Regional Director – Americas At Mercy Corps

Location: Americas Region Position Status: Full-time, Exempt

About Mercy Corps

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.

Program / Department Summary

The Regional Director oversees Mercy Corps’ multi-million dollar operations in Latin America and the United States, which serves populations in Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Mercy Corps Northwest. In addition, Mercy Corps seeks to expand its impact in the region through its resilience work in the Caribbean Basin and its work in youth, migration, and peace building in the Northern Triangle. This is a diverse region with countries undergoing transitions that have the potential to create significant opportunities for development and change. The Regional Director will develop and implement strategies that are in line with agency direction and policy and support country programs to develop a healthy portfolio that enables us to better meet our mission. While the countries are diverse they also share common aspects, such as large rural and poor, marginalized populations that are not able to participate in the formal economy. Thus programs to build economic opportunity, in the face of conflict and climate change, are at the forefront of a common strategy for all countries, with a primary focus on the agriculture economy and food security.

The Position

Mercy Corps is seeking a bold and creative leader with a passion for resilience; market systems and rural and agricultural development; emergency response and early recovery, including cash assistance and financial inclusion; and violence prevention to be its Regional Director, Americas. The Regional Director is a member of Mercy Corps’ senior leadership team and excels at inspiring team members and partners into action to bring creative ideas to fruition and create meaningful impact for the region and beyond. They are a resourceful and proven leader who brings significant experience guiding and empowering country-based leaders to grow and overcome challenges, has held senior roles in large, complex organizations, and has experience overseeing portfolios in the range of $200M US with more than 300 regional / country team members. They will shepherd the ongoing process of developing a refreshed Regional Strategy in alignment with Mercy Corps’ Vision 2030: Pathway to Possibility, and identify and organize the support structures and partnerships needed to achieve greater, lasting impact in the region. The Regional Director will develop and maintain productive relationships with internal stakeholders, and external constituents such as donors, private partners, foundations, and local governments. They will direct the Americas regional and country program leadership, ensuring that teams are strategically aligned, accountable and resourced.

The Regional Director will champion Mercy Corps’ Vision 2030 and its Programming Commitments to enable teams to thrive, while striving for transformational impact in the region through groundbreaking innovations and influence that position Mercy Corps as the leader of change in the Americas region and beyond.

Essential Responsibilities

STRATEGY AND VISION

Lead the Americas Region in the development of a shared vision and a refreshed regional strategy that is aligned with Mercy Corps’ Vision 2030: Pathway to Possibility. Direct regional resources to deliver on articulated priorities.
Oversee and support the management of country-level strategy, planning and development processes in line with Mercy Corps’ Vision 2030: Pathway to Possibility, ensuring coordination and communication between countries.
Develop regional organizational structures to support the realization of the regional strategy, including programming and partnerships in the US, the Caribbean Basin and the Northern Triangle.
Elevate the region’s profile internally by representing at key internal meetings and liaising with support functions to provide the necessary support to country offices in order to execute their visions.

INFLUENCE AND REPRESENTATION

Enhance Mercy Corps’ contributions as a leading global and regional partner using data, evidence and analysis to improve our programs, scale what works and influence others to build resilience in the face of conflict and climate change.
Promote localization within the region by cultivating meaningful local partnerships, which include civil society leaders, government officials, donors, private sector partners, diplomats and other actors, that center communities and the people who are impacted by crises.
Maintain strong contextual understanding and analysis of regional trends and represent Mercy Corps programs with national and international media as appropriate.
Proactively engage with donors to shape and influence their strategies and funding priorities for areas that Mercy Corps deems critical for transformational change in the region and partner with donors to explore, evaluate and present innovative funding opportunities that support the objectives for the region as a whole.

TEAM MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP

Build a safe, diverse and inclusive regional team, to meet regional objectives and support country team objectives. Ensure effective, accountable structures in the region and within each country with a focus on encouraging and building local talent and leadership.
Recruit, onboard, supervise and mentor a team of 10, including Country Directors, Technical Advisors, Regional Managers and Regional Program Team. Deepen the capacity of the team, their understanding of their roles and responsibilities, and are set up for success interacting with agency systems, policies, procedures and protocols.
Serve as an internal champion for country leaders and regional support teams and advisors, harness and prioritize organizational resources, advocate for the team’s needs, and proactively identify and address their concerns.
Set clear success metrics for team members in order to promote accountability and communicate expectations. Provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one-on-ones and annual performance reviews.

PROGRAM OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

Enable on-time, on-budget, on-scope implementation of regional initiatives, provide troubleshooting and guidance on management issues per Mercy Corps standards.
Collaborate with global and regional teams to ensure highest program quality and technical excellence by supporting countries in their application of Mercy Corps’ policies and frameworks. Drive, track and support program impact and results in the region.
Mobilize and oversee effective human, material, financial and operational field support systems in the region, in cooperation with the appropriate agency support team.
In the event of a major disaster, work and/or liaise with the Humanitarian Leadership and Response (HLR) team for appropriate response.
Ensure that country teams have effective communication mechanisms for learning and coordination to achieve optimal impact.

RISK MITIGATION AND MANAGEMENT

Support country leadership in developing and implementing program and operations policies and procedures according to Mercy Corps and donor policies.
Oversee the management and resolution of audit findings.
Ensure effective, transparent use of resources in compliance with Mercy Corps and donor policies.
Oversee and manage regional budgets and other regional initiatives.
Liaise with the Senior VP of Programs, Sr. Director of Global Security, and VP of Humanitarian Leadership & Response on crucial events, high-risk periods, incident reporting and security policy changes.

Supervisory Responsibility

Country Directors, Executive Director MCNW and Regional Team

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Senior Vice President, Programs

Works Directly With: Executive Team (CEO, CFO, etc.), Senior Leadership Team for Programs and other departments (Finance, Compliance, Operations, Legal, Ethics,etc.), Technical Support Unit, Humanitarian Leadership & Response, Program Performance and Quality, and other Regional Directors.

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 country projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

MA/S or equivalent in international development, political or social science management or other relevant fields.
8 to 10 years’ country-based experience in senior management, i.e. Country and/or Regional Director including team management experience, finance and administration; donor relations; and inter/intra-agency communications.
Significant program operations experience including direct “hands-on” skills in program development, strategic planning, program implementation and evaluation.
Extensive experience in managing both development and emergency programs. Additional experience working with the private sector is essential.
Demonstrated understanding of the critical development issues in the assigned region and significant experience with the challenges of operating programs in the region.
Demonstrated proficiency and experience with USG, European and other public donors, government grant and financial management requirements. Experience managing high-value strategic partnerships with private corporate and foundation donors is essential.
Exceptional program and project conceptualization and design skills.
Successful and proven negotiation, communication, organization, and prioritization skills and experience.
Strong preference given to candidates with prior experience in the countries in the region.
Fluency in Spanish required; fluency in French preferred.

Success Factors

The successful candidate will be a visionary tactician, able to see the big picture and establish broad strategy while being attentive to individual country and program needs and constraints. The Regional Director is a skilled communicator, able to develop and build relationships with staff, partners and donors and inspires others to take action. They must be resolute in achieving regional agency goals while maintaining an ability to adapt and respond to emergencies and problems that arise, and must ensure that mechanisms are in place to enable such response. The successful Regional Director will skillfully represent programmatic priorities of the agency to donors and regional partners while providing effective leadership to the Mercy Corps country teams. They will have high emotional intelligence, constructive mentoring skills and proven experience with capacity building and will be committed to long-term program sustainability and the delivery of high-impact activities at the regional level. Successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and challenging environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The Regional Director must be based in the region. They will be expected to travel at least 40%, working in all locations within the portfolio as well as other HQ offices and international fora.

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. 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.