Innovation and Scale Lead

About Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. Now, and for the future.

The Program / Department / Team

Iqlaaع is a five year, $70M+ USAID funded project focused on formal and informal micro and small enterprise development. The program geographically covers all of Jordan and seeks to create jobs and increase revenues for both formal and informal businesses. An important objective of the program is to facilitate business formalization for those informal businesses which have achieved appropriate scale and have the skills or access to required skills to remain formal in a healthy and sustainable manner. Iqlaaع is focused on four initial economic sectors: Agriculture, Manufacturing, Services and Hospitality.

Iqlaaع utilizes a market system approach not only to evaluate and elevate the competitiveness of individual enterprises but to also ensure that the market systems which they are part of are also supportive, synergistic and competitive. As such, Iqlaaع will be seeking to develop and/or support market aggregators to enable micro and small producers to reach larger markets. Additionally, Iqlaaع is research driven. As such, interventions will be designed to address weaknesses or exploit opportunities identified through research. Key to sustainable competitiveness and growth is innovation and the ability to scale at the enterprise level.

The Position

The Innovation and Scale Lead is responsible for identifying opportunities and methods to internalize or apply innovation at a product, service, or process level within an enterprise. This individual will identify innovative practices or inputs which can be brought to bear on any of the components or processes within an identified target market system. They will identify how individual enterprises or groups of enterprises within a given market system can individually or cooperatively scale to exploit market opportunities. The Innovation and Scale will identify the absorptive capacity within enterprises and market systems as defined by the enterprise or market system’s ability to market and communicate the value of the innovation and to adopt/internalize the innovation technically and/or managerially. This requires knowledge of fundamental skills needed at the enterprise level.

The Innovation and Scale Lead must be able to evaluate and effectively drive the ability of the enterprises to scale within a market system. Alternatively, the Innovation and Scale Lead must understand the sequential nature of market system components and drivers for each component to be able to identify how scale can be achieved or improved.

Essential Responsibilities

Enterprise level support

• Evaluate enterprises and their management and/or owners to determine where innovation can assist in productivity, cost reduction, quality improvement, etc.
• Evaluate enterprises to determine where scale can be achieved through innovation, reorganization, partnerships, technology, etc.
• Identify the managerial and operational competencies required to effectively internalize innovation and/or drive scale. Evaluate enterprises to identify if such competencies exist (absorptive capacity).

Market Systems Level support

• Evaluate components and operational enterprises within identified market systems and evaluate where innovation can assist in improving market system performance and efficacy.
• Evaluate where scale can be generated or improved within a market system by exploiting or implementing specific innovations, reorganizations, process improvements, partnerships and technology.
• Evaluate whether the individual market system components (component players – i.e. enterprises) possess sufficient absorptive capacity to internalize and exploit specific innovations, reorganizations, process improvements, partnerships and technology.

TEAM MANAGEMENT

• Oversee the Iqlaa innovation and scale team
• Promote accountability, communicate expectations and provide constructive feedback informally and formally via regular one on ones and performance reviews.
• Create and sustain a work environment of mutual respect where team members strive to achieve excellence.

HUMAN RESOURCES

• Support Mercy Corps global and regional initiatives for human resources, including safeguarding and diversity, and talent development;
• Collaborate with the people team to promote staff access to high quality learning opportunities, with a special emphasis on national team member development;
• Assist with the on-boarding of senior team members, ensuring they are set up for success and familiar with agency systems, procedures, and protocols.

RISK MANAGEMENT

• Engage and support countries across the region to ensure that adequate risk management systems are in place;
• Collaborate with country leadership to support preparedness and response to major disruptive events;
• Engage with country teams on the internal audit process to track findings and ensure country team compliance with IA findings and recommendations;
• Engage with country level Ethics and Assurance managers as well as the global Ethics and Assurance department to track and analyze trends and needs across countries;

Supervisory Responsibility

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Technical DCoP

Works Directly With: Innovation and Scale Coordinator, Innovation and Scale Officer

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Describe 5-7 specific requirements for this position in bullet points (hard skills).
• Include minimum education, experience, etc.
• Internationally recognized qualification in project or program management or a commitment to obtain the qualification in the early months of work.
• Knowledge of Sphere standards and other training in humanitarian response preferred.

Success Factors

Define the specific behavior and attitudes critical to success in the position at time of hire and as it develops over time in paragraph form (soft skills).

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Amman, Jordan or other Middle East Mercy Corps locations and it requires up to 40% travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited. Housing for this role is in individual housing and staff will have access to good medical services and the living situation is of a high standard.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Achieving our mission begins with how we build our team and work together. Through our commitment to enriching our organization with people of different origins, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of thinking, we are better able to leverage the collective power of our teams and solve the world’s most complex challenges. We strive for a culture of trust and respect, where everyone contributes their perspectives and authentic selves, reaches their potential as individuals and teams, and collaborates to do the best work of their lives.

We recognize that diversity and inclusion is a journey, and we are committed to learning, listening and evolving to become more diverse, equitable and inclusive than we are today.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer that does not tolerate discrimination on any basis. We actively seek out diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be collectively stronger and have sustained global impact.

We are committed to providing an environment of respect and psychological safety where equal employment opportunities are available to all. We do not engage in or tolerate discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender identity, gender expression, religion, age, sexual orientation, national or ethnic origin, disability (including HIV/AIDS status), marital status, military veteran status or any other protected group in the locations where we work.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Conduct Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct elearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

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