Country Representative, Iraq - IQ Talent Marketplace

Job Title: Country Representative, Iraq

Reports to: Regional Director for EMECA

Department: EMECA – Iraq

Salary Grade: 12

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

In collaboration with partners in Iraq, including Caritas Iraq, CRS supports conflict-affected people to live in dignity through the provision of educational support for children, livelihoods restoration and development, and social cohesion programs. CRS implements also a capacity strengthening program for Iraqi CSOs. With a staff team of almost 100 and offices in Erbil, Duhok, Baghdad, Kirkuk, and Mosul, CRS Iraq currently manages USD 20M yearly, including funding from USAID, US State Department (PRM), and other public and private donors.

CRS is also newly registered in Yemen. Under the leadership of an Acting Country Manager, and with support from EMECA regional staff, CRS started to recruit staff and establish presence there, with primary focus on health, WASH, education, and livelihoods. For the past few years, CRS Iraq has been supporting the operations of CRS outreach projects in Yemen. This support is expected to continue, at least during the start-up phase of CRS programs in Yemen.

Primary Job Responsibilities

Responsible for overall leadership and management of CRS country program in Iraq, including management of personnel, programs, partners and donor relationships, and financial and material resources. Duties also include guiding the development of new programs, building staff/partner capacity, and representing CRS to a wide variety of stakeholders.

During the process of establishing CRS Country Program in Yemen, CRS/Yemen will remain an outreach program of CRS/Iraq. The Country Representative in Iraq will therefore supervise the performance of CRS Country Manager in Yemen and ensure continuous operations support from CRS Iraq to CRS Yemen.

Specific Duties

• For Iraq:

Personnel Management

• Lead and directly supervise the senior management team, including the Head of Programs, Head of Operations, Head of Risk Management, and Heads of CRS offices in Iraq.
• Ensure full implementation of CRS performance management system for direct reports and their subordinates, including annual performance planning, regular coaching, annual performance assessment, and timely recognition of unique achievements and interventions for struggling staff.
• Promote a culture of continuous learning and professional development, including utilization of CRS professional development plans, emphasis on CRS’s education policy, and frequent in-country learning and dissemination events.
• Recruit, develop, coach, and retain a diverse team of national and international staff to build cadre of skilled and committed personnel.
• Demonstrate, maintain and encourage the principles of a just workplace.

Strategic and Program Management

• Lead CRS/Iraq country program team, holding ultimate accountability for the success and reputation of CRS Iraq.
• Provide vision and guidance for annual programming, staff development, resource acquisition, and advocacy plans.
• Manage ongoing programs and guide the development and design of new programs in the areas of humanitarian relief, return and resettlement, social cohesion and partner capacity building, in line with CRS’ Regional and Agency strategies.
• Ensure coherence of country program activities and investments with strategy through regular communication and close collaboration with the Regional Director, regional staff, and colleagues in other country programs in the EMECA region.
• Ensure program quality through consistent implementation of project review systems, comprehensive M&E systems, and staff/partner development.
• Remain well-informed about national and regional issues affecting CRS’ presence and operations, programs and partners.
• Ensure active country program involvement in pursuing and contributing to the objectives of CRS’ strategy for EMECA.

Financial/Administrative Management

• Work closely with the Head of Operations, Head of Programs, and Finance Manager to develop and monitor annual and multi-year program budgets.
• Ensure compliance with all CRS and donor regulations and requirements, as well as local laws.
• Identify areas of risk and take steps to reduce vulnerabilities.

Representation and Growth

• Represent CRS and share information regularly with local authorities, the Church, Caritas institutional and private donors, and other humanitarian actors.
• Pursue collaboration with Caritas Internationalis and CI member organizations for the effective support of Caritas Iraq.
• Identify and negotiate funding opportunities from institutional and non-traditional donors for on-going and new programs.
• For Yemen:
• Supervise and support the Country Manager in Yemen, at least during the start-up phase of CRS program in Yemen.
• Ensure sufficient and effective support and oversight from CRS/Iraq operations team to CRS/Yemen, in areas including finance, procurement, HR, etc.
• Travel 1-2 times a year to Yemen for meetings and representation as needed.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities

• Excellent strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
• Excellent relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Team leadership abilities with diverse/multi-disciplinary teams. Coaching/mentoring skills.
• Strong communications and presentation skills; able to develop tailored and persuasive messaging for varied audiences.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.
• Should have the ability to function well in a stressful environment, stay focused, and maintain sufficient work-life balance with limited options for downtime activity.

Required Language s – Fluency in Arabic is highly desirable.

Travel – 25% inside Iraq and around the region

Supervisory Responsibilities

In Iraq: Head of Programs, Head of Operations, Head of Risk Management, Heads of Office of Kirkuk,

In Yemen: Dohuk/Mosul, and Baghdad, Country Manager

Key Working Relationships

Internal : Regional Director and regional staff; other EMECA country representatives; EVP Overseas Operations; Chief Financial Officer; colleagues in Overseas Support Department, US Operations, Program Quality & Support Department, Charitable Giving, and Global People Resources.

External : Caritas Iraq, Catholic Church, host country government agencies, donor agencies, international and national non-governmental organizations, UN agencies.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience successfully managing a variety of complex, high-value projects from multiple international donors, including USAID, DFID, and UN agencies; understanding of relevant donor regulations.
• Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Experience working with Church partners a plus.
• Staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment. Experience coaching and mentoring senior program staff.
• Ability to represent the agency at high levels.
• Experience in MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications, and information and budget management systems.
• Demonstrated record of effective leadership at the CR level
• Demonstrated ability to represent effectively the Catholic, American identity of CRS
• Effective interpersonal and communications skills in an inter-cultural setting
• Demonstrated accomplishments in strategic visioning and new programming development
• Proven success in resource acquisition, including cultivation of new donors and partnerships
• Experience in and affinity for institutional strengthening and partnership building
• Familiarity with the Middle East is a plus