Current Openings at International Rescue Committee

Position Summary: 

IRC is seeking a Project Director for a private foundation-funded five-year project in Kenya to improve children’s holistic skill development and well-being through improvement of the quality and equity of teacher professional development in refugee counties in Kenya.   The Project Director will be the leader of this groundbreaking initiative, responsible for ensuring the project delivers high impact programming for children.  The Project Director will coordinate across multiple partner organizations and IRC staff and be the primary representative of the project to all key stakeholders, government officials, and donors at coordination fora and other related meetings. The Project Director will ensure that the project achieves the expected results and is implemented in accordance with the donor agreement, donor regulations, and internationally recognized quality of assistance standards.
 
 Job Responsibilities:

• Provide strategic and operational leadership and direction, vision and direction, and define and implement activities to achieve the greatest impact toward project goals and objectives;
• Develop, review, and monitor in coordination with key project staff, annual work and performance plans to ensure long-term and short-term priorities are on track;
• Oversee technical direction and project delivery to ensure activities are in line with the performance framework and meet all standard operational policies and procedures;
• Oversee management of partners/subgrantees and provide financial and operations support that optimizes resources through sound budgets, consistent financial tracking, and timely submission of reports to the donor;
• Report to donor through both formal and informal debriefings, annual and semi-annual reports;
• Maintain active and cooperative relationships with all key stakeholders, including government officials, project partners, other implementing agencies, and related institutions;
• Recruit, hire, and manage national staff and consultants as needed to carry out activities. 
• Maintain a working knowledge of project financials, working with and supporting the financial officer to ensure that appropriate systems and procedures are in place and being follows.
• Represent the project and the organization in public and ensure distribution of information about project achievements and lesson learned;
• Support project staff by creating and maintaining a work environment that promotes teamwork, trust, mutual respect, and empowers staff to take responsibility.

 Requirements:

• Advanced degree from an accredited university in education international development, or related field;
• Minimum of 10 years of experience managing education programs for refugees or crisis-affected populations; 
• Experience managing large-scale, multi-million dollar, complex, multi-country, multi-partner projects;
• Experience working in East Africa and/or Kenya on education programming;
• Demonstrated success in staff capacity-building and in participatory, flexible, and gender-sensitive programming and implementation;
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written;
• Fluency in English required.

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Position Summary:
 
IRC is seeking a Research, Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Coordinator for a private foundation-funded five-year project in Kenya to improve children’s holistic skill development and well-being through improvement of the quality and equity of teacher professional development in refugee counties in Kenya.   The M&E Advisor will work closely with the Head of Project and technical staff to ensure that relevant data is collected, analyzed, and used to inform management, design and implementation decisions, and to provide project updates, as required. A key role of the M&E Advisor is to support field staff to collect, use, and analyze data to track project progress and inform meaningful course correction and program decision  discussions; and to also ensure senior management staff have data that is tailored to their decision making processes. 
 
Job Responsibilities:

• Develop and manage a monitoring and evaluation system across all project components that leverages qualitative and quantitative methods, and draws from a variety of data sources to measure progress and evaluate impact, as well as support collaboration, learning, and adaptation.
• Works closely with the technical team to co-design indicators, measurement tools, and monitoring responsibilities.
• Provide training, assistance, and consultation, as needed, on interpretation and use of performance benchmarking measures, research measures, indicators, and reports.
• Communicate information obtained through M&E activities to program staff, and external stakeholders, including the donor, to enable informed decision making and course correction as needed; 
• Develop and ensure compliance with procedures for collection and reporting of project and program performance data to provide quality, timely data. 
• Regularly review data collection processes, perform data quality assessments, and make adjustments as needed; 
• Prepare the MEL section of the annual work plans, and review or updates of it, as needed
• Conduct regular visits to project sites, as possible, to provide technical assistance and ensure proper monitoring of project activities; 
• Produce M&E monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports for the Head of Project and the donor, as needed and on-time. 
• Supports the development and dissemination of lessons learned, promising practices, and research reports to relevant country, regional and global stakeholders, including ministry of education and UN counterparts.

Requirements:

• Advanced degree (PhD or MA) from an accredited university in M&E, education, international development, or related field;
• Minimum of five years of experience in M&E for similar Education programming. Experience with projects designed to create systemic change in educational policy and practice for refugees and displaced populations preferred;
• Significant previous experience carrying out M&E activities in conflict or crisis situations, preferably for USAID;
• Experience working in the East Africa region and/or Kenya on Education programming;
• Strong negotiation skills and the ability to develop relations with local counterparts, donors, and other stakeholders;
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written;
• Fluency in English required.

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Position Summary:

IRC is seeking a Technical Director for a five-year, private foundation-funded five-year project in Kenya to improve children’s holistic skill development and well-being through improvement of the quality and equity of teacher professional development in refugee counties in Kenya.   The Technical Director will provide quality technical assistance and leadership to ensure the overall quality of the technical design and implementation, which includes the quality oversight of the adaptation and/or creation of teacher professional development materials.    The Director will ensure that programs generate lessons learned, promising practices, and evidence generated across refugee and local contexts in Kenya; as well as represent the project in appropriate national, regional and global forums to share with the larger education sector.  S/he will also have a specific focus on quality technical assistance to support programs to test, rigorously evaluate, and scale appropriate teacher professional development methodologies.
 
Job Responsibilities:

• Provide technical leadership and assistance on the overall approach with a real focus on teacher professional development; as well as approaches for testing and scaling up teacher professional development approaches to improve learning outcomes.  
• Leads efforts to identify and incorporate best practices and innovations into programming and ensure that the best practices and innovations are documented and disseminated.
• Coordination of technical approaches, content development, and influence across field sites; ensuring lessons learned, practices and evidence are shared across camps,  settlements, and local communities
• Support program staff to use project data to track progress and engage in meaningful course correction discussions at regular and frequent intervals; as well as ensure data is tailored to facilitate similar discussions at the global and senior management level. 
• Leads the development and oversees the implementation of technical quality assurance strategies and activities, including technical guidelines, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and supportive supervision. 
• Provide ongoing capacity building, training and technical assistance as needed of program staff, government counterparts, humanitarian coordination decision makers and partners to ensure high quality programs with a focus on uptake and use of effective teacher professional development approaches
• Oversee a team of education technical experts.
• Represent the project’s evidence, lessons learned, and achievements in external meetings, panels and conferences; as well as participate in technical working groups as relevant.
• Give input to relevant communication materials such as fact sheets, briefs, papers, and presentations that can be disseminated and used for influence at the national and global level;  
• Conduct regular visits to project sites, as possible, to provide technical assistance and ensure proper implementation and monitoring of project activities as well as facilitate work planning and regular technical meetings for all project partners
• Produce inputs to monthly, quarterly, semi-annual and annual reports for the Project Director and donors, as needed.

 Requirements:

• Advanced degree (PhD or MA) in education, or closely related field;
• At least eight years’ experience in education programming, with at least four years of experience with work specifically in crisis or conflict-affected contexts is required, preferably in East Africa.
• Significant prior experience with material development, active learning methodologies, and capacity building/training;
• Experience in social emotional learning interventions, monitoring and evaluation, and research in relation to Education is highly desired. Experience in strategy development and working across sectors or disciplines is highly desired;
• Strong negotiation skills and the ability to develop relations with local counterparts, donors, and other stakeholders;
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written;
• Fluency in English required;
• Ability to travel at least 30% of the time