Organization and position within the organization

Justice Rapid Response (JRR) is an intergovernmental initiative that partners with international, national and civil society actors by providing them with prompt, impartial and professional expertise, tailored to each context, to investigate international crimes and serious human rights violations and to promote the rights and access to justice of victims and survivors. The JRR Secretariat team carries out JRR’s activities under the direction of the JRR Executive Director and it is based in Geneva, Switzerland with a liaison office in New York.

The Role

The Operations Officer provides diverse and critical operational support across the organization in relation to a range of administrative processes in the field of program implementation, human resources management, office management, information management and governance. The Operations Officer reports to the Director of Operations and works in close coordination with the rest of the organization, and in particular JRR’s Programmes.

JRR offers a highly motivating and flexible work environment – with a cohesive and engaged team of professionals – who share a strong desire to further grow their impact to support access to justice for victims of international crimes and grave human right violations.

Duties and responsibilities

The tasks of the Operations Officer are to:

1. In charge of the logistics and documentation of experts’ deployments

• The Operations Officer is responsible for ensuring that all logistical and contractual aspects of experts deployment are implemented in a systematic, safe and cost-effective manner.
• Assisting with the facilitation of the deployment of experts to the field, in collaboration with the experts and JRR colleagues
• Keep track of the systematic and safe implementation of all operational aspects of the deployments using the “Duty of Care Check-list” in Salesforce to be kept up to date

2. Office Management

In this role the Operations Officer ensures that the office provides a safe, practical, cost-effective and friendly environment for JRR staff based in Geneva. This entails:

• Managing the general e-mail address and phoneline of the organization.
• Based on Administrative Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), organizing all administrative aspects of new staff onboarding and departure. Brief newcomers about JRR’s operational policies.
• Maintaining all operational databases update to date and accessible.
• Keeping the JRR Administrative SOPs up to date, directly and in collaboration with other staff members involved depending on roles and responsibilities. Develop checklists and shorter briefing notes out of the Admin SOP when necessary to brief staff members and newcomers and when useful for staff refresher.
• Being the main point of contact for the company renting the office to JRR. Ordering office supplies as needed. Managing the usage of common spaces in the office with other companies and individuals.
• Keep monitoring and addressing issues emerging in relation to the flexible office use and the “Team Agreement” and proactively propose adjustments.
• Plan, schedule and organize the JRR staff meetings and coordination mechanisms in-person or online.
• Identifying office management inefficiencies, waste and proactively proposing solutions and saving measures.

3. General Support

• Recruitment - Supporting the Director of Operations with HR recruitment processes (publication of job announcements, reception, filing and organization of applications etc.);
• Executive Board Meeting and Staff Retreat - Assisting the Director of Operations with the logistical arrangements for the JRR bi-annual executive board meeting, staff meetings and calls; similar assistance is provided for JRR’s staff retreats.
• JRR’s Filing System - Work with the Director of Operations to re-organize and order JRR’s filing system on the server and then keep it up to date and tidy.
• Assistance for staff travel (flight and insurance) - For all staff members, provide assistance to book flights for field trips with JRR’s travel agent, register staff members in the JRR’s travel insurance.

4. Executive Support

• Assistance for Executive Travel - provide assistance on the occasion of travel and field trips.
• Processing and maintenance of JRR’s Executive contacts - updating of JRR’s contact database.

Qualifications

• 4 years of relevant professional experience in the field of administration, operations, or office management.
• Professional experience in the following fields would be considered an asset: Data and information management; Planning and managing travel; Drafting administrative procedures; Contracting and other HR related business processes; Organizing (public) events and meetings, Procurement of office supplies
• Fluency in English, working knowledge in French would be a strong asset.
• Experience of working with Microsoft 365 (incl Teams; Sharepoint/One Drive; Outlook etc) is essential, knowledge of CRM systems (ie Salesforce) would be an asset;
• Ability to work independently as well as part of a team and to juggle multiple projects, work under pressure, with low budgets, meet deadlines, and be highly organized with attention to detail.
• Proven interpersonal skills and demonstrated experience in interaction with variety of partners and professionals from different parts of the world.
  Sought Competencies
• Creativity: Actively seeks to improve activities or services including by reaching out to key stakeholders and/or potential new partners and prospective experts.
• Flexibility: Comfortable working in highly flexible, decentralized environment in which autonomy, accountability and innovation are supported and valued;
• Teamwork: Ability to work in collaboration with colleagues in view of reaching organizational goals; to proactively solicit input and value colleagues’ ideas and expertise; to be willing to learn from others; to place team agenda before personal agenda;
• Planning & Organizing: Identifies priority activities and assignments; adjusts priorities as required. Allocates appropriate amount of time and resources for completing work. Able to run all aspects of a project, including planning activities and managing budget;

Application process

For this position only European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and EU nationals, as well as holders of a valid work permit for Switzerland, can be considered.
Please send your CV and a cover letter addressed to Erwin van der Borght, indicating your availability to the following email address: jrr_recruit@justicerapidresponse.org
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
Deadline for applications is December 20, 2023.
Starting date: February 1, 2024.
Indicative gross annual salary for this position is 72’000 CHF, commensurate with relevant professional experience.