OPERATIONS DIRECTOR

Our client is an international non-profit Christian organization with a strong global mission and a growing presence in Poland. The organization works at the intersection of human rights, justice, social impact, and institutional strengthening, partnering with public authorities, civil society, and international stakeholders to protect vulnerable people and support systemic change.

The Polish office is entering an important stage of development, with the need to strengthen its internal operating model, increase organizational effectiveness, and ensure that programmes, people, systems, and resources are aligned to support long-term impact.

THE ROLE

The Director of Operations Poland will have full responsibility for setting up, opening, and running the organization’s operations in Poland. This is a senior leadership role with a strong country start-up component, combining operational build-up, governance, compliance, people infrastructure, financial discipline, administration, and day-to-day organizational management.

The role will report to the Regional Director and will work closely with regional and global teams to ensure that the Polish presence is legally, operationally, financially, and organizationally well established.

This is not a narrow back-office role. It requires a mature leader able to build from the ground up, create structure, manage ambiguity, ensure compliance, and translate the global mission into a functioning and sustainable country operation in Poland.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Country Opening and Organizational Set-up

• Lead the operational establishment of the organization in Poland, ensuring that all legal, administrative, financial, HR, procurement, and compliance foundations are properly created.
• Coordinate with regional and global teams to ensure that the Polish operation is aligned with the organization’s mission, standards, governance model, and reporting requirements.
• Work with external legal, accounting, payroll, HR, tax, and administrative providers as needed during the country set-up phase.
• Build the local operating model, internal workflows, documentation standards, and decision-making routines required for a sustainable country presence.
• Ensure that the organization is able to operate effectively, compliantly, and professionally from the early stages of its presence in Poland.

Operations Management and Organizational Effectiveness

• Oversee day-to-day operations in Poland, ensuring that finance, HR, administration, procurement, contracts, office management, systems, and internal processes function effectively.
• Translate regional and global priorities into local operating plans, budgets, timelines, processes, and implementation routines.
• Ensure operational discipline, timely execution, accurate reporting, and appropriate use of organizational and donor resources.
• Identify operational gaps, risks, bottlenecks, and improvement opportunities, and implement practical solutions.
• Build a service-oriented operations function that enables programme and mission delivery, rather than creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

Finance, Compliance and Risk Management

• Ensure strong financial management, budget monitoring, expense control, reporting accuracy, and internal controls.
• Coordinate with accounting, payroll, tax, audit, and legal advisors to ensure compliance with Polish regulations and organizational standards.
• Oversee contracting, procurement, vendor management, documentation, and approval processes.
• Ensure compliance with relevant employment, data protection, financial, legal, and governance requirements in Poland.
• Monitor operational, financial, legal, reputational, and compliance risks, escalating issues appropriately and supporting mitigation plans.

People, HR Operations and Culture

• Support the development of the local team structure, workforce planning, recruitment processes, onboarding, HR documentation, and employee lifecycle processes.
• Ensure that HR operations are compliant, clear, well-documented, and aligned with both Polish legislation and global policies.
• Help create a healthy, accountable, values-driven, and mission-aligned organizational culture.
• Support future local leaders and team members by creating clarity around roles, responsibilities, processes, and expectations.
• Promote integrity, respect, confidentiality, and care in an environment that may involve sensitive human rights and protection-related topics.

Regional and Global Collaboration

• Report to the Regional Director and provide clear visibility on operational progress, risks, priorities, and support needs.
• Work effectively with regional and global functions, ensuring timely communication, accurate reporting, and alignment with organizational standards.
• Represent the Polish operation in operational discussions with internal and external stakeholders.
• Act as a reliable local anchor for the organization’s presence in Poland, ensuring that global expectations are translated into practical and compliant local execution.

CANDIDATE PROFILE

Professional Background

• Minimum 10 years of relevant professional experience, including senior responsibility in operations, general management, finance & administration, organizational development, or country office management.
• Previous experience in an international NGO, foundation, donor-funded organization, social impact organization, international institution, or complex international environment is strongly preferred.
• Proven experience in building or professionalizing operations, setting up structures, introducing processes, and ensuring organizational discipline.
• Solid understanding of finance, budgeting, internal controls, HR operations, administration, procurement, contracts, compliance, and risk management.
• Experience working with regional or global teams, matrix structures, external advisors, and multi-stakeholder environments.
• Exposure to legal entity set-up, country office opening, or organizational scale-up would be a strong advantage.
• Good understanding of Polish legal, employment, administrative, and business operating requirements, with the ability to work effectively with specialist advisors where needed.

Leadership Style

• Mature, structured, hands-on, and reliable leader, able to build clarity in an ambiguous and developing environment.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability, with the ability to take responsibility for the full operating platform in Poland.
• Collaborative and service-oriented leadership style, able to support mission teams while maintaining discipline, compliance, and standards.
• Pragmatic and solutions-focused, with the ability to balance global requirements with local realities.
• High integrity, discretion, emotional maturity, and sound judgement, especially when dealing with sensitive information and complex stakeholder environments.
• Able to influence without relying only on hierarchy, and to build trust with regional, global, local, and external stakeholders.
• Resilient, adaptable, and comfortable working in a purpose-driven environment where both mission and operational excellence matter.

Other Requirements

• Polish language is mandatory; English fluency is required.
• Based in or willing to be based in Warsaw.
• Availability to work closely with regional and global teams across different time zones when required.
• Genuine alignment with a human rights, justice, and social impact mission.
• High standards of confidentiality, ethics, compliance, and professional conduct.

WHY THIS ROLE?

This is a rare opportunity to build the Polish presence of a globally respected mission-driven organization from the ground up. The role offers full responsibility for opening and running the organization’s operations in Poland, with direct exposure to regional and global leadership.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to create the operational foundation, governance discipline, people infrastructure, and compliance framework that will enable meaningful long-term impact in Poland.

For a senior professional who combines operational excellence with integrity, resilience, and genuine commitment to human rights and social impact, this role offers both strategic responsibility and a strong sense of purpose.

We welcome resumes or / and recommendations in English until latest FRIDAY 31.07.2026.

If, this opportunity does not interest you, but you would like to recommend a member of your professional network who might have the right profile and a potential interest in pursuing it, please don’t hesitate to forward them this ad or directly send us their coordinates.

Please consider that only the suitable candidates will be contacted for interview, but we appreciate everyone’s interest in our projects and would like to keep in touch for future projects.

Pendl & Piswanger offers HR and management advisory services in the last 40 years in CEE. As members of InterSearch, a worldwide executive search firm with more than 100 offices in 50 countries, we are amongst the top search firms globally and operate across all major industry sectors. We are experienced, innovative, and totally committed to our clients who gain competitive advantage by hiring great people. For more information, please visit www.ro.intersearch.org.

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