Temporary Director, Caribbean Resilience Initiative (CRI) - remote various locations

Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.

Program / Department SummaryClimate change severely and disproportionately impacts Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean. Worsening environmental risks like rising and warming seas, lengthening dry seasons, shortening wet seasons mean that Caribbean SIDS bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change, even though their carbon footprint is small relative to the world’s largest carbon producers.Catastrophic hurricanes and flooding continue to intensify and occur more frequently, requiring new and highly localized approaches to traditional natural disaster response. Preparedness, response and recovery must move past treating these as unpredictable singular events, and instead build long-term resilience to these intensifying seasonal hazards.Caribbean SIDS like Saint Lucia and Jamaica, as well as territories like Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands, economically depend on sectors vulnerable to climate patterns like fishing, agriculture and tourism. Natural resources like coral reefs, mangrove forests and fresh water systems critical to both the ecology of these islands as well as their economies are deteriorating. Without intervention, annual losses are estimated to reach $22 billion by 2050. Caribbean SIDS need resilience strategies that will enable these countries and their largely coastal communities to survive and thrive through the climate crisis.The Caribbean Basin Resilience Initiative identifies and scales successful strategies that improve resilience for vulnerable communities across the Caribbean SIDS and territories.

General Position Summary

The Acting Director for CRI will work with the Mercy Corps program team as well as our local partner organizations to oversee all operations and programming implemented under this multi-country initiative. This includes oversight and management of a remote and disparate team and coordination with regional and headquarters teams.

CRI activities are implemented across the region, including infrastructure programming in Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, St. Lucia, Jamaica, and St. Kitts and Nevis and remotely implemented livelihoods programming in Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica , Dominican Republic, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trininad & Tobago, and the Bahamas

. The structure is remote/decentralized with a heavy emphasis on local partnership engagement.During the assignment period, the primary ongoing activities under CRI include:Ongoing Programming

• Startup of the Caribbean United/SCEG Economic Opportunities program (this is a US Department of State funded program)
  • Continue hiring/onboarding process for new team members hired under this structure
  • Early program implementation activities, including development of SOPs, development/revision of implementation plans, MEL plans, etc.
  • Support design and kick off of regional competitive RFP process, in compliance with Mercy Corps’ and USG subaward policies, which will provide up to 12 community-based organizations with subgrants under the USG program.
  • Oversight of ongoing implementation of the Takeda-funded PRIME program, in collaboration with PM, establishing resilient infrastructure across four vulnerable Caribbean jurisdictions (St Lucia, USVI, St Kitts and Nevis, and Jamaica). This four year program is in its second year, and critical activities ongoing during the STA period are:
    • Finalize design and BOQ/cost forecasts for all four sites and begin construction phase;
    • Support ongoing budget modification process with Takeda CSR;
    • Finalize design, workplan and procurement plan for gardens component across all four sites;
    • Construction of two of four gardens anticipated to be complete within the STA period;
    • Ongoing partner coordination to ensure seamless implementation
    • Travel to implementation area as neededHurricane Season 2025 (June – November)Lead implementation of response activities to small-scale, localized emergencies. This may include:
      • cash transfers to local partner network or providing technical support to local partner network in support of response activities
      • Monitoring and evaluation of partner network implementation approaches
      • Dispatch Mercy Corps team members to coordinate with local partners, collect content for media and outreach
      • ProDev responsibilities in collaboration with CFT and other donor representatives within the agency
      • Act as focal point/coordination focal for local response agencies
      • Support implementation of large-scale response, to be led by global and HQ teams. This may include:
      • Provide information and contact with key stakeholders across the region.
      • Work with regional and global HR to shape a response team;
      • As needed, or as capacity and CRI workplan allows, support CRI team members to participate in response activities including potential short term deployments.
      • FundraisingRepresentation with current/prospective donors and regular proposal /business development activities

        If possible, support registration process in Jamaica (this is on-hold due to budget constraints)

        In addition to program implementation, the CRI Director is responsible for stakeholder engagement and relationship management in support of both fundraising and program implementation objectives. The Director will monitor and support the well functioning of operational and financial processes and support systems to ensure successful project and program implementation. The CRI Director ensures monitoring and evaluation activities support both quality of implementation as well as data-based learning. A focus of the Caribbean Basin Resilience Initiative is to identify successful strategies that measurably build resilience to climate change risks, and that may be scaled and/or implemented in other Caribbean locations.

        Essential Job ResponsibilitiesPROGRAM LEADERSHIP

        • Oversight and management of a multi-country initiative to ensure programs are able to meet donor and internal obligations on scope, time and budget, including efficient coordination on common program, operational and funding issues;
        • Provide budget management for multi-country budget including careful tracking of Budget Versus Actuals (BVA) and updating projections with the program implementers in each country. The Director will be expected to support multiple budget realignments, detailed forecasting, and periodic communication on any changes to the donor.
        • Ensures that project, program and portfolio management are integrated.
        • Coordinate emergency response prepositioning and response activities in Caribbean locations, as needed;
        • Engage in strong regional-level representation with donors, international and local NGOs and networks;
        • Ensure that robust design, monitoring, evaluation and learning (DMEL) and quality assurance and control (QAC) systems are in place, adhered to and used as a decision-making tool, encouraging consistency and best practice across programs;TEAM MANAGEMENT
          • Oversee remote management structures and tools to ensure implementation complies with Mercy Corps’ program management minimum standards.
          • Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback.
          • Motivate and empower staff to proactively solve problems
          • Supervise, hire and orient new team members as necessary.
          • Provide team members with information, tools and other resources to improve performance and reach objectives. Develop team capacity.FINANCE AND COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT
            • Ensure continuing effective, transparent and responsive compliance mechanisms are in place.
            • Oversight of overall operational support budgets and procurement plans ensuring appropriate allocation of resources to meet programmatic objectives.
            • Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations.
            • Ensure compliance with local legal and tax requirements for multiple geographiesINFLUENCE AND REPRESENTATION
              • Identify, build and manage collaborative partnerships with consortium partners, sub-grantees, donors, governments and other stakeholders across the Caribbean.
              • Represent Mercy Corps with national and international media and participate in community activities as appropriate.
              • Work with formal government structures and representatives, maintain and develop relevant and productive relationships with a wide range of stakeholders.
              • Respect and understand differing cultural and ethnic differences and nuances and have the ability to navigate between them, recognizing the complexities involved.SECURITY
                • Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies.
                • Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

                  Supervisory ResponsibilityCaribbean Resilience management teams, Caribbean Resilience Initiative program teamsDirect supervision of six team members, oversee total team of 11

                  AccountabilityReports Directly to: LAC Regional DirectorWorks Directly with: Technical Resources and Quality Unit, Regional Program Team, local partners/stakeholders, Operations managers/directors, Finance managers/directors, HR managers/directors and supplemental support teams based regionally and within HQ.

                  Accountability to Participants and StakeholdersMercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

                  Minimum Qualifications and Transferable Skills

                  • BA/S or equivalent, preferable in business administration, public administration or international development.
                  • 6+ years field experience working in international relief and development, including disaster recovery that utilizes resilience and DRR methodologies
                  • 3+ years of senior-level leadership and field management experience preferred including staff and budget management experience
                  • Experience leading emergency response activities
                  • Experience working with diverse and vulnerable communities in the Caribbean
                  • Remote management experience, preferred
                  • Previous experience with private and public sector donors, including corporations, foundations, etc.
                  • Demonstrated commitment to localization methodologies, including local partnership management.
                  • Previous experience working with market-based development
                  • Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of MS Office applications.