Background/IRC Summary:
The International Rescue Committee helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover, and gain control of their future. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC works with people forced to flee from war, conflict and disaster and the host communities that support them, as well as with those who remain within their homes and communities. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure.
The IRC aims for people affected by conflict or disaster to be healthier, better educated, economically secure, safe, and more powerful because of the work that we do. To achieve this goal, as part of its Strategy 2020, the IRC is focused on becoming an outcomes-driven and evidence-based organization. By implementing programs that are proven to make an impact we can strengthen program design and see measurable improvement in the lives of the people we serve. Evidence-based programming is essential to the achievement of our IRC 2020 Strategy goals and is a top priority for the IRC’s leadership. The IRC’s work around being outcomes-driven and evidence-based will be featured at the World Humanitarian Summit.
To help IRC program staff capably design and deliver outcomes-driven, evidence-based programs we have spent the last year building the Outcomes and Evidence Framework, which defines the outcomes that matter most to the IRC and uses high-quality research evidence to describe how to best achieve and measure these outcomes. We have also mapped the available evidence base for each of the outcomes.
Starting in 2016 the IRC will begin the work of institutionalizing our commitment to being outcomes-driven and evidence-based. This work is led by the IRC’s Evidence to Action team, which is one of several teams working across the spectrum of generating and using research evidence to improve program design.
Job Overview/Summary:
This role of the Project Manager, Evidence to Action facilitates and coordinates the implementation of the Outcomes & Evidence Framework, which is a large-scale, cross-functional project and one of the IRC’s corporate priorities. The Outcomes & Evidence Framework will be used by operational and programming departments at the IRC, both at headquarters and across country programs in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
In addition to strong project management and organization skills, this challenging position requires excellent interpersonal skills, strong active learning skills, maturity, and the ability to work well in a distributed, multicultural environment.
The role reports to the Senior Coordinator, Evidence to Action.
Major Responsibilities:
- Assure the success of the project through managing the timely achievement of milestones and coordinating the activities of cross-functional team members.
- Create and maintain project implementation plans, risk mitigation plans, design documents, project budget, status reports, and all other project management-related documentation in a timely manner. This includes updating internal systems to ensure all documented information aligns with the project status.
- Create or contribute to different types of communications aimed at different audiences at the IRC and externally (in collaboration with a communications officer to achieve this).
- Contribute to assuring that IRC staff at leadership levels (at HQ and in country offices) are trained effectively and efficiently on the Outcomes and Evidence Framework. This could involve creating training content, designing training plans, or directly providing staff training.
- Proactively manage and solve project risks, dependencies, issues, gaps and resource conflicts.
- Engage and facilitate meetings with stakeholders across globally distributed business units, and coordinate stakeholder communications.
- Manage the budget so that expenditures can be tracked and accurate projections can be maintained.
- Execute and manage all subcontracts or grants, including new contracts/grants, amendments, extensions (cost or no-cost), as well as tracking and paying invoices.
- Participate in defining the roadmap of the initiative in the short and long-term, including the mechanisms for monitoring the success of our work and soliciting feedback from end users.
Job Requirements:
Minimum Requirements
- At least 4 years of direct experience as a project coordinator or project manager for large-scale, cross-functional projects
- Demonstrated knowledge of administration and management principles
- Demonstrated ability to sense and forecast obstacles or challenges as well as create solutions
- Demonstrated ability to coordinate across various teams with different functions
- Strong critical thinking, appropriate judgment, and logical decision-making skills
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- High level of proficiency with MS Office, documents management solutions and project management tools
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent
Preferred Additional Requirements
- PMP certification
- Ability to work in French or Arabic
- Understanding of the challenges related to implementing organizational change in the humanitarian or international develop sectors
- Experience with Asana, Box, and Webex
Working Environment:
- Standard office work environment
- Up to 10% travel
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