Program Director at International Medical Corps

Job Ref: 17-313
Department: International Operations

Essential Job Duties/Scope of Work

• International Medical Corps is a global, humanitarian, non-profit organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health care training and relief and development programs.
• Established in 1984 by volunteer doctors and nurses, International Medical Corps is a private, voluntary, non-political, non-sectarian organization. Its mission is to improve the quality of life through health interventions and related activities that build local capacity in underserved communities worldwide. By offering training and health care to local populations and medical assistance to people at highest risk, and with the flexibility to respond rapidly to emergency situations, International Medical Corps rehabilitates devastated health care systems and helps bring them back to self-reliance.
• International Medical Corps (IMC) in Nigeria is seeking an experienced Program Director – who will lead the emergency program at IMC Nigeria most importantly in Borno state by ensuring that IMC's programming in Nigeria contributes to organization's vision of "Relief to Self-reliance." The Program Director, under the direct supervision of the Country Director, is expected to provide leadership and guidance to the country office’s efforts in emergency and development programming that is evidence based, aligned with national protocols, and supports the international community’s strategies to ensure that IMC’s role and mandate in the country are appropriate to the programming context.

Job Summary

• The primary function of the Program Director is to support the Country Director in providing technical oversight to all projects and operational support to the country field sites. As part of the senior leadership team, the Program Director also plays an active role in planning, designing, implementation, supervision, expansion/development and administration of overall country programs in collaboration with the country senior leadership team, in addition to program development and reporting responsibilities. The Program Director will conduct frequent visits to the various program sites to support the field sites

Essential Duties and Responsibilities
To perform this job successfully, the Program Director must be able to perform each essential function
Program Development:

• With the Country Director and supported by the Field/Project Managers, lead the development of project proposals for major donors in Nigeria.

Program Management:

• Manage the programs in ensuring their objectives and achieving impact are met
• In collaboration with the Senior Programmatic staffs, lead the development of concept notes, project proposals, budgets, and donor reports to expand the program portfolio of the mission
• Maintain working relationship with the GoN line ministries, the UN agencies, health advisors, and relevant clusters and interface with them on a regular basis
• Proactively oversees all projects in country through all components of the project management cycle, identifies needed areas for quality improvement and initiates communication between technical, Operations and finance s leads in country and with global International Medical Corps departments (e.g. technical units, finance, logistics and operations),
• Provides technical support and oversight to all Senior Programmatic staffs
• Ensure donor compliance in implementation of projects
• Ensure strict compliance with donor contract requirements/ reporting deadlines
• Guide and support curriculum development and training for programmatic staffs and local partners
• Liaise with relevant stakeholders on IMC programs in Nigeria
• Monitor humanitarian crisis in Nigeria in collaboration with the EPC, performing field assessments when necessary, and advise CD of response options
• In collaboration with the M&E Coordinator, Technical Coordinators in country and at IMC global departments and the Field Coordinators, oversee the collection and timely reporting of all programs according to internal and donor requirements

Representation:

• Attend coordination meetings relevant to country programs
• Attend sector working group meetings including (but not limited to) health, nutrition, Protection, Food security and Wash
• Represent the organization at any task force meetings, UN coordination meetings, INGO coordination meetings, as appropriate
• Ensure maximum visibility of the organization amongst the GoN/NGO/UN community
• Contribute to the creation of a positive image and overall credibility of the organization, notably through the application of the organization’s Code of Conduct, values and stand-point with regard to internal and external actors

Human Resources Management:

• Assist in the selection, recruitment, and training of program staff;
• Technically Supervise, orient, monitor, and evaluate program staff of the mission in close collaboration with EPC/Head of base;
• Maintain open lines of communication with all field staff and service departments.
• Ensure close supervision and guidance of project and/or officers;
• Work with field coordinators and project officers to address programmatic challenges;  

Training/ Capacity Building:

• Determine training needs for Programmatic staffs and facilitate the participation of these staffs in necessary trainings in order to build capacity and increase job responsibilities
• Advocate and plan for professional development for Programmatic staffs

Working Relationship:

• Maintain regular communication with Country Director, other Senior Leadership Team members and Field senior staffs to ensure program activities and objectives are achieved
• Work with Country Director, EPC/Head of baseLogistics Coordinator, Finance Admin Director to ensure the coordination of timely delivery of program supplies and expenses are within budget
• Participate in routinely scheduled calls with International Medical Corps headquarter and associated department staff to advise on activities and project implementation of projects in Nigeria
• Verify that all project reports and completed, submitted and the verification of submission shared with the regional desk, projects Kick-off meetings are planned, organized and held on and all aspects of project planning, implementation and completed are carried out
• Coordinate with FGoN and relevant agencies as necessary
• Maintain the contact with HQ Technical Units and plan and organize regular field visit

Security:

• Collaborate with Security Manager and CD in order to ensure staff and reputation of the organization are safe and secure at all time
• Ensures application and compliance of security protocols and policies

Compliance & Ethics:

• Promotes and encourages a culture of compliance and ethics throughout International Medical Corps.
• As applicable to the position, maintains a clear understanding of International Medical Corps’ and donor compliance and ethics standards and adheres to those standards. 
• Conducts work with the highest level of integrity.
• Communicates these values to staff and to partners and requires them to adhere to these values

Qualifications

• Minimum of 4 years' experience in design, management and evaluation of health, food security and nutrition project.
• Previous experience in humanitarian context as a Program Director
• Must have an understanding of the emergency and development sectors and a demonstrated understanding of humanitarian principles
• Experience in directly managing and supervising staff
• Significant experience in proposal development, especially USG, EU and UN donors, and excellent report writing and editing skills
• Monitoring and evaluation experience is preferred.
• Familiarity with international humanitarian operations, coordination structures, and the mandates of donors, UN agencies, and NGOs.
• Ability to live and work under precarious environment.
• Complete familiarity with project management cycle.
• Knowledge and experiences of budget preparation, management and donor requirements, especially USAID/OFDA, ECHO and UN requirements.
• Profound cross-cultural awareness
• Ability to exercise sound judgment and make decisions independently following consultative processes
• Extremely flexible, and have the ability to cope with stressful situations and frustrations.
• Ability to relate to and motivate local staff effectively
• Creativity and ability to work with limited resources
• Highly reliable, able to consistently meet tight deadlines.
• Team player with extremely strong communication skills, both oral and written.
• Proficient in computer applications, especially with MS Word and MS Excel, MS PowerPoint.
• Must be fluent in English (both written and spoken).