Technology for Programs Lead

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 40 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 delivers 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 sector teams or “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, together 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 to influence and improve the humanitarian sector’s policy and practice.

Technical Excellence is currently going through a change process called “Regional and Technical Alignment.” We are doing this to ensure that the impact of our programs and the influence of our ideas create meaningful change for people affected by crisis. This next phase of IRC’s commitment to program quality will more deliberately resource and link global thought leadership with practice on the ground. Updated Technical Unit structures will have new roles with clearer mandates. The Technology for Programs Lead is a new leadership role introduced by this change process.

Job Overview

IRC’s Strategy 100 sets ambitious goals for IRC to improve the scale and quality of our programs. To deliver on this mandate, IRC has developed the Technology 100 strategic plan, which sets out how technology will be used to achieve these aims. A key recommendation of this plan is the establishment of an expanded Technology for Programs (ICT4P) function to both ensure complementarity between existing efforts in this area, and to identify highest priority areas for expansion.

The Technology for Programs Lead will be the department leader for technology in programs thinking, and work with partners in our Technical Units, Program Delivery Teams, IT and others to operationalize a strategy for IRC’s approach to technology use within the delivery of programs. The role as currently scoped is intended to last approximately 3.5 years, and will further build out and begin to implement a proposed plan for establishing and staffing an ICT4P function and suggested priority projects. The role will serve as the CRRD focal point for pressing technology in programs issues, capturing the landscape of challenges and prioritizing solutions based on risk and importance. The role will also recommend, in line with the newly developed T4P strategy, priority programming opportunities to use and invest in technology to strengthen our client outcomes, safety, and efficiency. Topics of importance for the Technology for Programs Lead include but are by no means not limited to: the integration of AI in programming work, electronic medical records, app development, case management technology, technology hardware requirements or risk guidance, data protection (together with other organizational data protection leaders), and program knowledge management. [Note that this role will not focus on M&E technology, for which responsibility sits with the Technical Excellence Measurement Unit, though it will coordinate with MEAL colleagues.]

Major Responsibilities

Strategy

• Act as the organizational leader for CRRD in Technology in Programs internally and externally

• Lead strategic direction for Technology in Programs in line with the organizational global strategy (both S100 and T100 Strategy)

• Champion the proposed team and governance structure for T4P in the CRRD department

• Set and/or communicate relevant technical standards for IRC’s work with technology in programs, updating them as necessary to reflect new needs and emerging evidence and consensus

• Proactively partner with Technical Units to uncover and address potential technology-related risks in programs, escalating critical issues to Technical Excellence leadership in a timely and appropriate manner

• Responsible for identifying global areas of programmatic risk and elevating issues to Technical Excellence leadership

• Collaborate with other Technical Excellence leaders based on our Outcome Strategies to promote integrated program designs across all IRC sectors that increase scale and deepen impact by appropriately leveraging technology

• Work with AMU to drive fundraising from Public and Institutional donors and with ER to drive fundraising from Private donors to meet our technology-related strategic priorities

Global Implementation Support

• Provide technical oversight of IRC’s global technical standards, methodologies, and tools for technology in programs (drawing on evidenced-based best practices)

• Facilitate design sessions with Technical Units to refine priorities for technology in programs (at sector and sub-sector levels), identify opportunities, and develop actionable implementation plans, including business development opportunities

• Develop (in concert with programmatic subject matter experts and IT) high-value tools and methodologies to appropriately incorporate technology into sector-specific practice areas or programs

• Establish information and knowledge management systems that support Technical Excellence Regional Leads and Technical Advisors in staying up to date on global technology technical standards, methodologies for consideration or incorporation, and tools

• Coordinate with MEAL colleagues and leaders regarding how to integrate MEAL data collection into programming technology

Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning

• Set up and lead a Community of Practice and other channels for Technology in Programs to ensure pro-active and inclusive management with sustained learning, development, innovation, and best practice sharing

• Coordinate with Regional Leads and Technical Advisors to lift up program learning for cross-sharing and incorporation into global best practice

• Identify and explore opportunities for capacity strengthening to better leverage technology in programs

Influence, Relationships and Representation

• Act as a key strategic advisor to IT, Research & Innovation, and External Relations teams on priority policy and practice shifts related to technology in programs

• Drive the identification, cultivation, and nurturing of impactful partnerships with diverse stakeholders (e.g. donors, UN agencies, NGOs, research and educational institutions, private sector actors) in humanitarian or international development technology circles

• Collaborate with IT to identify opportunities to streamline program tools/platforms and centralize the tech stack, increasing collaboration, driving efficiencies, and reducing costs

• Represent IRC in external forums as relevant

• Work closely with RAI technology in programs stakeholders as time permits and engagement is agreed, and/or when opportunities for joint technology approaches exist

Key Working Relationships

**• Position Reports to:**Director, Strategy & Performance, CRRD Technical Excellence

• Direct Reports: None, with the potential for direct reports in future years as funding permits

Key Internal Relationships:

• Technical Excellence Leadership Team

• Technical Unit Deputy Technical Directors

• Technical Unit Global Practice Leads

• Technical Unit Regional Leads across 6 regions, and regional Technical Advisors

• Technical Unit Policy, BD, MEAL leads

• IT, Research & Innovation, External Relations

• CRRD Senior Management Team and Leadership Group; Regional Leadership Teams

Desired Experience and Skills

• Established or growing recognition as an expert in the practice area, at regional or global level, with a minimum of 12+ years of progressive experience of designing, leading and implementing humanitarian or development programs with 7+ years focused on at least one aspect of technology in programs

• Strong track record of driving uptake of evidence-based practice

• Demonstrated experience in sectoral strategy design and planning

• Knowledge of common technology, trends and sector leaders within the ICT4P field

• Understanding of business requirements gathering

• Experience of assessing and improving organizational readiness to use technology

• Excellent communication, influencing, and storytelling skills

• Ability to identify and convert business development opportunities for self and staff strongly preferred

• Demonstrated ability to influence across a wide range of diverse stakeholders internally and externally

• Demonstrated ability to shape the vision and agenda within the domain area

• Ability to work, manage, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment; outstanding business acumen, critical thinking, problem solving and decision-making skills required

• Superb inter-personal, written and verbal communication skills with ability to collaborate across countries, cultures, and departments

• Fluency in English required; Arabic, French and/or Spanish also an advantage

• Ability to travel globally up to 20% of the time

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.