Senior Operations Officer - Caracas, Venezuela/ National Position

**APPLICATION SUBMISSIONS IN SPANISH OR ENGLISH ARE WELCOMED/SE ACEPTAN SOLICITUDES EN ESPAÑOL O INGLÉS

Candidates moving on to the next phases of the application process will be informed Mid-May 2023

About Mercy Corps**

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.

The Program

Mercy Corps has been operating in Venezuela since 2018 implementing humanitarian and development programs, with special emphasis on water, sanitation and hygiene, health, protection, food security, and nutrition, and plays a key role in the collection, analysis, and dissemination of information relevant to the humanitarian community in the country. The team is expanding its programs at the country level and expanding its team at the country level to implement quality programs with the required attention.

Ensures timely, economical, and efficient purchases from responsible and reliable sources in a process that goes from monitoring to satisfactory receipt of the products/services; registration and socialization to the interested parties of the process and accompaniment for the design of procurement plans, following the standards and procedures established in the Mercy Corps Purchasing Manual (PF3), other organizational instruments and the national regulatory framework.

The  Position

The Senior Operations Officer will accompany and supervise the administrative, financial and programmatic support activities. The Senior Operations Officer is in charge of the purchasing and logistics officers. They will be in constant communication, coordination and articulation with the team leader, health and program teams, MEL teams, to articulate actions and receive information on the implementation and scope of the programs.

The Senior Operations Officer is in charge of the logistics officer and the procurement officer, and also has support tasks with field logistics assistants.

The Senior Operations Officer will oversee purchasing and logistics matters and will work directly in support of regional programs. At the same time, it will monitor operating budgets (office and travel costs) and will support the monitoring of contracts generated by the different areas of the regional office, which are directly responsible for them.

Essential Job Responsibilities

STRATEGY AND VISION

• Recognize internal and external opportunities for innovative actions and create an environment in which alternative points of view are welcome, taking into account the timely achievement of the objectives of each program.

• Prioritize, analyze and organize actions and resources to achieve the objectives of each program and contribute to the national strategy of the MC VZLA program.

• Develop and organize activities that ensure resources for each program.

• Ensure knowledge and implementation of the organization's policies, tools, manuals and guidelines.

• Promote and share ideas for the improvement of the functions of the area.

PROGRAMS MANAGEMENT

• Support the Team Leader and program team of the region in articulating with MEL, CARM, and communications with transversal areas, looking for opportunities to improve the efficiency of the implementation to reduce costs and offer quality services to the participants.

• Understand well the objectives and indicators of the programs to achieve the scope in time and effectively of the goals related to the operational actions.

• Participate proactively in meetings of each team to schedule activities.

• Prepare and actively participate in periodic meetings with the coordination committee, cross-sectional areas and procurement committee.

• Supervise and accompany the procurement officer, logistics officer and operations assistant.

• Regularly inform the Team Leader of any situation deemed necessary.

• Ensure that digital and physical programmatic files per MC VZLA and donor file retention policies and guidelines are up to date.

• Take control of the framework agreements for snacks and transportation required for the programs.

• Receive, analyze and manage solutions to requests or complaints related to the snack and transportation providers.

• Verify and follow up on the information sent by the work teams concerning databases, matrices or consolidated referred to administrative processes.

• Supervise the proper functioning of the office: infrastructure, furniture, supplies, and operational needs of the equipment, among others.

• Support in the preparation of proposals, concept notes and, eventually, in activities related to information gathering.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Develop, with understanding and leadership, the administrative capacity of the team for the excellent execution of the budget and other resources.

• Assist team members with information, tools, and resources to improve performance and achieve goals.

• Support the team in the different processes and technical procedures.

• Face any other task that is assigned for the effective development of the programs with good spirit and willingness.

• Create and maintain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive for excellence.

• Be purposeful, having the ability to work both individually, with little supervision, and as a team.

• Support the human management officer in logistics, team development processes, training meetings, travel, lodging, etc.

• Follow the technical lines of the cross-operational areas of the organization (procurement and logistics), maintaining contact with the Team Leader, and area coordinators at the national level.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT AND COMPLIANCE

• Review the operating budget of the programs, their execution and control of spending, holding monthly meetings, for their review, with the program officer, procurement officer, and administrative and financial officer.

• Lead the review of budget execution with the finance area.

• Support and provide tools so that contract originators can keep adequate control of consultant contract payments so that originators have their contract monitoring charts up to date.

• Have control of the monitoring of monthly and accumulated expenses of the programs that are executed in the regional offices

• When the organization attends a humanitarian emergency program, it will support the execution of the program as necessary.

• Ensure compliance with donor and MC VZLA standards related to emergency programming.

• Consolidate and keep updated the operating budget projections of the programs to be shared with the finance area and consolidated each month.

• For program closures, it ensures that all the expenses of the program to be closed have been received, reviewed and sent to finance for payment.

PROCUREMENT

• Ensure the implementation of the procurement plan, with periodic meetings with program coordinators and administrative and financial officers.

• Supervise the preparation of the annual procurement plan for each program.

• Support the procurement officer in the corresponding administrative processes.

• Systematize and identify the assets acquired and donated to community and institutional spaces with which work is done in response to the programs deployed.

• Provide assistance to start, prepare, process and close quotation processes, and preparation of procurement and service requests, including filling out formats, terms of reference, and distribution plans.

• Manage spaces to carry out training and spaces to strengthen procurement processes for programs, officials and office teams.

ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT - TIC

• Maintain the asset register up-to-date and complete,

• Work with administrative coordination to renew lease contracts or new applications for real estate (warehouses, offices, etc.).

• Constant communication with the administrative coordination about changes or modifications to be made in the offices.

• Carry out the regional's control, update, and report of assets (transfers, deregistration).

• Reservation and issuance of air tickets for the team in the region.

• Supervise the proper use of IT resources such as the Internet, computer equipment, etc.

HUMAN RESOURCES

• Work in coordination with the human resources officer to promote the correct implementation of the processes and procedures for managing human resources in the offices.

SECURITY

• Communicate to the security management all the alerts, analyzes and possible risks that are being presented in the development of the mission adjusted to the context of the department.

• Manage resources, support and innovation ideas in regional security processes, adjusted to the national and global strategic line.

INFLUENCE AND REPRESENTATION

• Identify, build, and manage collaborative alliances with partners, grantees, donors, local governments, and other stakeholders.

• Communicate effectively to ensure that the general objectives of the area and the obligations of donors are met.

Supervisory Responsibilities

None

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Team Leader

Works directly with: Team Leader, Programs Manager, Medical Director, Procurement, Finance, IT and Security Officer.

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy 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 & Transferable Skills

• Professional in administrative sciences, economics, accounting or systems.

• Complementary training and experience in administrative functions, including logistics, physical file systems and magnetic media.

• More than 5 years of work experience in the required skills.

• Previous experience and knowledge in humanitarian projects financed by international donors (preferable)

• Experience in managing human talent.

• Experience in meeting logistical and operational requirements of field offices and programs in an agile, proactive and autonomous way.

• Domain in Microsoft Office systems and programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and M365 environment

• Knowledge of the region and context, where the program is implemented.

• Knowledge of databases, dashboards and technology such as tablets to capture information

• Knowledge of written, verbal and communication in English.

Success Factors

MC VZLA is looking for professionals with solid knowledge and common sense, and experience to resolve atypical situations that arise in the field. Organized, disciplined, purposeful, efficient, and oriented towards planning and meeting objectives. Possess excellent oral and written communication skills. It is essential to have sufficient maturity to accept the criticism and demands of the job, as well as to recognize their weaknesses and rely on the work team. It must have empathy and commitment to eradicating those unfair conditions to which the most vulnerable people are subjected. Availability to travel and support activities in other areas of the country.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Caracas, Venezuela and will require occasional travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Housing for this role is in individual housing and staff will have access to good medical services.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme**.** We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.