Director, Protection of Civilians (PoC) Division (Geneva)

About CIVIC
Center for Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) Center is an international nonprofit and nongovernmental organization with offices around the world working to improve protection for civilians in conflict zones. Our mission is to support communities affected by conflict in their quest for protection and strengthen the resolve and capacity of armed actors and relevant institutions to prevent and respond to civilian harm. We are advocates who believe that no civilian caught in conflict should be ignored, and advisors who provide practical solutions to preventing and responding to civilian harm. Learn more at civiliansinconflict.org.
About the Position
The Director of the Protection of Civilians (PoC) Division leads CIVIC's technical, strategic, policy, and programmatic support on Protection of Civilians across all country programs and global initiatives. As a key member of the Senior Management Team (SMT), the Director ensures technical excellence, drives innovation, strengthens organizational capacities, and reinforces CIVIC's positioning as a global leader on PoC. The Director oversees the organization's team of technical advisors, ensuring coherent and high-quality support to field programs throughout the programme cycle—from strategy and programme design to implementation, learning, and policy influence. The Division translates global policy and normative frameworks into practical operational guidance while ensuring that evidence, lessons learned, and emerging protection trends from field operations systematically inform CIVIC's research, policy development, humanitarian diplomacy, and multilateral engagement, thereby strengthening the organization's field-to-policy feedback loop and strategic influence.
Location: Geneva (Switzerland). Candidates must be fully authorized to work without the need for sponsorship now or in the future.
Travel: As required
Reporting to: Director, Global & Field Programs
Staff reporting: Yes
Key Responsibilities
1. Strategic, Technical and Programmatic Leadership
Provide high-level technical advice and oversight to field programs, ensuring alignment with evolving PoC standards, operational realities, and emerging protection challenges.
Lead the strategic planning and evolution of the PoC Division, identifying new thematic priorities, partnerships, and areas of organizational growth.
2. Supervision and Technical Management
Directly supervise the team of technical advisors (Gender & Children, MEAL, Community-Based Protection, Military Engagement, Research and other thematic advisors), ensuring high-quality technical support across the organization.
Foster collaboration, accountability, professional development, and integration of technical expertise across programs, policy, and humanitarian diplomacy.
3. Organizational Positioning and External Representation
Strengthen CIVIC's global positioning as a leading organization on Protection of Civilians through technical leadership, policy engagement, strategic partnerships, and external representation.
Represent CIVIC in high-level engagements with donors, governments, multilateral organizations, security actors, academic institutions, and policy forums.
4. Technical Support, Organizational Learning and Capacity Strengthening
Lead organization-wide capacity strengthening initiatives and promote continuous learning on CIVIC's thematic priorities.
Support country teams throughout the programme cycle, including strategy development, proposal design, implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive learning.
Promote effective knowledge management by capturing lessons learned, documenting good practices, and strengthening organizational learning.
5. Bridge Between Programs, Policy and Humanitarian Diplomacy
Ensure a continuous two-way feedback loop between field operations and headquarters by translating policy and normative developments into practical operational guidance, while
ensuring field evidence and operational learning inform CIVIC's research, policy development, humanitarian diplomacy, and multilateral engagement.
Identify cross-cutting protection trends emerging from country programs and translate them into organizational priorities, policy products, advocacy initiatives, and technical guidance.
6. Innovation and Thought Leadership
Drive innovation in Protection of Civilians by exploring emerging issues such as civilian harm mitigation, community-led protection, new technologies, artificial intelligence, misinformation, and evolving conflict dynamics.
Promote interdisciplinary collaboration across humanitarian, peacebuilding, development, defense, and security sectors to advance innovative and practical approaches to civilian protection.
Serve as CIVIC's technical lead on Protection of Civilians, guiding programmatic strategy, design, implementation, and learning across country programs.
Key Qualifications
Minimum 10 years of progressively senior experience in humanitarian protection, protection of civilians, civilian-military engagement, peacebuilding, security sector engagement, or related fields.
Master's degree in International Relations, Humanitarian Affairs, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Law, Human Rights, Political Science, Security Studies, Development Studies, Public Policy, or another relevant field required. An advanced degree or equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered.
Deep expertise in Protection of Civilians, including operational approaches, community-based protection, civilian harm mitigation, and relevant international norms and best practices.
Proven experience engaging state and non-state armed actors, security institutions, and government authorities to promote the protection of civilians, international humanitarian law, and improved civilian outcomes in conflict settings.
Demonstrated experience providing strategic, technical, and programmatic support to field operations throughout the programme cycle, including strategy development, programme design, implementation, and learning.

Employment type
Full-Time

Work arrangement
No