MEL Manager

Location: Ramallah

Position Status: Full time; Regular

Salary Level:

Duration: 1 year, Renewable

Department: PYE MEL

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. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action—helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future. In Palestine, Mercy Corps has been working hand-in-hand with local communities and partners since 1980s and has staff in three offices based in East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza. Mercy Corps’ work aims to increase the capacity of Palestinian’s civil society to promote inclusive social and economic development, long-term recovery, and respond to humanitarian needs.

The Program

Positive Youth Engagement (PYE) is a USAID seven-year multi-sectoral Youth Activity designed to address the core issues of Palestinian youth development. The PYE activity will reach vulnerable and marginalized youth aged 10-29 at risk of social marginalization in vulnerable areas through safe spaces as well as private universities by aiming to improve outcomes for them in the areas of education, mental health and wellbeing, future employment, community bonding and other needs as identified through drivers' assessments. The activity’s goal is to transform vulnerable youth into productive, contributing citizens who are connected to their communities by increasing opportunities for Palestinian youth to realize their potential and to effectively contribute to social and economic development. The following are the main themes of the PYE:

• Core programming that supports, protects, prepares, and engages youth in safe spaces found within a strong network of CBOs and Career Centers at private universities, bringing the total number of youth friendly safe spaces to 71 in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza.
• Tailored packages of activities, resources, and referrals that will set youth on individually selected pathways building on the core curriculum to increase opportunities for youth to effectively contribute to social and economic development.
• Opportunities for sustained community engagement and leadership through youth-led pathways and councils, community and social media campaigns, and mentorship of subsequent cohorts as part of sustainable community youth networks.
• Improve opportunities for learning and individual empowerment for youth in grades 7-12 through the roll-out of non-formal education activities in the network of safe spaces.
• Expand safe spaces through 11 local university career centers to reach youth ages 19-24 and offer the PYE core interventions including healthy well-being for youth, learning activities, youth pathways, and youth-led small-scale initiatives in addition to technology and innovation-driven learning programs with a focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Mathematics), green solutions, and entrepreneurship.

The Position (General Position Summary)

The MEL Manager will oversee MEL automated systems, including data cleaning, visualization, and analysis using CommCare, Power BI, and Azure. They will supervise MEL Officers, coordinate real-time data collection in safe spaces through a network of youth enumerators, oversee MEL training programs, conduct monthly Data Quality Assurance activities for partner organizations' MEL reporting, and contribute to the development of studies, MEL reports, and data analysis reports. The Manager will provide MEL support to PYE in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza.

Essential Responsibilities

MEL Technology support:

• Lead the maintenance and enhancement of MEL automated systems, including on data cleaning, visualization, and analysis using tools such as CommCare, Power BI, and Azure.
• Collaborate with PYE MEL and technical teams to refine and improve harmonized data collection tools in CommCare.
• Enhance standardized Power BI Dashboards based on developed data collection tools, ensuring they meet PYE's reporting needs.
• Administer and manage PYE’s Azure database, providing support for data analysis and facilitating data sharing across teams.
• Implement, maintain, and actively monitor the servers, applications, and software of the Azure data platform.
• Collaborate with Mercy Corps MEL technology team to ensure the seamless deployment of data collection tools into efficient automated data pipelines and architecture within Microsoft Azure.
• Stay updated with emerging technologies and best practices in MEL data management, recommending and implementing improvements as needed.

Program management:

• Lead information management and regular quality control of program data to ensure technical quality of all PYE MEL activities. 
• Coordinate real-time data collection in safe spaces through a network of youth enumerators and oversee their training.
• Support and encourage result analysis and program management follow-up using innovative statistical and communication tools; Identify technical capacity gaps and develop improvement plans, including capacity building initiatives.
• Contribute to PYE MEL strategy, in actions such as technical strengthening of field teams and partner coordination, promoting the use of best practices and compliance with PYE MEL procedures.
• Conduct monthly Data Quality Assurance activities for partner organizations' to ensure continued data quality improvement and compliance with PYE data quality assurance processes.
• Contribute to the research and development of PYE learning agenda and adoption of best practices.

Capacity building:

• Engage teams to provide feedback/lessons on needed improvements to data collection tools/data standards.
• Engage MEL and technical teams to gather feedback/learnings on the automated Azure data pipelines/infrastructure.
• Provide support to MEL teams and focal persons on use of PYE's MEL technology tools.

Security:

• Ensure that all office or field tasks and activities are implemented with a clear analysis and understanding of security management priorities.

Supervisory Responsibility

   Supervises MEL Officers

Accountability

Reports directly to: MEL Team Lead

Works directly with: PYE team; PYE implementing partners

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.

جميع الحقوق محفوظة لموقع جوبس.

• 5 - 10 years of demonstrated professional experience, and a minimum of 3 years of demonstrated professional experience in international development with knowledge of relevant sectoral and/or operational areas.
• Advanced degree and/or professional certification in engineering, IT, computer science, economics, statistics, business administration/systems, social sciences or related fields. 
• IT professional with experience of development/humanitarian work OR experienced MEL professional with strong experience in MEL digital systems.
• Excellent skills in development and implementation of information systems and primary data collection tools is mandatory. 
• Demonstrated experience developing data collection tools using XLS Forms, or case management platforms such as CommCare.
• Solid experience of digital data collection (especially using CommCare), data visualization (especially using Power BI) and Azure Cloud.
• Experience facilitating technical training and consultations remotely and or in-person.
• Proficiency in spoken and written English and Arabic languages is required.
• Ability to conduct oneself with sensitivity and respect toward others

Preferred:

• Experience of using statistical/programming software (such as STATA, R, Python, SQL) to establish data pipelines to extract, transform, load data between different data storage containers and analysis software is desirable.
• Experience with GIS software (e.g. ArcGIS, QGIS)
• Azure cloud data solutions design certification desirable.

Success Factors

The preferred candidate will demonstrate a keen interest in understanding and thriving within Palestine's intricate cultural, political, security, and social landscape. They should excel in communication, multitasking, and navigating ambiguous situations. A tolerant and adaptable individual, they should handle challenging and stressful environments while adhering to procedures. Prioritizing team and national staff capacity building, they should possess strategic thinking abilities, expertise in designing and evaluating development programs, and maintain a positive outlook.

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 e-learning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

Interested and qualified candidates can apply online through Apply Now-button below