Safeguarding Manager

Job Summary

The Safeguarding Manager - Rwanda designs, monitors, and enforces strict safeguarding and abuse prevention frameworks across all operations in Rwanda. Core responsibilities include managing the end-to-end confidential case pipeline for safeguarding reports, conducting comprehensive site risk assessments, leading interactive PSEA workshops for staff and external partner networks, managing formal referral pathways with agencies like UNHCR and local police, and leading a localized Community of Practice (CoP) focused on gender and disability inclusion.

Key Responsibilities

1. Safeguarding Leadership, Risk Mitigation & Prevention (30%)

• Embed Safeguarding in Governance: Partner closely with country executives to incorporate protection standards directly into operational strategies, department-level KPIs, and employee performance metrics.
• Conduct Field Risk Assessments: Perform ongoing, proactive safeguarding risk audits across existing offices, program spaces, field deployment setups, and incoming expansion territories to deploy early mitigation playbooks.
• Optimize Access to Reporting Channels: Maintain and publicize highly secure, transparent, confidential, and culturally tailored feedback systems (e.g., dedicated hotlines, secure complaints boxes) customized for refugee and vulnerable populations.
• Coordinate Regional Standards: Collaborate continuously with the Regional Safeguarding Team to maintain uniform policy execution, aligned reporting thresholds, and updated risk management standards.

2. Active Case Coordination & Survivor-Centered Response (30%)

• Lead Incident Case Management: Direct the initial triage, secure documentation, timeline tracking, and final administrative resolution of all reported safeguarding complaints and policy breaches.
• Enforce Survivor-Centered Principles: Ensure every inquiry treats the survivor with dignity, prioritizing complete confidentiality, safety, informed consent, and culturally tailored support structures.
• Manage Referral Networks: Establish and update direct operational referral pathways, linking survivors with immediate medical care, specialized legal assistance, psychosocial counseling, and emergency protection services.
• Engage External Stakeholders: Serve as the authorized liaison to coordinate external investigations and mandatory reporting paths alongside bodies like local law enforcement, UNHCR protection leads, and designated state ministries.

3. Compliance Monitoring, Partner Due Diligence & Reporting (20%)

• Audit Operational Compliance: Conduct unannounced and scheduled field monitoring visits across all program locations to ensure staff actions match internal Codes of Conduct and donor rules.
• Drive Safe Partnering Initiatives: Implement rigorous safeguarding due diligence reviews on all prospective corporate partners, field vendors, and financial institutions, providing training to bring them up to Inkomoko standards.
• Analyze Trends for Leadership: Generate comprehensive data logs and trend analyses regarding incoming reports, resolution cycles, and systemic compliance values to provide clear updates to regional directors.

4. Targeted Capacity Building & Continuous Learning (20%)

• Design Specialized Training: Build and deliver targeted safeguarding, child protection, and PSEA training modules adapted to the distinct daily realities of diverse field teams.
• Mainstream Inclusive Programming: Assist project design teams in integrating protection mainstreaming, gender equality matrices, and disability inclusion principles into new economic development activities.
• Convene Communities of Practice: Lead internal knowledge sharing, coordinate localized safeguarding champions networks, and document lessons learned to drive continuous organizational safety improvements.

Experience & Competencies

Candidates must possess an exceptional blend of technical case-handling expertise and strong stakeholder relationship management skills:

Academic & Foundational Experience

• Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution in Human Rights, Humanitarian Law, Social Work, Gender Studies, International Development, or a matching quantitative social science field.
• Professional Tenure: Minimum of 4+ years of total progressive work experience within relevant development or humanitarian environments, with at least 2 to 3 years dedicated directly to safeguarding, protection, or PSEA management roles.
• Investigative Case History: Proven, documented experience managing sensitive protection incident tracking pipelines, executing initial case triages, and directing or supporting formal investigation processes.

Technical & General Management Competencies

• Framework Mastery: Deep, functional understanding of global safeguarding principles, PSEA minimum standards, child protection benchmarks, and GBV survivor-centered support architectures.
• Referral Architecture Knowledge: Practical experience building or operating within multi-agency humanitarian referral pathways, combined with a strong understanding of complaining intake tech (hotlines, encrypted databases).
• Vulnerable Group Fluency: Direct field experience working respectfully alongside highly vulnerable groups, including displaced populations, refugees, women, children, and persons with disabilities.
• Team Leadership & Trust Building: A proven managerial capacity to align distributed teams behind protective goals, hold staff accountable, delegate responsibilities transparently, and handle crisis situations with patience, imagination, and a resilient mindset.

Expected Outputs & Deliverables

• Complete country-level safeguarding risk registers, site audit scorecards, and mitigation action trackers.
• Secure, high-integrity case logs, timeline tracking reports, and formal investigation dossiers managed under absolute confidentiality protocols.
• Contextualized PSEA educational materials, compliance toolkits, and onboarding briefs tailored for staff and vendor networks.
• Documented referral directories connecting all active operational branches with local medical, legal, and psychosocial support options.

Job Details

• Job Function: Director of Safeguarding / Humanitarian Protection Lead / PSEA Compliance Officer / Vulnerable Population Case Manager
• Key Performance Indicators: Training coverage across field operations, intake pathway accessibility scores, case resolution timeline compliance, partner due diligence completion rates, and field audit alignment scores.

Compensation, Perks & Benefits

• Competitive Impact Salary: A strong base salary package benchmarked against international development standards, supplemented by potential performance bonuses.
• Purpose-Driven Global Exposure: Direct influence over the physical and psychological safety systems protecting 100,000+ underserved entrepreneurs across active Central and East African networks.
• Comprehensive Health Insurance: Premium medical, dental, and vision packages covering both the employee and their immediate eligible family members.
• Long-Term Financial Security: Dedicated organization contributions into a staff savings and provident fund, backed by exclusive negotiated bank interest rates for long-term personnel.
• Generous Rest & Leave Frameworks: Broad annual paid leave balances, robust parental leave frameworks, and structured long-term sabbatical options.
• Dynamic Team Culture: Immerse yourself in a positive, solutions-focused, and highly collaborative workspace that prioritizes ongoing professional development, equity, and inclusion.

Skills Required:

• Social / Science / Project / Management / Development