Senior Project Officer

The Senior Project Officer will be responsible for coordinating, implementing, and supervising the execution of humanitarian assistance projects, early recovery, and community resilience strengthening in the state of Zulia, in the areas of Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH), Food Security, Livelihoods, and Cash Transfers (CASH-PTM).

The role involves ensuring the correct management of the project cycle, compliance with programmatic, budgetary, and operational standards, and facilitating the implementation of technical guidelines defined and approved by the Programme Management and corresponding technical advisors.

The Senior Project Officer will also supervise the daily activities of field staff under their responsibility, including officers, assistants, and project auxiliaries, ensuring the adequate execution of programmatic activities and compliance with operational procedures, quality standards, and technical guidelines established for the projects.

Main Responsibilities:

• Contribute to the development of the programmatic strategy for WASH, Food Security, Livelihoods, and CASH-PTM, integrating with other key sectors such as health and protection.
• Participate in multisectoral evaluations, needs analysis, and elaboration of project proposals.
• Promote technical improvements and innovations that strengthen the quality and scope of interventions.
• Ensure the technical quality of programs under their responsibility.
• Apply international humanitarian standards and institutional guidelines.
• Design and implement activities that respond to the theory of change and logical framework of related projects.
• Provide technical assistance to the team and partner organisations.
• Support capacity strengthening of staff and partners.

Project Planning and Supervision Responsibilities:

• Supervise and provide technical guidance to officers, assistants, and auxiliaries under their responsibility.
• Develop work plans, schedules, and activity monitoring mechanisms.
• Coordinate the implementation of WASH, Food Security, Livelihoods, and Cash Transfers activities.
• Supervise participant targeting, registration, verification, and follow-up processes.
• Coordinate activities with Supply Chain, Finance, Security, Community Mobilisation, and MEAL teams.
• Integrate/ coordinate activities with other key sectors such as health and protection.
• Schedule and report team activities.
• Monitor physical and financial progress of projects.
• Track budget execution of assigned lines.
• Prepare technical, financial, and narrative reports on project implementation.
• Coordinate with implementer partners when necessary.

Human Resource Administration Responsibilities:

• Strengthen technical capacities of the team under their supervision.
• Provide technical accompaniment and performance monitoring to staff.
• Foster a collaborative and results-oriented work environment.
• Ensure compliance with institutional policies and humanitarian principles.
• Document best practices, lessons learned, and improvement opportunities.
• Ensure project staff capacity development and key skill transfer for adequate activity implementation.
• Monitor team security and protection, reporting concerns or incidents to administration and Programmatic or Field Management.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning Responsibilities:

• Monitor and document WASH, Food Security, Livelihoods, and CASH activities implementation.
• Track indicator and target compliance.
• Ensure data quality and consistency.
• Support post-distribution monitoring and participant follow-up processes.
• Prepare periodic programmatic progress reports.
• Contribute to impact evaluations, result analysis, and evidence generation.
• Coordinate with MEAL teams to strengthen learning and continuous improvement mechanisms.

Coordination and Representation Responsibilities:

• Identify coordination opportunities with community organisations, NGOs, humanitarian agencies, and authorities.
• Maintain effective working relationships with institutional and community actors.
• Coordinate activities with other IRC sectors, including Health, Protection, Education, among others.
• Represent IRC in coordination spaces when delegated.
• Participate in relevant sectoral and territorial humanitarian mechanisms.

Requirements:

• University degree in Industrial Engineering, Sanitary Engineering, Civil Engineering, Agronomy, Administration, or related fields.
• At least three years of experience in managing and implementing humanitarian projects related to WASH, Food Security, Livelihoods, and Cash Transfers.
• Experience in project cycle management, programmatic coordination, team supervision, and implementer partner management.
• Demonstrated experience in WASH, Food Security, Livelihoods, and/or Cash Transfers projects.
• Experience in grant management, planning, and budget monitoring.
• Experience in indicator monitoring, report elaboration, and donor coordination.
• Previous experience working in complex humanitarian contexts.
• Intermediate level of spoken and written English (not limiting).

Skills and Competencies:

• Strong organisational skills, meeting deadlines, coordinating multiple tasks, and attention to detail.
• Understanding of humanitarian principles and programming for populations with humanitarian needs.
• Excellent interpersonal and teamwork competencies.
• Strong oral and written communication skills, effective in representation and liaison with external parties.
• Results-oriented approach.
• Solid leadership allowing remote team supervision.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office, particularly intermediate Excel.