Senior El Niño Preparedness Program Lead

Catholic Relief Services; United States; On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Catholic Relief Services seeks a Program Manager II to lead time-bound program management, technical support, and partner capacity building for El Niño preparedness and rapid response in South America. The role involves coordinating across countries, translating hazard and market analyses into practical readiness actions and activation‑ready response plans.

You will work with MEAL, logistics, and field teams to align strategies, indicators, and transfer modalities, ensuring safeguards and

Qualifications

• 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.

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.

Skills

Program management

Emergency preparedness

MEAL

Data analysis

Stakeholder engagement

Budgeting

Coaching/training

Microsoft Excel

Project coordination

Tools

KoboToolbox

CommCare

Job description

Catholic Relief Services seeks a Program Manager II to lead time-bound program management, technical support, and partner capacity building for El Niño preparedness and rapid response in South America. The role involves coordinating across countries, translating hazard and market analyses into practical readiness actions and activation‑ready response plans.

You will work with MEAL, logistics, and field teams to align strategies, indicators, and transfer modalities, ensuring safeguards and