JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Overview:

IRC’s Strategy 100 sets ambitious goals for IRC to improve the scale and quality of our programs. To deliver on this mandate, IRC has developed the Technology 100 strategic plan, which sets out how technology will be used to achieve these aims. A key recommendation of this plan is the establishment of an expanded Technology for Programs (ICT4P) function to both ensure complementarity between existing efforts in this area, and to identify highest priority areas for expansion.

The Program Technology at Scale Lead will be the department leader in 2 main areas: (1) CRRD Data Governance and (2) Program Technology at Scale, referring to staff-facing technology used to manage/administer/deliver programs.

The Data Governance focus will include:

1. Coordinating the definition of key data required for CRRD management decision-making
2. Leading Product Management of the Program Indicator Dashboard and other CRRD enterprise data systems
3. Collaborating with IT, Finance, AMU to ensure other data systems reflect CRRD data needs
4. In partnership with the Data Team, leading on data integration and reporting facing CRRD audiences

The Program Technology at Scale focus will include:

1. Working closely with the Program Technology Innovations Lead, IT, and Technical Units to make the decision to scale program technologies, including how to finance support and license costs
2. Collaborating with Technical Units and Regional teams on policies, templates, configurations or further development of the product required to deploy across multiple contexts, consistent with IRC’s technical/programmatic standards
3. Collaborating with IT and Technical Units to develop support models for products at scale
4. In partnership with the relevant business unit leaders, coordinating the deployment of scaled program technology

Major Responsibilities

Strategy

• Lead on identifying CRRD management’s data needs and develop strategies to address those needs
• Work closely with the Program Technologies Innovation Lead to scale-up products that have performed well in pilots
• Collaborate with Technical Unit leaders to ensure strong Technical leadership of scaled program technology
• Collaborate with IT to identify opportunities to centralize the management of program technology to drive efficiencies, and reduce costs

Implementation

• Manage the Program Indicator Dashboard and other products in this role’s portfolio to further an overall CRRD Data strategy
• Lead the curation of key Programs-related data definitions, in collboration with the Global MEAL Lead and other CRRD stakeholders
• Collaborate with teams in Finance, AMU and IT to institutionalize key Programs-related data definitions in systems managed by those teams
• Collaborate with the Data Team, Finance and AMU to integrate data from IRC’s systems of record in IRC Data Lakehouse
• Lead the development of new reporting facing CRRD managers integrating grants, programs and finance data
• Organize Technical leaders of scaled program technology plan deployments in coordination with Regional teams
• Coordinate with IT on procurement and vendor management for scaled program technology
• Coordinate with with Technical Leaders and IT IT on the support model for each scaled product in Lead or collaborate on drafting policies to ensure responsible and efficient use of enterprise program technologies
• Coordinate with the MEAL Global Practice Lead on integrating standardized data definitions and data collection/capture methods into program technologies
• In partnership with the Program Technology Innovations Lead, identify and explore opportunities for capacity strengthening to better leverage technology in programs

Team management

• Lead and manage multiple teams responsible for supporting CRRD’s program technologies and data at scale
• Foster an environment where new concepts, methods and approaches are developed and put into action as needed. Ensure team members feel supported and recognized for their work and that effective performance management is followed

Influence, Relationships and Representation

• Partner with the Program Technologies Innovation Lead to ensure effective translation of innovation to practice at scale. The Innovations Lead will test and establish “gold standard” for new innovations and then hand off to this role, who will guide leaders in the Technical Units and IT on the decision to scale and resource planning to support that decision.
• Act as a key strategic advisor to IT and Program Delivery teams on priority program technologies for adoption
• Partner effectively with individual departments who are responsible for their own Data Reporting and Quality. Collaborate with those teams on Data Analytics and Metadata.
• Represent IRC in external fora as relevant

Key Working Relationships

• Position Reports to: Senior Director, Monitoring Evaluation Accountability and Learning and Senior Director, Enterprise Applications
• Direct Reports: Technology Development Team, Product Management Team

Key Internal Relationships:

• Program Technology Innovations Lead
• IT Extended Leadership Team
• Data Architecture
• Regional MEAL Advisors and Regional Practice Leads across 6 regions
• Business focal points across CRRD functions and enterprise systems owners across IRC

Desired Experience and Skills

• 10+ years experience managing and/or coordinating effectively across complex, global teams
• 5+ years experience in operationalizing Data Governance, Data Stewardship and Data Quality
• Experience in defining business requirements for information management projects
• Expertise in creating and deploying best practices and methodologies for product management
• Familiarity with business and IT architecture
• Familiarity with Enterprise Metadata Management (business and IT)
• Familiarity with software development lifecycles; process modeling, semantic modeling and data modeling
• Ability to speak to technical-level staff and develop written reporting and presentational content with level-appropriate messaging up to and including the senior executive level
• Ability to develop positive relationships across complex organizations.
• Self-motivated and a problem solver who can assess and develop strategies for achieving the needs of the user community
• Fluency in English required; Arabic, French and/or Spanish also an advantage
• Ability to travel globally up to 20% of the time

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements