Deputy Director of Programs

Job Description

BACKGROUND OF COUNTRY AND EMERGENCY RESPONSE:

The International Rescue Committee responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, IRC offers life-saving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in more than 40 countries and in 22 U.S. cities, IRC restores safety, dignity, and hope to millions who are uprooted by conflict or disaster. IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The Ukraine crisis could become the worst humanitarian crisis Europe has seen in decades. More than 5.3 million people have fled across borders to seek safety in the first month since the escalation of conflict in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and over 6.5 million people are reported to be displaced. Reports indicate the vast majority of arrivals in Poland are women and children, including those that are unaccompanied and separated, as well as older persons.

Between February 7-23, 2022, an IRC team undertook a scoping mission covering Poland and Ukraine to better understand the context, humanitarian and civil society landscape, and anticipated service gaps in the event of an escalation of conflict in Ukraine and consequent displacement into neighboring Poland.

From February 24th, the IRC pivoted to emergency response and has identified partner agencies in Ukraine and Poland to facilitate immediate assistance that can be used where it is most needed. Simultaneously, the IRC has established operations across Ukraine and Poland offering a robust humanitarian response to complement partner response services either in breadth or scale. IRC’s programming in Poland currently includes protection, cash and livelihoods support, and education, with a strong focus on supporting local civil society organizations to adapt and scale up their services to meet the needs of refugees and others affected by conflict.

JOB OVERVIEW/SUMMARY:

The Deputy Director for Programs (DDP) is a member of the Senior Management Team and is integral to the successful implementation of IRC's programs in Poland. The DDP will provide oversight of IRC Poland’s program portfolio, ensuring a strategically coherent program direction, and compliance with IRC and donor regulations. The DDP is responsible for supervising the MEAL, Protection, Economic Recovery and Development, Education, Partnerships and Grants Coordinators. This position will work closely and collaboratively with the different departments within the country program and with other IRC stakeholders including Technical Advisors and awards management colleagues. S/he must be able to motivate and lead a diverse team, as well as effectively manage programs, partnerships and budgets.

The DDP will be based in Warsaw, with occasional travel to Krakow, Poznan, and other locations for partner and program meetings and regional travel as necessary.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Program Strategy, Design and Fundraising

• Lead the operationalization of the IRC Poland response strategy and actively engage in strategic planning processes for the longer term.

• Ensure, with Technical Coordinators and HQ-based Technical Unit staff, that the design of projects reflects IRC program quality standards and sector best practices.

• Lead efforts for sustainable program growth, proactively identifying opportunities for new programming initiatives and emphasizing multi-year funding to support them.

• Provide leadership support to the program and grants teams to develop competitive, evidence-based and cost-effective funding applications.

• Provide guidance, strategies, and tools to ensure that program choices are based on needs assessment findings and analysis, input from communities, a thorough understanding of context, technical best practices, and operational viability.

• Support the formulation of integrated program initiatives so that technical sectors complement each other and promote mainstreaming of protection principles and gender-responsive approaches.

Program Management - Implementation, Monitoring and Evaluation

• In close coordination with the technical leads, provide leadership of IRC Poland’s program portfolio to ensure a strategically coherent program direction, well-managed growth, and compliance with IRC and donor regulations.

• Continually seek out ways to build the capacities of the program team members, individually and collectively.

• Ensure that detailed, realistic and feasible project implementation plans are developed, and modified as needed, in collaboration with the Program Coordinators and Operations teams.

• Coordinate with other members of the Senior Management Team on appropriate management, compliance and performance standards, as well as effective systems for budget management, knowledge management and risk management.

• Support programming staff to collect, document and disseminate lessons learned and best practices, incorporating these into new project designs.

• With program staff, develop effective and appropriate M&E plans, including methodologies and tools to strengthen the quality of data collection, analysis and reporting.

• Review M&E and accountability data with program staff to identify and address areas for operational improvement and greater responsiveness to client needs.

• Coordinate with other Senior Management Teams to support and promote adherence to finance controls for program expenditures in accordance with IRC Global policies and procedures.

• Provide on-going problem-solving guidance for the program team regarding programmatic issues, planning issues, and difficulties encountered with local authorities and Partners.

Grants Management

• Supervise all internal, external, and reporting with programs and finance, ensuring high-quality, well-written and timely reports meeting donor and IRC and partner requirements; conduct thorough reviews and/or revisions of all external reports compiled by the Grants Coordinator.

• Coordinate with the Program Coordinators and Grants and Finance teams to ensure sound budget management, expense control and timely contractual documentation.

• Support the Grants Coordinator to lead Grant Opening and Grant Closing Meetings with all relevant department and units.

• Mitigate potential risk by collaborating with the Finance Department to ensure that program staff fully understand financial and administrative processes involved in project budget cycles.

External Representation and Advocacy

• Develop a sound understanding of the IRC's programs to be able to effectively represent the IRC to implementing partners, the government and donors.

• Assist the Country Director to develop strong relationships with donors, assisting with visits, and in the development of appropriate advocacy actions.

• Forge and maintain solid cooperation with partner organizations through regular communication, cooperation and, where appropriate, joint decision-making.

• Act as the focal point for program-related communication between IRC country programs in the region and worldwide offices.

• Support sector coordinators in their representation roles in technical meetings.

Staff Management and Development

• Provide guidance and supervision to the technical coordinators as well as the Grants, MEAL and Partnership Coordinators; discuss job expectations, set objectives and provide appropriate and timely feedback on the performance of direct reports, including timely implementation of the performance management system.

• Create a supervisory environment focused on the achievement of team and individual results that emphasizes the importance of learning, productivity, accountability, and openness.

• Adhere to IRC's performance management system, providing regular, timely, and thoughtful coaching, feedback, performance assessment, and professional development for all direct reports, while making sure that they do the same for their direct reports.

• Build capacities of programming staff in key project management principles, tools, and approaches and ensure that these new skills are utilized on the job.

• Support the development of a strong culture of collaboration, mutual support, and accountability, and shared commitment to IRC’s humanitarian mission.

• Work with the management team to maintain a high level of commitment from all staff, while considering what actions can be taken to improve the working environment and enable the staff to optimize their work-life balance.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Master's degree in Development Studies, International Relations, Social Sciences or a similar experience;

• Minimum eight years of management experience working in a humanitarian or development setting with a minimum of five years of INGO program management experience.

• Relevant technical experience including strong understanding of protection principles and cash and livelihoods programming in refugee contexts; experience working in partnership with local organizations is strongly desired.

• Proven ability to develop winning proposals to public and private-sector donors;

• Previous experience managing programs financed by US government agencies, FCDO, EU, foundations and private donors.

• Ability to respond to multiple priorities in a timely manner, producing high-quality outcomes.

• Demonstrated successful leadership experience with a multi-disciplinary team in a cross-cultural setting, including active mentoring and coaching. Strong leadership, motivational and team-building skills; proven ability to successfully support strong team cohesion and collaboration in a high-pressure and fluid environment.

• Proven fluency in English is a must and Polish and/or Ukrainian is a plus.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

The IRC and IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti-Workplace Harassment, Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.

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