Senior Program Manager at Mercy Corps

General Position Summary

This position offers overall coordination of deliverables and team leadership functions on the Mercy Corps tasks under THRIVE Consortium. The Senior Program Manager is a cross-functional manager and leader who takes full responsibility for the successful delivery of Mercy Corps’ responsibilities within the THRIVE consortium. This role coordinates heavily with Mercy Corps teams, the THRIVE consortium members, the Borno State Government and Jere LGA Desk. Succeeding in this role will require an agile personality, great emotional intelligence, and a solutions thinker with a desire to define your success around improvement in the quality of human lives. The Senior Program Manager has a clear understanding of at least five of the sectors above and how they work well together.

Essential Job Responsibilities

Throughout the life of the award, the success of the Senior Program Manager-THRIVE will be evaluated based on the following scope:

DEFINING STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS

You will be a self-starter with the acumen to appreciate the dynamics of setting up a new project. You will develop your strategy for success based on your diagnosis, highlighting what the THRIVE consortium should expect to celebrate from your team. You will prioritize your “low-hanging fruits” and speak to various stakeholders about your vision for success. You will also define at the beginning of THRIVE and refine during implementation what sustainability and exit look like, adhering to all start-up requirements (kick-off meeting, recruitments, establishment of systems) in accordance with project management best practice and Mercy Corps internal Project Management @ Mercy Corps 2.0 (PM@MC 2.0) minimum standards.

MANAGE CROSS-SECTORAL DELIVERY

You will lead a team delivering interventions across ten sectors. You are expected to appraise yourself of this technical and people diversity. You will deploy effective skills in managing and coordinating a successful delivery of an integrated package of multi-sectoral interventions to participants, ensuring the various components and teams do not operate in siloes but are rather working together to great effect.

STRENGTHEN POSITION IN CONSORTIUM

Mercy Corps is a key partner in the THRIVE consortium with a myriad of celebrated successes in the humanitarian assistance context in Northeast Nigeria, across all eight sectors. You will secure our key partnership position in THRIVE and build long-term and productive relationships with all THRIVE consortium members. You will be Mercy Corps’ primary point of representation in THRIVE and associated consortia members.

LEARNING AND ADAPTATION

You will work with THRIVE Consortium management structure, Mercy Corps Program Performance and Quality, Crisis Analytics, Strategic Learning Manager and MEL Teams to identify and deliver your learning agenda. You will ensure documentation of learning throughout the implementation period, including how that is influencing your execution decisions and style, in accordance with PM@MC 2.0 and Mercy Corps Nigeria’s learning agenda. You will work with the THRIVE team to encourage a culture of learning and adaptation, and with the broader Mercy Corps Nigeria country team to put in place strong knowledge management systems to ensure such learning is not lost in the future. 

PLANNING, PROGRAM AND TEAM MANAGEMENT

In your Strategy for Success, you will be expected to define how you will manage all the integrated sectors within the THRIVE consortium sector deliverables assigned to Mercy Corps. You will work with your team to draw your sectoral workplans and an integrated work plan, with robust work breakdown structures for each sector flagship intervention. You will lead meticulous planning processes within the consortium. Planning and Adaptive Management will be an inherent and core success factor. You will also appreciate the different strengths and areas of support for your team members, deploying a management style that allows for free thoughts, innovation and practical pathways for continuous improvements in individual and team performances. You will be expected to plough in positive energy to the team and optimize their individual and collective potential. Mercy Corps expects you to build a culture of trust within your team members.

PEER-TO-PEER COLLABORATION

As a key partner in THRIVE, Mercy Corps will only be effective and succeed by working harmoniously with all THRIVE partners. Further, Mercy Corps will be implementing two separate sister USAID/BHA assistance activities (BEGE Borno and NE-CORE) within similar contexts in Borno State. At Maiduguri level, all three activities will significantly share technical and support personnel. You will therefore have two peers within Mercy Corps with whom you will have to develop an effective collaboration mechanism. You will also negotiate your collaboration plan internally with Finance, Operations, Security, MEL, Program Reporting and Security Managers and externally with the CRS. The consortium Chief of Party from CRS and your peers from other partners will need to see you as a reliable team player.

BUDGET TRACKING AND MANAGEMENT

You will work with the finance team to track your budget expenses versus actuals (BVAs) and make decisions out of BVA reports each month. You will plan and manage your monthly and quarterly cash flows and oversee the timely and compliant expenditure by sector leads. Your agile planning will ensure timely procurements and delivery of activities. You will plan meticulously to ensure you avoid a No-Cost Extension and safeguard the timely and impactful delivery of all project components.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION

Mercy Corps holds in high esteem a culture of respectful workplace. You will demonstrate tolerance, promote increasing spaces for women, youth and individuals abled differently to equally contribute to THRIVE goals and the process of getting there, both at the office and in participant communities.

Knowledge and Experience

• Advanced degree in a program that places you at the position of interacting frequently with rural and peri-urban communities. It could be Project Management, Basket Weaving, Economics, M&E, Rural Development, etc. Just Illustrate how you’re gainfully utilizing the education and how it would be an asset for you in this role.
• At least two years of qualified experience and competencies in a position of managing an integrated multisector portfolio or program. We are looking for years consistently spent in mid to senior management of assistance or development programs.
• Familiarity with USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) Assistance Guidelines. Previous experience with management of activity under what was formerly USAID OFDA and FFP is welcome.
• A compelling reputation for effective people management and admirable interpersonal relations skills. You are that supervisor whose direct reports feel sad to see you leave.
• Familiarity with and understanding of the humanitarian context in Borno State (primary), or similar contexts around the globe (secondary).
• Mid to Senior level management experience within a consortium of actors.
• Illustratable analytical and presentation skills. You can do an effective pitch before a board, senior government officials, humanitarian coordination platforms and other equivalents.
• Demonstrated understanding of how to manage multi-year consortium budgets of at least US$8M.
• Illustrated deep interactions with at least five of the eight assistance sectors mentioned above. These sectors define the core of BEGE Borno intervention outcomes.
• At this level, we expect you to be convincingly articulate in your writing, communication, presentation, and personal organization.