Catholic Relief Services is the official worldwide humanitarian organization of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS saves, protects, and transforms lives in need in over 100 countries, regardless of race, religion, or nationality. CRS conducts relief and development work via programs such as emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding.
Job Summary:
You will provide advice on operations and risk management at the regional, national, and partner levels. You will create, analyze, and execute systems, procedures, and controls to improve the agency’s operational efficiency and effectiveness in areas such as risk management, supply chain, partner operations, and field management. You will also play an important role in developing regional and national capacity for identifying, assessing, and managing all types of risks indicated in external and internal audit reports and risk assessments. By using values of stewardship, honesty, openness, and accountability, we may decrease risk to personnel, program effectiveness, and the people we serve.
Responsibilities
Roles and key responsibilities:
- Provide overall senior leadership in the EARO area for proactive risk management and mitigation.
- Collaborate with audit, risk, and compliance leads as well as regional and CP leadership to design and reinforce internal control systems, create and manage ongoing risk registers, and improve continuous process performance.
- Coach country program personnel, write and review papers, and liaise with partners and the Ethics Unit as needed to improve the overall quality and timeliness of EARO fraud case handling. Monitor fraud deadlines to ensure prompt donor reporting and remedial action strategies.
- Plan and carry out internal audits, control reviews, fraud allegation reviews, and compliance assessments in coordination with CP management. Analyze the data and provide suggestions.
- Design and organize necessary operations training sessions in conjunction with CP management, programming, and/or operation leaders, as well as contribute to relevant components of CRS and partner institutional capacity-building programs.
- Contribute to proposal development by creating and assessing operational annexes such as risk mitigation strategies, personnel and management plans, security paperwork, and so on.
- Review, help, and support the development of operational procedures for significant contributions after donor awards. Ensure that consortium members or partners are fully informed of the compliance requirements from the beginning of the award process.
- As needed, travel to high-risk country contexts (for example, emergency response, new office or program start-up, staff turnover) to provide temporary direct management support and risk/compliance oversight across operational functions as acting Head of Operations or other operational leadership roles.
Required Languages: Strong verbal and written English.
Travel: Must be willing and able to travel 25–50%, particularly to Ethiopia and Sudan, including regular periods as Acting Deputy Country Representative—Operations
Supervisory Responsibilities: None
Key Working Relationships:
Internal: Regional Finance team; country program operations, finance and compliance staff; HQ departments including Internal Audit, Risk and Compliance, and Ethics Unit
External: CRS partners and auditors
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:
- Strong relationship management skills
- Strong analytical, organizational, and systems thinking skills
- Ability to make sound judgment
- Ethical conduct in accordance with recognized professional and organizational codes of ethics
- Proactive, resourceful and results-oriented
Qualifications
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree required. Master’s Degree in Accounting, Business Administration or other relevant field preferred.
- Minimum of 8 years work experience with an international organization, with progressive responsibility in operations and risk management. Of this, minimum 3 years country program experience as Head of Operations or similar roles
- Knowledge of donor rules and regulations, including USAID, World Bank, EU, DFID, and UN donors.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience using PowerBI, Power Automate, Power Apps, or similar tools
- Knowledge of data analytics techniques and process performance improvement leading practices
- Knowledge of audit standards and compliance regulations; knowledge of COSO’s Internal Control Framework or The Institute of Internal Audit’s International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing
- Knowledge of accounting systems
- Coaching and training abilities.
- Proficient in MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio) and information management systems.
Agency REDI Competencies (for all CRS Staff):
- Personal Accountability: Consistently takes responsibility for one’s own actions.
- Acts with Integrity: Consistently models values aligned with CRS guiding principles and mission. Is considered honest.
- Builds and Maintains Trust: Shows consistency between words and actions.
- Collaborates with Others—Works effectively in intercultural and diverse teams.
- Open to Learn: Seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.
Agency Leadership Competencies:
- Lead Change—Continually looks for ways to improve the agency through a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
- Develops and Recognizes Others: Builds the capacity of staff to reach their full potential and enhances team and agency performance.
- Strategic Mindset: Understands role in translating, communicating, and implementing agency strategy and team priorities.
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