Mercy Corps
Location: Portland, Oregon, Washington, DC or other MC HQ office
Position Status: Full-time Regular
Salary: DOE
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 when 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 Program / Department / Team
The Strategy Realization Unit ensures that Mercy Corps has the strategies and vision that will enable it to be a world-class, cutting-edge humanitarian and development organization creating transformational change in the world. The Strategy Realization Unit’s goal is to drive forward the agency’s 10-year strategy – Pathway to Possibility – providing a unifying vision while also enabling teams to be adaptive. The underlying intention is to create clarity and focus to enhance decision-making at all levels and locations of the organization.
The Strategy Realization Unit is accountable to the CEO via a Vice President that sits on Mercy Corps’ Executive Team; the Unit also works closely with leadership across the organization, including with Regional Directors, Country Directors, HLR and TSU senior leaders, HQ Function Leads, Department Heads, and others.
The Position
The Advisor is a key member of the SRU, playing a critical role in the roll-out and realization of Mercy Corps’ new 10-year strategy. They help lead the creation and integration of governance mechanisms that promote alignment to Mercy Corps’ global strategy, responsiveness to local needs and priorities, and consistency in strategic direction across regions and countries, and play a key role in Mercy Corps’ efforts to measure results, foster accountability, and create coherence and clarity around the strategy across the entire organization.
They contribute to greater alignment with and accountability to the new strategy through the design, management, and promotion of strategic planning and reporting processes for Mercy Corps’ international programs. The Advisor supports the VP and Director for Strategy Realization by leading and/ or contributing to strategic initiatives, workstreams, or special projects contributing to greater alignment around and accountability to the new strategy. In collaboration with others, the Strategy Advisor helps ensure that the SRU- and Mercy Corps more broadly- reaches the milestones identified in Mercy Corps’ Strategy Journey
They are a self-starter, proactive team player, and an equally strong convener and facilitator with the ability to meaningfully engage teams in inclusive processes designed to shape the agency’s strategic direction. The Advisor is experienced working across departments and country-based teams, an expert liaison with critical organizational counterparts in regional, country and headquarters offices, and practiced at navigating or managing complex initiatives with multiple stakeholders. They are a proficient user of data analysis tools and proactively identify opportunities to bring relevant information – particularly from country and regional planning processes – into decision-making processes in other parts of the organization.
Essential Responsibilities
GOVERNANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY
- Help translate the Pathway to Possibility into practical and interconnected planning, reporting, and accountability mechanisms with strong feedback loops between field and HQ needs and priorities
- Support the roll out and integration of these country, regional, and HQ planning processes, including development, review, and revisions of the guidance, tools, and templates
- Proactively identify opportunities to refine and improve planning and reporting processes and governance mechanisms
- Help establish planning, reporting, and accountability systems and processes to encourage greater efficiency and effectiveness, promote cohesion, and improve collaboration to drive strategic impact
- Co-develop surveys, questionnaires, and other feedback mechanisms; analyze and synthesize data and present findings and recommendations to decision-makers and agency leaders
PERFORMANCE AND MEASUREMENT
- Lead the tracking, analysis, and visualization of key data from country and regional strategic planning processes; ensure that relevant information is presented to decision-makers in a clear, digestible, accessible, and actionable formats
- Contribute to Mercy Corps’ processes to measure progress toward program outcomes and agency commitments; help ensure harmonized, relevant, and timely deliverables from different teams and departments engaged in these efforts
- Coordinate or contribute to appropriate processes and fora to review results, performance, impact, and alignment; work closely with other teams and serve as a focal point on key initiatives where relevant
- Work with the SRU’s Learning and Accountability Advisor and other team members to introduce and implement an agency-wide dashboard to measure progress against strategic priorities
- Conduct research and analysis of special projects or initiatives to leverage and promote use of data or improve decision-making processes that enable more effective strategy implementation
STRATEGY REALIZATION
- Establish and lead cross-functional working groups or task forces comprised of both field and HQ leadership to prioritize, identify, and implement solutions to ensure Mercy Corps is ‘fit for purpose’ and has the necessary capacity to deliver on Mercy Corps’ commitments and outcomes
- Actively contribute to operational initiatives through close collaboration with other SRU workstreams, Executive Team, Regional Directors, and country leadership
- Contribute to the SRU’s organizational design changes to regional and country teams to optimize performance, support testing of new ways of working, and drive greater impact
- Establish, contribute to, or lead formal or informal working groups to drive forward visioning and planning for moving our agency commitments forward
- Serve as a thought partner to and/ or focal point with the HLR, PaQ, TSU, and other global programming teams in strategy realization efforts
- Help ensure harmonized roll out of the Pathway to Possibility, appropriate sequencing of strategy-related initiatives, and allocation of resources to build necessary capacities to deliver on the strategy
COORDINATION, COLLABORATION, AND COMMUNCIATION
Coordination within the SRU
- Contribute to the SRU’s learning agenda, performance dashboard, and data collection; help identify synergies or greater efficiencies for maximum impact
- Support SRU efforts to track progress towards objectives and provide timely analysis to inform departmental priorities.
- Actively contribute to all other workstreams (such as business operations) under the purview of the Strategy Realization Team as requested
- Informally support and mentor the Assistant Program Officer and Program Officer; help team members identify and take advantage of opportunities to ensure professional growth and provide advice and encouragement to help them reach their full potential
Collaboration with Other Teams
- As needed, deputize the Director for Strategy Realization and/ or represent the SRU in internal meetings, conferences, or workshops
- Contribute to relevant workstreams, initiatives, and working groups, ensuring coherence across composite teams and wider SRU
- Contribute to or help lead appropriate forums for feedback and discussion among stakeholders at various elevations of the
- Interact expertly with senior management as well as country and regional leadership to both engage in and inform about the strategy process
Communication
- Contribute development of messaging for key ‘events’ – such as Livestreams or Leadership Group updates – for different audiences at key points in the strategy journey
- Contribute to clear and consistent communication with the Leadership Group and other leaders, internal stakeholders, task force members, etc.
- Support the creation of the SRU’s communications materials -including a newsletter, content for the Hub, Workplace, the Globe, etc.- as requested
ACCOUNTABILITY
Supervisory Responsibility: None
Reports To: Director- Strategy Realization
Works With: Other members of the SRU, key members of the Performance and Quality Unit, the Humanitarian Leadership and Response Team, the Technical Support Unit, HQ support departments, and country and regional leadership
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
- 4-5 years’ experience at an international organization required; international experience working on large-scale humanitarian, protracted and/or post-crisis recovery programs in a variety of complex environments preferred
- Demonstrated project management expertise and experience in core project management concepts and tools, such as work planning, project budgeting, and stakeholder engagement
- Experience developing and implementing cross-departmental projects, activities or processes; demonstrated ability to contribute strategic planning, reporting, or results measurement efforts a plus
- Collaborative workstyle that contributes to positive team environment and builds strong relationships with people from all backgrounds, genders, cultures, and viewpoints
- Critical thinking skills and proven ability to problem solve and follow up appropriately;
- Adaptable, resourceful, and able to multi-task and deliver under pressure; comfort with ambiguity and complexity preferred
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbally; demonstrated ability to produce high-quality polished, professional reports, presentations, and other materials
- Commitment to diversity and inclusion; experience in incorporating gender perspectives and ensuring the equal participation of women and men in all areas of work
- Ability to travel up to 10% internationally for site visits, representation, and conferences, occasionally to insecure or hostile environments
Success Factors
The successful Advisor must be a self-starting multi-tasker, able to manage competing priorities and demonstrate a keen understanding of the larger picture while remaining focused on and able to handle the details. They are an expert problem-solver, adept in successfully dealing with issues of complexity. They must demonstrate patience, initiative, and flexibility. The Advisor has relevant experience driving participatory processes to build consensus as well as a practical understanding of how to engage different stakeholders, including senior leaders, to drive impact and organizational change. They are courageous and willing to challenge the status quo, speak up and speak out on key issues, and engage in constructive debate and sensitive conversations with agency stakeholders at all elevations of the organization.
Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Portland, Oregon or other locations with a Mercy Corps office. It may involve some travel to support country programs or regional teams, which may include some visits to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.
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.
As a safeguarding measure, Mercy Corps screens all potential US-Based employees. Any offers of employment or continued employment are dependent on the successful completion of the screens which include, but are not limited to our Background Check and Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme processes,
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.
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
Covid-19 Vaccine Policy for US-Based Employees
Mercy Corps has determined that, in an effort to protect the health, safety, and well-being of all Mercy Corps employees working in the United States, all U.S.-based employees must be fully vaccinated for COVID-19, regardless of prior COVID-19 infection status.
This policy will be revised as needed to comply with federal, state, and local requirements, and to respond to changing guidance from public health authorities.
For new employees this requirement goes into effect within 10 business days of employment. Team members that travel are expected to comply with host-country requirements, including vaccinations. Failure to comply may impact your employment. Proof of vaccination or exemption must be provided.