Job Openings at Mercy Corps

Essential Job Functions

VISION AND STRATEGY

•  Support the Technical Director in providing vision and strategy to the program approach and clarity across the program team on how Nutrition Resilience pervades overall technical direction, as well as each and every program intervention.
•  Collaborate with different program components including research, implementation, Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) and learning to drive overall effectiveness and coherence of program strategy and contribution to nutrition outcomes and objectives
•  Forge strong, institutional linkages and maintain a productive working relationship with counterparts at USAID, Government of Kenya, the CRS consortium, PREG Partners, and other relevant partners.
•  Work closely with the Systems Strengthening and Institutionalization team to cultivate county leaders' commitments to policies and programs that support Nutrition Resilience and promote changes in social and structural conditions that contribute to persistent acute malnutrition.
•  Assist in defining and analyzing Nawiri practices and priorities across all partners; identifying opportunities for integration and synergies within other sectors such as health, water systems, markets and governance.

TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP AND PROGRAM SUPPORT

•  In close collaboration with all Nawiri stakeholders, support in the design, development, execution and iteration of a risk-informed project strategy for improving nutrition resilience that is evidence-based, tailored to local realities, and responsive to risk and opportunities.
•  Provide technical leadership on Nutrition Resilience for Nawiri consortium members and county partners, including frequent travel to Samburu and Turkana to provide on-site capacity building and technical assistance.
•  Provide onboarding and training to all Nawiri team members on nutrition resilience and related topics and transfer capacity of nutrition frameworks and approaches within the consortium and across the larger community of practice.
•  Work with the M&E team to support design and roll out of context monitoring and nutrition surveillance systems, including the Longitudinal Study, Action Context Monitoring (ACMS), and recurrent monitoring systems.
•  Work alongside the System Strengthening and Institutionalization team to guide and strengthen county information systems related to nutrition analysis.
•  Support in the development and delivery of innovative tools and approaches for changing attitudes and practices for health and nutrition outcomes, at multiple levels and scales (e.g. individual, HH, community, public and private sector institutions, etc.)
•  Support in the design of community-level interventions that target caretakers of children, household and community decision makers, farmers, and community members at large to increase demand for nutritious, diverse, and safe diets.
•  Assist in the development of all program reports, work plans and budgets as appropriate.

PROGRAM QUALITY, LEARNING & ADAPTATION

•  Provide strategic, technical guidance and direction to the program, ensuring alignment with latest technical information, evidence and approaches across the nutrition field;
•  Support the Technical Director in ensuring that all aspects of the program are evidence-based and coordinated, and in line with the Nawiri goal and principles.
•  Work closely with the Strategic Learning Lead to drive the learning agenda within Nawiri and other partners in Turkana and Samburu, and the wider community of practice
•  Support in the ongoing development of research and learning agenda and activities; provide support across all research and learning activities, including by identifying and actioning strategic opportunities for rapidly testing and adapting innovative approaches for addressing social and structural determinants of persistent acute malnutrition
•  Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Manager to measure and document progress and impact of project activities.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION

•  Work with other team leads to coordinate reporting to the donor
•  Represent Mercy Corps and Nawiri at strategic meetings, events, coordination fora and conferences.
•  Working closely with other Technical Leads, support the development of case studies and other products to communicate key program learnings.
•  Any other task, as identified in consultation with supervisor

Knowledge and Experience

•  A Master's degree in Nutrition or related subject, or a Bachelor's degree with at least 5 years of additional relevant experience.
•  At least 7-10 years of demonstrated experience in designing and implementing diverse nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions.
•  In depth knowledge and understanding of barriers to improved nutrition in northern Kenya
•  Experience collaborating with county officials and leaders, building community capacity and leading community mobilization.
•  Experience building capacity of civil society and/or government entities
•  Demonstrated success in building and managing relationships with various donors and implementing partners.
•  Ability to deliver quality work within deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members
•  Systems thinker with strong analytical skills; flexible and creative in planning and problem solving
•  Ability and willingness to travel to Samburu and Turkana at least 40% of the time.
•  Professional fluency in English; Excellent oral and written communication skills.
•  Demonstrates patience, diplomacy, tenacity, compassion, determination and a sense of humor
•  Excellent written and persuasive oral communication skills in English required.

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General Position Summary

The Program and Research Assistant (PRA) will support the PMU, working with the PMU members and reporting directly to the Program Manager - PMU. The PRA will support collaboration with program, finance and administrative staff to ensure GIRL-H Program and MEL systems comply with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures, including adherence to Mercy Corps program management minimum standards. The ideal candidate should have extensive experience working within both Programs and Research departments in the development sector.

Core Functions:

The core functions of this position are:

•  Program Management:
  •  Work with country offices to tease out learnings across board and track program performance.
  •  Track program expenditure and report same to PMU- Country and Global.
•  Global Initiatives:
  •  Track and develop materials to commemorate global events.
  •  Expand GIRL-H visibility.
•  MEL
  •  Document program performance by developing reports.
  •  Track performance on learning agenda.
  •  Identify and develop success stories.

Essential Responsibilities

STRATEGY AND PLANNING

•  Work with the PMU Manager to support the teams in implementing the program's strategy following the donor and Mercy Corps standards.
•  Contribute to preparing the global level reports by collating information from the country level reports and providing the gaps to PMU Manager for follow up with the countries.
•  Support the PMU team in administering the program budget by preparing procurement and expense requests, following up with relevant departments, and tracking expenses at the PMU level.
•  Schedule, organize, and document minutes for PMU led meetings and events. The person will also follow up with respective staff on specific action points.
•  Working with the PMU team, organize and maintain the program filing system under the guidance, ensuring a clear trail of versions and appropriate filing.
•  Support the PMU Manager in tracking and reporting on the status of deliverables as per the PMU and Country Workplans, sending advance reminders to the responsible staff for upcoming deliverables.

RESEARCH & SUPPORT

•  Provide administrative support to the MEL Manager to prepare various research protocols for ethical approval in Kenya, Uganda, Haiti, and Nigeria.
•  The PRA will track deliverables expected by the ethical approval body.
•  The PRA will schedule, organize, and document Research, Monitoring, Evaluation, & Learning (RMEL) related meetings and events.
•  Provide administrative and quality control support for RMEL activities led by PMU, e.g., baseline survey, midline assessment, end of project evaluation, ad-hoc research, dissemination, among others.
•  Support in data collection activities such as desk research and key informant interviews to address specific research questions defined by the MEL Manager.
•  Support the MEL Manager in collating data from various countries to feed into; the global program log frame and periodic donor reports.
•  Provide support in implementing quality assurance and control for all program and research data collection/collation activities as guided by the MEL MAnager.
•  Provide support in developing various data collection tools addressing adhoc research questions and problems under guidance from the MEL Manager.
•  Support in testing electronic data collection scripts prepared for various research and monitoring activities.
•  Support in various components of program implementation within the countries.

OTHER

•  Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
•  Other duties as assigned by the PMU

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

•  A minimum of a Bachelor's degree with at least three (3) years cumulative experience working as an assistant in a program and research environment within the development sector
•  Experience in supporting multi-country program management in a program or research environment is desired
•  Experience in supporting/implementing quality assurance and control for programs and research activities
•  Ability to develop and manage work plans for complex multi-country programs within the development sector
•  Effective written and oral communication in English
•  Qualification in project or program management will be an added advantage
•  Proficiency in MS Office specifically in MS Excel and MS PowerPoint are required
•  Knowledge of an analysis software is an added advantage e.g. SPSS, STATA or R

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The Position Summary

The Contract Director will provide overall leadership and oversight for the finance and grants management team under the CREATE programme, while working with Mercy Corps Commercial Contracts team in HQ to ensure overall contract compliance. S/he will empower the team ensuring that staff are familiar with policies and procedures related to finance and grants management, while providing quality control to ensure robust, flexible, and adaptive support to programme activities. The Contract Director must be fluent in compliance matters and help the senior management team to ensure the contract is implemented in accordance with contractual requirements, Mercy Corps policies, CSSF regulations, and local law, across 3 countries.

The Contract Director will work closely with the Deputy Team Leader who oversees technical programmes while reporting to the Team Leader. Three Major functions that support programme delivery will fall directly and indirectly under the Contracts Director 1) Grants and Sub-Contract Management 2) Financial Management; 3) Programme Compliance and Administration.

Essential Responsibilities

GRANTS AND SUB-CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

The Contracts Director will oversee the grants team, ensuring grants and sub-contracts are issued and managed in line with Mercy Corps and CSSF policies, and to provide quality control and risk management of the grant management function. Specially the Contracts Director will:

•  Review all RFAs and liaise with Team Leader, Deputy Team Leader and MCE for approval.
•  Oversee the grant management function, ensuring timely submission and approval of reports and advances to partners.
•  Draft all Requests for Grant Approval from the donor, as required by the contract.
•  Oversee the development of sub-partner grants and contracts, advising on the most suitable grant/contract mechanism for each partner.
•  Ensure activity or milestone budgets are developed and implemented accurately, providing support to the Senior Finance and Subgrants Manager in cooperation with technical teams, maintaining a master collation of partner budgets.
•  Provide leadership during grants close out and partner's asset disposition.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

In collaboration with the Finance and Compliance Director and the Senior Finance and Subgrants Manager, the Contract Director will be responsible for the financial management of the CREATE programme, including quality controls, cost reporting, forecasting and tracking. S/he will provide recommendations on the overall financial management and performance of the programme and work in close collaboration with Mercy Corps Europe team to monitor costs. Detailed duties include:

•  Regularly participate in calls with the MCE and with CSSF and support the maintenance and updating of the programme Activity-based budget and forecast
•  Conduct monthly ABB forecast review
•  Oversee responses to internal and external financial/compliance audits.
•  Mitigate project risks and protect the programme against fraudulent practices through adherence to the programme's schedule of authorities.
•  Ensure strict implementation of a sound internal control system and take appropriate actions against any violation of the system.
•  Review Mercy Corps, and sub-contractor invoices prior to submission to CSSF for accuracy
•  Approve payment requests, and review and approve financial vouchers.
•  Release bank payments and hold bank signatory authority for the programme; provide quality control and risk management for finance functions.

PROGRAMME ADMINISTRATION AND COMPLIANCE

The Contract Director will work with Mercy Corps Kenya Operation team, providing oversight and quality control for the administrative operations of the programme, including procurement, inventory management, and reporting. S/he will work with this team to ensure the CSSF and Mercy Corps standards. Detailed duties include:

•  Ensure programme asset management and disposition plans are in line with the CREATE contract.
•  Review the programme's Exit Plan, and ensure actions are initiated in line with plan and CREATE's contract, ensuring timely close out partners, disposition of assets, finalization of financial responsibilities and reporting.
•  Review/draft all requests to CSSF for procurement approvals.
•  Ensure programme procurement process are completed in a timely manner. Support in contract reviews.
•  Work with MCE to draft/review CSSF contract deliverables - including Quarterly Financial Report, Inventory and Asset Report.
•  Provide leadership during donor spot checks and in addressing any identified issues.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

•  Supervise the day-to-day performance of direct reports, ensuring that they understand their roles, coaching them to succeed and providing them with feedback and technical and administrative support that they require in meeting their performance objectives.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES

•  Respond to urgent client requests, including budget scenarios, inventory disposition, scope of work development, and other tasks as needed.
•  Perform other tasks as requested by the Team Leader

Supervisory Responsibility

Finance and Sub-grants Manager and the Senior Finance and Grants Officer.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Team Leader

Works Directly With: Deputy Team Leader, Programme Partners, Mercy Corps Kenya Operations and Finance Directors, Tanzania Country Coordinator, Uganda Country Coordinator, Mercy Corps Europe Commercial Contracts Team.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

•  Bachelor's degree in finance, business administration, public administration, economics or other relevant field; advanced degree preferred;
•  Minimum of ten years of experience implementing donor-funded development projects, to include project administration, operations and procurement;
•  Detailed knowledge of donor rules and regulations, preferably with experience implementing a UK government-funded contract;
•  Minimum of five years of supervisory experience and proven ability to manage teams of professionals to produce key results;
•  Demonstrated record of results-driven project management and an ability to creatively solve complex organisational issues and foster ownership within teams; and
•  Strong writing skills and experience in developing budgets, reports and workplans.