Key responsibilities 

Technical Strategy and Vision 

• Provide overall technical leadership, vision and strategy to the Nawiri program.
• Ensure program technical approach reflects learning and best practices, including Mercy Corps’ approaches in food security and nutrition, food systems, market systems, water security, resilience, and gender and social inclusion.
• Facilitate shared understanding of Nawiri’s technical approach across the program.
• Ensure that cross-cutting aspects of the program such as gender equality, social inclusion, youth, climate adaptation, and resilience are included and well-integrated into the program technical strategy and approach.
• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed; promote and model a culture of learning and adaptive management.
• Identify areas where additional technical support is needed and facilitate linkages to the team.
• Ensure program technical approach leverages Mercy Corps, USAID and government investments in counties of operations, to support sequencing, layering and integration.
• Set direction by prioritizing and organizing actions and resources to achieve objectives that contribute to the program’s overall purpose of reducing persistent acute malnutrition sustainability.
• As part of the Nawiri Leadership team, facilitate coordination across implementation and program performance components, to ensure effective integration and roll out of programs’ technical approach.

Program Management and Implementation 

• Provide overall technical guidance and leadership, mentoring, quality control and coordination to strengthen program outcomes.
• Lead and guide technical team to develop quality program standards, technical standard operating procedures and concept notes, and provide informed review and feedback aligned to Mercy Corps’ and Nawiri’s lessons learned and best practices
• Ensure high quality technical guidance informs the program cycle management process including work planning, (SOPs, concept notes, activity reports, review and reflection meetings, and sense-making sessions; co-facilitate processes for technical inputs.
• Facilitate technical team’s high quality and timely inputs into all program performance systems (led by the Program Performance Director), including reporting, PREP processes, review and reflection meetings, etc.
• Foster technical team’s input into and adherence to all program performance systems and standards (led by the Program Performance Director), including Mercy Corps’ minimum standards as outlined in the Gender Policy, Do No Harm principles, CARM, participant accountability standards, quarterly reporting.
• Ensure technical implementation approach is responsive to communities and partners and consistent with Mercy Corps’ relevant program guidelines, principles, values, quality standards and strategic plan.
• Guide and lead technical team to effectively partner with the Implementation team and county-level tech leads for high quality delivery of all program activities.
• Effectively coordinate, facilitate and document technical team meetings, and ensure decisions and areas of deliberation are shared in a timely way with relevant team members.
• Provide and consolidate high quality technical inputs across program functions and components, to ensure their responsiveness to high quality technical standards.
• With Finance and Implementation Director, provide timely, accurate inputs into budgeting processes for program activities as required, make regular projections and track activity spending through BvAs.
• Regularly coordinate with Implementation Lead and Mercy Corps’ support departments (Finance, Operations, HR etc.) to support technical delivery of program approaches.
• Effectively support and where delegated, lead Nawiri leadership meetings, in absence of the CoP.
• Where delegated by the CoP, effectively socialize and communicate the program’s technical approach and vision with Government stakeholders, USAID, and at country-level.

Collaboration, Learning and Adaptation 

• In partnership with the Nawiri Leadership Team, facilitate a culture of learning and adaptive management across the program team.
• Regularly engage with program performance systems and standards (including MEL and the Strategic Learning Lead) to inform data gathering needs, review results, and facilitate adaptation of technical approaches based on new information.
• Work with Program Performance team to help ensure relevant information that is being used for ongoing technical strategic reflection, learning, program analysis and decision-making while also capturing results at the output and impact level.
• Work with Program Performance Director and Implementation Director to identify technical areas for learning and documentation and facilitate technical inputs into all learning processes.
• With MEL Lead and Implementation Director, support effective target setting based on targeting approach, and update figures as necessary.  Ensure sound technical and quality logic and justification behind activity targets.
• Ensure the technical team adheres to all monitoring, evaluation and learning standards, and regularly uses data for technical decision-making, and to support implementation.
• Support Program Performance Director in designing quarterly review and reflection meetings and PREP processes, to ensure workshop design reflects the most timely and critical technical areas for consideration.
• Support and input into the documentation of achievements/impact, lessons learned and challenges of innovative program components of the program, in partnership with Program Performance.
•  Produce written reports on program activities, capturing the impacts of activities.

Team management 

• Oversee the technical team, including across partners, ensuring that all staff and consortium members are following work plans, activities are on schedule, and project deliverables are completed as planned.
• Develop the capacity of the team, deepen understanding of their roles and support with their career development in order to promote a culture of learning through reflection of research findings, M&E data, and lessons learned.
• Assist team members with information, tools and resources to improve performance and achieve objectives.
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.
• Hire, orient and lead team members as necessary.

Finance and compliance management 

• Ensure technical teams activities are compliant and reflect transparent use of resources in line with donor and Mercy Corps policies.
• Facilitate a solution-oriented mindset to achieve the program’s technical approach within Mercy Corps and donor rules and regulations.
• Ensures technical teams’ activities to ensure adherence to grant agreements, Mercy Corps’ policies and procedures and other relevant regulations, including those of the Government of Kenya.
• Review budgets and program expenses based on approval authority limits.
• Support and guide Technical Team on proper budget management, including forecasting, procurement planning, evaluating level of expenditures, and proposing rebudgeting as necessary..

Influence and Representation 

• Systematically work with the P4 governance lead and Director of Implementation to ensure that technical approaches inform policy and influence plan, and support alignment of messaging.
• Contribute to program visibility and advocacy work by assisting in the dissemination of program data and learning and regularly reflecting program results.
• Represent Nawiri in technical donor meetings as required, including sharing program results, progress and critical reflections on lessons learned.
• Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, local governments and other stakeholders to communicate and advance program technical approaches.
• Actively build partnerships that support the implementation of the program’s technical strategy and approach, including with private sector stakeholders
• Communicate effectively across teams and partners to ensure the overall project technical approach is being met.

Personal learning and development 

• Develop and implement a learning and development plan for yourself to ensure continuous improvement and growth in line with your performance goals and Mercy Corps commitment to organizational learning that allow as you to dedicate 5% of your working time to learning.

Adherence to Policies and Procedures 

• Personal conduct should always be professional and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Accountability To Participants –

• Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to program participants and to international standards guiding international development work, while actively engaging ecosystem as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.
• Diversity and Inclusion – responsibility to create a positive culture and to safeguard equity, inclusion, dignity, and respect for all. Each employee is expected to be a role model for others and ensure alignment with MC diversity and Inclusion values.

Requirements

Knowledge and Experience 

• Master’s degree or equivalent experience in a relevant field such as social sciences, development studies, nutrition, public health, food security, agriculture, agribusiness, agricultural economics etc.
• At least 10 years’ of progressively responsible experience in the successful implementation of international development activities working on programs of a similar scope and scale, with preference given to Food for Peace or Livelihoods programs.
• At least three (3) years must be in senior program management, including direct supervision of technical and support staff. (If Team Member does not have this experience, ensure clear metrics and support plan is in place to support success; regularly review performance against PD).
• Strong technical skills, including an understanding of multi-sector, multi-year systems-based approaches to food security and nutrition.
• Demonstrated technical understanding of resilience and climate change adaptation, and the practical relevance to the program’s aim of sustainably reducing persistent acute malnutrition.
• Demonstrated capability in adaptive management and learning.
• Strong budget management experience is a must.
• Seasoned partnership management experience is required.
•  Demonstrated excellent team management skills are required.
• A strong passion for innovation, influence and sustainable impact to scale.
• Demonstrated systems thinker and ability to think outside of the box in the implementation of a unique program with experience in adaptive management and using research as part of program implementation
•  Prior experience of working on USAID-funded programs preferred
•  Demonstrated ability to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders, and to liaise with donors and HQ
• Fluency in written and spoken English.

Success factors/ essential skills: 

• Initiative-taker, multi-tasker, and able to work effectively and respectfully with local government, private sector, civil society and donors.
• Demonstrated experience in setting up and managing systems and procedures as well as experience in building team commitment toward the achievement of program objectives.
• Team-player with positive attitude to problem solving and conflict resolution. Focused on team building and capacity-building of program staff and will be able to apply creative solutions to program quality.
• Ability to juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines and to calmly and diplomatically deal with unexpected events impacting program operations.