The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.We aim to make our programs a model for the highest global standards and to cultivate power and lasting change not just for our clients but for all people affected by humanitarian crises. To achieve that vision, the IRC’s Technical Excellence (TE) group, located within the Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) Department, provides technical assistance to IRC’s country program staff and shares what we learn to influence policy and practice. IRC’s Technical Excellence team is comprised of seven teams which have deep expertise in their respective fields: Education, Economic Wellbeing, Governance, Health, Violence Prevention and Response, MEAL, and Grants & Operations. Technical Excellence is currently going through a change process called \"Regional and Technical Alignment.\" We are doing this to ensure that the impact of our programs and the influence of our ideas create meaningful change for people affected by crisis. This next phase of IRC's commitment to program quality will more deliberately resource and link global thought leadership with practice on the ground. Updated Unit structures will have new roles with clearer mandates. The Global Practice Lead is a new leadership role introduced by this change process.
Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning at the IRCTo ensure that we are effectively carrying out our mission, we have committed to implement outcome-driven and evidence-based programs, measure what we achieve, act on what we learn, and generate new and relevant evidence. We need to produce high-quality data that can inform decision-making while also meeting donor requirements. The Measurement Unit is responsible for global guidance, resources, and coordination to ensure that staff across all our programs are equipped with the skills and tools they need to generate and manage the right data for programmatic decision-making across the IRC. To do this we have a MEAL strategy that sets an IRC wide vision to increase the scale and deepen the impact of IRC’s programming. The strategy has 5 priorities:
1. Deepen our understanding of IRC’s clients, programs, scale, and outcomes. Driving better efficiency, effectiveness, and adaptation in our programs.
2. Promote and support increased data use to design and deliver higher quality programs. Looking at “learning” as an outcome of MEAL processes instead of a standalone activity, making content easier to derive action from, supporting triangulation and storytelling that couples quality data with frontline tacit knowledge.
3. Expand and integrate existing data systems. Helping country programs and projects set up strong MEAL systems faster to deliver better quality program data.
4. Strengthen capacity to deliver rigorous MEAL. Diagnosing the health of our MEAL systems and the quality of our data and information flows to inform help strengthen and leverage our MEAL foundations.
5. Uptake and use of MEAL products and resources. Understanding the specific needs of teams and offering technical support and upskilling and encouraging teams to become spokespeople for successful tools, resources, systems, and data use. Job Overview  The MEAL Global Practice Lead is the organizational leader on MEAL gold standards across the Crisis Response, Recovery and Development (CRRD) department, a core member of the Measurement Unit’s (MU) senior management team, and key counterpart for each of the other 6 Technical Excellence teams. They are responsible for devising and leading strategies to ensure all areas of programming have clearly articulated MEAL needs and solutions. The primary focus of this role is to establish high quality standards and ensure harmonization of MEAL approaches across IRC’s Global Practice Areas, working hand-in-hand with Technical Unit colleagues. They will provide global MEAL technical leadership and coordinate efforts across the Technical Units (TUs), ensuring that the TUs have access to high quality MEAL technical support, as well as ensuring that technical work is carried out in the most efficient and consistent manner possible. They will be responsible for setting CRRD-wide MEAL standards, leading cross-sectoral global initiatives and facilitating the development of tools and resources in support of our MEAL strategy.  The MEAL Global Practice Lead will contribute to the CRRD MEAL strategy and the Data components of IRC’s Strategy 100. They will support CRRD to embed cutting edge approaches to MEAL by developing and maintaining strategic relationships and networks. They will also work closely with the Deputy Director MEAL and Regional Measurement Teams to help support the transfer of global standards into regional and country level practice, alongside helping to monitor and incorporate emerging MEAL priorities and practice into the global standards. The role will report to the Senior Director, MEAL and will work in close coordination with other leaders within the Measurement Unit and across Technical Units to ensure continuity from concept to practice. 
Major Responsibilities  Define the Gold Standard for What and How We Measure• Lead the MEAL Technical working group, with representatives from the Technical Units, to identify cross-cutting issues, develop needed guidance, and encourage consistency and coherence in MEAL mechanisms and practices across Technical Units• Support technical staff in identifying and developing key indicators that demonstrate program outcomes at client, community, and systemic levels• Provide technical oversight to the Core Indicator List and global data analysis efforts (e.g. Annual Statistics), ensuring adherence to strong technical standards for indicators, methodologies, and analysis• Work with the Deputy Director, MEAL to update minimum and comprehensive MEAL standards, competency frameworks, and good practices in MEAL documents • Provide leadership and coordination from the programmatic side on the design of indicators, tools, and methodologies, and where relevant, support these tools to be translated to technology solutions at the organizational level, specifically Data Toolkits and PID. This includes supporting the unit and other teams to prioritize efforts effectively and identify when certain guidance, tools, or frameworks will be retired.• Assess and develop strategy for strengthening CRRD’s approach to program evaluation, bringing innovative approaches to incorporating evaluation and learning processes into program design and implementation• Support the IRC’s strategic ambition of Client-Centered Programming by ensuring client voices are central to program design and delivery through the fostering of client data use in decision-making and providing oversight of mainstreaming client responsiveness activities. Strengthen Capacity to Deliver MEAL Technical Excellence• Coordinate efforts across technical units, including but not limited to: developing and testing new methodologies for learning, setting performance goals and tracking progress; technical support on MEAL activities and engaging the team in global initiatives and consultations.• Coordinate with the TDs/TU MEAL Leads to prioritize Global Practice Areas (or Interventions) for improved global and country-level MEAL practice.• Refresh and maintain the MEAL Community of Practice and other communication channels to ensure pro-active and inclusive learning, development, innovation, and sharing of best practice• In partnership with the Deputy Director, provide support across teams for the transfer of global standards into reality at regional and country levels• Collaborate with the TU MEAL Leads to develop strategies and processes that support technical staff in strengthening their fluency in using various forms of data, both quantitative and qualitative, to identify trends and derive insights that drive program improvements• Develop and deliver trainings/workshops to drive the uptake of MEAL resources, optimize MEAL processes and increase MEAL knowledge and skills among CRRD staff• Follow developments in MEAL globally in and outside the IRC, including new methodologies and approaches, and support their integration into IRC’s strategy and practice Drive a Culture of Continuous Learning• Collaborate with the Senior Director, MEAL to cultivate a culture of learning and inquiry among CRRD staff that embraces failures as learning opportunities and leads to deeper outcomes for more clients • Provide guidance to TUs and Regional Measurement Teams on setting, maintaining, and updating robust learning agendas with a focus on (a) improvements to practice (b) program outcomes and (c) elements of effective systems change• Identify recurring or cross-cutting learning questions and themes from specific programs or projects, and elevate them for cross-program sharing and discussion• Collaborate with the TU MEAL Leads to advise technical staff in practicing adaptive management• Coordinate with Technical Unit MEAL Leads and Regional Measurement Teams to lift-up program learning for cross-sharing and incorporation into global best practice Business Development and External Influence• Responsible for identification, development, and maintenance of strategic relationships and global partnerships with relevant stakeholders (e.g. donors, UN agencies, NGOs, research and educational institutions, private sector actors) related to MEAL• In partnership with the Deputy Director, develop and maintain a coherent approach to MEAL planning and budgeting for high impact strategic grants• Represent IRC in external forums as relevant Key Working Relationships • Position Reports to: Senior Director, MEAL, CRRD Technical Excellence• Direct Reports: Global MEAL Practice Advisor• Management in Partnership: TU Measurement/MEAL Advisors Key Internal Relationships: • Deputy Director, MEAL• Regional Measurement Teams across 6 regions • Policy Solutions, Advocacy Influence, and Systems Change Global Teams • CRRD Senior Management Team and Leadership Group; Regional Leadership Teams • Global HQ and AMU focal points
Desired Experience and Skills  • **Proven experience of successful development and tracking of key metrics for measuring the impact of humanitarian or development programming• **Fluency in a range of analysis skills for understanding strengths and weaknesses in program implementation as well as outcomes at multiple levels, including an understanding of what (e.g., in terms of measures, data analysis, visualizations, statistical methods and tools etc.) is usable and useful in practical settings• **Experience in designing, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting qualitative data. Proficiency in synthesizing findings into actionable insights and communicating results to diverse stakeholders• **Experience designing and implementing evaluations and using findings to inform program design, decision-making, and organizational learning• Adeptness at going beyond the numbers, translating large amounts of complex data and trends into learnings that have the power to shape and influence design and strategic decision-making• **Proven experience of operating in a complex organization, across functions and projects, on own initiative and collaboratively as part of diverse teams, including project management experience.• Strong understanding of the humanitarian and/or development fields, with experience in winning proposal development and strengthening donor relationships• **Experience of managing teams, with excellent management and leadership skills including coaching, mentoring, and performance management.• **Experience facilitating knowledge transfer and capacity sharing through communities of practice or similar• **Demonstrated experience and ability to identify gaps and deliver solutions/improvements• **Strong computer skills: proficiency with MS Office, web conferencing, MS Project, and analytic tools such as MS PowerBI.• Fluency in English required; Arabic, French and/or Spanish also strongly preferred.• Ability to travel globally up to 25% of the time, occasionally on short notice. Education: **Sound training or equivalent combination of education and work experience on the use of data for programmatic decisions and rigorous analytic skills are required. **Master’s/post-graduate degree in MEAL, an IRC technical area, humanitarian, development sectors or relevant field or equivalent combination of education and work experience background is desired.
We operate the Disability Confident Employer Scheme in the UK. Under this scheme criteria marked with ** are the minimum criteria in line with our commitments under the Disability Confident Employer Scheme. UK based candidates who state that they have a disability and meet these criteria, will be invited to interview
Recruitment Process
The process for this role will be as follows:
• Screening call online• First round interview with the hiring manager online• Second round panel interview online– including a presentation task 

Compensation: Posted pay ranges apply to US and UK based candidates. Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget.  Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.

Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $143 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support counseling and care in times of crisis and mental health struggles.

Standard of Professional Conduct:The IRC and the IRC workers must adhere to the values and principles outlined in the IRC Way – our Code of Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability, and Equality.