Mercy Corps
About Mercy Corps:
Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse, and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.
The Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps’ Ukraine crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people where they are: displaced inside Ukraine, refugees in Poland, Romania, and Moldova, or trapped behind frontlines. We aim to reach 500,000 vulnerable people with multi-purpose cash assistance, in-kind humanitarian support, and protection services across four countries. Almost all of our impact will be delivered in partnership: with Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian and Moldovan civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening, and with peer international NGOs through a consortium in Ukraine. Mercy Corps is responding to the Ukraine crisis with large-scale consortium programming with a focus on Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA). The Consortium is a partnership between four international humanitarian aid agencies to model and deliver innovative, effective cash and other humanitarian assistance programs to support people affected by the Ukraine crisis within Ukraine.
The Team:
The Program Performance and Quality (PaQ) Unit in the Ukraine Response consists of several teams: The Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) Team, The Data Management and Automation Team, the Community Accountability (CARM) Team – and the soon to be created Program Standards Team – which this position will lead. The Response PaQ team works closely with the Global PaQ Unit to support effective, efficient, and equitable program performance through a culture of quality management, to achieve results for those that matter most – our program participants.
The Program Standards Team will act as an agile, de facto ‘Program Management Office’ which will fulfill the following broad functions:
1. Centre of Excellence: Providing program management leadership and technical support across the functioned covered by CARM, Cash, Goods, Gender Equality and Special Inclusion (GESI), and MEL teams.
2. Policy, Standards, Guidelines, and Learning & Development: Support and lead process improvement across Program Management standards, knowledge sharing and guidance, and provide professional development opportunities to both Mercy Corps and the staff of our partner organizations. Focus on continuous quality improvement (CQI) and adaptive management throughout the program lifecycle.
3. Data Protection and Management: With the Data Protection & Management Officer, support protection across Mercy Corps’ Ukraine Response and ensuring program quality as it pertains to data flows and management.
The Position:
The Program Management Senior Advisor:
- Leads on delivering Mercy Corps Program Management Learning Pathway.
- Leads the process of reviewing, embedding, documenting, and updating program management processes within the various Ukraine Response Programs.
- Supports the adoption, localization and contextualization, and rollout of Mercy Corps program management guidance and templates.
- Works with country teams to effectively implement program management minimum standards through the provision of direct and remote support utilizing Mercy Corps Program Management policy.
- Coordinates with other departments, functions and offices to identify and address challenges for achieving quality program management and to align and streamline business and system procedures and guidance.
- Engage other Mercy Corps functional teams in understanding and supporting quality program management.
- Leads and/or contributes to new and ongoing agency-wide and/or PaQ-specific initiatives and projects.
Essential Responsibilities:
1. PROGRAM MANAGEMENT GUIDANCE, TOOLS AND RESOURCES
- Ensure that program managers and directors are oriented, trained and prepared to adopt the Program Management Policy, including support options and opportunities for learning and engagement.
- Identify, develop, and disseminate Program Management guidance, tools, and templates needed for country teams to meet and exceed the Program Management and minimum standards.
- Continuously update and improve Program Management guidance, tools and templates through identifying gaps, integrate new approaches and best practices, and ensure consistency with other departments and i n collaboration with the Global Program Standards Team.
- Contribute to the roll out, familiarization, adoption and maintenance of an agency wide standards reporting mechanism.
- Support the process of global quality assurance of standards reporting and engage with the analytics of standards and performance data.
2. PROCESS IMPROVEMENT & DIRECT SUPPORT TO RESPONSE PORTFOLIO
- Map and maintain Mercy Corps Program Management Business Process flows for the Ukraine Response, contextualizing tools and resources as needed.
- Implement the Mercy Corps Program Management Change Model.
- Apply Process Improvement methodology throughout both country and response-wide level support, using it as the framework to identify, diagnose and resolve program management issues.
- Identify high-priority programs that need increased program management technical support, both remote and in-countries, using performance data and engagement with regional and response leadership.
- Coordinate, co-develop with PaQ Lead, and implement Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) strategy for the Ukraine Response, adapting change practice and methodology to suit specific teams and environments.
- Utilize data from Mercy Corps systems and processes, specifically the global standards reporting mechanism, Tola Data and audit findings, to support in the diagnosis and resolution of program management issues.
- Support response teams to develop action plans to improve adoption of the Program Management Policy.
3. LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT AND CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (CPD)
- Define the strategy for the Program Management Professional Development workstream.
- Develop and evolve Mercy Corps’ program management curriculum based on shifting context and needs of the Response.
- Facilitate and support others to facilitate online self-paced, online social, and in-person project and program management training offerings.
- Track and report on key learning and development performance indicators.
- Lead on the improvement of onboarding resources, as well as onboarding support and orientation of Mercy Corps’ Program Management policy for key positions.
- Provide outreach and support for team members adopting the program management policy, tools and resources.
- Contribute to the facilitation of communities of practice related to program management and standards, or to other communication and coordination mechanisms that bring together program managers to improve information-sharing and program management practices.
- Contribute to a culture of learning and adaptive management.
- Support program management learning and development opportunities for project partners, working with them on capacity building in areas relating to program management, quality improvement methodology, etc.
4. DRIVE SPECIFIC PROGRAM STANDARDS AND PAQ UNIT PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES
- Identify, prioritize, manage and/or support Response and agency-wide PaQ-specific special projects and initiatives.
5. INTERNAL COMMUNICATION AND COORDINATION
- Support cross departmental communication and collaboration between Program units.
- Engage members of additional HQ departments as needed for technical support and guidance.
- Coordinate with Learning Team to incorporate peer learning into Mercy Corps work across Response teams.
Accountability:
Supervises: Data Protection & Management Officer (Ukraine Response)
Reports Directly To: PaQ Lead
Works Directly With: Program Performance & Quality Team, HQ staff, Ukraine response regional and field staff.
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
- Degree in relevant field required, MA/MS/MBA or equivalent degree preferred.
- 10+ years of experience in international relief and development; demonstrated knowledge of grant-based funding models, emergency response and development strategies and operational challenges in the sector; or combination of experience in international relief/development combined with professional experience in program management and quality in nonprofit, IT, manufacturing, business, or public health/healthcare sectors.
- 2-4 years of experience managing projects or programs.
- Demonstrated track record in developing and running quality or process improvement initiatives.
- Demonstrated experience managing enterprise-level projects and/or initiatives.
- Experience of developing country-level procedures, processes, and guidance for NGO program management.
- Ability to research and assess new quality improvement tools and methodologies, drawing ideas and concepts from both inside the humanitarian sector and other sources.
- Experience of providing professional development in program management through direct and remote support.
- Knowledge and/or experience of establishing strong global networks and internal communications and coordinating with multiple stakeholders, with different perspectives.
- Language proficiency in Ukrainian, Russian, or Polish is preferred but not required.
Success Factors
The Program Management Senior Advisor needs to be a skilled communicator, able to develop and utilize strong relationships with team members and departments internally, as well as with external bodies. They will have a positive and dynamic working style that enables them to work independently, partially with a remote team. They will harness the expertise, experience and ideas of diverse Mercy Corps team members and external partners to strengthen Program Management within Mercy Corps. The individual will be “customer” focused and able to provide contextualized tools and services that meet the needs of the user. The individual will have strong commitment to program management improvement and drive to ensure high quality field program delivery. They will champion learning practices and drive the conversation around learning and development innovation. They will be able to both understand the global systems and procedures necessary to ensure quality programs, reduce agency risk and communicate processes to field teams in a manner they can implement.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
This position can be either based in Ukraine (for Ukrainian nationals only) or in Poland with up to 25% travel to Ukraine (and limited travel to Romania and Moldova), dependent on security situation and operational capacity. This can potentially include areas with limited access to medical facilities and amenities. Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/short-term assignment to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues. Mercy Corps team members represent the agency both during and outside work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.
Ongoing Learning
In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.
We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.
Equal Employment Opportunity
Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.
We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.
Safeguarding & Ethics
Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.
How to apply
Please apply here: