Job Overview/Summary:
Reporting to the GEDI Director for Crisis Response Recovery & Development (CRRD), the Senior Advisor will be a key member of the GEDI Unit, serving as a strategic partner to regional and country leadership as well as People & Culture (P&C) functions, to ensure effective contextualization and implementation of the GEDI action plan. The role focuses on internal organizational culture and practices across IRC international programs in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Latin America.
This is an exciting opportunity for a creative change agent and solution-driven expert on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion with deep experience and practical approaches in translating intersectional feminist, anti-racist and decolonial principles to support leaders and cross functional teams to embed these approaches into their roles and IRC’s organizational practices and policies.
Key responsibilities
- Serve as a thought partner to regional, country, and P&C leaders to contextualize and deliver GEDI priorities, identify gaps, support inclusive solutions, and ensure integration into strategic plans.
- Partner with regional and country P&C teams to co-design and implement tools, initiatives, and policies or lead strategic projects that address inequities and enable diversity, inclusion, and belonging, with a focus on women, SOGIESC individuals, people with disabilities, and other underserved groups.
- Mobilize and support a community of affinity groups and champions (e.g. Women at Work groups) to strengthen their participation to the employee voice and engagement mechanism.
- Facilitate cross regional communities of practice and knowledge sharing to drive culture change; and to promote dialogue and engagement on key GEDI matters, surfacing emerging issues and opportunities, and recommending solutions to enhance inclusive culture through inclusive policies and practices improvement.
- Support regions and country leadership in developing and implementing the best approach to ensure meaningful staff engagement and two-way communication around GEDI including developing shared contextual understanding of the concept, challenges and priorities.
- Based on context-specific gaps and challenges, and in partnership with the Learning & Development Team, design and deliver GEDI learnings and training materials, ensuring linguistic and cultural relevance, and lead workshops on Equality, Diversity & Inclusion topics s to support an inclusive culture and enhance the belonging of diverse groups.
- In collaboration with regional and countries leaders and P&C teams, support employee surveys, culture assessment, equity analyses; analyze disaggregated data on workforce demographics and inclusion related outcomes; track progress on key performance indicators and report to help understand progress on outcomes; document results and trends identifying areas for improvement and making actionable data-driven recommendations.
Key Working Relationships
Reports to: GEDI Director for Crisis Response Recovery & Development (CRRD)
Internal: Regional P&C Directors, Regional and Country Program Leaders, GEDI & Safeguarding managers, Safety & Security, Duty of Care, Safeguarding, HR, Employee Resource Groups, Senior Management Teams
External: IRC partners, Feminist networks, Gender and D&I focused organizations.
Job Requirements:
Education: Graduate university degree in sociology, HR, cultural studies, feminist studies, gender studies, law, international development or equivalent
Work Experience: 10+ years of related experience that includes:
- Direct experience leading and influencing teams and leaders to adopt feminist principles as core to all organizational processes, policies, and activities.
- Experience leading and supporting change management to embed an inclusive work culture.
- At least 3+ years in humanitarian/development sector.
- At least 3+ years of field-based experience in one or more of Global South context
- Experience building communities of practice.
Demonstrated Skills and Competencies - Deep subject matter expert and knowledge of strategies to advance equality, diversity and inclusion in different organizational contexts and for various marginalized groups including but not limited to gender, LGBTQ+ or disability
- Demonstrated experience in applying decolonial and intersectional feminist lenses to one or more of the following areas: Employee life cycle, Safety, and Security, Learning and development, Leadership development, HR operations, Workplace infrastructure, Workplace culture.
- Demonstrated understanding of how power dynamics affect organizations and the ability to amplify the voices of individuals from under-represented groups.
- Demonstrated understanding of HR processes and how to embed diversity and inclusion into various organizational strategies and P&C processes: strategic plans, transformation processes, recruitment, retention, etc.
- Experience in designing and delivering GEDI training.
- Experience in crafting and implementing regional and sub-regional strategies and action plans according to organizational priorities, considering a variety of country contexts.
- Excellent analytical and communication skills, and ability to engage with a wide range of stakeholders and leaders to distill complex social issues into clear language for different audiences and present compelling DEI updates, ensure cross functional collaboration and maintain productive relationships
- Ability to work effectively and with impact through matrixed relationships and to engage, to navigate resistance and inspire action.
- Up to date on best practices and emerging issues on diversity and inclusion
Language Skills:
- Excellent spoken and written of English
- Proficiency in at least one other language (Arabic or Spanish)
Working Environment:
- Combination of standard office working environment and working remotely (i.e., telecommuting). Applicants must have a home or alternate workspace so they can effectively complete their work during regularly scheduled work hours.
- Up to 30% travel as needed.
Equal Opportunity Employer: IRC is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IRC considers all applicants on the basis of merit without regard to race, sex, color, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
