Reporting to the Project Director, the Senior Project Manager is the primary in-country lead responsible for skilling and supply-side interventions, equipping underserved youth (disadvantaged young women, displaced populations and people with disabilities) to thrive on platforms. S/he is responsible for designing interventions which will enable these target populations to gain access and earn meaningfully from specific platform opportunities, and managing the interventions' delivery (which could include skilling, coaching, asset transfer, or other activities) through Inclusivity Partners (NGOs, CBOs and other local providers).
Additionally, he/she collaborates with other departments, including the Venture Support team that engages directly with platforms to make them more inclusive. S/he oversees contracting and subgrant management with local partners alongside the Operations team. The role requires strong leadership and people-management skills, a demand-led orientation, and the ability to build relationships across a wide set of actors including private-sector partners, and community-based, refugee-led and disabled people's organizations. The role manages the Project Officer for Skilling & Inclusion Safeguarding and is accountable for embedding safeguarding across all delivery.
Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy and Intervention Design (30%)
- Provide overall leadership for the Inclusivity Department's delivery in Nigeria, translating the inclusivity strategy agreed with the Platform Inclusion Lead into a delivery plan and targets across the three populations
- Identify adaptations to the program model for the Nigerian context, geographic targeting, and/or recommended interventions
- Work with partners to design interventions which will equip participants for work based on specific platform opportunities
Partner and Stakeholder Management (50%)
- Identify, assess and onboard Inclusivity Partners e.g. community-based organisations, refugee-led organisations and disabled people's organisations
- Build capacity of partners to dynamically respond to private sector needs
- Coordinate connections between Inclusivity Partners and DAWN portfolio platforms
- Ensure quality of service delivery by Inclusivity Partners, and ensure that activities adapt to needs of youth and platforms. Conduct direct oversight, and ensure oversight work of Project Officer.
- Coordinate procurement, contracting and administrative processes of inclusivity Partners ensuring compliance with organisational and donor policies
- Track and manage partner progress against workplans and budgets
- Serve as the program's primary liaison with relevant regulatory and refugee-authority stakeholders in Nigeria, coordinating closely with the Mercy Corps Nigeria country office and the DAWN Project Director
Collaboration with other departments (10%)
- Feed market insight, evidence and emerging patterns from delivery back into the program's wider learning
- Contribute the inclusivity lens to wider ecosystem and support in-market convenings and engagements
- Contribute to identifying, assessing and engaging jobtech platforms in Nigeria that are well placed to onboard target populations
- Support Venture Support to make platforms more inclusive by contributing inclusivity insights
Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning & Reporting (5%)
- Work with Inclusivity Partners to use the tracking systems set up by the Results Measurement team to learn and iterate early to improve delivery of interventions to achieve target outcomes
- Conduct field visits to verify data accuracy and collect qualitative insights, ensuring all data is disaggregated by gender, disability and displacement
- Contribute insights and lessons learned to research and donor reporting
- Oversee implementation of the Community Accountability Reporting Mechanism in Nigeria. Decide on responses and/escalations of safeguarding reports or concerns.
- Actively learn about safeguarding and integrate it into the program's work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work .
- Practice the values of Mercy Corps, including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members
- Encourage openness and communication in their team; encourage team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options
Team Leadership and Management
- Line-manage the Project Officer; supporting performance, development and maintaining clear priorities as the program evolves
- Practices the values of Mercy Corps, including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members
- Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options
Minimum Qualification and Transferable Skills
- Demonstrated experience and understanding of livelihoods programming (ideally digital livelihoods) with at least one or more of the program's target populations; young women, refugees and displaced people, and/or persons with disabilities is a must; experience across two or more is strongly preferred
- Minimum of 6 years' experience in project management, livelihoods, employment or a related field, including at least 4 years managing teams and implementing programs
- Demonstrated expertise in designing livelihoods activities and interventions
- Experience setting up delivery in a new market; setting up partnerships, systems and teams is strongly preferred
- Experience engaging with the private sector (as placement partner/collaborator or as a staff) is required. Experience working with refugees or disability inclusion is strongly preferred
- A history of excellence in achieving results and self-management
- Demonstrated experience in strategic planning, work planning, and managing project budgets and donor compliance
- Bachelor's degree in development studies, Economics, Business Administration, Social Sciences, or other related fields; a postgraduate qualification is an advantage
- Excellent communication skills (written and verbal), and a collaborative approach to working with
- Working and written fluency in English, given work with a regional English-speaking
- Outstanding analytical capacity, with capacity to bring clarity for others and make quick decisions