Economic Empowerment Project Lead

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, helping to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing, and power to people devastated by conflict and disaster. Founded in 1933 at the call of Albert Einstein, the IRC is one of the world's largest international humanitarian non-governmental organizations (INGO), at work in more than 40 countries and 29 U.S. cities helping people to survive, reclaim control of their future and strengthen their communities. A force for humanity, IRC employees deliver lasting impact by restoring safety, dignity and hope to millions. If you're a solutions-driven, passionate change-maker, come join us in positively impacting the lives of millions of people world-wide for a better future.

JOB OVERVIEW:

The Project Management Lead is responsible for the effective, high-quality management of the full project lifecycle across the organization's program portfolio. The role integrates four core pillars: partnership management, program implementation, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning (MEAL), and budget management. The role holder ensures that projects are delivered on time, on budget, to a high-quality standard, and in compliance with donor requirements, while building strong, accountable relationships with implementing partners.

The IRC's Economic Empowerment (EE) team in Poland helps refugees and economic migrants rebuild their financial independence and find sustainable work. Through career counselling, vocational training, entrepreneurship support, and partnerships with employers and local labor market institutions, the team helps clients navigate the Polish job market, recognize their existing skills and qualifications, and access the resources they need to support themselves and their families. The role sits at the center of the IRC's mission to help people not just survive displacement but recover and regain control over their futures.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Partnership Management

• Identify, assess, and select implementing partners (local organizations, institutions, service providers) in line with organizational procedures.

• Negotiate and manage partnership agreements (sub-grants/sub-contracts), including scope of work, budgets, and indicators.

• Conduct regular partner performance reviews and support partners in strengthening organizational capacity.

• Ensure partner compliance with donor requirements, safety and safeguarding standards, and organizational policy.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for partners on operational and strategic matters.

• Resolve disputes and issues with partners in a constructive and timely manner.

2. Program Implementation

• Oversee day-to-day project delivery in line with approved work plans, timelines, and scope.

• Coordinate across technical, operational, and support teams to ensure coherent delivery of activities.

• Identify implementation risks and bottlenecks and propose corrective actions.

• Ensure timely delivery of project outputs in line with donor and organizational quality standards.

• Prepare and update implementation plans (work plans, procurement plans, spending plans).

• Lead regular project team coordination meetings and report progress to the Head of Program.

3. MEAL (Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability and Learning)

• Oversee the implementation of MEAL frameworks across projects, including logframes and indicators.

• Ensure regular collection, verification, and analysis of data on indicator progress.

• Coordinate midline and endline evaluations, as well as project reviews.

• Implement community accountability mechanisms, including complaints and feedback mechanisms (CFM).

• Foster a culture of learning: document good practices and lessons learned and use them to inform program adaptation.

• Ensure the quality of data reported to donors and compliance with their monitoring requirements.

4. Budget Management

• Prepare, monitor, and update project budgets in coordination with the finance team.

• Conduct regular Budget vs. Actuals (BvA) reviews and take corrective action in case of variances.

• Manage the process of budget reallocations and project modifications (no-cost extensions, budget amendments).

• Ensure expenditure compliance with donor rules and the organization's financial policies.

• Support partners in managing their sub-budgets and review partner financial reports.

• Contribute to budget preparation for new grant proposals.

Key Success Indicators (examples)

• Projects delivered on schedule, on budget, with compliance (BvA variance within agreed thresholds).

• High quality and timely donor reports and MEAL data.

• Positive feedback from implementing partners on the collaboration.

• Effective implementation of recommendations from evaluations and program reviews.

JOB REQUIREMENTS 

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in project management, social sciences, international development, or a related field.

• Minimum 3 years of project management experience in the humanitarian/development sector or a related field, including experience managing partnerships.

• Demonstrated experience managing project budgets, ideally for multi-donor grants.

• Experience designing and implementing MEAL systems.

• Project management certification (e.g. PMP, PRINCE2) is an asset.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong analytical skills and proficiency with data management and reporting tools.

• Excellent communication and negotiation skills, including with partners and donors.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work under time pressure.

• Good understanding and experience in economic empowerment and labor market activation approaches - such as vocational training, entrepreneurship support, and employer engagement - ideally gained working with refugee or migrant populations, is considered an asset.

• Strong understanding of the migration, asylum, and refugee context in Poland, including service provision frameworks and the local landscape of public institutions, and civil society actors.

• Experience contributing to donor proposals and fundraising processes, including narrative input and budget development for new grants is considered an asset.

• Familiarity with major institutional donor requirements depending on organizational context.

• Fluency in Polish is required. Strong command of English (spoken and written); knowledge of additional languages is an asset.

• Ability to build and maintain relationships based on trust and mutual accountability.

Compensation: (Pay Rate: 10,900-11,300 PLN/month). 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. 

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.

Cookies: https://careers.rescue.org/us/en/cookiesettings