Responsibilities:

Leadership and Management

• Lead, coordinate and motivate a large, multi-country and multicultural team of MERL staff.
• Lead the MERL team to deliver PLMSP End-of-Program Outcome 3 (providing Pacific and Timor Leste stakeholders with more and better information on labour mobility) by collecting and communicating useful information to PLMSP’s stakeholders.
• In line with PLMSP’s MERL plan, oversee operational procedures and practices to deliver PLMSP’s MERL function in Australia, the Pacific and Timor Leste.
• Input into PLMSP SLT strategic discussions on issues impacting program outcomes, especially evidence and design needs.
• Drive a system-wide learning culture across the PLMSP and with key stakeholders, particularly through implementation of an adaptive management learning cycle.
• Lead annual planning for the MERL stream, and coordinate MERL plans with those of other PLMSP streams.
• Quality assure MERL team outputs, including annual reports, MERL methodologies, and evaluation and research plans and reports.
• Ensure that gender equality, disability inclusion and social inclusion (GEDSI) and other cross-cutting priorities (e.g. climate change, worker agency) are appropriately addressed and integrated in MERL activities and products.
• Work with the wider PLMSP SLT to explore, design and implement ways to best achieve (and demonstrate achievement of) the PLMSP’s outcomes.
• Act as the PLMSP Focal Point for all data sharing obligations. Support appropriate data management (and use) practices across relevant functions and team members.
• Review relevant communication and media content relating to PLMSP MERL activities.
• Support PLMSP and PALM scheme commitments such as GEDSI, cultural competence, and Indigenous Australian engagement.
• Contribute to and represent MERL team internal and external meetings (notably the research technical working group), including presenting on key issues and achievements.

Relationships

• Proactively build and maintain effective working relationships with the primary clients and support the information needs and dissemination of products.
• Promote effective internal working relationships with the PLMSP management and leaders, maintaining a high degree of professionalism and integrity.
• Focus on self-development, looking for opportunities for continuous growth and development, acting on feedback in a positive way and developing skills in inspirational leadership.
• Mentor and coach others both formally and informally, investing time in their success and ensuring messages from leadership are supported and clearly cascaded
• Nurture and maintain positive and value-adding relationships between the MERL stream and other PLMSP streams and stakeholders.
• Provide leadership and direction to the wider PLMSP team, motivating others to achieve goals through collaboration, trust-building and creating an inclusive work environment.

Human Resource Management

• Manage a team of professional staff (located across partner countries) including:
  • Facilitation of team/ individual meetings
  • Human resource management including assessing activities, workloads and performance management
  • Facilitate induction of new staff (as required)
  • Supporting the development, and monitoring delivery, of work plans
  • Ensuring staff compliance with PLMSP systems and polices
  • Acting as an escalation point on HR issues and stakeholder issues.
• Promote strong communication, coordination and collaboration across the various sections of the MERL stream, identifying synergies, gaps and overlaps (considering geographical spread of the team).
• Ensure all team members understand and adhere to PLMSP policies and procedures, including through regular training and updates.
• Coordinate with Alinea on MERL team management, appropriately managing staff in alignment with Palladium expectations.

Other

• Other tasks as reasonably requested by the Team Leader.
• Travel locally and internationally, as required.
• Advocate for Australian development priorities.
• Foster equality, diversity and inclusion, drawing on capabilities from within the country/region wherever possible.
• Comply with, and advocate for, DFAT’s policies in all aspects of implementation, including gender, disability, fraud and anti-corruption, PSEAH, child protection and environmental and social safeguards. This includes incorporating policy principles into planning and everyday work, promoting process improvements, and reporting concerns to your Line Manager or Palladium’s Integrity Hotline (details on Palladium website).
• Operate with high levels of integrity, consistent with the intent of DFAT’s Ethics, Integrity and Professional Standards Policy Manual.

Reporting Requirements:

This role reports into the Team Leader. Reporting requirements may include but are not limited to:

• Attendance at team meetings, other requested meetings and regional meetings (e.g. townhalls).
• Regular (minimum of monthly) one to one meetings with your line manager on the status of personal Key Result Areas (KRAs), career development discussions and any other matters.
• Provide timely and accurate reporting through PLMSP systems, including health and safety incident, fraud and child protection reporting as well as project activity and contextual reporting to PLMSP and DFAT.
• Palladium encourages flexible work practices to enhance wellbeing, productivity and team culture. For this role, we require that employees maintain an in-office presence for at least 50% of their working week. For example, if an employee works five days a week, they must spend at least three days physically in the office.

Minimum education and experience required:

• Tertiary qualifications in international development/relations, monitoring and evaluation, research methods, public policy, or a related field, with more than 10 years’ experience operating at senior levels.
• Senior management experience and capabilities with strong interpersonal and communication skills with experience leading diverse teams.
• An understanding of current issues in relation to circular labour mobility, including related policy and regulatory frameworks, and the ability to translate these to implementation.
• Highly experienced in providing strategic advice to senior officials to lead organisational change and build institutional capacity to implement priorities.
• A demonstrated ability to build productive and sustainable working partnerships with a variety of stakeholders (including partner government, civil society and the private sector).
• Experience working with programs in the Pacific and/or Timor Leste, with a strong understanding of gender equality concepts and issues.
• Ability to produce high quality deliverables within tight timeframes.
• Strong ability to prepare accessible written reports and to present findings to a wide range of stakeholders.

Alinea International reserves the right to seek information from job applicants’ previous employers about incidents of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment the applicant may have been found guilty to have committed or about which an investigation was in the process of being carried out at the time of the termination of the applicant’s employment with that employer. By submitting the application, the job applicant confirms that they have no objection to Alinea International requesting the information specified above.