WASH Program Manager at Mercy Corps

Requisition Number: WASHP002005
Location: Imo
Position Status: Temporary
Job Category: Programming
Position Status: Temporary

Program / Department Summary

• Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and its influence spreads across the continent. Yet, inequality and insecurity have consistently undermined Nigeria's development. Mercy Corps Nigeria was established in 2012 to respond to these challenges.
• With the vision of a Nigeria in which all people are empowered, engaged, resilient and secure, Mercy Corps Nigeria focuses on the root causes of conflict, governance, humanitarian response, and market systems development.
• In 2021, Mercy Corps intends to pursue water and sanitation programming with an anticipated USAID funded project. The program involves designing, rehabilitating, extending, and constructing WASH infrastructure. This position is contingent on funding.

General Position Summary

• The WASH Program Manager will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of high-quality WASH infrastructure interventions; engaging actively with the WASH Cluster, local governments, and all other WASH actors; managing a team of staff across dispersed locations; and managing program budgets.
• The position includes developing tools for planning, assessment and intervention monitoring; building active community participation into project design and implementation; ensuring the design of high-quality interventions suited to the local context; monitoring and tracking program activities; designing training modules and delivering training for Mercy Corps’ staff, and designing and supervising surveys.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Program Management:

• Provide technical oversight to the field teams and mentor senior staff in the design of WASH activities.
• Oversee and manage the works, including partner and consultant contracts;
• Ensure works, partner and consultants contracts are implemented as contracted;
• Maintain and review program work plans for the entire implementation of the project duration;
• Create and maintain systems ensuring effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with development partners and Mercy Corps policies and procedures;
• Ensure quality control and Health-Safety-Security and Environment standards.
• Integrate gender sensitivity into all activities as appropriate.
• Conduct frequent field visits to all project sites – spend up to 30% of the time in the field.

Program Impact And Program Management:

• Prepare procurement plans based on the project cycle for WASH and infrastructure work.
• Manage grant budget lines related to the technical areas of specialization (WASH and infrastructure).
• Work with M&E Unit to translate assessment criteria to tools and methodology for monitoring and evaluation of interventions related to WASH and infrastructure.
• Provide technical input and indicators to the M&E Unit to be incorporated into tools and formats as needed.
• Enhance internal and external compliance through supporting incident reporting mechanisms when needed.
• Maintain and coordinate reporting and documentation of WASH and infrastructure activities.
• Fulfil Mercy Corps’ Program Management Minimum Standards based on the organization-wide guide.
• Ensure all interventions adhere to Mercy Corps’ Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, and beneficiary accountability standards.

Security:

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country
• 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.

Supervisory Responsibility

• WASH Utility Engineers (3)

Accountability

• Reports Directly To: STWASHChief of Party
• Works Directly With: Small Town WASH COP, DCOP, Director of Finance and Administration, Country Director, Finance, and Operations teams, M&E Officer, and other Small Town WASH staff. Coordinates with HQ Program Performance team and the Technical Support

Knowledge and Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in Civil Engineering, Public Health or related field. Masters preferred.
• 5 years in a relief setting with WASH management or managerial experience; from starting up programs to working in emergency and transitional contexts.
• Experience in complex and complicated settings with time-sensitive deliverables in unstable environments.
• Strong experience mentoring a team, identifying talent and building their capacity.
• Demonstrated ability to manage and communicate effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.
• Internationally recognized qualification in project or program management or a commitment to obtain the qualification in the early months of work.
• Knowledge of Sphere standards and other training in humanitarian response preferred.
• Demonstrated flexibility and creativity in planning and problem-solving.
• Knowledge of participatory approaches and community sensitization and mobilization.
• Ability to effectively represent Mercy Corps and its interests to key stakeholders including host governments, and national and international NGOs.
• Excellent oral and written English skills required.

Success Factors

• The successful Manager will combine exceptional technical skills and experience in maintaining donor and partner relationships. S/he will have previous experience in working in large-scale emergency programs in insecure and conflict context.
• S/he will have an outstanding ability to design and provide technical oversight of innovative programs within the current and future program structure of Mercy Corps in the area.
• S/he will also have proven experience with cross-cultural team and capacity building, individual staff development and strong mentoring skills. The successful candidate will be able to provide technical oversight to large relief programs in an austere environment.