Location: Grand Bassa, Liberia

Position Status: Full-time – Regular

Risk Level: ☐ Level 3☐ Level 2 ☐ Level 1

(Level 3: Frequent contact with participants, direct contact with children, access to sensitive data, and/or high level of accountability.

Level 2: Some contact with participants; unplanned non-direct contact with children.

Level 1: Likely to have no contact with participants or sensitive data)

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. 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.

The Program / Department Summary

Mercy Corps has worked in Liberia since 2002, initially responding to the humanitarian impacts of the country’s civil conflicts and subsequently evolving its programming to address the changing needs and priorities of Liberian communities. Over the past two decades, Mercy Corps has implemented a diverse portfolio of programs focused on food security, agricultural livelihoods, nutrition, financial inclusion, youth economic empowerment, renewable energy, water and sanitation, and community resilience, supporting sustainable development and improved opportunities across the country.

The USDA McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program in Liberia is a five-year, $35 million initiative implemented by Mercy Corps to improve literacy, school attendance, nutrition, and food security among primary school children in four counties: Grand Bassa, Rivercess, River Gee, and Grand Gedeh. The program will reach approximately 50,000 students in 234 public primary schools through the provision of nutritious daily school meals, strengthened early grade reading instruction, and integrated school health and nutrition interventions. In addition to reducing short-term hunger and improving educational outcomes, the program seeks to increase the Government of Liberia’s capacity to manage and sustain school feeding and literacy systems beyond the life of the award.

The program combines direct school meal provision with system-strengthening activities that support literacy, health and nutrition, school infrastructure, community engagement, and government leadership. Key interventions include strengthening teacher training and instructional support systems, improving WASH and food safety practices, promoting school gardens and local procurement, building the capacity of school and community management structures, and supporting national and sub-national government institutions to plan, finance, monitor, and sustain school feeding and early grade reading programs. The program is designed around a gradual transition strategy that shifts responsibility for implementation and oversight from Mercy Corps to the Government of Liberia, schools, and communities, ensuring long-term sustainability and local ownership of both education and school feeding outcomes.

General Position Summary

The Program Manager leads the implementation of the McGovern-Dole Food for Education Program in Grand Bassa and Rivercess counties, ensuring the effective delivery of school feeding, literacy, nutrition and health, and community engagement activities. The Program Manager is responsible for coordinating program operations, overseeing field-based staff, and ensuring that implementation is aligned with program objectives, work plans, budgets, quality standards, and donor requirements. The role ensures that systems and processes are in place to track progress, analyze results, address operational challenges, and support timely reporting and adaptive management.

The Program Manager is a strong and collaborative manager, responsible for supervising and mentoring program staff and fostering a high-performing team. The position serves as a key liaison with local partners, schools, communities, government stakeholders, and other program actors to strengthen coordination, promote local ownership, and support the achievement of program outcomes. Working closely with technical, operations, finance, monitoring and evaluation, and logistics teams, the Program Manager contributes to the successful implementation and long-term sustainability of the program.

In addition to program leadership responsibilities, the Program Manager serves as the senior-most Mercy Corps representative based in Grand Bassa and provides field-level leadership and coordination for Mercy Corps operations across Grand Bassa and Rivercess Counties. The position provides day-to-day oversight and coordination support to field-based operations, finance, administration, human resources, logistics, and supply chain personnel. While technical supervision remains with departmental managers in Monrovia, the Program Manager exercises a dotted-line supervisory role to ensure alignment with field priorities, compliance requirements, and organizational standards.

Essential Responsibilities

Program Management

• Lead day-to-day implementation of the School Feeding Program, ensuring activities are delivered on time, within budget, and in compliance with donor and Mercy Corps requirements.
• Manage relationships with government counterparts, implementing partners, schools, and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure programming is responsive to community needs and aligned with Mercy Corps standards, safeguarding principles, and best practices in school feeding, education, and nutrition.
• Oversee program performance, staff and consultant contributions, and ensure accountability concerns are addressed through established mechanisms.
• Support effective planning, budgeting, and resource management, identifying and addressing implementation challenges as they arise.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)

• Collaborate with the MEL team to ensure timely collection, analysis, and use of quality program data.
• Support baseline, endline, monitoring, and reporting activities to inform adaptive management and demonstrate program results.
• Ensure systems are in place to track program performance, community engagement, and participant feedback.
• Contribute to program learning, reporting, and continuous improvement efforts.

Field Office Leadership and Coordination

• Serve as the senior Mercy Corps representative based in Grand Bassa and provide day-to-day leadership and oversight of the Grand Bassa field office and related operations serving Rivercess County.
• Coordinate with Supply Chain & Operations, Finance, HR, Logistics, Procurement, and Security teams to support efficient program implementation.
• Provide field-level oversight and coordination of office support functions and staff while maintaining appropriate reporting relationships to departmental supervisors in Monrovia.
• Monitor field office operational performance and proactively identify and escalate operational, administrative, financial, supply chain, and staffing issues requiring management attention.
• Ensure compliance with Mercy Corps and donor policies related to procurement, asset management, financial management, and documentation.
• Monitor operational needs and expenditures to ensure timely and effective support to program activities.
• Represent Mercy Corps in meetings and other forums as delegated.

Child Safeguarding, Protection and Accountability

• Ensure all activities comply with Mercy Corps for safeguarding, protection, and accountability policies and standards.
• Promote safeguarding awareness among staff, partners, and communities and ensure concerns are reported through appropriate channels.
• Support meaningful community engagement and accountability mechanisms to strengthen program quality and responsible use of resources.

Knowledge Management

• Support documentation, learning, and knowledge sharing across the program.
• Ensure timely preparation of reports and maintenance of key program tools, trackers, and records.
• Promote adherence to Mercy Corps policies, ethics standards, and code of conduct.

Team Management

• Supervise and support program staff, foster professional development, accountability, and high performance.
• Provide coaching, feedback, and performance management to help team members achieve program objectives.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive team culture that values learning, accountability, and excellence.

Influence & Representation

• Build and maintain strong working relationships with government stakeholders, implementing partners, donors, school communities, and other relevant actors.
• Represent the school feeding program in external meetings and coordination forums, as delegated.
• Communicate effectively to support achievement of program objectives and donor commitments.

Security

• Ensure compliance with security procedures and policies as determined by country leadership.
• Proactively ensure that team members operate in a secure environment and are aware of policies.

Supervisory Responsibility

Lead Mobilizers in Grand Bassa and Rivercess

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Technical Director

Works Directly With: Program technical team, partners, MEL team, community accountability reporting mechanism (CARM) and safeguarding team, finance department, supply chain and operations department

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 Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Bachelor’s degree in development, education, agriculture, nutrition, business administration, public administration, social sciences, or related fields.
• Minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible experience managing donor-funded development or humanitarian programs, including direct supervision of staff.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating multi-sector programs and working effectively with government counterparts, local partners, and community stakeholders.
• Experience managing program budgets, work plans, activity implementation, and donor compliance requirements.
• Strong people’s management skills, including coaching, mentoring, performance management, and team development.
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities simultaneously and adapt to changing circumstances while maintaining high-quality results.
• Excellent organizational, planning, and problem-solving skills, with strong attention to detail.
• Strong verbal and written English communication skills, including experience preparing reports, facilitating meetings, and presenting information to diverse audiences.
• Experience collaborating with monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) teams to support adaptive management and data-informed decision-making.
• Demonstrated commitment to safeguarding, accountability to participants, equality, and inclusive programming.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Internationally recognized project or program management certification, or willingness to obtain such certification within the first year of employment.

Success Factors

The successful candidate will be a collaborative, results-oriented manager who thrives in a dynamic implementation environment. They will possess strong leadership, communication, and relationship-building skills, enabling them to effectively coordinate teams, partners, and government stakeholders. The Program Manager will be highly organized, adaptable, and able to manage competing priorities while maintaining a focus on quality, accountability, and timely delivery of results. They will demonstrate sound judgment, initiative, and problem-solving skills, foster a positive team culture, and support the growth and development of others. A commitment to integrity, community engagement, and continuous improvement will be essential for success in this role.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Grand Bassa and it requires up to 40% travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.

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.

Team Engagement and Effectiveness

Achieving our mission starts with how we build our team and collaborate. By bringing together individuals with a variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives, we strengthen our ability to solve complex challenges and drive innovation. We foster a culture of trust and respect, where every team member is valued for their contributions, empowered to reach their full potential, and motivated to do their best work.

We recognize that building a strong and effective team is an ongoing process, and we remain committed to learning, improving, and growing together.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected under applicable law.

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 by 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 an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline (integrityhotline@mercycorps.org).

Click here to apply: https://recruiting2.ultipro.com/MER1024MERCY/JobBoard/4a0f3dbe-d175-4476-8c6a-adf8b7fadbc9/Opportunity/OpportunityDetail?opportunityId=7e67b3ea-e455-44fa-ac13-fac960adc928

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Candidates are therefore encouraged to apply early, as the position may be closed before the final application deadline.

Signatures

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