agencies. The Africa Programme compromises around 70% of FZS’ global budget. Flexible core funding, large third-party grants and individual donations comprise a diverse and growing financial base. The programme focuses primarily on ensuring its eight project sites in five countries are centers of excellence and innovation, including the development of new models of protected area support. An ongoing focus is combatting the drastic poaching crisis for elephants and rhinos.
Visit our website to learn more about FZS and its Africa programs.
Job Description
Role: The purpose of the position is to ensure maximum biodiversity conservation impact and high operational performance by the development and effective implementation of the FZS Africa Strategy in line with the overall mission and vision of the FZS.
Location: Currently the FZS Africa Regional Office (ARO) is based in Arusha, Tanzania but the location is flexible. The position requires frequent travel to project sites throughout Africa (located in D.R. Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) and 4 visits/year to FZS HQ (Frankfurt) and/or FZS-US (Washington DC).
Position in the organisation:
- Reports to the FZS Executive Director
- Line manages the Africa Country Directors and the ARO core team
- Participates in the FZS Steering Committee and works closely with the Executive Director of FZS-US and the Heads of Finance and Communication at FZS HQ
Responsible for:
- Offering effective management and support to all programmatic and operational aspects of the Africa Programme and ensuring processes are in place and work effectively and correctly – including financial control and management, project development, monitoring and evaluation and Human Resource Management (recruitment, contracts, performance evaluation, development, getting and maintaining the right team)
- Responsibility for the development and effective implementation of the annual African Conservation Programme budget, delivery of the annual statement of revenue and expenditure and the external auditing reports for the African Programme
- Ensuring that all legal and reporting requirements are met and programs adhere to FZS’s policies, procedures and standards
- Participating actively in strategy processes of the Africa Programme and of FZS in general
- Leading negotiations with national governments in the development of new areas and models for protected area support
- Providing strong and effective leadership to ensure motivated and high-performing staff
- Foreseeing and avoiding risks for FZS and its staff by taking adequate precautions (e.g. insurance, training, set of rules, clear responsibilities etc.)
- Supporting top-level fundraising among third parties and individual donors to enable financial security and growth of the Africa Programme
- Representing, promoting and developing FZS within Africa and the Africa Programme internally and externally vis-à-vis key national and international target audiences
- Ensuring that lessons learned and best practise from across the programme are shared internally and externally
- Using and contributing to conservation science to ensure that engagement is guided by science
Job Requirements
- Excellent leadership skills with experience in leading change and driving the vision of an organisation
- Highly organized and experienced in managing administrative and financial systems and human resources
- Strong negotiation skills, and the capacity to develop and maintain strong relationships at all levels in the business, not-for-profit, scientific and political sectors
- Passion for wildlife and wild places with a strong commitment to protected areas as a conservation strategy including productive engagement with local communities
- Strategic thinking and the stamina to follow a focused approach
- Capacity to anticipate and navigate political, cultural and environmental fluctuations and to adapt accordingly
- Ability to delegate responsibilities in order to build and empower the Africa team
- Clear and eloquent communication skills
- Willingness and ability to travel frequently, sometimes under difficult conditions
Education and Experience
- Master or PhD in the management of natural resources, biology or another related field
- A minimum of 10 years’ experience leading and implementing conservation programmes, at least 5 years of which should be in Africa
- Experience overseeing programmes with financial responsibility in excess of 5 million USD per year
- Track record of implementing multifaceted conservation strategies and achieving outcomes
- Experience managing culturally diverse teams, preferably across multiple countries or regions
- Ability to cultivate and manage relationships with external partners, across private, public and NGO sectors
- Excellent written and oral communications skills. Fluency in English is required. Familiarity with German, French and Swahili is an added advantage
How to Apply
Please send your CV and a letter of interest in PDF format to jobs@fzs.org. The letter should summarize how your profile aligns with the key experience and skills required by this role and include your salary expectations and your earliest possible starting date.
Please address to:
Frankfurt Zoological Society
Human Resources Dept.
Bernhard-Grzimek-Allee 1
60316 Frankfurt, Germany
