Program Manager II, Education - Egypt

Job Title: Program Manager II, Education - Egypt
Reports to: Head of Programming

Department: Programming
Salary Grade: ‎10

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:
The CRS Egypt country program began in ‎1956 at the invitation of the Egyptian
president Nasser by providing relief assistance to the victims of the Suez
War. Over the following few decades, CRS Egypt moved from large-scale food
relief to long-term poverty alleviation and development programs. CRS Egypt
works in a wide variety of areas within the development field.
Currently, CRS Egypt has three main programs: education assistance program and
livelihoods program for refugee support, and local partnership. Projects under
these programs range from the provision of technical assistance and capacity
building to partners, promoting peace and tolerance, educational grants for
refugees and assistance to refugee community schools, and technical support
and start-up funds for refugee and vulnerable Egyptian entrepreneurs.
Additional programming includes Emergency Preparedness and Response projects
that arise as needed. The Operations department, supported by a regional
Management Quality unit, ensures the country program develops and maintains
the highest level of operational standards.
CRS Egypt currently holds a both a main office and a refugee support office in
Maadi with activities in Greater Cairo, Upper Egypt and the North Coast.
Job Summary:
You will manage and provide technical oversight of the development and
implementation of the Country Program (CP) education programming, particularly
for large and complex projects, ensuring effective systems and processes are
in place that support high-quality programming advancing Catholic Relief
Services' (CRS) work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management
skills and knowledge will ensure that the CP delivers high-quality programming
and continuously works towards improving the impact of its education
programming.
Under the supervision and guidance of the Head of Programming (HoP), you will
be responsible for the planning, implementation, and monitoring of CRS Egypt's
education portfolio. You will provide technical support to project staff and
partners, ensure timely and accurate reporting to the HoP and donors, and
represent the project in a variety of contexts at the governmental and
nongovernmental levels. You will also provide support to growth opportunities
within sector, including new business and partnering opportunities. This will
include identifying potential partners, donor scoping/mapping, intel
gathering, and leading proposal development.
Job Responsibilities:
* Provide management, guidance, and technical oversight of all new and existing projects within the CP education program throughout the project cycle to ensure project design, start-up, implementation and close-out are in line with CRS quality principles and standards, donor guidelines, and industry best practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate systems and tools, including for both technical and financial management.
* Effectively manage and supervise talent. 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.
* Lead the development of program learning - identify opportunities for learning, research and publications in the area of education and implementation of MEAL policy. Facilitate the dissemination of promising practices and lessons learned to contribute to the agency knowledge management agenda. Ensure integration of innovations and best practices.
* Share project learning and experiences in broader discussions, with donors, with relevant stakeholders, and with beneficiaries, as relevant, through the production of high-quality communication documents.
* Contribute to the proactive pursuit of opportunities for new funding to ensure growth of the CP education sector portfolio in line with agency, regional, and CP strategic priorities. Serve as the technical lead and technical writer to ensure quality proposals in education per agency and donor standards. Contribute to budgeting and staffing plans and activities for proposals.
* Oversee the identification, assessment and strengthening of relevant education and the appropriate application of education concepts, tools, and approaches.
* Lead reporting efforts for projects under the portfolio, ensuring products are of high quality and utilize CRS tools and best practices.
* Manage identification, assessment, and integration of education concepts, tools, and activities in other program sectors and project activities.
* Ensure timely and appropriate project expenditures in line with financial plans and efficient use and stewardship of project material sources. Lead the budget pipeline and management oversight process for both direct project implementation and partner implementation, including providing training as needed.
* In coordination with the portfolio's MEAL staff, oversee implementation to ensure projects meet their impact targets and are incorporating data-driven lessons learned into their programming approaches. Integrate data analysis, reflection and interpretation and use with ongoing project activities. Ensure compliance with donor and agency MEAL requirements.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
* Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment
* Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups
* Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports
* Good presentation and facilitation skills
* Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented
Required/Desired Foreign Language : Fluency in English required; fluency
in Arabic strongly preferred.
Travel Required: Travel within Greater Cairo, and travel to other
governorates approximately ‎10%.
Key Working Relationships:
Supervisory: Direct - Project Manager (‎3), Senior Project Officer; Indirect -
Project Officers, Field Officers, Case workers, and other education staff.
Internal: Country Representative, Head of Operations, Head of Programming,
Finance Manager, Accountability Assistant, Operations Manager, HR Manager,
Procurement Manager, ICT4D Manager, MEAL Manager, MEAL Senior Officer and
Officers for Education, other Program Managers.
External: Partner organizations and staff, Government counterparts, donor
representatives.
Preferred Qualifications:
* Budget and project financial management experience required.
* Good experience in project grants management, including project design, preferably for grants from multiple public donors, including USAID.
* Experience using and applying ICT4D technology to improve project implementation.
* Project management experience in education highly desirable.
* Experience engaging with partner organizations.
* Ability to write high quality technical proposals.
* MEAL skills and experience preferred.
* Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.