JOB ADVERT
Job title: Youth Development & Livelihoods - Program Manager I
Department: Programming
Salary Grade: 9
Reports to: Country Manager
Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.
Job Summary
You will manage CRS Rwanda's youth economic development and livelihoods programming, including projects that promote youth entrepreneurship, employment pathways, access to finance, enterprise development, and rural livelihoods. You will manage all activities throughout the project cycle and provide technical and operational oversight to project staff and implementing partners. You will also coordinate project-level engagement with government technical counterparts, implementing partners, private sector actors, financial service providers, and youth-serving organizations. Your management skills, technical knowledge, and understanding of market-oriented youth programming will ensure that the Country Program delivers high-quality, inclusive programming and continuously works towards improving results for rural and underserved youth. You will provide technical evidence and implementation input to program development, organizational partnerships, and external engagement processes.
Roles and Key Responsibilities
- Manage and implement all activities throughout relevant project cycles - project design, start-up, implementation, monitoring, 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 teams and partner staff use the appropriate systems and tools.
- Provide technical and operational oversight for youth economic development and livelihoods programming, including youth entrepreneurship, employability and employment pathways, access to finance, rural livelihoods integrating life skills, social and emotional wellbeing, positive youth development approaches. Ensure approaches are market-responsive, inclusive, and relevant to the realities of rural and underserved youth.
- Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.
- Manage program-level relationships and implementation arrangements with partner organizations. Review and monitor partner workplans, budgets, forecasts, reports, deliverables, and performance; conduct regular review meetings and field visits; and ensure timely follow-up on agreed actions.
- Champion learning with project staff and partner teams. Analyze and evaluate project performance data following CRS MEAL policy. Proactively identify issues and concerns, facilitate reflection and adaptive management, and use participatory processes to overcome obstacles to implementation
- Coordinate the identification of staff and partner capacity and technical assistance needs and the design and delivery of capacity-strengthening interventions required to support quality project implementation, financial stewardship, reporting, and accountability.
- Coordinate and monitor financial, material, and operational resources relevant to project needs. Through work planning, budgeting, forecasting, expenditure monitoring, procurement coordination, and oversight, ensure efficient and accountable use of project resources.
- Coordinate technical and project-level engagement with district authorities, relevant government technical units and Ministries, private sector actors, financial institutions, business development service providers, and youth-serving organizations. Represent CRS in relevant technical working groups, project coordination meetings, and implementation forums, as delegated.
- Act as a key technical resource person in project design and proposal development in the youth programming area, providing implementation evidence, technical content, realistic delivery arrangements, partner input, workplans, and budgets, and taking on program growth responsibilities as needed.
- Help identify, assess, and strengthen partnerships relevant to youth projects, applying appropriate partnership concepts, tools, and approaches. Coordinate with the Partnerships and Strategic Initiatives Manager and Country Manager on opportunities requiring organizational-level partnership development, business development, strategic positioning, or high-level engagement.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in international development, Economics, Business Administration, Project Management, Rural Development, Social Sciences, or another field relevant to youth economic empowerment and livelihoods required.
- Minimum of 5 years of relevant field-based experience, including at least 3 years coordinating or managing moderately complex development projects, preferably with an international NGO.
- Demonstrated experience managing project workplans, budgets, forecasts, implementation schedules, risks, and donor deliverables, and working with implementing partner organizations.
- Experience working in youth development, economic empowerment, livelihoods, employment, entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, rural development, or a related program area required.
Preferred Qualifications
- Master's Degree in a relevant field.
- Experience in two or more of the following areas: youth entrepreneurship, employment and workforce development, access to finance, enterprise development, rural livelihoods, or market systems development.
- Experience engaging private sector actors, employers, financial institutions, or business development service providers in support of youth programming.
- Experience working with rural youth and applying inclusive approaches for young women, youth with disabilities, and other underserved groups.
- MEAL, adaptive management, program learning skills and experience preferred.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
- Strong project cycle management skills, including work planning, budgeting, forecasting, risk management, partner oversight, reporting, and coordination of operational requirements.
- Demonstrated project management depth combined with a broad understanding of youth economic empowerment, private sector engagement, financial inclusion, and rural programming.
- Good understanding of the opportunities and constraints affecting rural and underserved youth and the importance of linking youth programming to viable markets, employers, finance, and enterprise support services.
- Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook), Web Conferencing Applications, and information management systems.
- Experience engaging with and managing partner organizations, including reviewing workplans, budgets, reports, and performance and supporting partner capacity strengthening.
- Experience in technical-level engagement with government institutions, private sector actors, financial service providers, and youth-serving organizations.
- Experience contributing to the development of technical proposals, concept notes, project budgets, and implementation arrangements.
- Strong analytical, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving skills with the ability to make sound judgment and use program and financial data to inform decisions.
- Strong relationship management, facilitation, and negotiation skills
- Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to prepare clear reports, presentations, and technical documents.
- Proactive, agile, results-oriented, service-oriented, and able to learn new technical areas, systems, and processes quickly.
Required Languages: Excellent written and spoken English and Kinyarwanda required. Knowledge of French is desirable.
Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 40% within Rwanda, including rural project locations.
Supervisory Responsibilities: Yes - Youth Policy and Partnerships Advisor and Youth Digital Programming Officer.
CRS is an equal opportunity employer. Applications from women and youth are highly welcomed.
How to apply
Interested and qualified candidates should Fill out form, the Self -DeclarationClause and submit them together with one page Cover letter plus updated CV (maximum three pages) all in/as one PDF document - via email only to: RW_HR@crs.org not later than August 4th 2026, at 5:00pm.
Also include your full names and title “Youth Program Manager I in the subject line. Due to anticipated high interest in this post and the expected number of applicants, only short-listed candidates will be contacted.
Please, include the statement below in your cover letter: “By applying to this job, I understand and acknowledge that CRS requires its staff to treat all people with dignity and respect and to actively prevent harassment, abuse, exploitation, and human trafficking. Further, I understand that if I am a successful candidate, I will be subject to a comprehensive background check, and my personal/professional references will be asked to evaluate my behaviors related to the above safeguarding-related topics.”
Kigali, July 22nd, 2026
