Project Manager – Food & Nutrition Security

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is an international humanitarian agency dedicated to serving the poor and vulnerable worldwide.

The Project Manager for Food & Nutrition Security will oversee the entire project lifecycle, from initiation to close-out, ensuring high-quality programming and continuous improvement. This includes managing daily activities related to General Food Distribution (GFD), Emergency Nutrition, and Food for Assets (FFA), coordinating their integration according to approved designs, budgets, and technical standards. The manager will lead the review of implementation plans, monitor progress against milestones, and address or escalate any significant delays or issues to project leadership. The role also involves ensuring technical integration with health, nutrition, social services, emergency response, markets, and livelihoods programs, adhering to CRS quality standards and donor requirements.

1. Manage and oversee daily activities for General Food Distribution (GFD), Emergency Nutrition, and Food for Assets (FFA) from start-up to close-out.
2. Coordinate GFD, Emergency Nutrition, and FFA activities to ensure proper sequencing and integration according to project design, budget, and technical standards.
3. Lead the consolidation and review of detailed implementation plans, activity schedules, and resource requirements with various teams.
4. Monitor progress against plans, budgets, and results, facilitating routine reviews and ensuring actions are documented and completed.
5. Address or escalate significant delays, quality concerns, resource constraints, or partner performance issues to project leadership.
6. Coordinate with other program managers and technical advisors to integrate appropriate technical guidance into implementation.
7. Promote the integration of food assistance, nutrition, FFA, safe food handling, dietary diversity messaging, community engagement, and participant targeting.
8. Ensure activities comply with approved technical approaches, SOPs, government guidelines, CRS quality standards, and donor requirements.
9. Coordinate programmatic aspects of GFD, including targeting, scheduling, community engagement, distribution readiness, and post-distribution follow-up.
10. Review food security, market monitoring, and PDM data to inform management decisions and communicate program requirements to supply chain and field operations.
11. Coordinate Emergency Nutrition implementation with technical leadership, government structures, partners, and field teams, ensuring timely integration of screening, outreaches, and referrals.
12. Monitor nutrition plans and results, using MEAL and technical findings for corrective action and supporting coordination with health structures.
13. Coordinate FFA planning, monitoring, and integration with food security and livelihoods leads, partners, and government departments.
14. Support community asset identification, safeguards, work scheduling, monitoring, completion, and handover.
15. Lead the compilation and timely submission of donor reports.
16. Serve as a key program management coordination point for World Vision Kenya and Caritas Marsabit, facilitating regular partner reviews.
17. Coordinate technical support and capacity strengthening for partners, monitoring implementation and escalating performance concerns.
18. Lead or coordinate program work plans, implementation calendars, and resource forecasts.
19. Monitor relevant expenditures against approved activity budgets and address significant variances or delays.
20. Forecast procurement, transportation, staffing, and other operational needs in advance.
21. Work with the MEAL Manager to monitor outputs, outcomes, and indicators, and review monitoring findings and other evidence.
22. Facilitate reflection sessions, implementation reviews, and after-action processes, incorporating recommendations into work plans.
23. Identify programmatic risks and integrate safeguarding, protection, inclusion, accountability, and FCRM requirements into implementation.
24. Promptly escalate suspected fraud, diversion, safeguarding violations, or material compliance concerns.
25. Represent the project in relevant food security, nutrition, humanitarian, and technical forums.
26. Maintain productive relationships with national and county institutions, including NDMA and Ministry of Health structures.
27. Supervise designated direct reports, setting expectations, providing feedback, coaching, and performance management.
28. Promote staff well-being, accountability, collaboration, and high performance across teams.

1. Bachelor’s degree in Food Security, Nutrition, Agriculture, Public Health, International Development, Project Management, International Relations, or Community Development.
2. At least ten years of relevant field-based project management experience in humanitarian or development programs related to food security, nutrition, food assistance, or livelihoods.
3. Demonstrated experience managing moderately complex projects or major components of complex projects.
4. Experience coordinating multidisciplinary technical and operational teams and working with local or international partner organizations.
5. Experience managing donor-funded projects, including work planning, budget monitoring, partner coordination, reporting, and results-based management.
6. Strong project management, coordination, planning, and implementation monitoring skills, with a sound understanding of integrated food security and nutrition programming.
7. Ability to coordinate multidisciplinary teams while respecting distinct technical and functional authorities.
8. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to use monitoring evidence for management decisions.
9. Demonstrated partnership management skills and a sound understanding of MEAL, accountability, safeguarding, compliance, and risk management principles.
10. Strong interpersonal, relationship management, supervisory, coaching, facilitation, presentation, negotiation, and communication skills.
11. Ability to prioritize effectively in a complex, fast-paced humanitarian environment, with a proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented, and results-focused approach.
12. Proficiency in Microsoft Office applications and relevant project management and information systems.
13. Fluent written and spoken English.
14. Preferred: Master’s degree in food security, Nutrition, Public Health, International Development, or Project Management.
15. Preferred: Experience managing integrated food security and nutrition programs in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs), including emergency food assistance, nutrition in emergencies, or Food for Assets.
16. Preferred: Experience collaborating with government institutions and humanitarian coordination mechanisms, particularly in ASALs.