Senior Operations Officer (SOO)

The Syria crisis is often described as the worst humanitarian catastrophe since the end of the Cold War. Inside Syria, 7.6 million people are internally displaced and 12.2 million are in need of humanitarian assistance, with 4.8 million in hard-to-reach areas. There are 4 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries. The devastating human consequences to huge numbers of people will endure for decades. The destruction of relationships, communities, livelihoods, homes and infrastructure will take years to repair.

IRC is offering a robust humanitarian response to the Syria crisis. With an annual regional portfolio of $90 million within a rapidly expanding portfolio, supported by more than 3,000 staff and workers in the region, IRC is undertaking programs in Syria and the neighboring countries of Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan.Inside Syria, the IRC is specifically focused on health, cash assistance, education, child protection, women’s protection and empowerment, and livelihood programming. Our work in these challenging settings gives rise to some of the most pressing issues facing contemporary humanitarian action, including questions of access, security, funding and coordination.

Job Overview

The Senior Operations (SOO) Officer will assist the Area Coordinator in leading on operational side of managing IRC’s program in the field. He/she will provide administrative support to the field management unit, and coordinate with other the operational support functions including Humanitarian Access, Finance, Supply Chain, Finance and IT to ensure delivering high quality operational support in the field. In addition, he/she will play a role in financial and operational reporting, and will be a focal point for managing the data of the field management unit.

Major Responsibilities

• The Senior Operations Officer (SOO) will assist the Area Coordinator with the implementation of program and operational activities in field offices, with program managers' assistance and operational staff members' support;
• Participating actively in regular meetings with all program focal points to ensure effective, joint and coordinated emergency response and common understanding of all program interventions that need to be implemented in the field office;
• Assisting the Area Coordinator by ensuring that field offices' projects and reports are delivered according to IRC and donor requirements, within the agreed timeline and budget;
• Providing regular updates and standardized reports to the Area Coordinator on the status of program implementation on the planned vs actuals;
• Compiling different reports stating Program updates/needs to be send to Grant unit, and Deputy Director of Operations;
• Developing the field master working plan by compiling the working plans of the different program, and provide continuous analysis and update on the planned vs achieved activities.
• Effectively participating in empowering field staff and developing their capacities by providing direct support and coaching.

Admin support

• A focal point to follow up on purchase requests(PRs) of all the field operations;
• Follow up with Supply Chain and Finance departments on the status of the operations’ Budgets versus Actual (BvA) updates;
• Assisting the Area Coordinator in preparing contracts and contracts extension including preparing and editing job descriptions;
• Assisting the Area Coordinator in drafting, translating, and arabizing letters communicated to field- bases staff and vice versa.

Finance support

• Analyzing financial information (e.g. revenues, expenditures and cash management) to ensure all operations are within budget;
• Assisting the Area Coordinator in preparing and managing the field operational budget;
• Developing and updating spending plan analysis for Syria Country program for budgeting purposes;
• Working closely with Finance and program focal points to develop the monthly field spending plan;
• Supporting on preparing and submitting money transfer requests (MTR) to the money transfer agencies (Hawalas), and following up with the finance department and program units on the reimbursement process to the Hawala.

Data management

• Support the Area Coordinator in developing effective tracking tools for the field activities, and regularly update different trackers;
• Maintain the Field Management shared drive (Box) in all field offices by developing a user-friendly folder structure including a simple archiving system;
• Coordinate closely with all the operations function units to update the shared Box folders with the latest templates, policies and training materials needed by the field staff.

Key Working Relationships

Position Reports to: Area Coordinator

Position directly supervises: N/A

Indirect reporting: Deputy Director of Operations (DDO), Field Managers, Finance Manager

Internal: Supply Chain (SC), Humanitarian Access (HA), Finance, Human Resources (HR), and Information Technology (IT).