Senior Specialist, MEAL

International Rescue Committee • Silver Spring, MD

7d • $95 - $110 • Remote

About The Position

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 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver 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. Background: 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 technical units which have deep expertise in their respective fields: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Health, Violence Prevention and Response, Monitoring Evaluation Technology Accountability & Learning (METAL). Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL) at the IRC: To ensure that we are effectively carrying out our mission, we have committed to implement outcome-driven and evidence-based programs, measure what we achieve, act on what we learn, and generate new and relevant evidence. We need to produce high-quality data that can inform decision-making while also meeting donor requirements. The Global MEAL Practice team, within the METAL Unit, is responsible for global guidance, resources, and coordination to ensure that staff across all our programs are equipped with the skills and tools they need to generate and manage the right data for programmatic decision-making across the IRC. Job Overview: The Senior Specialist, MEAL serves as an organization-wide specialist for performance indicators, program monitoring, and evaluation. The position acts as a central counterpart to sector-specific Technical Unit (TU) MEAL Focal Persons and Regional METAL Teams, helping them to implement and learn from organizational/program indicator data and evaluations.

Requirements

• Advanced degree in relevant field such as economics, statistics, international development, public policy, or other social sciences.
• Minimum five years of experience designing, implementing, and supporting M&E frameworks and results, with extensive experience supporting field-based M&E design and reporting.
• Experience managing program performance indicator definitions, data collection, and reporting.
• Experience with the challenges of effective monitoring in the field, including cultural, gender, and access considerations with the aim of enhancing project learning, inclusivity, quality, and data-driven decision making.
• Proven ability to operate in a complex organization, across functions and projects, on own initiative and collaboratively as part of diverse teams, including project management experience.
• Excellent communication skills, including superior writing skills and the ability to plan for and prepare strategic communications and presentations.
• Strong computer skills: proficiency with MS Office and analytic tools such as MS PowerBI.
• Fluency in English.

Nice To Haves

• Proficiency with MS PowerApps.
• Experience with direct program implementation in emergency and low resource contexts.
• Advanced training in quantitative data analysis and/or evaluation methodologies.
• Experience rolling out organizational initiatives, particularly related to monitoring and evaluation.
• Proficiency in French, Spanish, or Arabic.
• The chosen candidate will be a proven team player able to work with multi-cultural teams and under tight deadlines.

Responsibilities

• Lead IRC’s annual statistics and global reach calculation process, which requires coordination across sectoral Technical Units, Country Programs, and Regional Measurement Advisors to collect, review, analyze, and present data on key organizational indicators.
• Maintain and routinely coordinate updates of IRC’s core indicator list, indicator selection tool, and supporting resources.
• Provide leadership on indicator standards and quality; work closely with Technical Units to ensure the indicators and definitions are relevant to IRC’s organizational priorities and aligned with global standards.
• Support the development, maintenance, and translation of standard organizational MEAL tools, capacity building resources, and learning platforms to improve data quality and use across the organization.
• Support strategic global and regional evaluations as needed; provide technical guidance and quality assurance on evaluation planning, design/methods, analysis, dissemination, and data use for decision-making.
• Lead trainings for sectoral Technical Units, Country Programs, and Regional staff on various MEAL topics.
• Leverage opportunities for learning between technical units, country programs, and other relevant units across the IRC.

Benefits

• We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $163 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees