Program Manager II, El Nino Preparedness South America – EMPOWER/RAPID

NOTE: This is a remote position; CRS will only consider candidates who are based in countries where we have existing offices, preferably in the LACRO region or the US.
Job Summary

The Program Manager II will provide time-bound program management, technical support, accompaniment, and training to EMPOWER partners in South America to strengthen El Niño preparedness and readiness for rapid, partner-led emergency response. The position will coordinate preparedness programming across priority countries and hotspots, translating hazard, vulnerability, market, operational, and partner-capacity analysis into practical readiness actions, quality program designs, and activation-ready response plans.

Working closely with the Supply Chain Management Technical Advisor II and other technical and operational colleagues, the Program Manager II will align program strategies, targeting, transfer modalities, technical standards, MEAL, accountability, safeguarding, protection, and partner capacity strengthening with sourcing, contracting, logistics, cash and voucher assistance, and distribution readiness. The role will help partners identify and close priority program bottlenecks, test readiness arrangements, and maintain an integrated package that can be rapidly adapted when an EMPOWER/RAPID response is activated.
Roles and Key Responsibilities

- Lead the programmatic El Niño preparedness process across South America priority countries in close coordination with EMPOWER partners, country program or program office teams, RAPID counterparts, technical advisors, MEAL, and supply chain and operations colleagues.

- Develop and maintain an integrated assignment workplan and deliverable calendar that links program, MEAL, partnership, cash and voucher assistance, supply chain, finance, safeguarding, and operational readiness activities.

- Coordinate hazard, vulnerability, exposure, seasonal, and scenario analysis to identify priority countries, hotspots, population groups, likely needs, access constraints, and preparedness triggers for drought, floods, food insecurity, wildfires and related El Niño impacts.

- Lead stakeholder and service mapping with partners, including government authorities, Caritas structures, humanitarian coordination bodies, community actors, technical services, financial service providers, and other response stakeholders.

- Support partners to develop or update country- and hotspot-specific contingency plans, response strategies, sector and modality options, targeting approaches, geographic priorities, and scalable response scenarios.

- Work with sector technical leads and partners to define minimum program quality standards, intervention packages, eligibility and prioritization criteria, transfer values or assistance quantities, referral pathways, and safe adaptation or substitution rules.

- Coordinate with the Supply Chain Management Technical Advisor II to validate proposed relief kits, in-kind assistance, and cash or voucher options against assessed needs, local market capacity, cultural appropriateness, protection considerations, delivery feasibility, lead times, and cost drivers.

- Integrate market and logistics findings into program design, including modality selection, remote-area feasibility, delivery sequencing, contingency options, and realistic procurement and implementation timelines.

- Support partner readiness for cash and voucher assistance by defining program requirements for geographic coverage, transfer modalities, participant data, accountability, complaints handling, protection, inclusion, reconciliation, monitoring, and failed-payment follow-up in coordination with operations and finance teams.

- Lead development of activation-ready program packages, including concise needs assessment tools, rapid response concepts, targeting and registration approaches, implementation plans, staffing assumptions, budgets, procurement inputs, risk assessments, and donor-ready narrative components.

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