Program Manager II, MEAL at Catholic Relief Services in Baltimore, MD, United States

Job description

• CRS is recruiting in anticipation of an award – recruitment for all candidates is contingent upon successful award of the project.
• CRS is seeking candidates for an anticipated multi-country child development, care, and protection project. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen national systems that protect vulnerable children, support families, and improve early childhood development through locally led and sustainable approaches. The project will improve outcomes for vulnerable children by strengthening child protection systems, supporting families and caregivers, advancing integrated early childhood health and development, and reducing reliance on residential care.
• Act as the technical advisor, consultant, and leader for quality Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL) design on a large, complex, multi-country child protection systems strengthening and family care reform project. Develop, implement, and manage tools and methodologies to meet the programs’ technical requirements. Oversee MEAL activities, maintain relationships with partners and other project stakeholders to support project objectives and advance Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work serving the poor and vulnerable. Utilize technical MEAL skills and knowledge to manage and analyze data, lead milestone verification and reporting processes, provide technical assistance to support government MEAL system strengthening, ensure donor compliance, and support learning initiatives to promote continuous improvement and the delivery of high-quality programming across participating countries and partners.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and management of the technical MEAL for this project throughout the program cycle to ensure compliance with CRS quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices.
• Develop, implement, supervise and strengthen data collection, management and reporting systems at all levels (community, child protection and health structures, and partners), ensuring the quality, reliability and regularity of data.
• Lead the development and implementation of milestone tracking, verification, and reporting systems to support achievement and documentation of project deliverables.
• Ensure harmonized monitoring, reporting, data management, and learning approaches across participating countries, partners, and technical workstreams.
• Provide technical oversight for monitoring and measurement of child protection systems strengthening family strengthening, family-based care, safeguarding, and integrated early childhood development outcomes.
• Provide technical leadership to country-level MEAL staff, government counterparts, local partners, and technical resource organizations to assess, strengthen, and expand the use of national child protection, care, and ECD information and MEAL systems, promoting the use of government systems for monitoring, reporting, learning, and milestone verification as feasible.
• Lead the development of and promote cross-country program learning, knowledge management, and adaptive management through the analysis and use of evidence, lessons learned, and program performance data. Proactively identify opportunities for learning, research, and publications aligned with MEAL policy. Disseminate promising practices and lessons learned to contribute to the agency's knowledge management agenda. Ensure integration of innovations and best practices.
• Support dissemination of project results, learning products, evaluations, and evidence to donors, governments, consortium partners, and external stakeholders.
• Oversee the identification, evaluation and strengthening of partnerships relevant to MEAL and the appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.

Requirements

• QUALIFICATIONS
• Bachelor's degree in International Development, International Relations, Sociology, Statistics, MEAL, Data Science, Research Methods, Social Sciences, or a related field.
• Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience.
• Experience in managing projects of large scale and complexity.
• Experience successfully managing MEAL programs.
• Experience successfully managing a team of professionals and developing a strong learning environment.
• Strong experience in project grants management, including project design, preferably for grants from multiple public donors.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to write high quality MEAL reports. Excellent communication and drafting skills for effective reporting in English.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with ability to make sound judgment and decisions and offer innovative solutions.
• Excellent data analysis (quantitative and qualitative) and database management skills.
• Strong relationship management capabilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Ability to strategically approach each relationship.
• Excellent presentation, training, and facilitation skills.
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented mindset.
• Attention to detail, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities.
• Required languages: Fluency in English. Fluency in Spanish or French is a plus.
• Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 35%.
• Supervisory responsibilities: None
• CRS offers are contingent on the selected candidate’s ability to legally work where the position is to be performed. Every government has a unique set of work permit eligibility requirements. All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside a home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical clearance; some work permit processes require clearing a separate government administered medical examination.
• CRS prioritizes candidates who are citizens/ permanent residents of the countries where we have CRS offices.
• Master’s degree in International Development, International Relations, Sociology, Statistics, MEAL, Data Science, Research Methods, Social Sciences, or a related field.
• Experience in an international NGO.
• Minimum of 3 years of professional experience in the field of MEAL.
• Experience designing and implementing MEAL systems for child protection, family strengthening, family care reform, social service systems strengthening, or integrated early childhood development programs.
• Demonstrated experience supporting multi-country programs, milestone-based awards, performance verification processes, and donor reporting requirements.
• Experience providing technical assistance to government institutions to strengthen monitoring, evaluation, information management, or social sector data systems and institutionalize data use for decision-making.
• Demonstrated experience supporting the strengthening and use of national information and MEAL systems in partnership with government agencies, including identifying system gaps, developing pragmatic strengthening approaches, and integrating project monitoring requirements into existing systems as feasible.
• Proficiency in statistical data analysis packages (SPSS, Stata or R), PowerBI, web conferencing applications, and information management systems.

Skills

Required

• Required languages: Fluency in English.

Preferred

• Fluency in Spanish or French is a plus.

Benefits

• CRS offers U.S. based staff a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, life insurance, vision, and a generous retirement savings plan. Salary ad benefits packages for successful candidates employed outside the U.S. are based on the country of employment/in-country office where the candidate will perform the role. CRS´ work culture is a collaborative, mission-driven culture committed to improving the lives of the poor throughout the world.