Shelter Manager at Mercy Corps

Reference Number: MDG/HUMOPS/2018/00036
Location: Maiduguri, Borno with atleast 60% travels to Project locations

General Position Summary

• The Shelter Manager is a key management position for Mercy Corps Nigeria’s response to the crisis in North East Nigeria.
• The position has supervisory and managerial responsibilities, including directly managing all shelter programs and activities implemented by Mercy Corps under multiple grants.
• The Shelter Manager provides technical leadership and supervision to shelter program staff.
• S/he is responsible for overseeing program implementation and ensuring achievement of program objectives in compliance with Mercy Corps, donor requirements and international standards.
• S/he actively participates in relevant representation and coordination events in Maiduguri and ensures field staff participates in coordination meetings at sub-office level. S/he plays a key role in program development, proposal writing, and shaping Mercy Corps’ overall program strategy for emergency and transitional programming in shelter as well as other sectors.

Essential Job Functions
Operations:

• Oversee and ensure that procurement is completed, documented and delivered to end-user in a timely manner, ensuring that items procured meet specifications of the end-user while adhering to donor and Mercy Corps procurement guidelines.
• Oversee all aspects of asset as well as stock management for the shelter items, including ensuring sound transfers between sub-offices or to the program implementation sites
• Ensure quality and accuracy of the BoQs and Contracts, Cost estimates and any other project-related documentation needed for procurement. Managing the tendering process and monitoring contractor’s progress and quality of work. Ability to resolve field and construction issues
• Create a master plan for shelter clusters to ensure safety of residents, functionality, and protection of the natural environment
• Ensuring that land ownership is cleared and no shelter or other related infrastructure are constructed on disputed land.
• Program Management and Implementation
• Provide leadership and management of all aspects of shelter program design, planning, implementation, quality and accountability.
• Participate to the elaboration of technical design on shelter interventions for program proposals and budgets as requested.
• Build the capacity of all shelter team members with special focus to more senior positions, in program management,
• Ensure that program implementation is responsive to communities needs for shelter and consistent with Mercy Corps’ relevant program guidelines.
• Integrate community approaches, gender and disablement sensitivity, Do No Harm/protection mainstreaming, environmental sensitivity and capacity building into all activities as appropriate.
• Establish, manage and coordinate work plans for all program activities, including making adjustments in response to any changes in the security situation in close coordination with the Deputy Director of north East, Team leader North East, and Program Managers/Directors
• Manage the shelter program budget, including: approval of appropriate program expenses (within approval limit), tracking of program spending and financial obligations, verification of monthly budget-vs-actual reports, estimation of projected spending and submission of monthly cash forecasts, etc.
• Manage the monitoring and evaluation system for all shelter program activities, including the planning and execution of any required evaluations, to ensure that accurate and timely information is available. Document lessons learned and best practices and integrate into program activities as appropriate.
• Conduct regular field visits to all program sites in order to ensure that shelter programs are adapted to local needs, provide quality control assurance, and to conduct regular audits of program activities.
• Provide regular internal and external reports on program status, as required.

Coordination and Representation:

• Develop and maintain working relationships and coordinate with relevant international and local agencies active in the shelter working group and related coordination platforms.
• Document and communicate program implementation experience and lessons learned to support coordination and learning efforts.
• Other duties as assigned

Others:
Security:

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Organizational Learning:

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve, we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

Accountability to Beneficiaries

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically
• to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Accountability
Supervisory Responsibility:

• This position requires supervision of a team of approximately 15 staff. The Shelter Manager is responsible for the direct supervision of shelter program staff in field locations in North East Nigeria.
• Reports Directly To: Deputy Director of North East Program
• Directly Supervises: Shelter Program Staff
• Works Directly With: The Team Leader North East, Finance Manager, Maida Program Director, OFDA Program Manager, Field Managers, GAC Program Manager, Cash Manager, Gender & Protection Manager, WASH Manager, and Operation Manager.

Knowledge and Experience

• B.Sc in Civil Engineering with construction management experience. MS Construction Management or Engineering Management is preferred
• 5-7 years’ experience successfully managing programs and teams in the field, experience working in North East Nigeria shall be preferred. Program experience should include program implementation, M&E, needs assessments, reporting and proposal development and budget monitoring required
• Experience with emergency, transitional and permanent Shelter programs with a view on sustainable infrastructure, Cash-for-Work programming required
• Experience working with local stakeholders required
• Good organizational and program management skills and the ability to anticipate program needs.
• Ability to effectively represent the organization and its interests to a diverse range of stakeholders, including local and international government officials, local civil society organizations, donors, other international organizations, the media and the community.
• Demonstrated proficiency with the MS Office software (i.e., MS Project, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) is required, with strong focus on Excel. Experience of Planning and design soft wares i.e. AutoCAD, Sketch up, illustrator, Primavera shall be preferred
• Ability to analyze databases resulting from surveys
• Proven experience of implementing cash and market based programs
• Excellent oral and written English skills are required, knowledge of Hausa, Kanuri and other local languages is preferable.
• Proven experience in working in insecure environment and through remote management.

Success Factors:

• The successful Shelter Program Manager will be conscientious, with an excellent sense of judgment and commitment to integrity.
• S/he will have strong understanding of the long-term implications of humanitarian work and the importance of incorporating the development of civil society and local partners into activities.
• S/he will be able to interact productively with partner and peer agencies, and demonstrate effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, organizational, and prioritization skills.
• Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines, and work independently and cooperatively with team members is required. S/he will have interest and ability to travel and work in remote environments and awareness of and sensitivity to multi-cultural international development work and ability to train and facilitate dialogue among a diverse group of individuals with various skill sets and working styles.
• Must be able to work independently and show initiative. Strong leadership, communication, and management skills are essential. Understanding of humanitarian principles and their application to program implementation is required. Possess the ability to manage, supervise, mentor and coach team members. Must be able to problem solve and multi-task on a range of administrative and programmatic issues.
• Finally, s/he will be able to creatively problem-solve, juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines, and to calmly and diplomatically deal with unexpected and sudden events impacting program operations. Patience, tenacity, dedication to improving aid delivery and a good sense of humor are key for this role.

Living Conditions/Environmental Conditions:

• The position will be based in Maiduguri, Borno state and it requires frequent travel (60%) between field locations in northeast Nigeria and Abuja country office. Housing in the deep field will be in the guesthouse. Security in the field locations requires additional vigilance and accessibility will be reassessed continuously.
• Given the nature of the humanitarian response, working hours require flexibility and working through weekends/evenings might be necessary.
• Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all locations.