Senior Nutrition & Food Security Advisor

Job Description

The Senior Nutrition and Food Security Adviser will join the Technical Resources and Quality (TRaQ) Unit. The TRaQ Unit supports country-led work to deliver measurable impact, leads agency thinking in technical and program management areas, and ensures quality programming while elevating agency visibility. The TRaQ Unit has nine thematic teams: Climate and Water Security, Economic Opportunity, Food Security, Peace and Governance, Global Resilience, Social Inclusion, Cash, Infrastructure, Training, and Program Standards. This position will be part of the Food Security team, which focuses on supporting the technical quality of Mercy Corps’ wide-ranging global food security and nutrition (FSN) portfolio.

The Senior Nutrition and Food Security Adviser provides expert technical accompaniment and mentorship to Mercy Corps country teams in the field of nutrition, and food security more broadly. The support includes program design and development, network and partnership development, representation at key sector forums and events, helping to monitor and improve program quality and relevance, staying current on industry innovation and best practices, writing competitive proposals for submission to donors, delivering training, and disseminating information to internal and external partners. The Senior Advisor will also participate in matrixed teams, share and build the capacity of others, and help integrate their technical areas with others.

Essential Responsibilities:

Program Design And Proposal Development:

Write and review grant proposals and concept notes for donors including foundations, corporations, and government agencies ensuring alignment to food security and nutrition outcomes and global best practice.
Research, analyze, and assess data to determine program needs, priorities, and Mercy Corps’ advantages for funding; Maintain knowledge of development strategies by governmental, academic, and non-profit groups.
Provide technical assistance on assessment design and analysis and the application of findings to program design, operational decision-making and strategy development.
Collaborate with program, country, regional, and TRaQ teams on prepositioning and strategy development, and designing multi-sectoral programs that meet the outcomes and commitments in Mercy Corps’ 10-year strategy.
Serve as Tech Lead on complex, competitive proposals following Mercy Corps’ best practices in proposal development, team management, and the appropriate sectoral area.
Guide program teams to design and implement an integrated food security and nutrition response, including in complex crises, acute emergencies and fragile contexts.

Program Quality:

Provide technical support to Mercy Corps’ teams globally, including those in complex crisis environments; Support effective interventions through integrated approaches and systems thinking.
Maintain standards of program delivery through application of agency approaches and compliance with relevant regulations and requirements.
Increase program capacity within Mercy Corps through developing and circulating tools such as technical trainings and workshops, manuals, case studies, webinars, and monitoring and evaluation tools; Collaborate with the unit’s leadership to set and execute strategies addressing agency-wide program quality needs.
Provide technical support on both longer term multisectoral food security and nutrition programs and emergency programming, including anticipatory planning and action.

Learning And Impact:

Provide in-country and remote training for Mercy Corps staff, partners, and programs with assistance on assessment, implementation, research, and evaluation.
Build a strong nutrition community of practice across Mercy Corps to strengthen program quality and build a community of technical experts.
Identify opportunities within existing projects to advance the evidence base and work with project staff and others to document and disseminate findings
Work with the Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team and country teams to ensure that monitoring and evaluation is practical and reflects best practices.
Contribute to agency-wide initiatives such as the Global and Regional Evidence and Learning Agendas and Thought Leadership priority topics.
Support country teams to conduct assessments; write case studies, learning documents, short articles, and blogs; and develop internal and external dissemination plans for all products.
Work with MC Knowledge Management specialists to ensure that core food security and nutrition resources (internal and external) are accessible to a broad MC audience.

Influence & Representation:

Represent Mercy Corps at academic events, conferences, media forums, and other events; Contribute to thought leadership around food security and nutrition.
Identify and nurture strategic partnerships with other organizations and institutions; Present concepts and ideas to donors, partners, and peer organizations that influence them to drive innovation and positive change.
Represent Mercy Corps in global or regional level intra-organizational coordination bodies and technical forums e.g. Global Nutrition Cluster meetings.
Work within a matrixed team to strengthen and operationalize Mercy Corps’ global and regional food security and nutrition influence and communication strategies.

Safeguarding Responsibilities:

Actively learns about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work
Practices the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members
Encourages openness and communication in their team; encourages team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options

Personal Leadership:

Demonstrate exceptional leadership by consistently delivering expectations and maintaining composure, even in challenging situations.
Embrace a growth mindset, actively seek diverse perspectives, and welcome feedback to drive continuous improvement.
Maintain the highest ethical standards, treating all individuals with respect and dignity.
Demonstrate professionalism in all aspects of life, ensuring that your conduct reflects positively on Mercy Corps and does not compromise its mission or work.

Required Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Proven track record in leading and supporting nutrition focused programming, and food security initiatives more broadly in at least one, preferably more than one, Mercy Corps region of operation (Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, Latin America and the Carribean).
Proven track record of program management and/or technical support, with the ability to transfer technical theories to real world complexities.
Experience in coaching or mentoring team members on adjusting their methodology to fit the context or program need.
Comfortable working with diverse teams; fosters an environment of inclusion and collaboration
Creative, adaptive, and flexible; consistently acts with integrity
Detail-oriented with the ability to multitask, prioritize, and work under tight deadlines within complex team environments
Exceptional writing skills; effective and clear communication overall
Excellent external relationship and partnership management, prioritizing elevating Mercy Corps’ and technical team’s reputations.

Required Education and Experience:

5+ years of experience required providing increasingly proficient technical support in nutrition and food security that includes
Grant writing, research, and proposal development.
Leading all aspects of large and complex proposals and managing integrated grant writing teams.
Technically focused program implementation support
Producing and publishing influential articles and blogs.
Combining strong theoretical and applied knowledge of nutrition and food security, using integrated approaches and applying systems thinking.
Bachelor’s degree required. M.A/M.Sc., or equivalent in a field related to nutrition and/or food security and relevant technical certifications are preferred.
Practical in-country experience required, typically over the course of at least 2 years, that includes:
A temporary country assignment, longer-term country assignments, or living in a location to work in a country office.
An emergency response assignment or other crisis response work demonstrating successfully adapting support and assistance methodologies to real-world complexities.
Managing and implementing successful programs.
Delivering Capacity Building curriculum or other processes for program teams.
Familiarity with major donors such as USAID (BHA/FTF), FCDO, ECHO, the EC and relevant foundations and corporations.
Fluency in English is required; fluency in French and/or Spanish preferred.
Willingness and ability to travel frequently to Mercy Corps project sites and other country locations, including traveling to insecure environments, is required.