Back Program Quality & Standards Lead - Kyiv, Ukraine

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

The Department

Mercy Corps’ Ukraine response meets the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people where they are: displaced inside Ukraine, refugees in Poland, and Moldova, or trapped behind frontlines. In 2022 and 2023, MC’s Ukraine response reached more than 2.5 million people with emergency cash, food, psychosocial support, and information campaigns. Notably, nearly all our programming has been delivered in partnership with Ukrainian, Polish, and Moldovan civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening, and with peer international NGOs through a consortium in Ukraine. Building on a substantial program addressing needs through MPCA/Cash in the Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine, the portfolio is currently piloting a Rapid Response Mechanism as well as a Resilience program focusing on supporting local value chains and SMEs.

The Position

Reporting to the Director of Programs, the Program Quality & Standards Lead will provide technical guidance and support across all programs in the Ukraine response. This position will oversee all MEL, CARM and technical advisory functions within the Ukraine response, with a particular focus on assuring program quality and streamlining partnership approaches. The Program Quality & Standards Lead will work in close collaboration with program leads and department heads, including Finance, HR, and Operations, as well as the area leadership in the field offices.

This position requires strong leadership, communication, coordination and collaborative skills to work with teams at the strategic and operational levels, working with a wide range of stakeholders to achieve common objectives.

Essential Responsibilities

STRATEGY AND PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

• Communicate a clear vision of present and future program goals and strategies to the program leads and other team members and stakeholders, translating into concrete work plans and prioritization of tasks.
• Contribute to countrywide strategy development and prioritize and organize actions and resources to achieve objectives set through those processes.
• Follow analysis of the Ukrainian crisis, ensuring that this analysis is recognized and incorporated in planning for both short-term humanitarian and longer-term recovery and resilience programming.
• Ensure that analytical and technical support teams are collaborating with programs and other internal stakeholders effectively, adding value to the program and maintaining strategic focus.
• Collaborate with the Director of Programs to identify new initiatives focused on emergency response and early recovery.
• Contribute to development of new programs and submission of new proposals, incorporating learning and quality standards.

  QUALITY ASSURANCE

  • Work with the Senior Program Advisor to provide support to program teams at key moments including program start-up, kick-off meetings, inception meeting check-ins, quality audits and spot checks, and end of program transition meetings.
  • Lead in establishing or promoting adherence to systems, policies and approaches necessary to ensure and demonstrate the quality of programs through oversight of the MEL and CARM technical support functions.
  • Ensure effective collaboration between MEL staff and program teams in the development of key outputs such as log frames, indicators, and monitoring and evaluation frameworks and related tools.
  • Create and maintain systems to ensure efficient and transparent capture of program data for management decision-making and timely and informative internal and external reporting.
  • Provide technical oversight and support to Program Managers/Team Leads and focal points to develop program filing and archiving systems and to ensure programs’ documentation is filed, in compliance with [email protected], donors’ regulations and good practice.
  • Build capacity of program teams with information, tools, and resources to improve performance and reach objectives, and review programmatic tools.
  • Support the CARM Manager to monitor functionality of CARM mechanisms in programs and across field sites.

    TECHNICAL SUPPORT

    • Streamline our partnership strategies in all countries across the response, ensuring harmonized and consistent approaches and sharing of tools, standards and lessons learnt.
    • Create and maintain systems to ensure technical coherence and promote creative programming across the programs portfolio.
    • Ensure program implementation is adhering to minimum standards and technical leads are providing tools and guidance to the program implementation teams.
    • Contribute to new initiatives through the technical leads and ensure quality standards are met in proposals.
    • Monitor progress of all programs and proactively raise issues to ensure program quality.
    • Develop strategies, guidelines, tools, standards and SOPs that can help program teams to implement programs and provide necessary technical support where required.

      TEAM MANAGEMENT

      • Hire, orient and supervise new team members as necessary.
      • Ensure team members improve performance & reach objectives.
      • Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence and cultivate resilience and well-being in challenging situations.
      • Contribute to country team-building efforts, help team members identify problem solving options and ensure the integration of all team members into relevant decision-making processes.
      • Supervise and manage managers and technical leads to ensure day-to-day activities are implemented in a coordinated way according to workplan and budget.

        Supervisory Responsibility

        MEL Lead, Senior Program Advisor, Community Accountability Lead, Protection Advisor, Cash Advisor, Partnership Advisor.

        Accountability

        Reports Directly To: Director of Programs

        Works Directly With: Ukraine Response Teams, particularly Programs, Finance, and the HQ-based Technical Support Units.

        Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

        Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

        Minimum Qualifications & Transferable Skills

        📚 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝗮 𝗝𝗼𝗯 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯! 🌍🤝 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘂𝗶𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗨𝗡 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟯 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝘀𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗨𝗡𝗛𝗖𝗥, 𝗪𝗙𝗣, 𝗨𝗡𝗜𝗖𝗘𝗙, 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗦𝗦, 𝗨𝗡𝗙𝗣𝗔, 𝗜𝗢𝗠 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀! 🌐

        ⚠️ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐰: 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐚 𝐣𝐨𝐛 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐍𝐎𝐖!

        • BA/S or MA in relevant subject area: international politics, local governance, civil society development, international development, monitoring, evaluation and learning, etc.
        • Proven expertise in partnership approaches, civil society development and/ or capacity strengthening of local partner organizations.
        • Proven expertise in developing and leading implementation of data management and monitoring, evaluation and learning systems in support of program quality and adaptive, evidence-driven program management.
        • At least 5+ years of progressive program management and/or program support experience, including supervisory experience or close collaboration with program, finance, sub-grants, and operations teams. Remote management experience is an advantage.
        • Significant experience designing and supporting partner-driven programs.
        • Demonstrated experience and ability to represent the organization professionally and appropriately with a diverse range of international and local organizations and other groups.
        • Effective verbal and written communication, multi-tasking, organizational, and prioritization skills are necessary.
        • Proven ability to work collaboratively with colleagues in other departments or locations, as well as experience leading diverse teams.
        • Experience with staff training and mentoring is preferred.
        • Excellent oral and written English. Russian or Ukrainian language skills are an asset, but not a requirement.

          Success Factors

          A successful candidate will have demonstrated the ability to lead and communicate effectively with team members of varied work styles and meet deadlines with flexibility and creativity in planning and problem solving. They will be able to understand the larger picture while remaining focused on the details and be able to balance upholding adherence with programmatic and operational standards with facilitating the implementation of complex programs. They have initiative, as well as high emotional intelligence, constructive mentoring skills and proven experience with capacity strengthening of local partners. They will be known for flexibility and creativity in project planning and building responsive systems, and are able to solicit and understand diverse perspectives, build consensus among a variety of stakeholders, and effectively and clearly communicate decisions.

          Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

          This position is based in Kyiv and is unaccompanied. Living conditions are in group housing: water, electricity and internet are present. The position will require travel within Ukraine, and to Mercy Corps’ operational areas in neighboring countries, up to 40% of the time.

          Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit to a field posting. Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and Mercy Corps' policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

          Ongoing Learning

          In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

          Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

          Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

          We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

          Equal Employment Opportunity

          Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

          We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

          Safeguarding & Ethics

          Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

          Our screening process is designed to be transparent and completed in partnership with new Team Members. You will have the opportunity to disclose any prior convictions at the conclusion of the recruitment process before the check is initiated. We ask that you do not disclose any prior convictions in your application materials or during the recruitment process.