Senior Specialist Nutrition

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world’s largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 50 countries and more than 25 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you’re a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

We aim to make our programs a model for the highest global standards and to cultivate power and lasting change not just for our clients but for all people affected by humanitarian crises. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence (TE) group, located within the Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department, provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice.

IRC’s Technical Excellence team is comprised of five teams or sector “Units” which have deep expertise in their respective fields: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health, and Violence Prevention and Response, as well as teams which provide measurement and finance/grant management support. Technical teams are also matrixed with a team that focuses on the quality and content of cross-sectoral programming in emergency responses.

IRC’s Technical Excellence teams offer five core services to IRC country programs and the wider organization:

**1. Program Design:**We support country and regional teams to design state of the art programming, incorporating the best available evidence, cost data, and expertise of what has worked elsewhere, with the knowledge that country teams, partner organizations and our clients bring to the table.

**2. Quality Assurance:**We partner with our measurement teams to design and drive the use of indicators to measure progress towards outcomes; we partner with regional and country teams to review program delivery progress and help address implementation challenges and adapt interventions to changed circumstances.

**3. Business Development:**We partner within and outside the IRC to design winning bids and identify winning consortia; we deploy technical expertise in public events and private meetings to position IRC as a partner of choice.

**4. Research & Learning:**We partner with our research lab to design cutting edge research to fill evidence gaps, and with country teams to learn from implementation such that we continuously improve our future design and delivery.

5. External Influence: We showcase the IRC’s programs, technical insights and learning in order to influence and improve the humanitarian sector’s policy and practice.

Health Unit

IRC’s health programs comprise the largest proportion of its overall program budget and are essential to both IRC emergency response and long-term programming worldwide.

The Health Technical Unit is a dynamic team of more than 70 professionals in Primary Health Care, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Nutrition, Mental and Environmental Health. They provide IRC’s 40 plus country offices and emergency response team with world class technical expertise, capacity building and a cross-country view of what works to achieve outcomes in terms of both evidence and practical experience. They also lead focused research agenda, influencing donor policy to support interventions and innovations proven cost effective to achieve positive change in people’s lives.

The Movement Against Malnutrition

The Movement Against Malnutrition is a new, highly ambitious effort with a single goal: to ensure that no child dies of hunger. We design and research groundbreaking innovations, deliver malnutrition services to millions of children and advocate for urgent action to end this global public health crisis of up to 2 million children a year dying of acute malnutrition. The Movement is a venture embedded within one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations but operating like a forward-thinking start-up to spur a global movement with partners across government, the nonprofit sector, academia, and corporate world. Our ambition is no less than transforming a broken humanitarian system into a succeeding one where no child dies of hunger.

Job Overview

The Senior Specialist Nutrition is responsible for mentoring and building the capacity of IRC’s team of nutrition technical advisors and nutrition staff in country programs on simplified approaches, supporting the development of country-level scaling plans, and leading nutrition technical unit-led business development opportunities. This position reports into the Global Practice Lead and Director of Research, Nutrition. The Senior Specialist Nutrition works closely with colleagues across the Health Unit including Regional Leads, nutrition and health technical advisors, the MEAL team, nutrition officers and technical leads in country programs, and the multi-disciplinary members of the Airbel Research and Innovation team and the Movement Against Malnutrition.

Major Responsibilities

I. Lead and facilitate the development of tools, resources and knowledge management systems on simplified approaches, and in collaboration with the Regional Leads, build Regional TA capacity to support operational pilots and scaling plans.

• In close collaboration with the Regional Leads, provide 1:1 mentorship and support to TA’s to identify capacity building needs and connect TA’s with internal and external technical resources.

• Strengthen proficiency in simplified approaches by IRC stakeholders

• Working closely with GPL, scope and prioritize a resource library and resource development plan to strengthen internal technical proficiency and business development capacity in simplified approaches

• Supervise development of high-value internal resources to strengthen proficiency, engagement, and best practice sharing on simplified approaches

• Organize trainings and internal IRC webinars to build the capacity of nutrition TA’s, nutrition coordinators, and other IRC staff working in nutrition on simplified approaches, so that TA’s and nutrition staff in IRC countries can speak comfortably to the latest evidence on simplified approaches and how they relate to the updated WHO guidelines

• In collaboration with the Regional Leads, support in building the capacity of TA’s to lead the development of operational pilots on simplified approaches in the countries they support, working with data, research and MEAL leads in the Health Unit and Airbel

• Ensure the Regional Technical Teams, Technical Advisors and Technical Coordinators have the tools and resources that are needed to respond to questions from country programs on the updated WHO guidelines, and how IRC strategy aligns with WHO recommendations on treatment of malnutrition

II. In collaboration with the DD and Regional Leads and Nutrition Technical Advisors, support the technical development of country scaling plans, including leveraging and integrating key resources and strategies that enable scale, in coordination with CRRD Program Delivery, Airbel and Movement Against Malnutrition key stakeholders.

• Oversee the scenario analysis tool development and deployment:

• Provide nutrition technical inputs to SAT tool, methodologies, questions and support data interpretation in country-level scale planning .

• Guide SAT use efforts, working closely with colleagues and leaders in BUR and country colleagues.

• Oversee the SAT project and grants management

• Oversee the CMAM toolkit, integrating it with efforts to support scale such as the scenario analysis tool and related resources

• Support country-level analyses and operationalization of scale planning, in collaboration with the Program Delivery MAM lead

• Advise priorities, roadmaps, internal support mechanism to implement scale activities identified in MAM country scale plans

• Support the nutrition TA’s to provide nutrition subject matter expertise to national advocacy staff where needed, and identify where IRC can provide additional technical support to country-based staff

• Strengthen IRC capacity to influence national guideline revision processes

• Facilitate cross country learning and tracking of revision processes and outcomes

• Support BD related to CP-led scaling for opportunities that are multi-country and/or high-value

• Integrate IRC’s Delivery System for Scale into IRC’s country scale plans where appropriate, utilizing resources and supporting Delivery Advisors according to context

• Co-develop and co-supervise priority tasks and expected outputs based on the MoU with Sindh province MoH

• Support implementation of operational pilot in Sindh province (TBD)

• Draft TORs and advise workplan for supply chain assessment, lady health worker assessment, M&E assessment

• Review and input business development

• Advise the National Nutrition Advocacy Coordinator (NNAC) strategy, working closely with regional and HQ advocacy colleagues to integrate the NNAC model with country scaling plans.

III. Serve as IRC’s technical lead on TU-led Business Development opportunities

• Support Technical Unit led global business development for Nutrition and oversee strategic project-level proposals, including coordinating technical inputs

• Support the development of Technical Unit and Airbel-led strategic awards in Nutrition, working closely with regional Technical Advisors as applicable and the Grant Operations and Analytics Team

IV. Support the Technical Advisors with cross-cutting strategic initiatives for nutrition, including but not limited to IYCF counseling materials, coverage surveys and projects focused on surveillance, treatment and prevention of malnutrition

• IYCF counselling

• Coverage surveys

• RUTF task force

• CMAM Toolkit

• Quality of Care

Key Working Relationships

• Position Reports to: Global Practice Lead and Director of Research, Nutrition

• Direct Reports: The role does not have direct reports and will support and mentor the Nutrition Technical Advisor through a community of practice led by the Global Practice Lead.

• The Senior Specialist Nutrition works closely with colleagues in CRRD Program Delivery, the Movement Against Malnutrition and Airbel.

Desired Experience and Skills

• Established or growing recognition as an expert in Nutrition, with 6-8 years in the Nutrition Practice Area.

• Extensive experience working with simplified nutrition treatment and screening approaches, either in programs or research

• Strong track record working on scaling nutrition programs, including awareness of different scaling strategies and how to tailor those to specific country contexts

• Demonstrated experience translating research and evidence into practice

• Demonstrated track record building capacity of colleagues in nutrition, particularly in simplified approaches and/or scaling plans

• Diplomacy and mentorship skills including coaching, mentoring, and performance management.

• Strong ability to lead business development and determine go/no-go alignment with IRC priorities; strong business acumen

• Strong coalition-building skills, with demonstrated ability to lead coalitions and committees

• Demonstrated ability to coordinate with diverse stakeholders internally and externally.

• Ability to work, manage, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment

• Ability to collaborate and connect well with colleagues across countries, cultures, and departments

• Fluency in English required; proficiency in French strongly preferred.

• Ability to travel globally up to 25% of the time, occasionally on short notice.

Education: Master’s degree in nutrition, Public Health and/or related fields or an equivalent professional experience background is required.

Compensation:

Posted pay ranges apply to US and UK-based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

US Benefits:

The IRC offers a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. All US employees are eligible for sick time, a 403b retirement savings plans: up to 4.5% immediately vested matching contribution, plus an 3-7% additional IRC contribution, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support in times of crisis and mental health struggles.

In addition, full-time employees are eligible for 10 US paid holidays, 20-25 paid time off days, disability & life insurance, medical, dental, and vision insurance (employee contribution starting at $135, $7, and $5 per month respectively) and FSA for healthcare, childcare, and commuter costs. Part-time employees are eligible for a proportionate amount of paid time off. These additional benefits apply to employees who work at least 6 months within a 12 month time period.

Standard of Professional Conduct: The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.

Commitment to Gender, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: The IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful, and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. The IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of the IRC persons in any work setting. We aim to increase the representation of women, people that are from country and communities we serve, and people who identify as races and ethnicities that are under-represented in global power structures.