Technical Advisor III, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

Position description

As Technical Advisor III for Climate Change and Resilience, you will contribute to the strategic development and integration of climate change adaptation at country, regional and global levels. You will support Country Programs (CPs) to understand climate risks and vulnerabilities and to place a climate lens on program design. With a broad awareness of climate tools and resources, you will help country teams identify and fill gaps. Your experience with institutional donors and collaboration with climate networks will support country and headquarter teams understanding of and ability to respond to donor expectations. Your expertise will increase visibility of CRS’ climate change agenda, and you will represent CRS at various climate fora and with key donors and stakeholders.

Though you will spend a significant percentage of time supporting Country Programs working across a variety of sectors, such as education, health and water, you will also work closely with the Agriculture and Livelihoods team, reporting to the Senior Technical Advisor for Climate Change and Land Restoration. Within Agriculture and Livelihoods, you will provide support to a team working on Nature-based Solutions, as well as integrating climate change into markets, financial inclusion, gender and social cohesion. You will participate in an interdivisional working group on climate change, enhancing communication and coordination with other members working on agency climate action in the four pillar areas of operations, policy, emergency response and development programming. Your strategic programmatic insights and knowledge of country support needs will contribute to that group’s effective coordination.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Contribute to program design with partners to incorporate standards, tools, and best practices in climate change adaptation, and climate change mitigation where relevant. While support will be provided to a variety of sectors, you are not expected to have technical expertise in multiple sectors, but rather to help teams understand and find appropriate resources to incorporate and act on key climate considerations.
• Support strategy development at country and regional levels and use field connections and experience to inform agency-level climate action, and eventual development of agency-level action plan.
• Represent CRS to donors, partners and networks, and at key events, globally, regionally and in country programs where we work. Help to position CRS with donors and as a thought leader in the climate space.
• Provide CPs, Regions and HQ teams with thought leadership, strengthening, contributing to program design and tools development as needed/appropriate.
• Oversee or lead capacity strengthening initiatives in climate change adaptation globally for staff and partners supporting the development of learning and training strategies and activities. Provide mentoring and coaching to technical advisors and Country Program and regional staff.

Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Climate Change related studies, including Environmental Engineering, Meteorology/Climate Risk Management, Natural Resource Management (NRM), Sustainable Development, Agroecology, or related field. PhD a plus.
• Minimum of seven years of work experience in climate change adaptation and mitigation with progressive responsibilities, ideally with an international NGO. This should include three years overseas working in multiple regions in a developing country context as a technical advisor and/or program manager of climate change adaptation and mitigation and/or multi-sectoral projects.
• Strong understanding and application of technical principles and concepts in climate change adaptation and mitigation. Good knowledge of related disciplines to ensure proper cross-sectoral approach.
• Track record of contributing to successful resource mobilization activities capturing public and/or private donor funding in climate change adaptation and mitigation.
• Experience in the development and production of training materials to support climate change adaptation and mitigation interventions and programming. Demonstrated experience in knowledge transfer to diverse audiences.
• Experience with program monitoring and evaluation including development of indicators, data collection tools and methodologies, data analysis, and data presentation.
• Experience and skills representing the organization at meetings with donors, government, international NGOs, local partners – faith-based and civil society. Understanding of partnership principles.
• Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications and strong understanding of information and budget management systems and knowledge-sharing networks.
• Technical and/or academic publications a plus.

Required Languages:

• Excellent spoken and written English skills. Good knowledge of French or Spanish desirable.

Location and Travel:

• The successful candidate can be based and work out of any country where CRS has offices with a preference for the US. Must be willing and able to travel up to 30%.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Excellent 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.
• Very strong strategic, analytical, problem-solving and systems thinking skills with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment.
• Very strong written and oral communication skills
• Very strong presentation, facilitation, training, mentoring, and coaching skills
• Proactive, resourceful, and results-oriented

Key Working Relationships

• Internal: You will report to the Senior Technical Advisor for Climate Change and NRM and will work closely with the STA/Team Lead for Climate Change and Food Security as well as well as other members of these teams. You will collaborate with a variety of headquarters based, regional and country program technical advisors and project implementors. You will also be collaborating with the Climate Action Working Group and the Climate Policy and Research Advisor.
• External: Bilateral and multi-lateral donors, private foundations, UN organizations (Green Climate Fund, Global Environmental Fund, UN Environmental Program, etc.), peers, private sector partners and potential partners such as Conservation International, Nature Conservancy, World Resources Institute, the Church, local partners etc.

Application instructions

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