Regional Marine Director, East Africa, Madagascar & West Indian Ocean

Wildlife Conservation Society

🇷🇼 Rwanda

On-site

Manager or above

5 days ago

Equity

5 days ago

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Internal Job Description

Job purpose

The Regional Marine Director provides vision, strategic leadership, scientific guidance, and operational coordination for WCS’s marine conservation portfolio across the EAMWIO region. They will be responsible for delivering on the WCS WIO Marine Conservation Strategy. The position holder drives regional program coherence, elevates scientific and technical standards, supports national country teams, and strengthens regional partnerships. The RMD oversees strategic implementation across all regional marine streams/themes, including 30x30, Coral Reefs, Threatened Marine Species e.g. Sharks & Rays and Marine Mammals, Water Pollution, Community Fisheries, Markets, and coordinating engagement on issues related to the Quieter and Safer Oceans Initiative. The RMD will serve as the primary bridge between national marine programs, global thematic teams, and other members of the regional office.

Major Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership, Regional Coherence, and Fundraising

Strategy Delivery: Lead the implementation, oversight, and periodic refinement of the regional marine strategy, ensuring alignment across all national country programs and regional and global strategies and initiatives. In alignment with the strategy, design and launch cross-cutting regional initiatives in collaboration with WCS’s global marine team, and conservation strategies that foster cross-border collaboration and elevate program impact.

Program Governance & Alignment: Lead regular strategic coordination meetings with regional leadership and country marine leads to ensure unified direction, operational coherence, and peer exchange. Where necessary, support refining organizational structures across national marine programs, aligning country-level teams, and optimizing the use of shared regional technical capacity.

Fundraising: Represent WCS EAMWIO in interactions with multi- and bilateral donors. Work with country teams and global staff to co-create opportunities for regional projects, co-design them with country programs, and manage ongoing and future regional marine grants. Support country programs to develop single-country proposals.

Technical Oversight, Capacity Building, and Policy Engagement

Data Management: Establish, harmonize, and oversee regional standards and protocols for marine data collection across priority marine species and habitats, as well as socio-economic data. Ensure that data is collected and stored in centralized repositories and aligned with Global Marine approaches.

Best Practice Support: Provide technical guidance to field teams on marine conservation project design and program implementation to strengthen the management effectiveness of marine protected and conserved areas, including by connecting country staff to relevant global expertise and findings from recent research. Champion gender equity and inclusive ocean governance within marine conservation practice.

Capacity Development: Design and support capacity-building initiatives, training programs, and peer-exchange platforms for WCS field staff, local partners, and government counterpart agencies, and facilitate sharing lessons learned, management models, and technical tools across country programs in the region.

Policy Engagement: Represent EAMWIO during conferences and policy dialogues to help advance regional priorities and align regional and national policy frameworks with international commitments. Support country programs to contribute to relevant regional initiatives.

Internal Qualification Requirements

Education: PhD or Master’s degree in Marine Biology, Fisheries Science, Conservation Biology, Marine Resource Management, or a related field.

Experience: 7–10+ years of relevant work experience in marine conservation leadership, program administration, and multi-country project coordination, with preference for prior EAMWIO regional experience.

Technical Expertise: Demonstrated expertise across key regional themes: area-based management/30x30, small-scale fisheries co-management, coral reef ecology, threatened species conservation, and marine spatial planning.

Scientific & Data Skills: Proven track record in managing field research, establishing standardized data protocols, and leading technical reporting or scientific publications.

Interpersonal & Cultural Skills: Strong track record in institutional capacity development, cross-cultural team coordination, and navigating complex governance structures.

Languages: Proficiency in English required; working knowledge of regionally relevant languages (Swahili, French, Portuguese) is highly advantageous.

Travel: Ability and willingness to travel extensively within the region, approximately 30% of time away from home base.

WCS is an equal opportunity employer, and the organisation complies with all applicable employment and labour laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination in hiring. We ensure candidates from all backgrounds are considered fairly and consistently during the recruitment process. We are dedicated to hiring and engaging a diverse workforce. We are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment and look for future team members who share the same values. The organisation provides equal employment opportunities for all qualified candidates. The organisation does not discriminate in 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

Salary Range: Competitive salary commensurate with experience

Regional Marine Director, East Africa, Madagascar & West Indian Ocean · Wildlife Conservation Society

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