Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Director Iraq and Northeast Syria - IQ Talent Marketplace

Blumont is a global organization working with communities around the world to help people overcome challenges and create a foundation for progress. Our vision is a world where a community’s future is not determined by its circumstances, but by the aspirations of its people.

Whether delivering lifesaving humanitarian assistance, building the infrastructure that stabilizes communities, or creating economic opportunities for individuals and businesses, Blumont teams are committed to making a positive difference in peoples’ lives.

POSITION SUMMARY:

Blumont has been present in Northeast Syria since 2014 with programming focused on food security and camp management to vulnerable Syrians, Iraqi refugees and Third-country nationals. With funding from the American, French, German, and Danish governments, we ensure efficient and effective delivery of basic services, camp management and coordination, and food services. Blumont Syria is managed from offices inside the country and through our office in Erbil, Iraq. Blumont is seeking a highly motivated individual who will be responsible for leading Blumont’s MEL teams across all programs in Iraq and Northeast Syria (NES). The MEL Director will improve existing systems to promote evidence-based decision-making, program and project performance, and internal management.

The Director leads their teams to develop and maintain systems to collect and analyze primary data, to provide program directors with verifiable evidence to inform implementation. S/he is ultimately responsible for all data collection, analyses and reporting across the Iraq and NES portfolio. They will work with the HQ MEL team to identify training opportunities for Blumont MEL teams in Iraq and Syria. S/he will have demonstrable experience leading program monitoring and evaluation for US and European donors. The Iraq and Northeast Syria MEL Director will design learning initiatives for each program team to improve data driven decision making across the portfolio.

KEY AREAS OF ACCOUNTABLITY

Primary responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Provides technical expertise, guidance and leadership to promote quality M&E planning and implementation;
• Leads the effort in institutional learning by building on and developing systematic monitoring and evaluation practices to ensure quality of management and operations of Blumont Iarq and NESprograms
• Provides methodological support and training to Iraq and NES MEL staff during the formulation, approval and implementation of M&E procedures and instruments, and select results-based management tools;
• Ensure all Iraq and NES MEL staff understand donor-specific MEL guidelines including performance indicator definitions, indicator tracking table management and logical framework design and reporting requirements.
• Lead Iraq and NES MEL teams through instrument review to improve monitoring and/or evaluation instrument design to guarantee all data are accurate and verifiable
• Lead analytical design including sample size calculations for any data collection effort where a representative sample is proposed. This includes single- and multi-stage designs.
• Co-design learning sessions from monitoring and/or evaluation data with the HQ MEL Director.
• Represent the MEL team as a member of the country office senior management team and build relationships across internal Blumont departments.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Advanced social science degree (MA, MS or PhD) with a demonstrable background independently designing and analyzing quantitative and/or qualitative data.

EXPERIENCE and SKILLS

• Minimum 5 years of demonstrable experience leading program monitoring (third-party monitoring is acceptable) and/or performance or impact evaluations.
• Minimum 12 years of demonstrable experience building team capacity around applied research methods, including experience establishing performance monitoring systems and mentoring project staff on its use to ensure performance data quality.
• Minimum of 12 years of combined experience with any of the following donors: USAID, US Department of State, French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and/or the German Federal Foreign Office
• Minimum 3 years of experience managing multiple teams, remotely
• Proficient in written and spoken English and Arabic.
• Excellent organizational and communication skills.

SUCCESS FACTORS:

• Ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to work well under pressure and successfully handle multiple tasks at once.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Ability to operate at advanced levels of authority and control significant activities, budgets and resources to produce and take responsibility for results.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Willingness to travel to Northeast Syria and throughout Iraq as needed
• Flexibility, commitment, patience, and a good sense of humor.

Commitment:

Every Blumont team member is expected to carry out their duties in accordance with Blumont’s code of business ethics, core values, anti-harassment policy and PSEA policies.

Blumont is committed to fostering, cultivating and preserving a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion. Our human capital is the most valuable asset we have. The collective sum of the individual differences, life experiences, knowledge, innovation, self-expression, unique capabilities and talent that our employees invest in their work represents a significant part of not only our culture, but our reputation and company’s achievement as well.

We recognize that diversity, equity and inclusion benefit our company, our clients, and the communities in which we work and live. To that end, we strongly encourage applications from women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, veterans, and individuals with disabilities.