Partnership Officer - Krakow or Warsaw, Poland (National Role)

Working directly with Partnerships Coordinator, Partnerships Officer will be responsible for day-to-day work and support to the Partners - supporting call-for-proposals, sub-awarding process, partners onboarding, planning, ensuring all deliverables as per grant agreements are in place. As Mercy Corps focal point for partnership, Partnership Officer will be responsive to Partners needs and requests, as well as monitor the evolving context and needs of the target population. Partnership Officer will be required to conduct program monitoring visits, organize meetings. Therefore, this role will actively engage with partner organizations to right-size support for diverse organizations.

Essential Job Responsibilities

• Assist in development of transparent calls for applications (CfA) process, with a specific focus on the evolving context and needs
• Support the launch of these calls by recommending CfA invitation dissemination channels
• Support Partnership Coordinator in internal partner selection processes and review committees when relevant, including contributing to the development of technical selection criteria.
• Support pre-award and sub-awarding process of new partner organisations. Serve as a focal point with humanitarian partners during sub-project revisions and negotiation processes and throughout the sub-grant lifecycle
• Assist in organising kick-off and onboarding meetings for new Partners
• Assist Partners in developing workplans and other programmatic documents, that will guide project implementation.
• Review sub-grantee narrative reports to ensure implementation is on track, and collaborate closely with Finance Officers and M&E teams to track alignment of partners’ activities with expenditures.
• Prepare Partners payment requests, ensuring that payments are processed in timely manner
• Follow up with partners on any issues that emerge from the reports, and work with them to realign or revise project strategies and plans as necessary.
• Maintain sub-grant project files for each partner, and track submission of narrative reports and other deliverables.
• Ensure proper maintenance of project files for the partner(s), keep all trackers up-to-date, and ensure project related deliverables are completed in a timely manner.
• Ensure compliance with donor regulations.
• Assist in the completion of monthly projections and other requested documents.
• Contribute to drafting and reviewing accurate reports (monthly, quarterly and final).
• Work with partners to ensure timely coordination of the subaward closeout process

Coordination & Communication

• Contribute to the development of the overall project strategy, specifically in terms of humanitarian needs, emergency priorities, and geographic location for partner projects.
• Develop and maintain effective working relationships with all stakeholders - including NGOs, clusters, UN agencies, community based organizations.
• Ensure that information from coordination meetings is shared internally and with other sectors, as appropriate.
• Work closely with the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning and CARM teams to aggregate and analyze data provided by partners to both influence programmatic decision making and contribute to reports to the donor and/ or Mercy Corps stakeholders at headquarters or in the region.

FINANCE & COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT

• Contribute to monthly cash projections
• Comply with Mercy Corps systems ensuring effective and transparent use of financial resources for timely and informative reporting in line with donor and Mercy Corps policies and procedures.
• Ensure compliance with donor and Mercy Corps regulations related to emergency programming.
• Ensure robust sub-award compliance and management for partners across, working closely with the response-wide partnership and sub-award management resources and teams in other operating contexts

Other

• Adherence to all Mercy Corps policies and procedures as outlined in Mercy Corps policies and procedure manuals.
• Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such a manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission.
• Other duties as assigned.

Accountability: Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work, while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Supervisory Responsibility: None

Reports Directly To: Partnerships Coordinator

Works Directly With: Program Departments, Program Accountability and Quality, Operations Team, Security Management, Sub-awards&Compliance and Finance

Knowledge and Experience

• Diploma or University Degree in international studies, social, economic or other relevant field is desired.
• Experience working in non-governmental organizations, preferably in Poland
• Basic understanding of structures and processes of NGOs - including project cycle management
• Demonstrated capacity to collaborate closely with a broad range of stakeholders in different geographic locations; experience with remote management or monitoring a plus
• Familiarity with the MS Office software (i.e., Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) is required
• Self-starter — must be productive with minimal direction and flexible to sudden changes in requirements
• Excellent interpersonal, oral and written communication skills; demonstrated ability to successfully work in a fast-paced environment within and across departments/functions/geographic locations, and develop positive relationships with locally and remote based staff
• Required excellent oral and written English, Polish and/orUkrainian or Russian language
• Knowledge of humanitarian standards and codes, including SPHERE, HAP is an asset

Success Factors

Must be able to understand compliance requirements for subawards and have the ability to assist and offer support with partnerships. Excellent multi-tasking, organizational,communication and prioritization skills are necessary. Accuracy and attention to details are required. A demonstrated ability to work quickly, accurately, meet deadlines, and process information in support of changing program activities is necessary. Ability to manage, coordinate and practice empathy with different members/levels of a team. Ability to work in remote project environment and travel between the project locations

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.

As a safeguarding measure, Mercy Corps screens all potential employees. This is done following the conclusion of recruitment and prior to assuming full employment.

Our screening process is designed to be transparent and completed in partnership with new Team Members. You will have the opportunity to disclose any prior convictions at the conclusion of the recruitment process before the check is initiated. We ask that you do not disclose any prior convictions in your application materials or during the recruitment process.