Moldova operations manager and security focal point

Location Chisinau, Moldova
Position Status Full Time
Duration: 12 months

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.
Program / Department Summary
Mercy Corps’ Ukraine crisis response seeks to meet the humanitarian needs of vulnerable Ukrainians and other conflict-affected people where they are: displaced inside Ukraine, refugees in Poland, Romania and Moldova, or trapped behind frontlines. We aim to reach 500,000 vulnerable people with multi-purpose cash assistance, in-kind humanitarian support, and protection services across four countries. Almost all of our impact will be delivered in partnership: with Ukrainian, Polish, Romanian and Moldovan civil society organizations through a granting program that matches humanitarian action with capacity strengthening, and with peer international NGOs through a consortium in Ukraine.
General Position Summary
The Operations Manager, Moldova is responsible for enabling excellence in operations functions across locations in Moldova while coordinating efforts and offering additional support as required to teams based in Ukraine. Reporting to the Director of Operations - Ukraine Response and Country Lead Moldova, the Operations Manager, Moldova will ensure that systems are in place and followed to provide efficiency and good communications to enable all Mercy Corps staff to understand these systems and work cooperatively with others. The Operations Manager, Moldova shall also oversee the successful management of administration, procurement, travel, fleet management, and logistics management functions for the office in Chisinau and support all program locations in Moldova, as well as supporting Mercy Corps office in Odessa. They shall work with in-country resources and with technical assistance from the Global Procurement and Logistics unit to ensure that the Ukraine response remains a data-driven, forward-thinking and innovative operation among Mercy Corps' global portfolio.

Essential Job Responsibilities
Strategy and Vision
● Provide program support, coordination; supervision, and monitoring designed to meet program objectives;
● Contribute to the country's strategic planning process and provide regular updates; and
● Support the Director of Operations to ensure that the overall operations structure reflects the best practices of the agency.

Representation
● Interface with relevant government authorities responsible for International NGOs;
● Maintain productive relationships with all stakeholders, vendors, suppliers, etc.;
● Support hub Operations team members in maintaining productive relationships with all stakeholders, vendors, suppliers, etc.; and
● Participate in the external working groups, cluster system, and other operational coordinating bodies as needed.
● Interface with local legal, recruiting/payroll, banking agencies as required until such a time that those duties can be taken on by the respective responsible individuals [Team Lead, HR, Finance})

Facilities and Office Management
● Ensure facilities and office management policies and procedures are implemented as described in the Field Facilities and Office Management Manual.
● Oversee set-up and development of Mercy Corps offices including drafting and reviewing contracts for office and housing space, leasehold improvements, and IT.
● Oversee facility management, including housing and office leases; ensure that security standards are maintained at all premises.
● Be responsible for any necessary expatriate visa, travel, and work permits.
● Ensure that Mercy Corps contracts and business transactions/relationships are transparent and in compliance with law and Mercy Corps/donor policies.
● Responsible for ensuring optimum utilization of resources including operations budgets.
● Ensuring full compliance as per the standard operating process, and policies in operations.

Logistics
● Supervise any fleet and transportation requirements for the Moldova team and cross-border travel to Odessa, Lviv (Ukraine), or Iasi (Romania).
● Establish and maintain a pipeline of supplies, as requested by the Ukraine team, overseeing the logistical aspects of the operation.
● Liaise with finance to ensure compliance and payment schedules; maintain service contracts.
● Coordinate logistical (non-program) aspects of material aid projects and associated shipments; manage importation and customs clearance elements. Oversee equipment registration, licensing, insurance, etc.
● Prepare for any storage requirements in Moldova.
● Maintain inventory records of materials and materials flow; oversee tracking of all assets.
Security Focal Point

Preparedness
• Maintain close contact/coordination with colleagues in Odessa and in particular track ongoing security developments
• Prepare for and facilitate any emergency extraction of expatriate staff to Moldova (notably from Odessa)
• Prepare for and make necessary arrangements to host expatriates in accommodation and office space following either an extraction or for temporary relocation to Moldova (before or after entry to Ukraine)

Essential Responsibilities
● Maintains Mercy Corps’ Global Minimum Standards for Safety & Security which include security management planning; documentation; orientations and briefings; journey management, including approval processes and staff tracking; incident reporting; office and workplace safety. This also includes management targets related to training, budgeting and staffing.
● Conducts country and local Security Risk Assessments for different security risk contexts and use these periodic assessments to inform its security management planning. Communicate relevant updates to the context, threats or procedures to team members and documents updated, as necessary.
● Drafts, updates, contributes and/or implements the Security Management Plan. Each plan includes at a minimum: risk assessment; contact information for the Risk Management Team; context analysis; standard operating procedures (SOPs); contingency planning; emergency medical planning and contacts, incident reporting instructions.
● Leads mandatory Security Incident reporting. Country offices are required to report and maintain a log of security incidents. It is the responsibility of the security focal point to maintain this log and also ensure individual security incidents are well-documented in a way that enables the country risk management team to analyze their immediate risk environment and also the agency to learn and improve upon their risk management approach. Critical incidents must be reported to the global security team immediately.
● Coordinates security trainings, orientations, visitor briefing and on-boarding. It is the responsibility of the security focal point to ensure that team members are prepared for the security risks and environments they will encounter. This is done through a briefing on the environment and orientation to Mercy Corps procedures and planning. This is generally done prior to starting the responsibilities however, in some cases this is done in-situ with trainings, briefings and access to security plans. Updates, briefings, and trainings are offered or provided periodically or as situations evolve.
Other Responsibilities
● Ensure functional IT systems within country program offices, with the IT and Information Security actors
● Ensure that Mercy Corps contracts and business transactions/relationships are transparent and in compliance with country law and Mercy Corps/donor policies;
● Potentially act as or oversee security focal point for Moldova - which includes any cross border movements to Ukraine
● Conduct himself/herself both professionally and personally in such manner as to bring credit to Mercy Corps and to not jeopardize its humanitarian mission;
● Where required or requested, provide additional Administrative or Operational support to other areas of the Ukraine response; and
● Other duties as assigned

Risk Management
● With the Director of Operations, support departmental risk identification and mitigation actions that align with organizational and regional risk-management initiatives;
● Support Hub Director of Operations on risk management and mitigation;
● Provide input including operational risk analysis and recommendations to the Operations and Finance Leads related to Operations spending and effectiveness of in-country reporting and planning systems.

Compliance Management
● Work with Finance and Ethics/Assurance actors compliance to mitigate fraud, conflict of interest and legal ramifications of Mercy Corps activities;
● Assure effective monitoring of Mercy Corps systems and processes in operational hubs by ensuring that remote management plans are resilient and contextually appropriate; and
● Play an active role in supporting Operations departments in preparing internal and external audits, ensuring that recommendations related to operations are followed and all necessary measures to address audit findings are taken.

Supervisory Responsibility
Direct supervision of all operations personnel (coordinator, administrative officer and assistant, logistics, drivers etc.) in Moldova
Accountability
Reports Directly To: Director of Operations and Country Lead Moldova
Works Directly With: Program Departments, Finance actors in Ukraine, IT/Information Security Coordinator, Security Manager Ukraine Response.
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
● Relevant degree in a relevant field.
● A minimum of 3 years of field experience in Operations management
● Demonstrated attention to detail, following procedures, meeting deadlines and working and problem solving independently and cooperatively.
● Excellent negotiation and representation skills.
● Effective verbal and written communication, organizational, prioritization and Microsoft Office applications.
● Excellent oral and written Romanian and English skills are required. Russian and Ukrainian language skills are considered an asset.
● Ability to work effectively with an ethnically diverse team in a sensitive environment.

Success Factors
The successful Operations Manager will be good at problem-solving and have the ability to work out methods to deliver successful programs while demonstrating excellent stewardship of donor funds and compliance with Mercy Corps and donor regulations. They will maintain strong cooperative relationships with other departments and interact effectively with international and national personnel both in a managerial as well as training capacity while demonstrating the ability to multi-task, meet deadlines, and process information in support of changing program activities. They will be able to live and work closely with a diverse team of individuals in a highly intense and fluid work and security environment and be willing to travel regularly to Mercy Corps field offices and project sites. The most successful Mercy Corps staff members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and changing environments and make effective written and verbal communication a priority in all situations.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions
The position is based in Chisinau, Moldova. Given the emergency context, this position requires exceptional work schedules, including evenings and weekends.

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.