Who We Are

International Justice Mission (IJM) is the global leader in protecting vulnerable people from violence around the world. Our team of over 1300 professionals are at work worldwide in over 30 offices. Together we are on a mission to rescue millions protect half a billion and make justice unstoppable.

We are a global community that cares for one another. We believe that the way we work is as important as the results we achieve. We provide professional excellence with joy and celebration to all those we serve.

The Need

For over 25 years IJM has pioneered the work to protect vulnerable people from violence. Nine out of nine times in the last decade IJMs Justice System Strengthening Projects have reduced slavery and violence between 50% and 85% for very large populations of people in poverty. Our vision is to scale our impact to protect 500 million people living in poverty from violence. Embedded within the Risk Leadership team of the Legal Governance Risk and Compliance division the new Sr. Lead Global Policy Management role will play a critical part in achieving that vision as swiftly and effectively as possible.

This role will architect a next-generation global policy strategy and framework that is human-centered co-created and deeply integrated into a risk management framework. The role will approach policy not as a static compliance requirement but rather as a proactive risk-intelligent mechanism to help drive behavior that is vital to mission success supporting operational reputational regulatory and strategic risk management across the enterprise. Further elevating its importance the roles portfolio also will include ownership of IJMs global Safeguarding and PSEAH policies processes and practices.

This position is hybrid (onsite Tuesdays and Thursdays) if located in the Washington DC area or remote for non-local candidates. It is only available to US-based candidates with the right to work in the United reports to the Director of Risk Leadership.

Responsibilities

Strategic Policy Leadership

• Lead a collaborative process that designs develops and implements a next-generation global standards and policy framework that aligns with and propels IJMs mission and prioritized risk management.

• Lead the global standards and policy management function ensuring standards and policies are designed and maintained as active instruments of risk management and strategic alignment.

• Promote an organizational mindset shift from policy as compliance to policy as a risk tool and from policy as prevention to policy as smart enablement of mission success.

• Promote a culture that embraces policy as something that makes it easier to act in a risk-intelligent ethical legal and mission-driving way.

Policy Development & Governance

• Oversee the lifecycle of global standards and policies e.g. scoping stakeholder engagement and discovery iterative drafting and testing approval communication implementation and adoption monitoring and learning maintenance archiving etc.

• Work with senior leaders and pertinent subject matter experts to guide facilitate and support the selection and drafting of policies and standards in accordance with the principles and processes of the next-generation framework.

• Develop and own a process of continuous improvement of the organizations global policy management framework.

• Facilitate the contextualization and harmonization of policy across regions and functions striking an appropriate balance between needed global consistency/standardization and local requirements.

Risk Integration

• Integrate the standards and policy framework into the broader enterprise risk management framework positioning standards and policies as proactive risk-management instruments rather than standalone ends.

• Prioritize policy development that drives business success by helping mitigate the greatest threats or unlock the greatest opportunities to scale the protection of people living in poverty from violence.

• Ensure policies are risk-informed and support the organizations risk appetite and tolerance.

Safeguarding and PSEAH

• Own a collaborative project to rethink and strengthen how safeguarding is positioned structured and delivered across the organization resulting in a next-generation approach that fully delivers on our commitment to effectively embed safeguarding excellence throughout our global operations.

• Own the organizations global Safeguarding policy processes and practices.

• Own the organizations global Protection against Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH) policy processes and practices.

Partnership and Communication

• Communicate proactively and effectively with all relevant customers and stakeholders at each moment that matters in the policy lifecycle.

• Take a human-centered approach to delivering results in every responsibility area actively listening to engaging empathizing with collaborating with and co-creating with internal customers and other stakeholders.

Capacity Building

• Build capacity across all teams to adapt implement and uphold global standards and policies effectively.

• Support and at times own the ideation creation and delivery of various skill-development learning and enablement resources that are designed to achieve behavior changes and norms specifically targeted by global policies.

Measurement Learning and Reporting

• Support and at times own the establishment of mechanisms to monitor policy implementation effectiveness and user experience and to report on same.

• Support the development of metrics and dashboards to assess policy effectiveness in achieving targeted vital behavior change and management of targeted risk and incorporate assessment learnings into continuous improvement practices.

• Support Compliance and MERL assessments in the policy space.

Qualifications

• Bachelors degree in a relevant field.

• Certifications in project management risk management or safeguarding preferred. Willingness to pursue training in them is required.

• Ten years of progressive experience in policy development and lifecycle management preferably with a risk-management mindset rather than compliance-oriented one and preferably in a global mission-driven organization.

• Work experience in project management. Experience with Human-Centered Design (Design Thinking) with Systems Thinking or in User Experience design strongly preferred.

• Demonstrated ability to successfully design for behavior change.

• Demonstrated ability to produce deliverables that are practical intuitive accessible easy to implement and experienced by internal customers as solutions to significant workday problems rather than as initiatives to be implemented.

• Proven track record of successfully engaging and building trust with stakeholders as users customers collaborators and as co-creators.

• Exceptional cross-cultural communication and facilitation skills with a proven ability to influence opinions and decisions at all organizational levels.

• Critical thinker with a growth mindset.

• A deep understanding of risk-based policy frameworks and of the interrelationship between risk management and behavior change management.

Critical Qualities

• Mature Christian faith and an eager commitment to IJMs Core Values: Christian Professional and Bridge-Building.

• Orientation to lead and collaborate with empathy humility emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence.

• Commitment to enabling others to thrive in their roles.

• Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and with minimal supervision.

Application Process:

Upload Resume Cover Letter & Statement of Faith* in one PDF document.

*What is a statement of faith
A statement of faith should describe your Christian faith and how you see it as relevant to your involvement with IJM. The statement can either be incorporated into the cover letter or submitted as a separate document and should include at a minimum a description of your spiritual disciplines (prayer study etc.) and your current fellowship or place of worship.

What does IJM have to offer

• Comprehensive Medical/Dental/Vision benefits

• Monthly commuter and parking benefits in the DC metro area

• Retirement benefit options

• Paid leave starting at 23 days

• 12 holidays (plus early release the day prior)

• Daily quarterly and annual community spiritual formation

• Robust staff care resources

IJM holds strict safeguarding principles and a zero tolerance to violations of the Safeguarding Policy Protection against Sexual Exploitation Abuse and Harassment Policy and Code of Ethics. Candidate selection is based on technical competence recruitment selection and hiring criteria subject to assessing the candidates value congruence and thorough background police clearance and reference check processes.

At IJM were committed to building a diverse workforce through fair and equitable employment practices. IJM encourages people of any race color age sex marital status or political ideology to apply for employment. While we welcome everyone into this work we truly believe that the work we are doing is Gods work not our own and practice spiritual disciplines together daily. Thats why we legally require under SEC. 2000e-1 Section702 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that all employees practice a mature orthodox Christian faith as defined by the Apostles Creed.

IJM requires a background check police clearance and thorough review of references with an employment offer and/or employment contract.