About 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 is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education... microfinance and peacebuilding.

Catholic Relief Services was founded as an emergency relief organization and emergency related work still represents nearly one-third of the agency’s expenses. CRS is recognized by public and private donors in the US as one of the prime American emergency responders. CRS’ ability to respond effectively in the early stages of an emergency is crucial to the survival and well-being of hundreds of thousands of disaster-affected people. CRS’ holistic approach to emergency response and recovery, combined with its early presence on the ground to address immediate needs, enables CRS to accompany disaster-affected households and communities in resuming productive and dignified lives as soon as possible while building their capacity to better withstand future disasters.

The Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) provides leadership and support to CRS emergency programming. The HRD strengthens CRS’ impact through high quality, innovative programs; improved technical and management capacity at the field level; and active engagement in global efforts to promote excellence and learning in humanitarian response. The HRD has technical staff that support emergency program planning, rapid response operations, and capacity strengthening of staff and partners worldwide.

NOTE: This is a remote position; CRS will give preference to candidates who are based in countries where we have existing offices. CRS does not sponsor visas for remote employees.

Job Summary:

You will provide technical advice, guidance, and support to a wide range of program design and implementation issues with a focus on larger projects in Humanitarian Response in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to regional and Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. Your technical knowledge, advice and guidance will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive, and innovative CRS’ Humanitarian Response programming is across the globe.

The Humanitarian Operations Technical Advisor II’s primary role is to provide HRD with additional rapid deployment capabilities for breaking and ongoing humanitarian responses. He/she will be primarily responsible for setting up and supporting the following emergency operational focuses: finance management, grant management, administration, field base set up, and human resources. The Technical Advisor will support HRD direct projects with grant and finance management support and oversight. He or she will facilitate a high standard of field operations management in emergencies; advise on best practices and support capacity building for CRS country programs and partners.

The exact responsibilities during deployments will vary depending on the local context, ranging from providing direct management of relief operations, setting up and managing relief delivery systems, providing technical assistance, and mentoring of CRS Partners and Country Programs staff.

The Humanitarian Operations Technical Advisor II will be part of the HRD Operations Team and will be required to travel at least 50% of the time, often at very short notice (within 48 hours) and for an average of four to six weeks.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:
• Specialize in the following operational focuses in emergencies: finance management, grant management, administration, field base set up, and human resources.
• Support HRD direct projects with timely and accurate grant and finance management support and oversight.
• Provide technical solutions to CP teams and partners, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply standards, best practices, partnership principles, and tools, helping to ensure high-quality implementation.
• Conduct partner financial assessments, financial monitoring, and Internal Control Improvement Plans. Monitor and provide feedback to partner on progress against their plans and additional ways to improve operational efficiency.
• Collect and analyze program data, capture, and share lessons learned and best practices for specific projects to facilitate improvements in decision-making and contribute to the Humanitarian Operations learning agenda.
• Contribute to the development of the technical design for proposals. Support the process of preparation, design, submission and approval of project concepts and full-fledged proposals. Advise project teams on integrating donor strategies, priorities, and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
• Support CP and partner budget managers in developing budgets for new programs/projects and revisions of existing projects. Ensure that reasonable estimates of direct cost and shared direct cost are used in budgets, based on historical data and current market conditions. In addition, ensure that accurate indirect cost and support services rates are used in accordance with policies and guidelines.
• Support partners where needed in the development of finance policies/procedures, including Operating Cash on Hand procedures.
• Support CP teams and partners in conducting regular market analysis for multiple purposes: identifying strategic sourcing options, setting up open competition approved supplier lists for key goods and services; and establishing strategic relationships and possible framework agreements with key providers, such as Financial Service Providers (FSPs).
• Promote efficient and innovative solutions to cash management based on current trends with partners. Such solutions might include electronic banking and mobile banking, when feasible and appropriate. Design and implement internal controls adapted to such innovative solutions.

Additional Roles and Responsibilities:
• As needed provide support and input in other operations functions such as: logistics, supply chain management–including procurement, warehousing, transportation, cash voucher assistance, fleet, ICT/Telecoms, and security.
• Be ready to assume a direct operations management or leadership roles within the Country Program response team.
• Contribute to staff safety, care, and wellbeing for both partner and CRS team members.
• Work in collaboration with HRD Operation Team and HQ departments, to keep up to date on the latest policies and procedures and to define and disseminate best practices and standards for supply chain management and field operations in emergencies.
• Work with the HRD Operations team to support the adaptation of existing/development of new CRS operations policies, procedures and guidance to cover both general and sectoral emergency program needs.
• Support the development and contribute to the implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools, and best practices in Humanitarian Operations that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Work with the HRD Operations Team to manage the Emergency Field Operations Manual (EFOM) by updating with best practices, new tools, and policy procedures relevant to improving the speed and effectiveness of CRS’ humanitarian responses.
• Ensure a quality partnership between CRS and target partners in line with CRS and CI partnership principles. Work closely with the EMPOWER team members to ensure coordinated, consistent partner strengthening efforts and support timely resolution of partnership challenges via dialogue and support from others, as appropriate.
• Identify partner capacity strengthening needs in operations/finance and develop comprehensive partner-specific action plans, in conjunction with the partners and other EMPOWER team members.
• Work with HRD Operations Team to design, develop and adapt training modules in emergency operations for CRS and partner emergency program staff in collaboration with relevant HQ departments and HRD Technical Advisors. Training should ensure staff ability to establish quality emergency response programs that include cross-cutting themes and strengthen core competencies, meet donor requirements, and achieve excellent general program management standards. Supervise trainings or identify training needs and requirements for emergency program staff.
• Support capacity strengthening initiatives in Humanitarian Operations programming for staff and partner through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and coaching.
• Liaise with other organizations regarding learning and best practices in emergency operations.
• Represent the HRD and CRS in any relevant Humanitarian Operations forums.
• Contribute to maintaining relationships with donors, peer organizations, research, and other institutions, participate in forums in the area of Humanitarian Operations to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.
• Assist with all other tasks as needed to forward emergency operations and programming.

Required Languages - English and would be helpful to have French and/or Spanish proficiency.

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel at least 50% of the time, often at very short notice (within 48 hours) and for an average of four to six weeks.

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications
• Master’s Degree international development related field, or its equivalent, required.
• Minimum of five years relevant international working experience in an advisory or management role with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of three years working for programming interventions in Humanitarian Operation.
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in Humanitarian Operations, with special focus on finance and grant management. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Previous experience providing technical assistance and developing successful proposals for external donor funding is required.
• Budgeting and budget management experience required, including developing comprehensive budgets and budget narratives for proposals.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation, including applying data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.
• Proven experience in establishing and maintaining effective partnerships and in building the capacity of local organizations.
• Knowledge of capacity strengthening best practices. Proven expertise in coordinating operations management and procedures training programs to support the development of emergency response staff.
• Demonstrated application of technical principles and concepts in Humanitarian Coordination. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure pro
United States

Salary Criteria