Senior MEL Manager

About the role

The Near East Foundation (NEF) is recruiting a Senior MEL Manager for its ProDiGi project, based in Baghdad, Iraq. The post reports to the Program and Operations Director, with technical guidance from NEF's global MEL team, and involves travel to project locations as required. It covers monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning across Baghdad, Basra and Anbar, and supports monitoring of university Career Development Centres in the Kurdistan Region. The role runs from the agreed start date until 30 June 2027.

Key responsibilities

• MEL planning and systems: develop and maintain the MEL plan, indicator tracking framework and reporting calendar; define indicator methods, data sources and collection frequency; build standard tools for registration, profiling, attendance, training assessments, coaching, referrals and employment follow-up; set up a secure participant database with checks against duplicates; coordinate baseline data collection.
• Monitoring and data quality: guide staff and service providers on data collection tools, consent and documentation; track progress against targets and flag gaps; run regular checks for completeness, consistency and accuracy; carry out monitoring visits and spot checks; keep evidence files for indicator reporting and donor verification.
• Assessments and outcome verification: coordinate pre- and post-training assessments; track access to coaching, mentoring, referrals and job matching; follow up on employment status, working conditions, income stability, retention and career progression; verify reported outcomes; support monitoring of Career Development Centre training; prepare technical inputs for external assessments.
• Accountability and learning: set up participant feedback arrangements and a feedback tracker; refer sensitive complaints through NEF's procedures; hold reflection sessions; recommend adjustments based on challenges and feedback; document lessons learned.
• Analysis and reporting: prepare progress summaries, provide verified quantitative and qualitative information for internal and donor reports, explain variances against targets and contribute to the final report.

Required profile

• University degree in statistics, social sciences, economics, development studies or a related discipline.
• At least three years of relevant experience in monitoring, evaluation and learning for development programmes.
• Desirable: experience monitoring livelihoods, employability, skills development or private-sector engagement programmes.
• Fluency in Arabic and professional working proficiency in English.

Required skills

• Ability to develop monitoring tools, manage databases and analyse quantitative and qualitative information.
• Proficiency in Excel and digital data collection platforms such as KoboToolbox.
• Experience of data quality checks and verifying reported outcomes.
• Strong analytical, organisational and report-writing skills.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis until the post is filled. Candidates submit a cover letter, CV and a list of three references. Pre-employment checks include restricted party screening, workplace verification and reference checks.