Program Operations Specialist, Latin America and the Caribbean

Would you like to be part of an energetic, inspired, and driven team that is making an impact in the world?

Are you an effective cross-cultural collaborator and communicator that is passionate about working alongside rural farming communities living in conditions of poverty? Does working with farming families to construct a healthy relationship between people and ecosystems excite you? Would you like to be a part of facilitating change in rural communities through program design, data analysis, and environmental systems?

What if you could take all of your operational problem solving gifts, talents, and experience and use them to make an impact on people and the planet? You can! Plant With Purpose is a global Christian organization that addresses issues of deforestation and climate change, while empowering people to lift their communities out of rural poverty.

ABOUT US

Plant With Purpose, a Christian development organization, reverses deforestation and poverty around the world by transforming the lives of the rural poor. For more than 30 years, Plant With Purpose has been a leader in linking international community development and environmental solutions, working with smallholder farmers in strategic locations where environmental degradation and poverty intersect. Plant With Purpose currently works in Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Haiti, Mexico, Tanzania, and Thailand, and employs an integrated methodology that combines environmental restoration, economic empowerment, and spiritual renewal. Activities include watershed restoration, reforestation, sustainable agriculture training, savings-and-loan groups, local leadership development, and outreach efforts with the local Christian church.

Plant With Purpose Thrive25 Strategy Statement: Inspired by the impact of our work in service to rural communities around the world, we feel compelled to grow our programs to help address the rising need. By 2025, we plan to work in 10 countries, 60 watersheds, and with over 100,000 families. Our revenue will exceed $10 million as we seek to become the premier organization operating at the nexus of environmental restoration and poverty alleviation.

OUR NEED

On July 1, 2020 we launched into a new strategic period where we plan to grow an average of 30% per year by 2025. The Program Operations Specialist, Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) will contribute to achieving this goal by providing foundational support to our international programs efforts.  We are looking for a team member who loves communicating and working relationally with cross-cultural local teams, engaging in creative and collaborative program design, and taking part in operational problem solving through data management and analysis.

YOUR OPPORTUNITY

As the Program Operation Specialist, LAC, you will support our greater Latin America and Caribbean programs in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico. You will work closely with the Regional Director of Latin America and the Caribbean in carrying out program design, logistics, communications, and analysis of data, operations, and environmental and sustainability systems. You will build data and program operation systems that are optimized, scalable, and enable our team in Latin America to expand.

CORE RESPONSIBILITIES

Reporting to the Regional Director of Latin American & the Caribbean, your responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Supporting and coordinating LAC regional operations. You will work with the LAC Regional Director to brainstorm, develop, and implement systems and processes that will streamline communications, data exchange and analysis, and optimize operations. You will coordinate and attend quarterly regional team meetings with LAC partners and organize meetings, calls, and logistics for trips to the field such as vision trips, program trips, international meetings, exchange visits between international partners, and other donor visits as they arise. You will travel when needed with the LAC Regional Director to support field activities and training.
• Coordinating reports & analysis for LAC partners. You will review and reconcile quarterly reports, annual operating plans, and  annual funding agreements (e.g., financial reports, key program outputs) for accuracy and consistency; compare progress toward targets, and work with partners to discuss discrepancies and clean-up data reports. You will generate reports on final versions and present them to the LAC Regional Director and other team members, as well as perform analysis of year-to-year budgets. You will serve as the primary point person for receiving stories and photos on a quarterly basis; perform quality control checks to ensure they meet publishing criteria of the marketing and development departments; and submit in the appropriate internal databases.
• Managing data curation processes. You will collaborate with and support the LAC Regional Director and local partners with data systems and improvements that will contribute to the program design of LAC. You will serve as the primary manager and owner of key data sets and perform tasks including auditing LAC partners data sets for accuracy and compliance, analyzing and mining data in order to perform operational and management queries, making recommendations on data management system improvements, and creating and designing geo-referenced data entry forms for field use.
• Developing global ecosystem health and environmental sustainability systems. You will support the LAC Regional Director in the coordination, logistics, training, and implementation and data analysis of community participatory basic biodiversity assessments of avian and vascular plants species. You will identify institutional synergies that would provide opportunities for collaboration in biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration and perform background research and literature reviews that would contribute to the continuous improvement in our ecosystem health and environmental sustainability efforts.
• Performing international programs department support. You will collect quarterly and annual reports from all program regions; upload into the organizational file sharing system; update statistical data in files that are shared with multiple departments and management teams; reconcile for accuracy with original reports; and follow up with LAC Regional Directors on any outstanding reports and data discrepancies. You will collaborate with the Innovation Lab team to develop systems for global data collection, management, storage and logistics during our triennial Impact Evaluation process. Additionally, you will collaborate with the Grants and Marketing teams to fact check program numbers in funding proposals, marketing materials, and other external reports.

WHAT WE LOVE ABOUT YOU

• You have a Bachelor’s degree in environmental sciences, international development, or related fields
• You have 3-5 years experience working with international teams in a global setting
• You have experience living overseas, and working in a cross-cultural, rural context
• You have proficiency in Spanish; fluency preferred
• You have functional proficiency in French preferred
• You have experience working at the intersection of environmental restoration and poverty alleviation/international development
• You thrive in roles designed around a combination of data, organizing, brainstorming, and human interaction
• You have experience with tasks involving technology, databases, spreadsheets, multivariable data sets, spatial analysis, and georeferenced data
• You have strong project management skills, including time management, organizational skills, and effectively communicating with other team members
• You are highly detail-oriented, methodical, and can maintain systems for tracking deadlines
• You are able to listen, synthesize, and produce an end result that incorporates diverse perspectives
• You have the ability to initiate and dive into new projects eagerly
• You feel comfortable in a multicultural and multilingual environment
• You are able to adapt your communication style (both verbal and nonverbal) in multicultural contexts
• You embrace risk taking, experimentation, and failure as vital to the process of innovation and personal growth; and thrive in an environment of kind candor and direct feedback between yourself, team members, and your manager
• You have the ability to implement and oversee an action-oriented approach to problem-solving and process improvement
• You recognize the multidimensional nature of poverty, and embrace the complexity required to address it
• You must be able to travel to international project sites in rural settings
• You have a creative, entrepreneurial mindset and often see yourself as a trailblazer among your peers
• You are a systems thinker and can toggle between the big picture and the details
• You approach team-based work as a servant leader
• You are able to speak about poverty, environmental degradation, and other global challenges in a way that offers hope and upholds the dignity of all people at all times
• You are fluent in the use of MacOS, Microsoft Office Products (Excel, Word, Powerpoint) and Google Suite products (GDrive, GDocs, GSheets)
• You are willing to occasionally work overtime as needed
• You are eligible to work legally in the United States without employer sponsorship

Bonus Points:

• Experience with field research design
• You have experience working outside of the U.S.
• You have experience working in Latin American and/or the Caribbean
• You have knowledge of Haitian Creole, and/or Mayan languages
• You have experience with database management and information systems, such as ArcGIS

COMPETENCIES

We are a collaborative, interdependent team that relies on relating and supporting each other to achieve our goals. Through the way we live in and shape our culture, we seek to build community and a sense of belonging in  our local, national, and global families. Working at the Plant With Purpose team in the Program Operations Specialist, Latin America and the Caribbean will require you to be a: collaborator, a learner, a servant leader, and an includer in the following ways:

• You deeply resonate with the holistic mission of Plant With Purpose and the diverse communities we seek to empower
• You have a personal alignment and will  foster a culture of collaboration, inclusion, and belonging; and uphold and model Plant With Purpose’s Core Values (faith, collaboration, empowerment, innovation, stewardship, sustainability) in your behaviors and actions with our local staff and global partners
• You have a love for humanity, including those who live in poverty, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or culture
• You intentionally build community and a team mentality by pursuing the "we" over the "me"
• You understand the priority of relationships in getting work done
• You feel most successful as a team member when each person on the team succeeds; as a team member, you work to empower those you interact with and pay attention to diversity of thinking and psychological safety
• You reflexively express gratitude and growth-oriented feedback. You demonstrate humility as a leader by admitting mistakes, knowing when to step back, and creating spaces for others to speak up and contribute
• You believe you play an active role in team cohesion
• You feel most successful when the team succeeds
• You accept feedback with a growth mindset
• You listen with an intent to understand and ask clarifying questions
• You seek out learning and development opportunities
• You strive to be an inclusive person by being aware of the existence and impact of your unconscious biases, and working daily to check them

COMPENSATION

Compensation is dependent on geographical location and experience. A range based on this position's local market is available upon request.

BENEFITS

• Health, dental, and vision insurances
• Life insurance (term)
• 401k match, up to 8%, after 6 months of employment
• 15 paid vacation days
• 8 paid sick days
• 12 paid holidays
• Visits to international programs, as arranged with supervisor

LOCATION: We would prefer for this position to be based out of San Diego, but we also want to hire the best fit for our team. Therefore, we are open to the candidate being remotely based within the United States.

START DATE: November 8-15, 2021

APPLY BY: September 1, 2021

Does this sound like you? If so, please apply on our website here.  Please include a resume and cover letter with your application that shows us how you are a great fit for this position, the organization, and our culture. Even though we are in the middle of COVID-19 and office closures, we are conducting virtual interviews in order to keep our candidates and employees safe.