Lead Analyst: Humanitarian Access Team – Syria

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps Crisis Analytics was developed to support our programming in the most complex contexts, including Syria, Libya, Democratic Republic of Congo and others. The Humanitarian Access Team – Syria (HAT-S) supports Mercy Corps’ in-country programming as well as the wider humanitarian response in the region through the provision of quality, timely and relevant analytical products.

Mercy Corps’ crisis analytics teams aggregate and analyze data to improve decision making and access in complex crises. The teams directly contribute to data-driven decision making by layering information from primary sources, open sources and responders’ programmatic data, where it is analyzed by subject matter experts and data scientists. This analysis is grounded in Mercy Corps’ status as an operational NGO, keeping our products constructive and relevant for humanitarian responders and donors within a given crisis. The HAT also serves as a real-time information hub; vets potential partners; assesses programmatic, partner, and operational risk; identifies and maps stakeholders; and works with internal partners to better enable data-driven decision making. Written HAT products range from daily updates during high-intensity periods, to regular monthly Whole-of-Syria summaries, to in-depth thematic reports and scenario planning.

General Position Summary

The Lead Analyst will serve as a senior member of Mercy Corps Syria’s crisis analytics team, which has global recognition as a leading analysis unit on the Syria crisis and response. As Lead Analyst within the HAT, the successful candidate will be a skilled all-source analyst who is able to take the lead on building technical analytical skills within the team, support the daily management of the analysis workflow including output production, and identifying key trends and putting forward ideas for information products that meet the needs of the humanitarian response communities, including humanitarian actors, donors and think tanks.

The Lead Analyst will leverage their in-depth understanding of the Syrian context, combined with localized operational understanding of humanitarian, early recovery, and resilience-oriented programming. The Lead Analyst will contribute to and lead on the development of analytical products and outputs that benefit the humanitarian response in Syria, including framing it within broader regional trends. They will be comfortable with mixed-methods research approaches, and confident in tasking primary data collectors. While the Lead Analyst may bring a specific sectoral expertise, they will be equally able to work across multiple themes (economics, protection, politics and governance, conflict etc.)

The HAT comes from a variety of backgrounds; the Lead Analyst will be expected to be the focal point for capacity building of technical analytical skills within the team. They will be able to demonstrate their own approaches to documenting and enforcing quality control of analytical outputs.

The Lead Analyst will support with external representation, providing donor, NGO and other stakeholder briefings, and tailored analysis to specific geographic or themes that may impact a specific stakeholder. They will also be required to contribute to proposal and report writing when required.

Essential Job Responsibilities

OVERALL

• Advise the HAT Director with updates on evolving developments in the region (political, conflict) as relates to Mercy Corps programs and humanitarian activities.
• Works with the lead analyst to identify and report on new or emerging development issues of potential concern to the international community.
• Manage and assist junior staff members, on specific thematic reports and analysis tasks
• Work independently in specific political and conflict thematic reports on the dynamic situation across Syria.
• Be a coach and mentor for the analytics team
• Focal point for building the capacity of programme teams to incorporate analysis into their decision-making processes
• Coordinates with the HAT Managing Editor to keep existing and new products relevant and actionable for key audiences, and to maintain and train HAT staff on analytical/reporting guidelines and standards.
• Builds technical analytical skills within the team
• Contributes to proposal and report writing and preparing research applications
• Regularly engage with external stakeholders, such as NGOs, representatives from donor governments (both technical and political/diplomatic), think tanks, and other relevant actors on the Syria response to coordinate research initiatives and better understand audience priorities
• Provide stakeholder briefings in coordination with the HAT Director and other senior Mercy Corps Syria staff
• Propose ideas for research and development and work with the Lead Analyst, HAT Director and other team members on piloting, developing and disseminating new products that keep the crisis response community updated and able to make informed decisions on humanitarian interventions and access.

ANALYSIS WORKFLOW AND MANAGEMENT

• Oversee analytical output production, including periodical reports and thematic outputs, in terms of timeliness/workflow, quality, and audience.
• Develop research proposals linking multidimensional developments affecting the Syrian context with donor-funded programmatic activity (project implementation, operations, security, guiding principles such as conflict sensitivity, etc).
• Develops methodologically novel approaches to collect, clean, process, and analyze primary and secondary (open source) data.
• Provides flexible, multidisciplinary technical leadership that is specific to local contextual realities and specific themes/sectors.
• Support the overall continuation of a culture of a team, which is highly aware of the context.
• Able to incorporate programmatic and donor needs into the analytical cycle.
• Documents and maintains minimum standards for analytical quality with reference to Global Crisis Analysis standards of Mercy Corps

STRATEGY & CULTURE

• Recognize opportunities for innovative action and create an environment where alternative viewpoints are welcomed. Contribute to the development of strategies.
• Understand and express conflict in terms of humanitarian needs, access restrictions, and threats to the humanitarian community.

ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

• As part of our commitment to organizational learning and in support of our understanding that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities they serve – we expect all team members to commit 5% of their time to learning activities that benefit Mercy Corps as well as themselves.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY

Ability to supervise a small team (1-3) of researchers/analysts on a project to project basis.

Accountability

• Reports directly to: HAT Director
• Works directly with: Analysts, Editor, Global CA team, Field Coordinator.

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.

Knowledge and Experience

• Masters Degree or equivalent experience in Political Science, International Relations, Economics, or a related field is an asset
• At least 5 years of analytical experience within a think tank/research organization, UN agency, or NGO experience; experience analyzing the Syrian context strongly preferred
• At least 2 years of experience managing teams of analysts including strategy, workflow, and capacity
• Thorough experience publishing reports and other analytical outputs (such as data visualizations) related to political economy, sociology, governance, humanitarian/development interventions, and/or conflict analysis in the MENA region
• Proven, professional-quality English reporting, both written and verbal; knowledge of Arabic is an strong asset
• Experience with collecting, processing, and analyzing mixed-methods data
• Experience with SPSS, R suite, STATA or other statistical packages for quantitative analysis
• Experience with developing maps using GIS software (qGIS, ArcGIS, etc) an advantage
• Experience with Adobe Creative Cloud software, especially InDesign or Illustrator
• Knowledge of machine learning, and artificial intelligence is advantageous
• Extensive experience living/working in MENA region is an asset

Success Factors

The successful candidate will foster an environment of excellence, curiosity and ambition. They will encourage innovation and risk-taking where it can improve humanitarian response in the region. Their technical analytical abilities will be shared within the team and will be reflected in the quality of the products produced by the team.

Living/Environmental Conditions

This is an accompanied position based in Beirut or Amman. 20% travel time is expected. Housing for this role is in individual housing and staff will have access to good medical services.

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.