Background/IRC Summary:
The International Rescue Committee (IRC) has operated in Syria since 2012, delivering protection, health, economic recovery, early childhood development and other services across multiple governorates. IRC’s longstanding presence, relationships with communities and partners, and experience across sectors provide a strong foundation for adapting its programming to Syria’s evolving context.
As Syria moves through a period of significant political, economic, social and humanitarian change, IRC is increasingly required to move beyond a predominantly service-delivery model and strengthen its contribution to recovery, resilience, community-led development and systems strengthening.
This requires the organization to continuously understand changing needs, risks, capacities and opportunities; listen to communities and partners; generate and interpret evidence; and use learning to influence program design, strategic priorities, resource allocation and organizational decision-making.
The METAL function is therefore a strategic organizational function. It is responsible not only for ensuring the quality and integrity of program data, but also for helping IRC understand whether its interventions are relevant, effective, equitable and sustainable, what is changing in the environments in which it works, and how the organization should adapt.
Job Overview/Summary:
- The METAL Coordinator will provide strategic leadership for Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning across IRC Syria, ensuring evidence and community perspectives inform program and organisational decision-making.
- The position will lead the development of a country-level METAL and learning function integrated throughout the program cycle, from strategy and assessment through design, implementation, adaptation and close-out.
- The Coordinator will work across program technical teams, Grants, Finance, Operations, Partnerships and Senior Management to strengthen program quality, evidence use, accountability and adaptive management.
- A core responsibility will be to build a culture in which evidence, learning and community knowledge are used to challenge assumptions, improve program relevance and effectiveness, inform strategic choices, and support IRC’s evolution toward locally led, partnership-oriented and systems-focused programming.
Responsibilities:
1. Strategic METAL Leadership, Evidence and Learning
- Lead a coherent country METAL strategy aligned with IRC’s global priorities, the Country Strategic Action Plan and the evolving strategic direction of IRC Syria.
- Position METAL as a strategic function that generates and translates evidence, learning, contextual analysis and community perspectives into program and organizational decisions.
- Embed data and evidence in the culture and decision-making of IRC Syria by establishing mechanisms for organisational reflection, learning and constructive challenge, ensuring evidence is routinely used to test assumptions, identify what is and is not working, and drive adaptation.
- Provide the DDP, Country Director and Senior Management Team with relevant evidence and analysis to inform strategic choices, program prioritization and portfolio development.
2. Program Quality, Assessment and Adaptive Management
- Ensure METAL is integrated from the earliest stages of program development, including assessments, problem analysis, theories of change, program design and proposal development.
- Provide strategic support to programs to develop outcome-focused measurement approaches and establish systems for reviewing performance, testing assumptions and adapting interventions as context and evidence evolve.
- Lead or oversee appropriate assessments, evaluations, research and learning processes, ensuring findings are actionable and inform program design and organizational learning.
- Promote cross-sectoral learning and the systematic use of evidence from previous and ongoing programmes, while ensuring relevant country-level data, analysis and learning contribute to regional and global METAL initiatives, organisational reporting and wider evidence generation.
3. Accountability, Client Voice and Locally Led METAL
- Provide strategic leadership on Client Responsiveness, ensuring community feedback and perspectives are treated as sources of decision-making intelligence and influence program design, implementation and adaptation.
- Ensure feedback and accountability mechanisms are accessible, inclusive, safe and appropriate to different population groups and contexts, with clear processes for closing the feedback loop.
- Develop a partnership-oriented approach to METAL that strengthens local organisations’ capacity to generate, analyse and use evidence and promotes joint learning and shared accountability.
- Ensure locally generated knowledge, community perspectives and partner evidence are recognised as important sources of strategic intelligence for IRC Syria.
4. Data, Information Management and Quality Assurance
- Establish proportionate country METAL systems that ensure data is accurate, reliable, timely, ethical and fit for program and management decision-making.
- Provide oversight of data collection, management, analysis, visualisation and reporting systems, ensuring appropriate standards for data quality, data protection and responsible data use.
- Promote the appropriate use of digital tools and data visualisation to improve the accessibility, timeliness and usefulness of evidence.
- Ensure data and information systems support program learning and decision-making while meeting IRC policies, donor requirements and relevant data protection standards.
5. Donor, Partnership and External Evidence
- Work with Grants, Business Development and program teams to ensure proposals and donor reporting are grounded in credible evidence, clear theories of change, meaningful outcomes and learning.
- Provide evidence and analysis to support donor positioning, program development, strategic engagement and portfolio decisions.
- Identify and use relevant external research, assessments and evidence to strengthen IRC’s strategic positioning and program quality.
- Represent IRC Syria in relevant METAL, assessment, research, accountability and learning forums and build relationships with relevant research institutions, government, UN, NGO and other actors.
6. Team Leadership and Capacity Strengthening
- Lead, manage and develop the country METAL team, ensuring appropriate structures, clear roles, strong technical capacity and effective coordination across locations and sectors.
- Strengthen team and program staff capacity in evidence generation, analysis, accountability, learning and adaptive management through coaching, mentoring and practical support.
- Ensure METAL staffing structures and resources are proportionate to the country portfolio and strategic requirements.
- Promote national leadership, professional development and a collaborative, service-oriented METAL culture, while ensuring effective coordination with relevant regional and global METAL and technical colleagues.
- Required Experience/qualification/Skills:
- University degree in monitoring and evaluation, statistics, social sciences, public health, development studies, economics, data science or another relevant discipline.
- Equivalent professional experience may be considered.
Experience
- Minimum 8 years of relevant experience in METAL, research, program quality, evidence, learning or related functions.
- At least 3 years of management or senior leadership experience.
- Demonstrated experience leading METAL across multi-sectoral and multi-donor programs.
- Demonstrated experience using evidence and analysis to influence program design, adaptation or strategic decision-making.
- Experience designing and managing assessments, evaluations, research and learning processes.
- Experience developing and strengthening accountability and client responsiveness systems.
- Experience working with local organizations and/or strengthening partner capacity is strongly preferred.
- Experience in complex, changing or conflict-affected environments.
Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:
- Strong analytical and critical-thinking skills, with the ability to translate complex evidence into clear strategic recommendations.
- Strong understanding of quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation methodologies.
- Demonstrated ability to distinguish between data, evidence, interpretation and organisational learning.
- Strong understanding of adaptive management and outcome-focused program design.
- Ability to communicate evidence effectively to senior leaders, program teams, partners and external stakeholders.
- Strong facilitation skills and ability to create constructive spaces for reflection and challenge.
- Strong understanding of accountability, client responsiveness and participatory approaches.
- Experience with digital data collection and data management platforms.
- Strong proficiency in Excel and relevant statistical/data analysis tools.
- Experience with data visualisation platforms such as Power BI, Tableau or equivalent.
- GIS knowledge is an asset.
- Strong people management, coaching and capacity-strengthening skills.
- Ability to work effectively across sectors, functions, locations and organisational levels.
- Demonstrated commitment to locally led, inclusive and ethical approaches to evidence and learning.
Language/Travel:
Language: Fluency in Arabic and English, written and spoken, is required.
Travels: minimum 30%
Key Working Relationships:
Position Reports to: Deputy Director for Programs, with close working relationships with the Technical Unit
Position directly supervises: METAL Manager, and METAL Officers
Key Internal Contacts: Grants, Compliance Technical Unit, Program Staff, Supply Chain, Finance
Key External Contacts: OCHA Interagency Multisectoral Assessment working groups
Professional Standards: IRC staff must adhere to the values and principles outlined in IRC Way – Global Standards for Professional Conduct. These are Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality. In accordance with these values, IRC operates and carries out policies on Beneficiary Protection from Exploitation and Abuse, Child Safeguarding, Anti-Workplace Harassment, Respect at Work Fiscal Integrity, and Anti-Retaliation.
Returning National Candidates: We strongly encourage national or returning national candidates to apply for this position. If you are a citizen of the Country in which this position is based and are currently located outside of your home country and possess over two years of international work experience, the Middle East Region has introduced an attractive remuneration package. The package includes competitive compensation, return flight to post, shipping allowance, temporary housing, and a relocation allowance. Certain restrictions may apply. IRC strives to attract, motivate and retain qualified national staff in our programs.
Accountability to Clients: IRC staff must adhere to the commitment of contributing to the sustainability and development of its (CR) Client Responsiveness Mechanisms, preserving the culture of prioritizing the needs of our clients and affected communities by systematically listening to their perspectives and using their feedback to make programmatic decisions and give them greater influence over program design and delivery.
Gender Equality: IRC is committed to narrowing the gender gap in leadership positions. We offer benefits that provide an enabling environment for women to participate in our workforce including parental leave, gender-sensitive security protocols and other supportive benefits and allowances.
Diversity and Inclusion: at IRC MENA, we are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. Organizations that are diverse in age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity, nationality, and perspective are validated to be better organizations. More importantly, creating a safe workspace environment where everyone, from any background, can do their best is the right thing to do. So, bring your whole self to work.
IRC is committed to creating a diverse, inclusive, respectful and safe work environment where all persons are treated fairly, with dignity and respect. In keeping with our core values of Integrity, Service, Accountability and Equality, IRC strives to maintain a work environment built on mutual respect in which all individuals treat each other professionally, and free of bias, prejudice, and harassment. IRC expressly prohibits and will not tolerate discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or bullying of IRC Persons in any work setting. All IRC staff, wherever they are located, are accountable for creating an environment free of discrimination, harassment, bullying, and retaliation.