Technical Advisor III, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

NOTE: This is a remote position; CRS will only consider candidates who are based in countries where we have existing offices. CRS does not sponsor visas for telecommuting employees.

About CRS 

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work are accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding. 

CRS is dedicated to addressing hunger and food insecurity among vulnerable communities around the world, and our Agriculture and Livelihoods programming is evolving to address the growing complexity of poverty and food security. Climate change and climate variability significantly impact agricultural production, leaving smallholder farmers particularly vulnerable. CRS has responded to the growing threat through a range of initiatives and programs ranging from emergency relief after climate disasters, to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) to climate-smart agriculture and nature-based solutions. 

However, as the climate crisis worsens and governments and donors, including the US government, increasingly prioritize climate risk management in their strategic focus, CRS is stepping up its engagement. While the agency already has a significant focus and investments in climate change, we are seeking to increase programming related to climate change adaptation and to a lesser extent mitigation to help rural families become more resilient to climate variability and change.

Job Summary

As Technical Advisor III for Climate Change and Resilience, you will contribute to the strategic development and integration of climate change adaptation at country, regional and global levels. You will support Country Programs (CPs) to understand climate risks and vulnerabilities and to place a climate lens on program design. With a broad awareness of climate tools and resources, you will help country teams identify and fill gaps. Your experience with institutional donors and collaboration with climate networks will support country and headquarter teams understanding of and ability to respond to donor expectations. Your expertise will increase visibility of CRS’ climate change agenda, and you will represent CRS at various climate fora and with key donors and stakeholders.  

Though you will spend a significant percentage of time supporting Country Programs working across a variety of sectors, such as education, health and water, you will also work closely with the Agriculture and Livelihoods team, reporting to the Senior Technical Advisor for Climate Change and Land Restoration. Within Agriculture and Livelihoods, you will provide support to a team working on Nature-based Solutions, as well as integrating climate change into markets, financial inclusion, gender and social cohesion. You will participate in an interdivisional working group on climate change, enhancing communication and coordination with other members working on agency climate action in the four pillar areas of operations, policy, emergency response and development programming. Your strategic programmatic insights and knowledge of country support needs will contribute to that group’s effective coordination. 

• Contribute to program design with partners to incorporate standards, tools, and best practices in climate change adaptation, and climate change mitigation where relevant. While support will be provided to a variety of sectors, you are not expected to have technical expertise in multiple sectors, but rather to help teams understand and find appropriate resources to incorporate and act on key climate considerations. 
• Support strategy development at country and regional levels and use field connections and experience to inform agency-level climate action, and eventual development of agency-level action plan.
• Represent CRS to donors, partners and networks, and at key events, globally, regionally and in country programs where we work.  Help to position CRS with donors and as a thought leader in the climate space.
• Provide CPs, Regions and HQ teams with thought leadership, strengthening, contributing to program design and tools development as needed/appropriate. 
• Oversee or lead capacity strengthening initiatives in climate change adaptation globally for staff and partners supporting the development of learning and training strategies and activities. Provide mentoring and coaching to technical advisors and Country Program and regional staff.

• Master's Degree in Climate Change related studies, including Environmental Engineering, Meteorology/Climate Risk Management, Natural Resource Management (NRM), Sustain