Program Manager I – Venezuela Earthquake Response

CRS JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Program Manager I – Venezuela Earthquake Response

Department: LACRO

Reports to: Technical Advisor II – Program Quality

Salary Grade : 9 

Position Duration: 8 months

Based: Venezuela 

Project Overview

EMPOWER (Empowering Partner Organizations Working in Emergency Response) is a CRS program under the Humanitarian Response Department (HRD) that strengthens local humanitarian actors’ leadership, coordination, institutional capacity, and access to humanitarian funding. In Venezuela, EMPOWER will support a Caritas-led emergency response following the June 2026 earthquakes, which caused significant damage, displacement, and urgent needs across affected areas. The response will provide life-saving assistance in WASH, food assistance, emergency shelter and non-food items, and protection/MHPSS, while building on CRS and Caritas Venezuela’s existing partnership, parish-based structures, volunteer networks, and emergency response systems.

On 24 June 2026, northern Venezuela was struck by two major earthquakes—a magnitude 7.2 foreshock followed 39 seconds later by a magnitude 7.5 mainshock in Yaracuy—marking the country’s strongest seismic event since 1900. Current estimates indicate that approximately 970,000 people were affected, including more than 250,000 people with severe humanitarian needs, while thousands of families remain displaced or temporarily relocated with relatives and host communities across several states. The earthquakes caused widespread damage to homes, health facilities, schools, water systems, roads, and other critical infrastructure, while continued aftershocks have hampered response efforts, increased structural risks, and delayed safe returns. The disaster has significantly compounded pre-existing vulnerabilities in a country where an estimated 7.9 million people already required humanitarian assistance due to economic hardship, weakened public services, food insecurity, and limited access to healthcare. Rapid assessments conducted by Caritas Venezuela and CRS identified urgent multisectoral needs, including access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services, food assistance, shelter support, healthcare, and protection, as disruptions to infrastructure, markets, livelihoods, and basic services continue to affect earthquake-impacted communities.

Job Summary

You will support the management of humanitarian response programming in Venezuela in response to the Earthquake emergency, designing and implementing projects advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that CRS and Caritas Venezuela deliver high-quality programming and continuously work towards improving the impact of its programming.

Roles and Key Responsibilities

• Ensure a quality partnership between CRS and Caritas Venezuela, in line with CRS and Caritas Internationalis (CI) partnership principles.
• Manage and implement all activities throughout relevant project cycles - project design, start-up, implementation and close-out - to ensure efficient and effective implementation in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices. Ensure project team and partner staff use the appropriate systems and tools.
• Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Analyze and evaluate project performance data following MEAL policy. Proactively identify issues and concerns and use participatory processes to overcome implementation obstacles. 
• Act as a key resource person in project design and proposal development in respective programming area, gap-filling and taking on growth responsibilities, as needed.
• Coordinate the identification of staff capacity and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation. 
• Help identify, assess and strengthen partnerships in line with CRS’ partnership principles, tools, and best practices.
• Coordinate and monitor financial and material resources relevant to project needs, through planning and oversight ensure efficient use of project resources.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in International Development, International Relations or a relevant field required. 
• Minimum of 2-3 years of relevant field-based experience in coordinating or managing light to moderately complex projects required, preferably with an international NGO. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s Degree
• Project management experience in Latin America and the Caribbean is highly desirable.

• MEAL skills and experience preferred.

   

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities 

• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint), Web Conferencing Applications, information management systems.
• Experience engaging with partner organizations.
• Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals.
• Strong critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with culturally diverse groups.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with ability to write reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented

Required Languages: Fluency in English and Spanish required. 

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 50%. 

Supervisory Responsibilities: No