Technical Advisor II, Program Quality

Catholic Relief Services

Job Summary

The Program Quality Technical Advisor II provides program quality support in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices across the Business Management Unit (BMU) to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the conflict-affected, poor and vulnerable. Your technical knowledge in program quality, grants management, and business development (BD) will support quality programming, responsible growth and positioning, and effective grants management across the emergency response, early recovery, and development portfolio.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Develop and update the CRS grants management tracker and prepare BD and funding overviews for internal audiences ensuring effective grants management.
• Coordinate development of high-quality CRS progress and final reports to donors and ensure communication to donors is timely and aligned with requirements.
• Provide program quality management support related to program start-up, implementation, close-out, and other key deliverables. When required, act as gap-filling for senior Program Mangers.
• In close coordination with the Head of Programming (HoP), BMU Country Representative (CR), Syria Country Manager and PMs, co-lead the updating of country-level program and resource mobilization strategies for emergency response and recovery for Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, and keep it updated over time reflecting changes in needs and gaps.
• Keep abreast of contextual (i.e. emergency, internal displacement, climate risk) trends, multi-sectoral needs assessments, and key UN-led coordination meetings, and organize recurrent meetings with the program team to feedback key information. Identify information gaps and co-lead multi-sectoral assessments.
• Contribute to BMU efforts to pre-position CRS for growth opportunities. Coordinate and lead the development of the technical design for large and/or complex proposals, including design workshops with CRS and partners program teams. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS approach. Act as lead writer for proposals and develop other proposal annexes, as needed.
• Work with appropriate staff to maintain data and produce external communication materials as needed on past performance and corporate capacity, in order to provide timely information for proposal submissions.
• Provide technical support, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply program design and implementation standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools, and M&E, ensuring high-quality implementation. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Contribute to capacity strengthening initiatives for BMU and partner staff through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curricula, conducting trainings and workshops, and mentoring and coaching.
• In close coordination with the assigned team, contribute to knowledge management and learning through assisting with measuring program impact, capturing and sharing lessons learned and best practices, and research and internal reports. Co-lead cross-program learning sessions and provide support in after action reviews and reflection events.
• Support Syria Country Manager in establishing and maintaining relationships with donors, peer organizations, research, and other institutions. Where needed, participate in relevant forums to collect and share best practices and promote CRS work. Contribute to communication materials for internal and external communications and events.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.
• Excellent relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills.
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented.

Required Languages English; Arabic language preferred.

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%.