Program Manager II, El Nino Preparedness South America – EMPOWER/RAPID

Catholic Relief Services; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Catholic Relief Services is seeking a Program Manager II to lead El Niño preparedness efforts for EMPOWER partners in South America. The role focuses on coordinating cross‑functional preparedness activities, designing activation‑ready response plans, and ensuring alignment with CS program quality standards.

The candidate will work remotely with travel to priority countries, coordinating with MEAL, supply chain, and technical teams to ensure timely and effective donor‑ready programming.

Qualifications

• Strong program management and technical skills across emergency preparedness, response design, and close‑out.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving abilities synthesizing hazard, vulnerability, market, and partner information.

Responsibilities

• Lead the El Niño preparedness process across South America priority countries with EMPOWER partners and stakeholders.
• Develop a joint workplan linking program, MEAL, partnership, cash/voucher, supply chain, and operations activities.
• Coordinate hazard, vulnerability, exposure analyses to identify priority needs, triggers, and preparedness actions.
• Lead stakeholder mapping with government authorities, Caritas structures, humanitarian bodies, and community actors.
• Support partners to develop contingency plans, response strategies, and scalable scenarios.
• Define minimum program quality standards, transfer values, and referral pathways in collaboration with sector leads.

Skills

Program management

Analytical thinking

Grants management

MEAL

Stakeholder engagement

Planning & coordination

Communication skills

Tools

MS Excel

MS Word

PowerPoint

Web conferencing

Job description

Job Summary

The Program Manager II will provide time-bound program management, technical support, accompaniment, and training to EMPOWER partners in South America to strengthen El Niño preparedness and readiness for rapid, partner-led emergency response. The position will coordinate preparedness programming across priority countries and hotspots, translating hazard, vulnerability, market, operational, and partner‑capacity analysis into practical readiness actions, quality program designs, and activation‑ready response plans.

Working closely with the Supply Chain Management Technical Advisor II and other technical and operational colleagues, the Program Manager II will align program strategies, targeting, transfer modalities, technical standards, MEAL, accountability, safeguarding, protection, and partner capacity strengthening with sourcing, contracting, logistics, cash and voucher assistance, and distribution readiness. The role will help partners identify and close priority program bottlenecks, test readiness arrangements, and maintain an integrated package that can be rapidly adapted when an EMPOWER/RAPID response is activated.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Lead the programmatic El Niño preparedness process across South America priority countries in close coordination with EMPOWER partners, country program or program office teams, RAPID counterparts, technical advisors, MEAL, and supply chain and operations colleagues.
• Develop and maintain an integrated assignment workplan and deliverable calendar that links program, MEAL, partnership, cash and voucher assistance, supply chain, finance, safeguarding, and operational readiness activities.
• Coordinate hazard, vulnerability, exposure, seasonal, and scenario analysis to identify priority countries, hotspots, population groups, likely needs, access constraints, and preparedness triggers for drought, floods, food insecurity, wildfires and related El Niño impacts.
• Lead stakeholder and service mapping with partners, including government authorities, Caritas structures, humanitarian coordination bodies, community actors, technical services, financial service providers, and other response stakeholders.
• Support partners to develop or update country‑and hotspot‑specific contingency plans, response strategies, sector and modality options, targeting approaches, geographic priorities, and scalable response scenarios.
• Work with sector technical leads and partners to define minimum program quality standards, intervention packages, eligibility and prioritization criteria, transfer values or assistance quantities, referral pathways, and safe adaptation or substitution rules.
• Coordinate with the Supply Chain Management Technical Advisor II to validate proposed relief kits, in‑kind assistance, and cash or voucher options against assessed needs, local market capacity, cultural appropriateness, protection considerations, delivery feasibility, lead times, and cost drivers.
• Integrate market and logistics findings into program design, including modality selection, remote‑area feasibility, delivery sequencing, contingency options, and realistic procurement and implementation timelines.
• Support partner readiness for cash and voucher assistance by defining program requirements for geographic coverage, transfer modalities, participant data, accountability, complaints handling, protection, inclusion, reconciliation, monitoring, and failed‑payment follow‑up in coordination with operations and finance teams.
• Lead development of activation‑ready program packages, including concise needs assessment tools, rapid response concepts, targeting and registration approaches, implementation plans, staffing assumptions, budgets, procurement inputs, risk assessments, and donor‑ready narrative components.
• Provide management, guidance, and technical oversight throughout preparedness and any activated response cycle so that design, start‑up, implementation, monitoring, adaptation, and close‑out align with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and humanitarian best practice.
• Collaborate with MEAL and information management colleagues to establish preparedness indicators where feasible, baseline or reference data, data‑collection and analysis tools, monitoring plans, feedback and response mechanisms, and learning questions.
• Ensure that safeguarding, protection mainstreaming, gender, age, disability inclusion, accountability to affected populations, conflict sensitivity, and disaster risk reduction are integrated across assessments, designs, partner tools, simulations, and readiness plans.
• Assess partner program‑management and technical readiness; facilitate participatory prioritization and partner‑specific action plans with clear actions, responsible persons, deadlines, support needs, approvals, risks, contingencies, escalation points, and maintenance responsibilities.
• Design and facilitate coaching, working sessions, simulations, tabletop exercises, or readiness tests so partner teams can practice assessment, decision‑making, coordination, modality selection, activation, implementation, monitoring, adaptation, and reporting.
• Contribute to partner capacity strengthening through tailored learning strategies, agendas and curricula, workshops, mentoring, and coaching based on priorities identified by partners.
• Support quality donor engagement and resource mobilization by contributing technical analysis, program design, proposal writing, budgeting, staffing plans, and donor discussions for El Niño preparedness and rapid response opportunities.
• Promote strong, equitable partnerships in line with CRS and Caritas Internationalis partnership principles and facilitate timely resolution of programmatic or coordination challenges through dialogue and appropriate support.
• Contribute to knowledge management by documenting decisions, lessons, tested approaches, readiness gaps, good practices, and recommendations that can inform EMPOWER/RAPID programming in South America and other regions.
• Consolidate and hand over the final El Niño program preparedness package, including analyses, contingency and response plans, assessment and design tools, MEAL materials, partner action plans, training resources, ownership arrangements, maintenance recommendations, and an exit debrief.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong program management and technical skills across emergency preparedness, rapid needs assessment, response design, contingency planning, implementation, monitoring, adaptation, and close‑out.
• Strong analytical and problem‑solving skills, including the ability to synthesize hazard, vulnerability, market, operational, and partner information into prioritized, realistic actions.
• Good grants management and budgeting experience, including design and proposal development for public or institutional donors.
• MEAL and information‑management skills, including development of practical indicators, data‑collection tools, analysis approaches, feedback mechanisms, and reporting products. Experience with KoboToolbox, CommCare, or similar tools is desirable.
• Ability to facilitate partner‑led processes, build trust, adapt technical support to partner priorities, and promote sustainable ownership of preparedness systems.
• Excellent planning, coordination, documentation, facilitation, presentation, and organizational skills, with the ability to manage multiple workstreams and deliverables across countries.
• Strong relationship‑management and professional communication skills, with the ability to work effectively with partner leadership, technical teams, donors, government, and internal support functions.
• Proactive, resourceful, culturally sensitive, solution‑oriented, and results‑focused.
• Advanced proficiency in Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, web‑conferencing platforms, and common information‑management systems.

Required Languages:

• Professional fluency in English and Spanish is required.
• Professional proficiency in Portuguese is strongly preferred; French is an advantage for engagement across target regions.

Travel:

The assignment will be primarily remote, with in‑country or regional travel to priority partners, countries, or hotspots as approved and operationally required. The selected candidate must be willing and able to travel up to 50 percent within South America and work effectively across time zones and in diverse operating environments.

Supervisory Responsibility:

No