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 Team

Mercy Corps works to achieve real and lasting impact in the world’s toughest humanitarian emergencies. We save lives and help people live with dignity in crises of all kinds. At the same time, we create the conditions to pivot to recovery quickly and effectively. We work wherever local capacity is overwhelmed, connecting people to the opportunities they need to strengthen their community in recovery. Whether it is a sudden shock or a slowly emerging crisis, whether the threat is natural or man-made, Mercy Corps is committed to rapid, needs-driven assistance. Mercy Corps supports a response that is market-driven and leverages the capacities of both traditional and non-traditional aid partners—and ultimately gives people the ability to make their own decisions and secure their own lives and livelihoods.

The Global Emergency Response Team (ERT) provides the agency with timely and effective leadership to prepare for, respond to, and learn from humanitarian emergencies, develops sharp, well-timed and influential humanitarian analysis to inform program design and implementation, and supports agency leadership and regional and country teams with safety and security expertise.

The Position

The Senior Program Manager (SPM) is an important member of the ERT, with demonstrated project management skills who is comfortable leading and managing multi-stakeholder projects or initiatives. In addition, they have strong administrative and organizational skills, are a flexible communicator and problem-solver with a commitment towards helping teams more effectively and efficiently respond in emergency and humanitarian settings. The SPM plays an essential role in connecting the ERT to the rest of the agency in the coordination and support of emergency responses, including facilitating response decision-making, communication, managing the emergency fund allocation, and reporting processes. During an emergency, the SPM supports deployment coordination administration for the ERT and other team members.Finally, the SPM will work to maintain effective, coordinated and organized business processes that support implementation of the departmental strategy while improving coordination and promoting efficiency across engagement with other departments.

Essential Responsibilities

EMERGENCY RESPONSE COORDINATION, ADMINISTRATION & LEARNING

• Initiate or develop systems, processes, and communications protocols for effective response start-up and agency-wide coordination; While this is primarily required for ERT-led responses, support may be needed for country and regionally led responses as appropriate.

• Support the expansion of an existing Alumni Talent Pool (roster) to include emergency manager roles; Collaborate with other teams to customize and refine tools and criteria; Conduct outreach to potential candidates, shortlist applicants, and coordinate the vetting and selection process for new profiles.

• Liaise with other departments and teams to maintain, monitor and periodically refresh the Alumni Talent Pool membership.

• Manage emergency response deployment coordination, tracking and logistics for members of the Global Response Team or other members of the Mercy Corps global team responding to emergencies. This includes establishing and maintaining a post deployment feedback system and ensuring lessons learned are incorporated into department learning.

• Provide support to learning initiatives, including department specific learning, satisfaction surveys, and broader agency learning on emergency response work.

• Work collaboratively with the Learning Manager to track and report on key team metrics and deployment statistics.

• Contribute to the development and submission of emergency program concept notes and proposals when appropriate.

• Lead effective team coordination, collaboration, communications and cross-learning for the ERT. This includes ensuring adequate tools and systems are in place to facilitate team coordination and ensure documentation as appropriate.

• Facilitate department workplanning, tracking and coordination across team initiatives, priorities and workstreams.

• Support or lead coordination efforts on specific ERT priorities or initiatives across multiple stakeholder groups and with other departments (TRaQ, Evidence and Learning, support departments, etc.)

• Support the increased visibility of Mercy Corps’ response work across the agency by maintaining the Humanitarians@MC workplace page and highlighting the ongoing humanitarian work of teams across the globe.

• Maintain the ERT Hub page, develop other relevant comms updates for the broader agency or to targeted audiences about ERT initiatives as required.

• Proactively works with Internal Communications and other departments to ensure appropriate internal communication during periods of disaster response, which may also include support of internal coordination calls.

• Manage team sharepoint, including developing a standardized filing system and maintaining team archives.

• Working closely with the VP, act as fund manager of the emergency response fund (ERF) including the review/approval process for new ERF requests; tracking incoming revenue and allocations made, and spending against allocations; and communications with country teams on reporting and follow-up.

• Continually improve systems and processes related to the management and tracking of the emergency response fund.

• Working closely with the Learning Manager, develop a dashboard tracking system for the ERF that can be shared broadly with the organization. Develop communications updates on the ERF for various audience that will be communicated via multiple channels.

• Lead reporting efforts for any external or periodic updates on the use and allocations of the ERF, compiling data from allocation-specific reports as necessary.

• Support the VP ERT providing administrative support, including note taking, action follow-up and other tasks as required for active CMTs and after-action reviews.

• Establish a standardized note taking and archiving systems for CMTs.

• Assist with on-boarding of members of the ERT or temporary deployment staff, ensuring they are set up for success and familiar with agency systems, procedures, and protocols.

• Provide briefings for new hires from other teams/departments on ERT strategy and remit and key policies and emergency procedures (or other relevant topics) as an initial step in the onboarding process.

• Support the ERT VP with planning, reporting, and data management, as well as logistics and planning for team, workshops, and meetings.

• Contribute and initiate team building efforts for the ERT.

• Supervisory Responsibility

• Budget Management Responsibility

• At least 5 years of experience in international relief or development, and at least 2 years experience working in a coordination leadership role.

• BA in a relevant nonprofit field and international experience required.

• Fluency in English is required; fluency in a foreign language (Frech, Spanish, Arabic) is preferred.

• Professional project management certification required.

• Experience supporting a dynamic, dispersed team responding to fast-moving global crises.

• Past experience and familiarity with emergency response programming required.

• Experience providing logistical support and organizational structure in unpredictable situations.

• Proficiency with MS Office software required (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint).

• Strong organizational skills required.

• Demonstrated proficiencyidentifying, mapping, creating, and implementing process and/or change projects.

• Proficiency and experience with project management and change management initiatives involving multiple stakeholders.

• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, research, and written communication skills.

• Strong analytical skills and the ability to effectively gather and summarize large amounts of and at times, complex information from various sources.

• Strong facilitation skills and excellent collaboration skills required.

• Managing information and developing new systems and processes.

• Knowledge of Mercy Corps operations processes, systems, and procedures desirable.

• Knowledge of rules and regulations governing the compliance/regulatory management of grants from US Government, DFID, EC, and other donors is an advantage.

• Willingness to travel to field locations, including insecure environments is required.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

This position requires up to 20-25% travel to support the emergency response teams work, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. 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. Staff 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. By applying for this role an applicant confirms that they have not previously violated an employer’s sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation and abuse, child safeguarding or trafficking policy. 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 e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline ([email protected]).