Senior Project Associate (Livelihoods)

The Senior Project Associate supports the Program Coordinator in planning, coordinating, and implementing livelihoods activities across assigned governorates in Iraq. The role involves operational follow-up, monitoring, reporting, and coordination with field teams and stakeholders to ensure quality and timely delivery of livelihoods programs.

Responsibilities

• Support the Program Coordinator in planning, coordinating, and implementing livelihoods activities across the assigned governorates in line with approved workplans, donor requirements, and IOM policies and procedures.
• Support the Program Coordinator in the day-to-day operational follow-up of livelihoods interventions, including tracking implementation milestones and identifying delivery gaps.
• Provide day-to-day guidance and operational follow-up to the team leaders and relevant field teams to promote harmonized, timely, and quality implementation across locations.
• Support the Program Coordinator in beneficiary targeting, verification, prioritization, and selection processes to ensure transparent, criteria-based, and well-documented implementation.
• Undertake regular travel to field locations to monitor implementation progress, check the quality and timeliness of activities, identify operational bottlenecks, and support field teams in addressing implementation challenges.
• Support the Program Coordinator in strengthening the capacity of field teams through regular field presence, including on-the-job coaching, mentoring, troubleshooting, and reinforcement of standard operating procedures and tools.
• In coordination with the Program Coordinator, review field-level documentation, case files, activity records, and implementation updates to ensure completeness, accuracy, and compliance prior to onward submission and action.
• Track implementation progress against agreed plans, targets, and timelines, and follow up with relevant units on delays, payment issues, procurement actions, contractual matters, and other operational bottlenecks affecting delivery.
• Support and monitor timely and accurate data collection, consolidation, and reporting from field teams, and contribute to updates in relevant information management systems, trackers, and reporting tools.
• Conduct monitoring visits, spot checks, and validation exercises to verify implementation quality, reported progress, and strengthen compliance with agreed methodologies and standards.
• In coordination with the Program Coordinator, participate in internal and external coordination meetings with local authorities, partners, community representatives, service providers, and other stakeholders to support effective implementation and problem-solving.
• Support the Program Coordinator, when specifically delegated during the Program Coordinator’s absence, in maintaining routine operational continuity and day-to-day follow-up of livelihoods activities, while referring strategic, sensitive, supervisory, and higher-level management matters through the appropriate reporting lines.
• Perform such other duties as may be assigned by the supervisor.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Economics, Development Studies, Social Sciences, Public Administration, Livelihoods, or a related field from an accredited academic institution with five years of relevant professional experience; or School diploma with seven years of relevant professional experience.
• Accredited Universities are those listed in the UNESCO World Higher Education Database.
• Experience in supporting the implementation, coordination, and monitoring of livelihoods, recovery, resilience, or community stabilization activities.
• Experience in field-level operational follow-up, implementation tracking, and coordination with field teams across multiple locations.
• Experience in conducting monitoring visits, reviewing activity documentation, and following up on implementation issues to support timely and quality delivery.
• Experience in working with international organizations, UN agencies, NGOs, or donor-funded programs is an advantage.
• Experience in coordinating with local authorities, service providers, community representatives, and other operational stakeholders is desirable.
• Experience in data collection, consolidation, reporting, and use of implementation tracking tools is desirable.
• Experience working in complex or post-conflict environments is an advantage.
• Knowledge of livelihoods, recovery, resilience, or community-based programming approaches.
• Good understanding of field implementation, operational follow-up, and monitoring processes.
• Ability to review activity documentation, track implementation progress, and support timely reporting.
• Strong organizational skills and ability to manage multiple tasks and priorities under tight deadlines.
• Strong communication and coordination skills, with the ability to work effectively with colleagues and stakeholders from diverse backgrounds.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
• Knowledge of data management, reporting tools, and information tracking systems is an advantage.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Arabic is an advantage.

Skills

• Livelihood Programming
• Recovery Programming
• Resilience Programming
• Community Stabilization
• Field Implementation
• Operational Follow-up
• Implementation Tracking
• Monitoring and Reporting
• Data Collection
• Data Consolidation
• Activity documentation review
• Coordination with Field Teams
• Coordination with Local Authorities
• Stakeholder Coordination
• Programme Planning
• MS Word
• MS Excel
• MS PowerPoint
• Microsoft Outlook

Languages

English, Arabic