Humanitarian Operations Technical Advisor I (HOTA I) (Telecommuter) Latin America and Caribbean At Catholic Relief Services

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 telecommuter position.

Job Summary:

You will provide technical advice and support to a range of program design and implementation issues in the area of Humanitarian Response, with special dedication to the HRD EMPOWER LAC program working in Latin America and Caribbean, and in line with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to Country Program (CP) teams to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. CRS’ EMPOWER LAC program provides technical support and accompaniment to local and national organizations to strengthen institutional capacity for humanitarian response programming. Your advice, knowledge, and support will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive and innovative CRS’ Humanitarian Response programming is across the globe. This position is initially for one year only, and if it proves effective and funding permits then it could be extended for additional years.

Primary Roles and 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, with special focus on EMPOWER projects.
• 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 on integrating donor strategies, priorities and technical requirements into CRS’ approach.
• Support 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Assist with all other tasks as needed to forward emergency operations and programming.

Required Foreign Language: Fluency in at least one of the following languages required: Spanish, Portuguese, French or Arabic.

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 50 % of time, often at very short notice (within 48 hours) and for an average of four to six weeks (with a maximum of two consecutive months under exceptional circumstances). Candidates should have capacity to live and work in difficult/stressful environments and serve wherever agency needs dictate.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong finance and grant management skills, and accounting software user skills required.
• Knowledge of humanitarian codes, principles and practice and experience in their use
• Knowledge of design requirements and regulations for USG emergency donors required; knowledge of same for other emergency donors such as Caritas, the EU/ECHO, DfID and UN agencies a plus
• Able to work in INSIGHT and GATEWAY, or similar such systems and applications.
• Extremely flexible and have the ability to cope with stressful situations in emergency environments.
• Strong relationship management skills with ability to influence and get buy-in from people not under direct supervision and to work with individuals in diverse geographical and cultural settings.
• Ability to maintain performance expectations and strong working relationships in diverse cultural contexts and psychologically/physically stressful environments.
• Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and make decisions independently.
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills.
• Ability to work both as a motivating member and a leader of a diverse team.
• Good supervisory skills.
• Demonstrated ability to provide leadership in strategic planning initiatives.
• Proven ability to analyze reports or issues and to provide appropriate recommendations required.
• Strong knowledge of effective management practices desired.
• Experience with staff care in emergency settings.
• Good technical writing skills.
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills.
• Proactive, resourceful and results oriented.

Preferred Qualifications

• Budgeting and budget management experience, 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.
• 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.
• Experience in mentoring, coaching, facilitation and training applying adult learning principles and practices.
• Knowledge of CRS programming, Integral Human Development, SPHERE standards, Core Humanitarian Standards and Catholic Social Teaching principles preferred.
• Knowledge/experience of integrating cross-cutting themes such as capacity strengthening, protection mainstreaming, gender, good governance, and peacebuilding.
• Knowledge of the relevant public donors’ regulations will be highly desired.
• Knowledge of commodity accounting package or similar software highly desired.
• Familiarity with the application of ICT and GIS products in emergency preparedness and response an asset.

Emergency Competencies:

These are rooted in the mission, values, and principles of CRS and used by each staff working in emergencies to fulfill his or her responsibilities and to achieve the desired results.

• Communicates strategically under pressure.
• Manages stress and complexity.
• Actively promotes safety and security.
• Manages and implements high-quality emergency programs.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in international development related field, or its equivalent, required.
• Minimum of three years relevant work experience with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO, with minimum of two years relevant field-based experience in Humanitarian Operations.
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in Humanitarian Response, with special focus on finance and grant management. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Knowledge of technical principles and concepts in Humanitarian Response. General knowledge of other related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Experience in project design and proposal development. Experience in writing content for proposals.
• Knowledge of capacity strengthening best practices.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation and analysis.
• Experience and skills in networking and relations with donors, peer organizations, and faith-based and civil society partners. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.