Background: The International Rescue Committee (IRC) helps people affected by humanitarian crises to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. We deliver lasting impact by providing health care, helping children learn, and empowering individuals and communities to become self-reliant, always with a focus on the unique needs of women and girls. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, we now work in over 40 crisis-affected countries as well as communities throughout the U.S., Europe and Latin America.
The External Relations (ER) Department mobilizes external audiences to raise the requisite funds, influence policies and achieve practice changes to improve outcomes for our clients, while growing and protecting our global brand. The Global Policy & Advocacy team is a dynamic part of the ER Department that leverages the power of IRC’s ideas to solve the biggest challenges facing IRC’s clients across the “arc of crisis” and influence external stakeholders, in particular governments and multi-lateral institutions, to enact these solutions to ultimately make meaningful change for our clients. From addressing the drivers of conflict to meeting the needs of displaced people, the team partners with innovative thinkers, experts and those with lived experience to identify solutions and bring them to life. We take pride in being solutions-oriented and creative. We are precise in our goals, tactics, and messages. We drive change year over year, knowing that system change takes dedicated focus while maintaining the flexibility to respond to emerging needs across the globe. Finally, we are collaborative, constantly seeking new ideas and perspectives from others in our sector and beyond as we work side by side with programs, strategy, communications and research and innovation teams across the IRC.
Job Overview/Summary:
The Strategy and Planning Senior Officer will lead on key strategic planning and prioritization efforts for the Policy & Advocacy team. The Senior Officer will coordinate portions of organization-wide strategy and investment planning, collaborate with the Vice President of Policy & Advocacy on team prioritization processes, and manage a collaborative but streamlined process for strategy development. This person will maintain crucial processes and relationships and collaborate at all levels within and across the teams, and across the IRC.
Major Responsibilities:
- Facilitate priority-setting processes: Translate organization-wide strategy and policy products into department strategies, market-specific advocacy priorities, and thematic policy areas of focus.
- Lead strategy development processes: Work closely with Policy and Advocacy team members to support the development of specific, actionable policy and advocacy strategies, helping individual units develop strategies relevant to their priority issues and their geographic/political markets that include stakeholder mapping, activity planning, product development plans, and desired external change metrics as relevant. Lead Policy and Advocacy engagement in organization-wide annual planning processes, linking Policy and Advocacy planning to multi-year organizational strategies and Department-wide objectives.
- Develop and facilitate activities and processes across Policy and Advocacy teams: Facilitate and maintain efficient ways of working within, across, and with the Policy and Advocacy teams as appropriate. Identify and elevate collaboration challenges and develop ways of working systems to address those issues. Ensure ways of working are routinely updated to address feedback from team members and represent team in org-wide, multi-departmental process conversations.
- Manage long-term projects: Own project management, strategic content development, and logistics for key team efforts such as the Annual Planning and Quarterly Pause processes, retreat planning, and others.
- Facilitate cross-team collaboration and communication: Create tools and processes for effectively sharing information and collaborating internally, communicating with IRC stakeholders routinely, and managing workflows in a streamlined and smooth manner. Facilitate regular, effective, and efficient communication between team members and from organizational leadership to the rest of the teams, cascading information from ER leadership, finance, and HR as necessary. Manage the internal website and routine reporting to senior leaders. Develop deep understanding of Policy and Advocacy priorities and strategies in order to communicate effectively about team objectives and outcomes with internal stakeholders through reporting processes, internal websites, email and other means as appropriate.
- Lead KPI development and progress tracking: Working with the VP and members of the Policy and Advocacy team develop a set of high-level objectives for teams alongside a more detailed set of KPIs to enable reporting out to the organization on progress. Plan and facilitate quarterly internal progress reviews of individual strategies (and associated metrics) across Policy and Advocacy. Ensure KPIs and reporting metrics are logical, consistent, and regularly reported on by team members on a weekly basis.
- Teamwork: Support a positive team culture by acting openly and collaboratively, supporting colleagues in their work and sharing credit with others where appropriate. Organize team retreats, staff meetings, team building activities and trainings.
Key Working Relationships:
Position Reports to: Vice President of Policy & Advocacy with a Management in Partnership to the Director of Strategy & Planning
Position directly supervises: N/A
Other Internal and/or external contacts:
Internal: Global Policy and Advocacy team; Strategy & Planning Team; Business Operations; Marketing and Mobilization; Crisis Response, Recovery and Development Department; Resettlement, Asylum and Integration Department; President’s Office; Finance; Information Technology; Human Resources
External: NGOs, think tanks, U.S. government agencies, Congress, multilateral institutions and other organizations as needed
Job Requirements:
Education: Bachelor’s degree in International Relations, Political Science or other related field
Work Experience:
- 5-6 years work experience, experience in policy and advocacy preferred
Demonstrated Skills and Competencies:
- Excellent organizational and time management skills, including juggling competing priorities and tight deadlines and prioritizing tasks appropriately
- Experience designing and implementing strategic planning processes and progress metrics
- Positive, resourceful and flexible attitude with ability to problem solve, work productively both in a team environment or independently as needed, and take initiative in a fast-faced environment
- Familiarity with or experience in policy analysis or advocacy to high-level policymakers and thought leaders
- Strong project management skills, ideally within a cross-organizational team to deliver on projects/strategies
- Solid English language writing and editing skills with a focus on details
- Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to develop and manage complex relationships, including with high-level individuals
- Familiarity with or proven interest in humanitarian aid sector, foreign policy, and/or refugee issues
- Fluency in Microsoft Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and ability to learn online web-based applications
- Ambition to learn and grow skills by taking on challenging tasks, and mastering complex content and concepts
- Commitment to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion at the IRC and in the humanitarian field
- Lived experience with conflict or crisis-driven displacement, resettlement, asylum, immigration or migration is an asset in this role
**Working Environment:**Hybrid office work environment. Up to 5% travel may be required.
This role is open to candidates located and with the right to work in United States of America.
Compensation: (Pay Rate: $92,000 - $99,000/yr). Ranges are based on various factors including the labor market, job type, internal equity, and budget. Exact offers are calibrated by work location, individual candidate experience and skills relative to the defined job requirements.
Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
Professional Standards: All International Rescue Committee workers must adhere to the core values and principles outlined in IRC Way - Standards for Professional Conduct. Our Standards are Integrity, Service, Equality and Accountability. In accordance with these values, the IRC operates and enforces policies on Safeguarding, Conflicts of Interest, Fiscal Integrity, and Reporting Wrongdoing and Protection from Retaliation. IRC is committed to take all necessary preventive measures and create an environment where people feel safe, and to take all necessary actions and corrective measures when harm occurs. IRC builds teams of professionals who promote critical reflection, power sharing, debate, and objectivity to deliver the best possible services to our clients.
US Benefits: We offer a comprehensive and highly competitive set of benefits. In the US, these include: 10 sick days, 10 US holidays, 20-25 paid time off days depending on role and tenure, medical insurance starting at $163 per month, dental starting at $6.50 per month, and vision starting at $5 per month, FSA for healthcare and commuter costs, a 403b retirement savings plans with immediately vested matching, disability & life insurance, and an Employee Assistance Program which is available to our staff and their families to support co...