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Water/Civil Engineer Program Manager International Rescue Committee (IRC)

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world’s worst humanitarian crises and helps people to survive and rebuild their lives. Founded in 1933 at the request of Albert Einstein, the IRC offers lifesaving care and life-changing assistance to refugees forced to flee from war or disaster. At work today in over 40 countries and 22 U.S. cities, we restore safety, dignity and hope to millions who are uprooted and struggling to endure. The IRC leads the way from harm to home.

The IRC launched a Governance and Rights program in February 2011, which builds on the results of the Protection/Rule of Law program of the past three years, working to strengthen community-based systems to make decisions, manage resources and diffuse conflict. A community-driven reconstruction approach is central to this program, which focuses on bringing communities together to decide what their collective needs and priorities are, and allowing them to manage the construction of small scale community infrastructure. It will reinforce public institutions and promote good governance by working through elected village chiefs and legally mandated village councils.

The Water/Civil Engineer Program Manager will be responsible for overseeing IRC’s construction and rehabilitation activities in Nana Gribizi and Ouham Pende prefectures of CAR. These activities will focus on infrastructures related to primary health care programs (health centers and community treatment centers), school facilities, and ground-water systems. The activities and projects that the position oversees involve both direct implementation and supporting implementation by communities through consulting engineers and contractors. The post, therefore, involves ensuring that design, construction and field supervision are conducted to a high professional standard by IRC employees and the private contractors.

The position reports to the Governance and Rights Coordinator

Responsibilities
Program management:
• Supervise the design (directly or contracted) of infrastructures that are adapted to population needs and context and match international and national norms and standards.
• Support communities to establish and oversee implementation of systems for controlling the quality of supplied construction materials; closely monitoring market prices; tracking works progress against work plans, and controlling the quality of the final construction outputs.
• Support communities to manage, in a strategic manner, construction/rehabilitation budgets and/or budget components to ensure an appropriate and efficient use of resources in the area of operation.
• Oversee implementation of grants and reporting systems and management of budgets, including budget forecasting, development of spending and work plans and indicator tracking sheets related to construction activities
• Support communities to ensure that bidding process are done in a in a consistent and transparent manner

Contractors management:
• Oversee the engagement of independent contractors for construction projects under governance and rights programming
• Ensure proper provisional and final handover of infrastructure from IRC or the contractors to both the communities and the local authorities.

Coordination:
• Work closely with the Roving Governance Manager to ensure an integrated program approach and design as well as joint response to challenges to meeting the Governance and Rights program objectives in both Nana Gribizi and Ouham Pende prefectures
• Liaise regularly with the Governance and Rights Coordinator and the Field Coordinator to provide updates on the program, discuss emerging challenges, and collaborate on the design of new programs or changes to existing programs.

HR management:
• Manage the IRC construction team; provide leadership and supervision.
• Actively promote staff development, conducting mainly on-the-job trainings with a view towards promoting high performing national staff to managerial positions.
• Write job descriptions; establish hiring criteria for project staff, interview and select staff as needed.
• Actively manage performance of construction team staff, including setting yearly objectives for each staff member and providing them with informal semi-annual review and formal annual performance review based on these objectives.
• Limit, identify, document and dismiss staff involved in fraud and corruption.

Reporting:
• Produce monthly reports and provide direct strategic advice to the Governance and Rights Coordinator, Field Coordinator and Country Director, so as to adjust the programmatic priorities and implementation modalities as necessary.
• Contribute to the production of required reports for donors, in collaboration with the Governance and Rights Coordinator and Grants Manager as required

REQUIREMENTS:
• Degree or equivalent experience in engineering or construction.
• 2+ years of construction site management and/or engineering experience, preferably in an international setting and/or in Africa.
• Water and sanitation engineering/construction experience.
• Ability to work independently while being a strong team player.
• Ability to work well under unstable security, administrative, and programmatic pressures.
• Ability to manage a team and to show flexibility (balance between quality of the construction and respect of community decision making process)
• Advanced knowledge of usual desktop software such as Word, Excel, and Outlook.
• Knowledge of engineering / drafting related software is preferable


The Roving Construction Manager will be based in Bocaranga but will spend approximately 50% of his/her time in Kaga Bandoro. This is a long term unaccompanied position.
How to apply
Please apply online: www.ircjobs.org orhttp://tbe.taleo.net/NA2/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=IRC&cws=1&rid=6896 .