This position is open on a rolling basis and will be filled upon the availability of a suitable candidate.

Context

Relief International (RI) is an international non-profit organization that partners with communities impacted by climate change and disaster to save lives, build greater resilience and promote long-term health and wellbeing.

Our team of more than 7,000 staff and local volunteers work in 15 countries across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, providing Health and Nutrition, WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene), Education and Livelihoods programming that creates the foundation for community resilience.

We do this by working with local actors to develop safe and inclusive local programming that is evidence based, conflict sensitive, climate smart, and reaches those in need.

Relief International is an alliance of four organizations with one shared mission, comprised of Relief International, Inc., Relief International-France, Relief International-UK and Relief International-Europe, which operate under a one-team concept under a single senior leadership team.

In Pakistan, RI works with government institutions, communities, local organizations and humanitarian partners to deliver safe, inclusive and accountable programs across protection, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS), education, health, livelihoods and WASH, including programming in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Job Profile

The MHPSS Coordinator is the direct technical line manager for MHPSS Officers and field technical teams in the assigned province. The position translates the approved programme design into safe, consistent and measurable services, including structured supervision, competency development, service mapping, referral pathways, quality monitoring and corrective action.

The Peshawar-based Coordinator covers Peshawar, Nowshera, Swabi, Mardan, Haripur and Lower Dir. The Head of Programs provides country-level technical oversight and support, while the respective Head of Office is responsible for operational and administrative management at provincial and district levels.

The Coordinator must maintain clear professional boundaries: clinical assessment, diagnosis, treatment or case decisions may be undertaken only by appropriately qualified, competent and authorized personnel under approved protocols and supervision.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Quality Assurance

• Lead provincial implementation of the approved MHPSS technical approach, workplan, service package and quality standards.
• Develop and maintain practical technical guidance, standard operating procedures, tools and minimum service standards consistent with RI, IASC, WHO, government and donor requirements.
• Ensure that the programme uses an appropriate layered and stepped-care approach and that interventions match assessed needs, staff competencies and available referral capacity.
• Review service quality through field observation, case and record review, supervision data, referral completion, client feedback and outcome information; agree and follow up corrective actions.
• Ensure services are culturally appropriate, gender and disability inclusive, conflict sensitive, accessible in relevant local languages and adapted to low-bandwidth or remote settings where necessary.
• Provide technical input to assessments, activity design, proposals, budgets, procurement specifications, recruitment processes and donor modifications concerning MHPSS.

Program Planning and Delivery

• Convert the approved project design into provincial and district implementation plans, staffing schedules, supervision plans, training calendars and referral-strengthening actions.
• Coordinate MHPSS Officers/OICs and technical teams across assigned locations, monitor progress against targets and address delays or quality gaps with the Head of Programs and Head of Office.
• Ensure community outreach, focused psychosocial support, individual and group interventions, primary-care linkages and specialized referrals are delivered only as approved and within staff competence.
• Maintain an up-to-date map of public, private, community and specialist services, including eligibility, accessibility, capacity, safeguarding considerations and feedback on referral outcomes.
• Support responsible start-up, adaptation, handover and close-out of MHPSS activities, including continuity of care and safe transfer of records and referrals.

Clinical Governance, Safeguarding and Referral

• Establish and monitor safe procedures for informed consent, confidentiality, data minimization, record access and secure information sharing.
• Ensure clear identification, immediate safety planning, referral and escalation arrangements for suicide or self-harm risk, severe mental-health presentations, child-protection concerns, GBV, PSEA and other protection risks.
• Confirm that all staff understand their scope of practice and that higher-risk or complex cases receive timely review by qualified clinical or protection specialists.
• Monitor adverse events, missed or failed referrals, breaches of confidentiality and other service risks; report and support corrective action through approved RI channels.
• Ensure feedback and complaints mechanisms are safe, accessible and understood by service users and communities.

Technical Supervision and Capacity Strengthening

• Provide structured individual and group technical supervision to MHPSS Officers and ensure that supervision cascades safely to field teams and community workers.
• Assess competencies before and after training and authorize staff to deliver specific interventions only when required competencies and supervision arrangements are demonstrated.
• Develop and implement practical capacity-building plans using coaching, observation, case discussion, refresher learning and documented performance follow-up.
• Promote staff wellbeing and safe workload management, including access to support, debriefing and escalation when occupational stress may affect service quality or staff safety.
• Contribute technical scoring to recruitment and re-profiling processes and verify the MHPSS background.

MEAL, Information Management and Learning

• Work with MEAL colleagues to define appropriate indicators, tools, disaggregation, data-quality controls, outcome measures and learning questions.
• Review provincial MHPSS data for completeness, consistency, safety and meaning; investigate unusual trends and avoid collecting unnecessary sensitive information.
• Use quantitative and qualitative evidence, community feedback and supervision findings to improve service design and delivery.
• Contribute accurate technical content to donor reports, internal reviews, evaluations, learning products and proposals, while protecting confidential information.

Coordination and Representation

• Maintain constructive technical relationships with provincial health, social welfare and protection authorities, facilities, specialists, UN agencies, MHPSS coordination mechanisms and peer organizations.
• Represent RI in relevant provincial technical forums as delegated and ensure that commitments remain within approved programme, legal and donor parameters.
• Promote complementarity with existing services and avoid parallel or unsustainable referral arrangements.
• Support partnership identification, capacity assessment and technical accompaniment of local organizations involved in MHPSS delivery.

Grant, Budget and Operational Coordination

• Track delivery and expenditure against approved MHPSS activities and forecasts; explain variances and recommend timely corrective action without exceeding delegated authority.
• Coordinate with the Head of Office and Finance, Operations, Supply Chain, HR and Security teams so technical plans are feasible, compliant, safe and appropriately resourced.
• Maintain complete and organized technical documentation for donor reporting, monitoring visits, audits, evaluations and close-out.
• Escalate material technical, safeguarding, access, financial, legal or reputational risks promptly and support documented resolution.

People Leadership and Management

• Set clear technical objectives, deliverables and performance expectations for direct reports and provide documented feedback and performance input.
• Maintain clear separation between technical line management and the operational/administrative authority of the Head of Office, resolving ambiguity through agreed written delegations.
• Promote collaboration, inclusion, respectful communication, accountability and learning across geographically dispersed teams.
• Identify staffing and succession needs and support timely recruitment, onboarding and responsible transition of positions.

Behavior and Conduct

• Maintain the highest standards of behavior inside and outside work and uphold RI's Code of Conduct, safeguarding policies and humanitarian principles.
• Model ethical leadership and create an environment in which staff and communities can raise concerns safely and without retaliation.
• Ensure that personal actions and those of managed teams do not compromise the safety, dignity, rights or confidentiality of staff, partners or communities.
• Report and respond to concerns promptly through the appropriate RI channels.

Essential criteria

• Master's degree in clinical or counselling psychology, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, mental health, clinical social work, public health with a substantial MHPSS specialization, or another directly relevant discipline. A highly relevant bachelor's degree with substantial additional specialist experience may be considered.
• At least 06 years of progressively responsible experience in MHPSS programming, including at least three years providing technical supervision or managing multi-location MHPSS teams in humanitarian or development settings.
• Demonstrated knowledge of community-based MHPSS, psychological first aid, structured psychosocial interventions, task sharing, clinical governance, case safety, referral systems and stepped-care approaches.
• Ability to distinguish technical supervision from clinical supervision and to arrange qualified clinical oversight for interventions or cases that require it.
• Proven experience developing and monitoring MHPSS workplans, supervision systems, competency-based training, referral pathways, technical tools and quality-improvement actions.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding, PSEA, child protection, GBV risk mitigation, suicide/self-harm risk escalation, informed consent, confidentiality and responsible data management.
• Experience with MEAL for MHPSS, including safe indicators, outcome measurement, data-quality review, accountability and learning.
• Experience coordinating with government, health facilities, specialists, UN agencies, technical working groups, local organizations and communities.
• Strong people-management, coaching, facilitation, problem-solving, report-writing and cross-functional coordination skills.
• Willingness and ability to travel regularly within the assigned province and to other RI locations, subject to security and access protocols.

Desirable criteria

• Recognized training or certification in WHO mhGAP, Psychological First Aid, Problem Management Plus or another evidence-informed MHPSS intervention relevant to the approved service package.
• Professional registration or licensure in a relevant clinical discipline, where applicable.
• Familiarity with Pakistan's Hamdard MHPSS Model, national or provincial MHPSS arrangements and IASC MHPSS guidance.
• Experience delivering services for displacement-affected populations, vulnerable host communities, women, children, persons with disabilities or other underserved groups.
• Experience contributing to institutional donor proposals, budgets, reports, evaluations and programme modifications.
• Experience supervising digital, low-bandwidth or remote MHPSS and referral systems.
• Clear communication in Pashto, Urdu and a language commonly used in the assigned district; basic English reading and reporting ability.

RI Values

Guided by the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality and independence, as well as Do No Harm, Relief International values:

• Integrity
• Adaptability
• Collaboration
• Inclusivity
• Sustainability

Equal Opportunity