Regional Director – Sudano-Sahel Region (SSR)

ABOUT WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established with a long history in the wildlife conservation sector. They specialize in wildlife conservation through understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. They work in more than 56 nations across the globe, partnering with local communities and other stakeholders to address species, habitat, and ecosystem management issues. These issues are critical to improving the quality of life of rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilization of natural resources.

ABOUT THE REGION

The Sudano-Sahel Region (SSR) comprises four country programs: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad and Nigeria, reporting to a regional office based in Kigali, Rwanda. The Sudano-Sahel ecoregion forms a vast transitional landscape between the arid Sahara Desert and the humid Guinean savannas, characterized by a mosaic of ecological systems. This region supports a gradient of habitats, from the sparse, drought-adapted vegetation of the Sahel, dominated by Acacia species, to the denser woodlands and perennial grasses of the Sudanian zone. As a biodiversity hotspot, the Sudano-Sahel harbors both widespread and endemic species, playing a critical role in sustaining ecosystem services such as water regulation and resilience to climate variability. WCS works in several key protected areas across the region, supporting government and other partners in site-based conservation efforts, as well as engaging in key landscape management issues such as agropastoralism and transhumance, with local land-holders and stakeholders.

ABOUT THE ROLE

The Wildlife Conservation Society seeks a motivated and experienced Regional Director to direct this region and drive conservation programming across the Sudano-Sahel region.

The successful candidate will be expected to guide and implement a regional strategy that delivers effective protected area management as part of landscape approach to the sustainable management of this fragile zone.

Do you have sector-level expertise and experience in the region, working at the nexus of environment, people, climate and sustainable development?

Are you impact-oriented, demonstrating a proven track record in program development and fundraising?

Do you have a demonstrable track record of operating effectively in challenging local contexts with a diverse set of partners?  

Are you a strategic thinker and a strong leader, committed to WCS’s mission and values and demonstrating highly developed interpersonal skills, and excellent communication skills in both English and French?

If so, then we invite you to consider this opportunity.

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Generating and delivering a bold, broad, and forward-looking vision for conservation in the region, accompanied by a holistic strategy that incorporates fundraising, people, and operational plans to achieve it.
• Building effective and strategic regional partnerships that complement and enhance our conservation delivery and ensuring strong regional representation to governments, donors, partners and policy processes.
• Actively contributing to the WCS Global Leadership Team and creating nodes of engagement for other global departmental and cross-regional exchange and engagement.
• Together with organizational stakeholders, develop a powerful communication approach aimed at engaging prospective donors, trustees, partners, and the general public.
• Leading the region to address threats and opportunities that are both common across countries and too large for individual country programs to address alone.
• Improving and enhancing operational support to Country Programs to increase impact in our protected area landscapes, coordinate capacities and manage expansion.
• Strengthening internal systems to better position the region to compete in a world of larger scale and more complex grants and policy initiatives. This includes overseeing the development of operational, business development and administration improvements to our programs.
• Ensuring that a system of accountability and knowledge management for programs within the region is in place with which to share results, evaluate progress and encourage critical peer review.
• Promoting and facilitating opportunities to enhance the work of country programs through strong and effective connections between WCS global thematic program expertise and country programs that are fully aligned with regional priorities.
• Lead and hold leadership accountable for cultivating a work culture that aligns with WCS Core Values and enables the team to attract, develop, and retain top talent.

Specifically, the candidate will ensure:

• Development and implementation of a regional strategic vision aligned with WCS’s Global mission.
• Management support and strategic guidance to country programs in the implementation of this vision.
• Build-out and management of a lean but highly targeted regional technical and operational support team.
• Strategic partnership development with government, bilateral, multilateral agencies and partner institutions in the region in order to enhance and enable the regional vision.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• At least 10 years’ relevant work experience in building and delivering effective programs in at least one of the following sectors: biodiversity conservation, community livelihoods, climate resilience and conflict.
• Experience managing complex or multiple projects, including staffing, workloads, and finances under deadlines.
• Proven experience of operating and delivering successful programs in challenging field conditions.
• Strong team leadership skills and supervisory experience for large or multiple teams.
• Strong fundraising track record and familiarity with relevant bilateral and multilateral donor agencies operating in the sector.
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills and demonstrated success in working with diverse partners, including national governments, to achieve common objectives.
• High level negotiation and influencing skills, and the capacity to develop and maintain strong relationships with governments, donors, not-for-profit, scientific and political communities or corporate sectors.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in both English and French.
• Familiarity and experience of working with the conservation context and governance context of the Sudano-Sahel an advantage.
• Willing to undertake significant travel.
• Commitment to WCS’s mission and Core Values, which are: Respect, Accountability & Transparency, Innovation, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, Collaboration, and Integrity.

APPOINTMENT TERMS

Location: Kigali, Rwanda.  

Salary and Benefits: Competitive salary commensurate with experience. Comprehensive benefits package. The position is offered on an accompanied basis.

Contract length: Open-ended.

Expected Travel: Significant travel within the region (40%)
Reports to: Vice President, Global Field Conservation.

WCS is an equal opportunity employer, and the organization complies with all employment and labor laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination in hiring and ensure that candidates from all backgrounds are fairly and consistently considered during the recruitment process. We are dedicated to hiring and engaging a diverse workforce. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment and looking for future team members who share that same value. The organization provides equal employment opportunities for all qualified candidates. The organization does not discriminate for employment based on gender, race/ethnicity, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, citizenship status, caste, genetic information or any other covered status or characteristic protected by laws and regulations/and similar categories.

It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that we do not tolerate discrimination or harassment based upon a person’s membership in one of these protected categories in areas such as recruitment, selection, job assignment, supervision, training, promotions, job grading, transfers, termination, compensation, benefits, educational opportunities, WCS-sponsored recreational activities and facilities.

The organization complies with the spirit and intent of relevant local laws and WCS’s employment policies.

HOW TO APPLY

Closing date: 9^th November 2025

To apply please click ‘Apply Now’ above

Candidates are kindly asked to submit a CV of no more than four (04) pages and a cover letter, preferably in MS Word. All application documents (cover letter and CV) should be submitted in English.

Should you require access to information in a different format to facilitate your application please contact us via [email protected]

Please name your files as follows:

FirstName_Surname_CV_ SSR

FirstName_Surname_CL_ SSR

Red Sea takes our responsibility towards protecting your personal data very seriously. The data you provide is processed in line with relevant data protection legislation. For the purposes of this recruitment, and as defined under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Red Sea is defined as the Data Controller.

Red Sea is committed to meeting the standards set out in our Equality and Diversity statement, acting in line with the UK Equalities Act 2010 and building an accurate picture of the make-up of the workforce in encouraging equality and diversity.