Temporary - Sr. Advisor, Youth Employment - Technical Resources and Quality Team (6 months)

Mercy Corps is a global team of humanitarians and development professionals working together to create a future of possibility, where everyone can prosper. In more than 40+ countries around the world, over 5,400+ team members work side by side with people living through poverty, disaster, violent conflict, and the acute impacts of climate change. We’re committed to creating global change through local impact — 84% of our team members are from the countries where they work. We bring a comprehensive approach to every challenge, addressing problems from multiple angles. And we go beyond emergency aid, partnering with local governments, forward-thinking corporations, social entrepreneurs, and people living in fragile communities to develop bold solutions that make lasting change possible. About the Team The Technical Resources and Quality (TRaQ) team has nine technical and cross-cutting thematic teams, Climate and Water Security, Economic Opportunity, Food Security, Peace and Governance, Global Resilience, Social Inclusion, Cash, Infrastructure, Training and Program Standards. This position will be part of the Youth Employment team, which sits within the Economic Opportunities team. The Youth Employment team has established goals and strategies that will guide the Senior Advisor’s work The TRaQ Team is an integral part of the Program Department that supports country-led work to deliver impact, leads agency thinking in key technical and program management areas, and ensures quality programing while maintaining agency visibility with key audiences. TRaQ’s goal is to equip our global programs with the most effective technical solutions and quality program management tools to tackle the world’s toughest challenges, while simultaneously building our global reputation and technical resources. The broader Programs Department is composed of headquarters and regional departments which are guided by Mercy Corps global strategy: Pathway to Possibility. It is composed of regional and country teams which implement our programs, as well as headquarter teams which provide support to programs, to deliver the highest quality programming and impactful results. The Programs Department is a key steward of Mercy Corps’ strategic commitments - Climate Smart, Locally Led, Evidence Driven, Innovative and Creative, and Safe, Diverse and Inclusive – and the integration of these commitments into programming. Our Core Behaviors of collaboration, curiosity, inclusion, and integrity are at the forefront of all our work. The Position The Youth Employment team supports programming that facilitates more work, better work, or better access to work for young people, women and other marginalized people. This enables individuals, businesses and markets to become more resilient to conflict and climate related shocks and stresses. The Youth Employment team focuses on three major workstreams – market system development for employment (MSD4E), jobtech, and green jobs. The Senior Advisor has both an internal and external facing role. Internally, the Senior Advisor provides technical support to Mercy Corps program working on employment. Support includes designing and developing programs, assessing and enhancing program quality including through providing technical advisory support directly to programs, writing proposals for donors, providing training, supporting learning, and supporting program, country and region teams with their strategies as these relate to Youth Employment. Externally, the Senior Advisor’s role involves maintaining current knowledge on industry best practices, disseminating information, evidence and learning to external partners, representing Mercy Corps at key events, and building a network of key relationships with external partners. The Senior Advisor will also build the capacity of their peers and the organization during their role. This role will have particular responsibility for supporting and growing our MSD4E work. This involves working closely with the Director of Youth Employment, with our internal ‘portfolio’ of programs using the MSD4E approach, and with the external MSD4E community of practice to establish best practices in MSD4E based on learning from programs, evidence from research, and technical rigor drawn from long-established MSD principles. The Senior Advisor will play a key role in growing both the quantity and the quality of programs within Mercy Corps applying an MSD4E approach. Part of the Senior Advisor’s responsibilities will be to work closely with our ‘Markets’ TraQ team, responsible for Mercy Corps’ MSD work across all sectors. This is particularly relevant as it relates to guidance, tools and knowledge management - where the Senior Advisor develops new or innovative guidance and approaches for MSD4E, part of the role will be to connect these to the wider body of MSD guidance within Mercy Corps, including developing adapted versions for MSD programs in other sectors to use where appropriate. Essential Responsibilities PROGRAM DESIGN AND PROPOSAL DEVELOPMENT