Program Manager Resilient Communities - Puerto Rico
Programs and Technical Specialities
San Juan,
Puerto Rico
Description
Location: Puerto Rico
Position Status: Full-time, Permanent
Closing date: Please submit application by end of Friday April 3.
About Mercy Corps
Mercy Corps is powered by the belief that a better world is possible. To do this, we know our teams do their best work when they are diverse and every team member feels that they belong. We welcome diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and skills so that we can be stronger and have long term impact.
The Caribbean Resilience Department
Climate change severely and disproportionately impacts small islands in the Caribbean.
Worsening environmental risks like rising and warming seas, volatile dry and wet seasons, and catastrophic storms mean that islands and small island developing states (SIDS) bear the brunt of the impacts of climate change, even though their carbon footprint is small relative to the world’s largest carbon producers, and their capacity to cope is constrained by their narrow resource base.
Caribbean islands need flexible tools to make them more resilient through the climate crisis.
Tools that protect and improve lives, livelihoods and also the natural resources these communities depend on. Mercy Corps partners with community service organizations across the Caribbean to strengthen the networks around vulnerable communities, provide resources to build out adaptive programming, and respond collaboratively to climate threats as they arise.
Mercy Corps began this work following the historic 2016 hurricane season. Since then, with the help of our donors, more than $34 million has been put toward preparedness, response and climate resilience programming in the Caribbean. Mercy Corps has learned that empowering people and their communities with flexible assets and knowledge is the best way to measurably protect lives and livelihoods.
The Position
Mercy Corps is in the second year of a three-year Department of State-funded project called Strengthening Caribbean Economic Growth (SCEG) aimed at improving employability and entrepreneurship across the Caribbean. To achieve this, Mercy Corps provides small grants to local organizations across the region as well as provide recipients with capacity building and learning opportunities. The Program Manager will lead implementation of this program, which will work with community service organizations (CSOs) in the following jurisdictions: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, The Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the 5 Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Mercy Corps has completed an initial survey of the key barriers to employment and entrepreneurship. The findings of that assessment informed a competitive grant opportunity wherein applicant CSOs put forward projects that addressed constraints identified in the assessment, and had the potential to be replicated and/or scaled across the region. The first cohort of grant recipient CSOs have been identified and are working through a subaward process (February 2026). Pilot projects will measurably improve job skills training, employment opportunities, and livelihood outcomes for women, men, and girls and boys aged 16 and older in the Caribbean.
Strong and collaborative partnerships are at the core of Mercy Corps strategy in the Caribbean. This position will cultivate and champion Mercy Corps’ CSO partnership network of over 30 organizations across the region. The Program Manager will work to strengthen capacity for Mercy Corps’ Caribbean CSO network, leveraging the resources available through the program, other resources available through the Caribbean Resilience Initiative portfolio, and the global organization.
Essential Responsibilities
PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
- Manage and oversee the implementation of the SCEG project, in cooperation with key project stakeholders, including local community service organizations, non-governmental organizations, local government officials, and the donor