Program Manager I - Market at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work are accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

CRS has been supporting program activities in Nigeria for over 30 years and has long-standing relationships with Church and non-Church partners and communities throughout the country. The Nigeria country program has a diverse funding base with projects in health, nutrition, food security and agricultural livelihoods, microfinance (SILC), emergency response and peacebuilding. CRS/Nigeria currently has over 210 national and 8 international staff. With an FY22 annual budget of over USD $100 million, coupled with strong donor interest in supporting CRS’ work in the country, significant growth opportunities exist for the CP. The CP has been supporting emergency activities in the NE states since 2015 with offices in Damaturu, Maiduguri and Yola.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Program Manager I - Market

Job ID: 2200004C
Location: Maiduguri, Borno
Job Type: Full-time
Shift: Standard
Schedule: Regular
Job Level: Day Job
Travel: Yes, 20 % of the Time
Job: Program Management
Employee Status: Individual Contributor

Job Summary

• The THRIVE Market Manager will oversee food security activities across a multi-million, multi-sectorial USAID/BHA program.
• S/he will manage implementation of food assistance to over 60,000 beneficiaries in 4 wards of Jere.
• Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that the emergency portfolio delivers high quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its programming.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Manage and implement all activities throughout relevant project cycles - project design, start-up, implementation and close-out - to ensure efficient and effective implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate systems and tools.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.
• Ensure market officers respects CRS protocols and follow best practices during food distributions.
• Manage the Cash Asset Transfer (CAT) platform by approving beneficiaries and requesting approval to top ups over 90,000 beneficiaries on a monthly basis.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles.
• Act as a key resource person in project design and proposal development in respective programming area, gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed.
• Coordinate the identification of staff capacity and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation.
• Help identify, assess and strengthen partnerships relevant to emergency projects, applying appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.
• Coordinate and monitor financial and material resources relevant to project needs. Through planning and oversight ensure efficient use of project resources
• Support donor reporting, if needed.

Supervisory Responsibilities:

• Four Market Officers.

Key Working Relationships:

• Internal: DCoP, Sector Advisors, Liaison officer, Head of Office, Procurement Officers, Finance Manager, Administration Manager.
• External: INGOs, UN, community actors, vendors.

Basic Qualifications

• Master's Degree in International Development, International Relations or in the field of Humanitarian required. Additional experience may substitute for some education.
• 7 - 9 years of relevant field-based experience in coordinating or managing light to moderately complex projects required, preferably with an international NGO.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Project management experience in market-based program is highly desirable.
• Experience working with RedRose platform.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
• MEAL skills and experience preferred.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports.
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented.

Required Language:

• English, Hausa.

Travel:

• Must be willing and able to travel up to 20 %.

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

Application Closing Date
1st March, 2022.