Duty station: Damascus, Syria.

Internal candidates are highly encouraged to apply.

1. Background/Context

Working with local actors is a key priority for NRC and the Syria teams have been working on developing a new approach to working with partners, one that is more strategic and equitable, and with planned growth in the number of local partnerships over the coming years.

The purpose of the Partnership Manager position is to support strategy development and lead the implementation of that strategy. The person will need to champion localisation and work closely with colleagues across all departments to ensure they understand our approach to working with partners.

The Partnership Manager will need to guide the identification, selection and due diligence process for several new partners, as well as oversee the contracting, kick-off and monitoring of these partnerships. The Partnership Manager will need to ensure all staff are aware of their roles and responsibilities in this process and to develop and roll out tools and guidance to do this.

The Partnership Manager will also need to guide relationships with new partners, ensuring that a longer-term, more strategic and equitable approach is taken with partners. This will involve discussing with partners their capacity development needs, but also ensuring that partners participate in NRC’s annual strategy process and that they have the opportunity to provide feedback on the partnership with NRC.

The following is a brief description of the role.

1. Generic Responsibilities

• Contribute to a harmonised partnership approach between the NRC programmatic response and its partners, in line with NRC partnership policies, guidance, and procedures
• Support partners mapping efforts conducted by Area Offices and Country office
• Support partner’s adherence to the NRC policies, tools, handbooks, and guidelines; provide compliance spot-check/audit support
• Supervise the management of the full cycle of the Project Implementation Agreements (PIA) process with local partners, including but not limited to Due Diligence (DD) and Organizational Capacity Assessments (OAT) processes
• Liaise and coordinate with other functions where there are interdependencies within the country office, region and head office
• Lead the development, adaption and implementation of the NRC Syria Partnership Strategy
• Support to develop a positive organisational culture to working with local partners
• Collaborate with the grants unit to ensure that donor requirements/procedures are reflected in the PIAs and modification requests
• Assess the partner’s priority needs in terms of capacity development

1. Professional Competencies

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant area. Master’s degree would be advantageous
• Minimum 4 years of relevant senior level experience with NGO and/or international organisation, preferably leading partnership-related duties
• Experience from working in complex humanitarian contexts
• Experience working with (inter)national and local civil society organizations
• Experience of leading tasks and processes successfully, managing and prioritizing a high and diverse workload
• Knowledge about own leadership skills/profile
• Fluency in English and Arabic, both written and verbal, is essential
• Knowledge of the Syrian context would be an added value
• Good cultural awareness and sensitivity

Find more details about the role HERE.

1. What We Offer

• Duration and Type of contract: 12 months
• Salary/benefits: According to NRC salary scale, terms and conditions
• Duty station: Damascus, Syria

Find out more about the benefits of working for NRC HERE.

Important information about the application process:

• Internal candidates only: please click on the suitcase icon labelled “I am an employee” to be redirected to NRC’s internal careers site.
• When creating your profile, include your full name as given on your passport. Complete all the system-required fields for experience, employment history and education.
• Submit your application and CV in English, taking care to attach your latest CV.
• Applications that do not meet the minimum standards in terms of experience or qualifications will generally not be considered. Unsolicited applications not related to this specific job advertisement will not be considered.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. We receive many applicants for each vacant position.

Why NRC?

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is an independent humanitarian organization helping people forced to flee. Our 15,000 staff work in crises across 40 countries, providing life-saving and long-term assistance to millions of people every year.

Watch this short video to see NRC in action.

• Learn more about NRC HERE.

Internal candidates are encouraged to apply, and we are also open to external applicants who can show a commitment to NRC and being part of a challenging, but important mission to make a difference.

NRC might review applications before the advertised deadline, therefore interested candidates are encouraged to apply early.