Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative, Executive Director

Title:                    Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative, Executive Director

Reports To:        CEO

Location:            Boston, MA (US-based remote OK)

Classification:    Full-time, salaried (exempt); Grade 7
Salary:                $131,032

Agency Overview:

The Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative (RSRI) is a catalytic global network of more than 350 organizations, including NGOs, refugee-led and community-based organizations, host and donor governments, funders, academics, think tanks, UN agencies, and other multilateral actors. The Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative (RSRI) aspires to transform the way the world responds to refugees and other forcibly displaced populations, creating a future where the journey from displacement to self-reliance is accelerated and marked by dignity, opportunity, and inclusion. You will be joining a growing effort that is spearheading new initiatives to change the face of humanitarian and development response efforts.

The RSRI was co-founded by RefugePoint and the Women’s Refugee Commission and is hosted as a strategic initiative of RefugePoint. The initiative also receives guidance from a global Steering Committee.

The RSRI host agency, RefugePoint, was founded in 2005 to provide lasting solutions for the world’s most at-risk refugees. With a global staff of 130+, RefugePoint is a leading innovator in the refugee solutions space. The organization identifies pathways to safety and self-reliance for refugees and aims to transform humanitarian response by building new programs in collaboration with refugees that lead to lasting solutions.

Position Overview:

The Executive Director will steward and execute the Refugee Self-Reliance Initiative's (RSRI) overall strategic plan, fundraising, budgeting, partnerships, and day-to-day operations.

The RSRI aims to serve its vibrant and growing community through quality learning and convening events, knowledge management, capacity building, and advocacy focused on supporting refugee self-reliance. The ideal candidate is someone with the ability to undertake organizational vision-setting, drive outreach to build new partnerships, strengthen existing partner relations, set and meet fundraising targets, and lead a global team to deliver on the workplan.

This position reports to the CEO of RefugePoint and supervises a team of three full-time staff members and several consultants. The Executive Director also works closely with RefugePoint’s Chief Program Officer and a wide range of staff members across programmatic and operational departments at RefugePoint.

Primary Responsibilities

Strategy/Vision Setting

• Lead strategic planning processes in collaboration with the Steering Committee, RSRI staff, and global partners; Seek and build broad involvement with strategic direction for both ongoing and forward-looking global operations.
• Convene thought leaders from a wide variety of disciplines to advance thinking on self-reliance approaches, measurement, and policy for refugees and other displaced communities.
• Build a robust, interdisciplinary body of research that can inform practice, shape policy, and drive systems change. By generating and sharing evidence, we aim to deepen understanding of what enables self-reliance, identify gaps and opportunities, and support more effective and equitable responses to displacement.

Coordination and Partnership

• Work closely with the Steering Committee and Chair, informing, assessing, and addressing issues that affect the Initiative.
• Work collaboratively with RSRI staff and partners to ensure that the work of the RSRI is complementary and well-coordinated.
• Build and strengthen relationships with current and new prospective partners, establishing relationships with funders, government entities, researchers and humanitarian and development community leaders, including via multi-stakeholder efforts such as those related to the Global Compact for Refugees.
• Serve as the global secretariat lead for a donor working group on self-reliance.

Fundraising and Donor Relations

• Develop and implement an actionable plan and meet annual fundraising goals, in partnership with the Steering Committee and the host agency (RefugePoint) to secure financial support from foundations, corporations, individuals, and government funding sources.
• Oversee donor relations and reporting requirements, collaborating with the RefugePoint Development Team, and engage with partners interested in fundraising with the RSRI on joint bids.
• Use external presence and relationships to garner new funding opportunities.

Operations

• Oversee the daily operations of the RSRI, providing executive direction of all program areas, with an emphasis on strategy, compliance, quality assurance, and operational efficiency, and in line with policies of the host agency (RefugePoint).
• Build and lead an effective team dedicated to fulfilling the Initiative’s mission through highly successful program implementation, partner engagement, and fundraising.
• Manage RSRI staff and consultants while striving to build a culturally diverse staff whose skills, cultures, and spoken languages reflect the refugee community it serves.
• Create workplans for the attainment of RSRI strategic goals and objectives, working alongside the Steering Committee.
• Ensure effective systems to track progress, and regularly evaluate program components so as to measure successes that can be effectively communicated to the Steering Committee, members, partners and funders.
• Provide financial management of the RSRI, prepare annual budget, determine and approve expenditures, in consultation with the hosting agency (RefugePoint)’s finance unit.

Representation

• Represent the Initiative’s priorities and program results with an emphasis on the successes of the collaborative model that highlight member/partner success toward refugee self-reliance achievement.
• Represent the RSRI in strategic discussions to influence policy and agenda setting for refugee self-reliance.
• Deepen and refine all aspects of communications and oversee all external communication materials including, website, marketing materials, newsletters and social media content.

Desired Skills and Qualifications:

The RSRI is a collaborative effort, and its success is dependent on the commitment of current and new partners to promoting refugee self-reliance. The Executive Director’s role will be not only to promote the RSRI goals but also to catalyze RSRI members to use their power, platforms, and programs to ensure all refugees are given an opportunity to achieve self-reliance. This role is well-suited to a passionate, entrepreneurial, collaborative, and adaptable leader with a positive attitude. Refugee and global south civil society leaders are strongly encouraged to apply.

Specific requirements include:

• Advanced degree, with at least 10 years of senior management experience.
• Proven track record of network and partnership building.
• Experience leading and fundraising for growing programs and project models.
• Excellence in organizational management with the ability to effectively coach staff, manage and develop high-performance teams, set and achieve strategic objectives, fundraise, and administer a program budget.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; a persuasive and passionate communicator with excellent interpersonal and multidisciplinary project skills.
• Relevant experience in refugee response and/or the wider humanitarian sector is required, with experience in refugee self-reliance programming preferred.
• Proficiency in English required and an additional UN language preferred.

LOCATION, SCHEDULE, AND COMPENSATION

This position can be filled in-person, remotely, or in a hybrid format. For staff not in the Boston area, there is an expectation of some travel to the Boston office and some international travel.

At RefugePoint, we strive to reward our employees equitably and transparently. This means that we pay our employees based on a clear and consistent methodology and without regard to identity or personal relationships. The salary for this position is $131,032.

Benefits include 32 days of PTO (combined sick and vacation) in addition to 13 major holidays, 8 weeks of paid parental leave and 4 weeks of unpaid parental leave, pre-tax flexible spending accounts, comprehensive health and dental benefits with a significant portion of the premiums paid by the organization, short-term and long-term disability and life insurance, and 401k plan with match up to 6% after 1 year of service.

TO APPLY

Applications for this position will be accepted starting July 24, 2025, and will close on August 25, 2025, at 11:59 PM EDT. Please note that this is not a rolling application process; the submissions will be reviewed after the closing date.

Please provide your resume and cover letter, and complete the application questionnaire.

A diverse workforce helps RefugePoint realize its fullest potential. RefugePoint is committed to providing equality of opportunity for all persons in all aspects of employment without regard to race, religion, color, creed, national origin, sex, age, veteran status, sexual orientation, disability, ancestry, or any other factor unrelated to job performance.

Additionally, RefugePoint is aware that the pursuit of our vision, mission, and values is strengthened by integrating anti-racist principles in all that we do. Therefore, we are committed to being an anti-racist organization, and realize that doing so involves making a sustained commitment. Candidates from historically underrepresented group(s) are encouraged to apply.