Support to Life: Internationally renowned humanitarian aid organization founded with the principal objective of ensuring access to basic rights and needs for individuals and communities affected by natural or human-made disasters. Founded in 2005 by 5 women academics and humanitarian aid workers, STL carries out activities in Emergency Response, Refugee Support, Child Protection, and Capacity Building in Civil Society, to improve the living conditions of people affected by natural or human-made disasters in Turkey.

STL supports access to basic rights and essential needs; aims to eliminate the risks for children living under dire conditions, gives priority to seasonal agricultural workers; and provides immediate aid services at times of disasters. Besides, STL works towards a civil society well-prepared for disasters.

STL works with the support of a headquarters based in Kadıköy/Istanbul and with field offices located in 12 provinces in Turkey (Adana, Adıyaman, Ankara, Batman, Diyarbakır, Hatay, İstanbul, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Mardin, Mersin, Şanlıurfa) as well as mobile teams.

STL gives utmost importance to upholding the humanitarian principles —neutrality, independence, humanity, impartiality, and accountability— in the projects it develops and implements with a team of around 350 professionals and the support of international and local donors. You may visit https://www.supporttolife.org or check our social media accounts to learn more about our work.

Support to Life is looking for a Program Coordinator.

As head of the Program Excellence Department, the Program Coordinator will be leading the program excellence team and orchestrating all the processes across STL’s expertise in program sectors, transversal topics that are mainstreamed throughout the organization, research as a key program role, localization as a programmatic priority as well as all the MEAL functions. Within this department, STL follows humanitarian crises as they unfold while also adopting an anticipatory planning approach in developing STL’s program strategies.

Program Strategies and Program Quality Standards

• Leading the development of program strategies for areas/sectors that are in line with STL’s 3-year strategy,
• Leading the development of STL’s ‘Strategic Logical Framework’ for all its programs,
• Setting all the programmatic standards (including program sectors, mainstreaming, and localization), and disseminating them across the organization,
• Guiding the program excellence team to develop their strategies and program-specific guidelines, SOPs, and tools,
• Coordinating and facilitating the standardization of all programmatic practices throughout STL field teams
• Ensuring that cross-cutting areas of safeguarding, gender, PSEAH, child safeguarding, and social inclusion are mainstreamed throughout the organization,
• Ensuring the quality of technical knowledge developed within the program excellence department,
• Developing an indicator bank for program sectors, cross-cutting areas, and localization actions,
• Carrying out research as needed for context and trend analysis, program development, and outcome/impact studies.

Program Management and Supervision

• Ensuring technical know-how produced is transferred to all STL teams, partners, and all other relevant stakeholders through quality supervision and technical support,
• Providing technical guidance and oversight to all the managers in the department to ensure that they define a programmatic framework for projects,
• Supervising the Program Managers to ensure that they are closely following the technical quality of project work and providing the needed support to the teams involved in project implementation in a timely fashion,
• Supervising the MEAL Manager to ensure that sound monitoring and evaluation standards, MEAL plans, and tools are in place for all projects; and accountability and learning processes and practices are well designed and being implemented in all project work and all field operations,
• Supervising the Quality and Capacity Manager to ensure that all the policies, tools, modules, and guidelines on transversal topics are developed and disseminated across the organization, capacity/learning needs are well identified, budgeted, and implemented, and capacity strengthening programs for relevant actors is well designed and successfully managed in coordination with all other relevant units and departments,
• Supervising the Localization Manager to ensure that both technical and operational leadership and support are provided to all the localization actions within a harmonized and integrated approach,
• Ensuring that all the units and key positions in the department have well-defined KPIs in line with STL’s 3-year strategy and corresponding KPIs of the department, and the progress is systematically monitored through KPI progress review and feedback/appraisal meetings.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning

• Together with the MEAL Manager, ensuring sound MEAL systems are in place,
• Ensuring high-quality and standardized monitoring, evaluation, and reporting systems for all projects in STL’s portfolio,
• Putting a system in place for collecting, analyzing, and reporting the program performance data against program-level strategic logical framework indicators for quality and evidence-based programming,
• Ensuring that areas of learning for STL are flagged from programmatic and operational performance analysis and reporting,
• Improving learning functions within the organization at project, program, organizational, and operational levels to ensure all lessons learned and best practices are incorporated into future designs and decisions,
• Establishing a sound accountability system to ensure internal standards and policies are being put into practice at the operational level,
• Ensuring complaint mechanisms are successfully functioning in all STL fields,
• Ensuring that all data and documents related to department deliverables are stored in ways that guarantee both institutional memory and confidentiality,
• Ensuring sound information management and appropriate digital tools for business analytics,
• Ensuring a high level of humanitarian context awareness within the organization with continuous research and reporting.

Coordination and Representation

• Maintaining close relations with all relevant internal and external stakeholders,
• Participating in or delegating participation in coordination and networking events as appropriate,
• Maintaining relationships with current and potential networks, and groups with other NGOs in order to create/maintain a network of humanitarian NGOs in which peer-learning and experience-sharing can occur,
• Ensuring a solid coordination mechanism across the Program Excellence department, and improving coordination with all other departments and units,
• As part of the Executive team, participating in senior management meetings and escalating strategic issues to senior-level management.

• University degree in a field that is relevant to the humanitarian/development field,
• At least 8 years of professional experience in the humanitarian/development field,
• At least 4 years of experience in a managerial position,
• Demonstrated experience in humanitarian project cycle management and in sectoral/ technical areas,
• Excellent writing and speaking skills in English and Turkish,
• Ability to manage self under stress, while maintaining ethical and professional conduct,
• Ability to provide visionary and motivational leadership to the team and the rest of the organization,
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, organizational, and representation skills,
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills,
• Ability to manage work effectively, systematically, and strategically, in the face of competing demands and priorities,
• Excellent in teamwork and coordination,
• Having a positive and growth mindset that encourages agile and innovative solutions,
• Experience in working with multicultural and diverse teams,
• Experience in working with local partners is preferred.

STL is an equal opportunities employer. STL is committed to providing and maintaining a comprehensive child safeguarding and gender-based equality perspective in all its operational and administrative processes.