Senior Project Officer Research & Learning at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Job Summary: 

• As a member of the THRIVE project team, you will monitor, document and report on the project learnings, case studies and innovations.
• Your thorough and service-oriented approach will ensure that the project consistently applies best practices and constantly works towards improving the impact of its benefits to those we serve.
• You will work closely with the evaluation and program teams to sieve out evidence-based learnings that have catalyzed change in the project implementation locations.
• He/She will coordinate the team to ensure more effective learning and assess the effectiveness and outcomes of our work and support partners to use research to address underlying issues the project is working and disseminate this research to key stakeholders. 

Job Responsibilities:

• Support the coordination and implementation of all assigned project activities as outlined in the detailed implementation plan in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices.
• Support project team to learn from and demonstrate the impact of our work including contributing to learning processes for all the project sector areas.
• Provide technical input on learning and evaluation agendas and approaches, data collection tools, and protocols for our work with partners and community stakeholders.
• Review and analyze both quantitative and qualitative data to draw key lessons learned from quarterly review and learning sessions, research reports and support the team to step down learnings with project adaptations.
• Complete project documentation for assigned activities. Assist with identifying information for case studies and reports on best practices.
• Communicate findings of research studies and learning reviews through reports, case studies, impact stories, presentations, and other materials with the project key stakeholders (partners, peer organizations, media, etc). 
• Promote team learning and strengthen staff capacity to participate in learning and assessment activities. At other times, you can assist colleagues in synthesizing, analyzing, and sharing learnings.
• Connect with peers as we explore learning across the sector with the aim of collectively making a difference and helping manage existing learning, feedback, and data.

Required/Desired Language – Hausa/Kanuri

Travel Required (40% local travel) 

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Experience in participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Experience of analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, including working with large datasets.
• Ability to use analysis to drive improvements in program improvement and performance. 
• Relationship management skills: the ability to establish effective working relationships with people at all levels, internally and externally.
• Good written and verbal communication skills; able to communicate research and evaluation findings in an understandable and usable manner.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, SPSS Word, PowerPoint).

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with partners, participatory action planning and community engagement.
• Staff supervision experience a plus.
• Experience monitoring projects and collecting relevant data.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).

Supervisory Responsibilities (if none, state none)

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: COP, DCOP, Emergence MEAL Coordinator, Food Security and Livelihood Advisor, Food assistance PM, other THRIVE sector leads, Head of Office, Heads of Administration, Supply Chain, and Finance, Security Coordinator, Admin and Operations staff in Maiduguri and Abuja. 

External: UN, coordination forums, INSO, THRIVE implementing partners, relevant government ministries.

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in international development, Data Science, or any other related field. 
• Minimum of 3 - 5 years of relevant field-based experience in project support. Experience in the field of monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) or Collaboration, Adaptation and Learning (CLA) for an NGO would be a plus.

 Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Integrity
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Builds Relationships
• Develops Talent
• Strategic Mindset
• Accountability & Stewardship