Merla Manager

Overview:
**Research Triangle Institute (RTI)** has over 30 years’ experience assisting governments, communities, and the private sector. As a not-for-profit, independent research institute based in North Carolina, USA, RTI has roughly 6,000 employees with global experience implementing international development projects.

RTI's Sustainable Growth & Resilience (SG&R) technical unit within the International Development Group brings together RTI experts and capabilities across food security, agriculture, energy, environment, water, governance, and economic opportunity. SG&R will leverage RTI's experience designing and delivering multisectoral programming and technical solutions to respond to climate change, build resilience, and promote economic growth around the world.

**SG&R’s Global Agriculture, Water, and Environment division **is working to mitigate and address the impacts of climate change and build resilience in impacted communities through policy and governance support, capacity building for local actors, and support for responding to natural and human-caused disasters.

**Project Description**:
The five-year USAID/Egypt Water and Wastewater Climate Change Adaptation Activity will support the water and wastewater sector in Egypt to integrate adaptation strategies and approaches from national planning and utility management levels in order for utilities to continue providing safe, affordable and reliable services. It will aim to improve climate change readiness and operational performance of the utilities by increasing the understanding of projected impacts and challenges, assessing risks, determining adaptation options, and implementing and monitoring, as appropriate, at national and utility levels.

**Position Description**:
RTI is seeking a** Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Learning and Adapting (MERLA) Manager **for the** Egypt Water and Wastewater Climate Change Adaptation Activity**. The MERLA Manager will lead and guide the Egypt Water and Wastewater Climate Change Adaptation Activity team on MERLA activities and ensure responsive reporting, and ongoing learning and adapting across the project. This position will be based in Cairo, Egypt and may require travel to other regions throughout the program implementation period. The MERLA Manager will directly report to the Chief of Party.
- Position is contingent upon award and funding._

**Responsibilities**:

- Leads the development, implementation, refinement, and harmonization of the project’s MEL system, develops and operationalizes indicators, sets targets, and monitors progress; ensures they are informed by and feed into program decisions.
- Establishes systems for gathering, reporting, and analyzing performance data in compliance with USAID guidelines and best practices.
- Assesses data quality through (1) system validation rules and checks in the activity database, and (2) periodic data quality assessments (DQAs).
- Designs data collection processes adhering to data quality.
- Monitors progress against targets and prepares quality reports; contribute to other project reports such as annual work plans.
- Leads and proactively reviews/analyzes project activities and their outputs and outcomes to continuously learn from and adapt ongoing project implementation; provides feedback to the technical team on where to improve.
- Documents best practices and lessons learned and uses data and regular learning sessions to drive program design, adaptation, and decision-making.
- Integrates data collection and learning throughout all project activities.
- Build capacity of partners and stakeholders for data collection and data use for learning.
- Other responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications:

- Bachelor's Degree and 8 years of relevant experience, or a Master's degree and 6 years of relevant experience.
- Minimum five (5) years of experience in MERLA and data analysis in international development programs; previous donor experience required, USAID experience strongly preferred.
- Knowledge of reporting procedures, best practices, guidelines, methods, and approaches for MERLA.
- Excellent management, communication, and organizational skills, flexibility and capacity to multi-task.
- Demonstrated ability to lead design and implementation of monitoring systems, databases, and data collection tools.
- Demonstrated experience using data and learning to inform program decision-making.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Arabic.
- Experience with MEL that measures and promotes gender and social inclusion.
- Citizens of Egypt encouraged to apply.

LI-JB1