Technical Advisor I – Business Development and Program Quality, Myanmar

Job Title: Technical Advisor I – Business Development and Program Quality, Myanmar

Reports to: Head of Programming

Department: Country Programming

Salary Grade: 9

Location: Yangon, Myanmar

Post Accompaniment Status: Post level 4 -Spouse or adult dependent only

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.

Background:

CRS has worked in Myanmar for more than a decade in partnership with Karuna Mission Social Solidarity (KMSS, or Caritas Myanmar), serving vulnerable populations with agriculture, nutrition, food security, shelter, and water and sanitation programming. CRS supports KMSS emergency responses to conflict-related and natural disasters across the country and works to strengthen the capacity of KMSS and other local partners. CRS works with funding from the multi-donor Livelihoods and Food Security Fund (LIFT), the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Growing Hope Globally, and other private donors. CRS also provides technical backstopping to KMSS on a variety of UN-funded projects.

Job Summary:

As a Technical Advisor for Business Development (BD) and Program Quality (PQ), you will contribute to the production of high-quality applications for funding in support of CRS’ engagement with institutional donors and initiatives involved in international development to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your knowledge and skills will allow you to contribute to improving aspects of the BD cycle for the country program (CP) and work towards improving its competitiveness for and success with new funding opportunities. You will also provide technical advice and support to a range of program design and implementation issues across programming areas in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices to CP teams and local partners to advance the delivery of high-quality programming to the poor and vulnerable. You will also provide strong oversight to and support of effective grants management. Your advice, knowledge, and support will contribute to determining how effective, adaptive, and innovative CRS programming is in Myanmar.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Contribute to proposal development processes to ensure timely submission of high-quality proposals that are responsive to donor requirements, applicable regulations, and CRS’ technical and cost standards.
• Contribute to non-technical writing on proposals and proposal review panels. Integrate inputs from staff and partners into a responsive, coherent proposal.
• Research new opportunities and CRS’ competitive position within the marketplace.
• Help develop and maintain tools, guidelines, templates and donor intelligence information.
• Track and report on proposal submissions; assist with analysis of successes and failures and dissemination of lessons learned. Assist in developing analytical reports for internal and external use, including portfolio trends and growth.
• With the business development team and others, refine or create appropriate staff development materials (training, distance learning, self-study) to support building of capacity in resource acquisition, such as assessment and proposal development skills, basic elements of donor compliance, intelligence-gathering, etc.
• Work with appropriate staff to maintain data on past performance and corporate capacity, in order to provide timely information for proposal submissions.
• Support the development and contribute to the implementation of agency-wide strategies, standards, tools and best practices in programming that effectively engage partners, donors, and governments. Help ensure a cross-sectoral approach integrating gender, protection mainstreaming, and disaster risk reduction.
• Provide technical solutions to CP teams, remotely and on-site, for strategic planning and how to best apply standards, best practices, partnership principles, tools and M&E, helping to ensure high-quality implementation.
• Support capacity strengthening initiatives for staff and partners through helping develop learning and training strategies and agendas/curriculums, conducting trainings and workshops, and coaching.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Analyze and evaluate project performance data following MEAL policy. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles. 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 learning agendas.
• Provide editorial support to project teams, including writing and editing project descriptions, success stories, technical reports, and presentations. Lead document review and final editing and packaging for all deliverables required by grants and cooperative agreements.
• Act as surge support during project start-up and/or close-out processes, providing technical assistance and general PQ guidance, as needed.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.
• Support project and strategic level technical coordination and contribute to maintaining relationships with donors, peer organizations, clusters and working groups, research and other institutions, and participate in forums to collect and share best practices and promote CRS’ work.

Required Languages – Fluent English required. Proficiency in Burmese preferred.

Travel – Must be willing and able to travel up to 25% to project sites in Myanmar and occasional regional travel. Travel in Myanmar is contingent on security considerations and travel authorizations.

Supervisory Responsibilities: MEAL Officer

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Head of Programming, Chief of Party and Deputy Chief of Party of major USAID award, Program Managers, MEAL Officer, Regional Technical Advisers, Country Manager, Operations team

External: KMSS/local partner Program and Project Coordinators at the national and diocesan level, peer agencies (NGOs and UN), donor representatives, private sector actors in relevant programming sectors

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• 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.
• Good strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment.
• Good technical writing skills.
• Presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills.
• Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented.
• Very good communications and presentation skills.
• Good negotiation skills.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in international development, international relations, or related field. Master’s degree preferred, especially in the fields of agriculture, nutrition, or monitoring & evaluation.
• Minimum three years of international development experience, with at least two years’ experience in a developing country, ideally with an international NGO.
• Knowledge of programming principles and concepts, including cross-cutting approaches in gender, protection, MEAL, etc.
• 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.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience mobilizing diverse resources for humanitarian and development NGOs; international donor (USG, UN, EU, FCDO, etc.) grant management experience strongly preferred.
• Very strong writer with expert command of English grammar and AP style.
• Demonstrated experience with competitive proposals in programming contexts similar to CRS.
• Familiarity with USG funding mechanisms and proposal requirements. Specific experience with food aid programming and with non-USG public donors highly desirable.
• Knowledge of CRS programs, justice agenda and Catholic Social Teaching principles a plus.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information and budget management systems, knowledge-sharing networks.

Agency REDI Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

Agency competencies clarify expected behaviors and attitudes for all staff. When demonstrated, they create an engaging workplace, help staff achieve their best, and help CRS achieve agency goals. These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Personal Accountability – Consistently takes responsibility for one’s own actions.
• Acts with Integrity – Consistently models values aligned with CRS Guiding Principles and mission. Is considered honest.
• Builds and Maintains Trust – Shows consistency between words and actions.
• Collaborates with Others – Works effectively in intercultural and diverse teams.
• Open to Learn – Seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.

Agency Leadership Competencies:

• Lead Change – Continually looks for ways to improve the agency through a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
• Develops and Recognizes Others – Builds the capacity of staff to reach their full potential and enhance team and agency performance.
• Strategic Mindset – Understands role in translating, communicating, and implementing agency strategy and team priorities.

***Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need. CRS’ processes and policies reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to protecting children and vulnerable adults from abuse and exploitation.

CRS prioritizes candidates who are citizens/permanent residents of the countries where we have CRS offices.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer