Program Manager I at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Job Summary: 

You will manage programming in the Country Program (CP) for Sokoto Emergency Response,designing and implementing projects advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that the CP delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its programming.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

Grant Implementation:

• Supervise team to meet program implementation targets on time, target and within budget and the, the program Ultimate, Intermediate and Immediate Outcomes are achieved.
• Provide technical support and leadership on food programming (Voucher programming) within the program area, ensure it is done within CRS and accepted humanitarian standards.
• Ensure protection and humanitarian accountability is fully implemented.
• Lead sector leads in participatory planning of Nutrition (Tom Brown, MIYCN and Fresh Food Voucher), Community Liaison, gender, and protection project activities implementation, ensuring adherence to technical standards, best practices and donor guidelines.
• Provide timely input and contribution to the completion of annual work plan, reports and ensure grant management compliance for the project in alignment with donor and CRS regulations.
• Ensure effective liaison with local government officials, local communities, donor representatives and other stakeholders, making use of an appropriate accountability framework.
• Gather and compile information from the Sector leads and Officers on overall performance progress reports detailing achievements against plan and variance on a regular basis and share with Emergency Coordinator Weekly.
• Provide required documents/tools to support departments, particularly Finance, HR, Procurement, Logistics to ensure good practice in the provision of support services.
• Design strategies, partnerships, and interventions to ensure project activities and implementation strategies are gender, age, and ability inclusive.
• Ensure strong communication and coordination with all team members to effectively achieve program objectives.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Analyze and evaluate project performance data following MEAL policy. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles. 
• Coordinate the identification of staff capacity and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation. 
• Help identify, assess, and strengthen partnerships relevant to Sokoto Emergency program, applying appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.
• Coordinate and monitor financial and material resources relevant to project needs. Through planning and oversight ensure efficient use of project resources

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented

Preferred Qualifications

• Project management experience in Northwest is highly desirable.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
• MEAL skills and experience preferred.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s degree in international development, International Relations or in the field of Social Science required. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• Minimum of 3-5 years of relevant field-based experience in coordinating or managing light to moderately complex projects required, preferably with an international NGO. 
• Proven experience in managing Cash and Voucher Assistance (CVA) programs.