CARE International works around the globe to save lives, defeat poverty, and achieve social justice. We seek a world of hope, tolerance, and social justice, where poverty has been overcome and all people live with dignity and security. We put women and girls at the center because we know that we cannot overcome poverty until all people have equal rights and opportunities.
CARE Zambia, an International Non-Governmental relief and development organization with various projects in Eastern, Muchinga, Luapula, Lusaka, Northern, and Southern provinces of Zambia, has the following vacancy at Head Office in Lusaka;.
Job Title: Deputy Country Director - Programs
Reports to: Country Director
Type of Contract: Fixed Term
Direct Reports: Program Managers, RM, and Program Quality Manager
Job Summary
The Deputy Country Director is responsible for ensuring that CARE's programmes in Zambia tackles poverty and injustice with the overarching aim of reaching transformative social and economic equality for women and girls. The DCD will assist the Country Director maintain a high profile for CARE International in Zambia as a leader in bringing about long lasting social and economic change. As a member of the CARE International in Zambia country office senior leadership team, the Deputy Country Director will contribute to country programming and leadership priorities. This position will lead program strategic meetings, as well as provide input and feedback on key issues. By engaging with key regional and HQ stakeholders, the Position will support overall leadership and key program functions of the Country Office. He/she will oversee the country office compliance with the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, and anti-fraud policies in particular, and reinforce this behavior with staff and partners in the line of duty.
The Deputy Country Director will maintain CARE Zambia’s Humanitarian response capacity and provide timely support and direction to the Emergency Response team as well as interact with the CARE Emergency Response team as and when necessary.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Leadership & Strategy:
- The Deputy Country Director will be a key member of the Country Office Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and is responsible for leading and as well as supporting the SLT uphold the highest standards of behavior, programme outcomes and impacts.
- The DCD is required to emulate the behaviors required of an International Organization and ensure all staff in their line of duty perform to those high standards.
- The Deputy Country Director will be expected to provide innovative leadership and encourage staff to take an active role in programme design and proposal development in line with the strategic directions within the CARE Zambia Business Plan.
- This direction should be broadly in line with the Southern Africa Food and Nutrition Security and Climate Change strategy (FNS-CC), the SA Regional Road map and the CARE Vision 2020, as they exist now.
- The DCD will have a strong understanding of women and girls’ equality issues and what inclusive programming means in Zambia.
- S/he will form strong relationships with national and local government representatives.
- S/he will foster donor relationships both within Zambia and overseas.
Programme Quality and Resource Mobilization:
- The successful candidate will be responsible for driving data-based decision-making at all levels, with a specific focus on ensuring that both humanitarian and development programs designed and implemented by CARE Zambia meet the minimum standards as laid out in the Program Quality Standards.
- The DCD will be key in pursuing an aggressive resource mobilization strategy for the Country office.
- The role requires tracking business opportunities for new projects and programmes and maintaining the pipeline at a minimum of USD10m annual goal.
- The DCD will promote strategic relationships with CARE, donors of all types, CSO partners and the Government of Zambia in line with the 7th National Development Plan. The Country Director (CD) will support and be active in this area, and the CD and DCD will work together to promote and exploit all opportunities possible.
Relationships, Networking and Capacity Building:
- The DCD will work closely with, and will be supported by, the programme units at CARE Canada and colleagues in the Southern Africa region as well by CARE International members who work with CARE Zambia (CARE UK, CARE USA, CARE Deutschland, CARE Netherlands, CARE Austria).
- He/She will be expected to form close relationships with all CARE members to enhance CARE Zambia’s profile as a preferred Country Office to work with.
- They will be required to inspire innovative designs from programme and project staff through regular programme meetings and open discussions and capture ideas from staff in the field.
- In addition, the DCD will seek and foster new donors and will be expected to liaise and maintain positive relations with current donors.
- Build the capacity of CARE Staff and Implementing Partners to manage financial resources according to good accounting practice and in compliance with Donor & CARE International standards,
- Support the development and implementation of strategies for bridging the partner capacity gaps that are identified during partner assessments.
- Liaise with Department Heads and the HR staff to understand financial capacity building needs of CARE staff, ensuring the development and roll-out of any required professional development initiatives.
- Ensure that CARE Staff and Partners fully understand what is expected of them and are equipped to manage awards and sub-awards according to best practice, policies, and procedures.
- Deploy the team of Awards & Sub-Awards Staff to the project teams; ensuring that they provide all necessary support, and carry out monitoring visits according to the project plan
Communication & Coordination:
- The Deputy Country Director will encourage Project Managers and staff to engage with their project work as part of the Knowledge Management and Learning Framework where accountability, gender transformation and resilience will be among the markers of change and impact.
- The DCD will foster communication between projects and programmes and inject a spirit of unity across the CO programme teams. Key programme and project staff with the responsibility for Knowledge Management, Learning and innovation will be directed in maintaining and improving key databases for measuring program impact and reach, and ensure that Program Impact data is captured, documented, and sent to CARE in a timely manner each year.
- The Position will coordinate closely with the Programme Support Manager and the Finance Manager to ensure that programme and project staff understand the Country Office Finance Manual and any CARE International finance directions such as the CARE Shared Programme Costs (SPC) Policy as well as understanding the concept of the Direct Programme Costs (DCP) and costed work planning (CWP).
- The role will ensure that Project budgets are managed tightly and responsibly to avoid losses and/or underspending.
Qualifications, experience, and personal attributes:
- Bachelor's Degree in a relevant field or equivalent work experience.
- Master's degree in a relevant field is desired
- Seven (7) or more years of relevant work experience in a senior management position.
- Relevant work experience in International Non-governmental Organizations operations or relief/Development field.
- Experience in establishing and maintaining collaborative relationships with donors and government counterparts.
- Demonstrated experience with proposal development with a range of international donors (i.e. USAID, EU, FSCD, GAC, UN Agencies)
- Experience and demonstrated success in fundraising and maintaining relationships with various donors, understanding the donor environment, key stakeholders in the funding eco-system, to ensure organizational sustainability in the long term.
§ Suitably qualified and interested members of the public are invited to apply here. Or https://royalty.thorn-soft.com/recruitment/job-details.php?job=232.
- Closing Date: 31 March 2026
- All academic qualifications must be verified by the Zambia Qualifications Authority (ZAQA).
- CARE promotes and maintains an organizational culture that advances equality, reduces power abuse and inequalities, and fosters trust and safety.
- As part of CARE’s commitment to preventing sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse and child abuse, we conduct reference checks on all final-stage candidates in line with the Inter-Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. By applying for this role, you are giving us consent to contact your previous employers to seek information in line with this scheme.
