Public Health Engineer Officer

Shaping a stronger Oxfam for people living in poverty.

About Oxfam

Oxfam is a global community who believe poverty isn’t inevitable. It’s an injustice that can be overcome. We are shop volunteers, women’s right activists, marathon runners, aid workers, coffee farmers, street fundraisers, goat herders, policy experts, campaigners, water engineers and more. And we won’t stop until everyone can live life without poverty for good.

Oxfam GB is a member of the international confederation Oxfam.

Our Team To reduce public health risks and contribute to a life with dignity for Syrian refugees in Lebanon through the construction of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities for Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

Job Purpose

This position will be part of an integrated Humanitarian programme in the Bekaa Valley. The WaSH component will include both public health engineering and public health promotion activities with the aim of providing comprehensive WaSH assistance to vulnerable persons. The appointed person will support the provision of water and sanitation services and the construction and rehabilitation of WaSH facilities, ensuring they are completed to the agreed specifications and within the agreed project timeframes, as well as ensuring maintenance of built facilities and participating in assessments as required. The public health engineer is also expected to work closely and effectively with the Oxfam WaSH partner organisation ensuring technical staff have the needed capacity to deliver in high quality.

• The position will be responsible for supervision of the efficient delivery of activities, including ensuring a high quality of construction work and ensuring that strict health and safety procedures are adhered to at all times. The selected candidate will be a key member of the site supervision team, which will consist of site engineers, tradespersons (masons and plumbers etc), and maintenance staff.
• The position may be requested to carry out assessments of water, sanitation and hygiene facilities and prepare recommendations and BOQ’s for required construction, repair or rehabilitation works. This may be carried out with other partners.
• In addition, and as needs arise, the position will be a part of the emergency response team, responsible for designing and installing light, rapid and simple toilet, shower, hand washing and water collection facilities. The scope of work will vary depending on the circumstances.
• The position will be expected to directly manage a team of PHE assistants, ensuring oversight of daily work activities and performance objectives and capacity building.
• The role will involve at least 70% presence on project sites, irregular work patterns and volumes

 

 

 

Core Details

Location:

Zahle

Internal Grade:

D2

Division

International

Job Family:

Programme

Contract type:

Fixed Term

This role reports to:

Public Health Officer – Senior Engineer

Staff reporting to this post:

Public Health Engineer Assistants, as applicable.

Annual budget          for the post:

No direct budget holder responsibility but contribute to budget planning and monitoring.

Key relationships/interactions:

Other Project Staffs, Partner Staffs

Screening checks:

All successful candidates will be screened through Refinitiv World-Check One to comply with counter terrorism and financial sanctions regulations.

 

 

Key Responsibilities

Technical

Programme Implementation

• Provide direct management and oversight over the PHE activities, in line with workplans and standards of the project, with the support and oversight by the PHE Senior Officer.
• To work with the implementing partner to ensure engineering activities are of high quality, and to provide technical backstopping and trouble shooting.
• Source and provide technical resources and support needed to complete scopes of work, including reviewing the quality of the work completed, the adherence to health and safety standards and ensuring the work stays within assigned schedules and cost targets.
• Together with the team, ensure regular contact with the beneficiaries is maintained in target areas including refugee representatives, peer group members, as well as with the wider community members, with particular attention to vulnerable groups.
• Work with the project team to define the methods of community participation that ensure the greatest possible participation of vulnerable groups, and mentor Oxfam and partner team members in the implementation of appropriate approaches for community engagement and provide feedback as necessary;
• Contribute to monitoring learning and developments of community focal points and groups, impact of activities and adapt project activities and approaches accordingly in coordination with the project manager and relevant technical coordinators
• To liaise closely with the Public Health Promotion (PHP) Team throughout implementation stages of the Public Health Engineering Programme.
• To ensure that all programmes take gender issues fully into account. This includes the introduction of mechanisms to enable women to participate in decision making around public health engineering issues.
• With the guidance of the PHE Senior Officer, ensure that health and safety monitoring is incorporated into all daily site supervision activities.
• Create and maintain a good relationship with the implementing partners and construction workers and sub-contractors
• To produce compliance reports, establish a database and contribute to the close out of nonconformance. 
• Ensure that daily site supervision is in line with agreed specifications and method statements, with comprehensive documentation of supervision activities. Ensure a photographic diary is maintained by PHE assistants.
• Contribute to the generation of PHE  'lessons learnt" during the project
• If requested, participate in assessments of existing water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in other parts of Lebanon, producing recommendations and BOQ’s for WASH construction and rehabilitation work

 

Programme approach:

• To be familiar with and abide by international humanitarian standards, including the NGO/Red Cross Code of Conduct, the People in Aid Code, Oxfam International procedures and ensure these are applied in the implementation of PHE activities, including raising awareness and building the capacity of Oxfam staff on these standards and how to action them.
• To be familiar with and abide by the Oxfam partnership principals and approach.
• Ensure accountability to beneficiaries, designing and implementing regular, transparent and two-way communication with Oxfam’s beneficiaries and key stakeholders, including refugee representatives and peer group members. This should include active community participation in the design, implementation and monitoring of activities with a specific focus on vulnerable/marginalised groups, ensuring feedback is incorporated into Oxfam’s programming.
• Reflect on national and international WASH programme experience to contribute to PHE /WASH learning reviews and actively participate in monthly programme quality meetings.
• To support the mainstreaming of gender into all activities including the introduction of mechanisms to enable women to participate in decision making around public health engineering issues

 

Management

• Direct Management of Public Health Engineer Assistants, as applicable
• Provide overall day to day support and management of the PH Engineers Assistant and volunteers where applicable including performance management and supporting implementation partner’s staff during field work.
• Ensure that all members of the works supervision team contribute to maintaining a positive relationship with contractors, Partner staff, beneficiaries and other key stakeholders.

 

Coordination

• As requested, participate in WaSH field-based meetings with other stakeholders.
• Ensure appropriate internal and external representation, sharing regular reports to the Senior PHE officer

 

Your commitment to Oxfam

• Required to adhere to Oxfam’s principles and values as well as the promotion of gender justice and women's rights
• Understanding of and commitment to adhere to equity, diversity, gender, child safety and staff health and wellbeing principles

 

Oxfam is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour at work including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct; and committed to promoting the welfare of children, young people, adults and beneficiaries with whom Oxfam GB engages. Oxfam expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment through our code of conduct. We place a high priority on ensuring that only those who share and demonstrate our values are recruited to work for us.

 

The post holder will undertake the appropriate level of training and is responsible for ensuring that they understand and work within the safeguarding policies of the organisation.

 

All offers of employment will be subject to satisfactory references and appropriate screening checks, which can include criminal records and terrorism finance checks. Oxfam GB also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme.  In line with this Scheme, we will request information from job applicants’ previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during employment, or incidents under investigation when the applicant left employment. By submitting an application, the job applicant confirms his/her understanding of these recruitment procedures.

 

 

We are committed to ensuring diversity and gender equality within our organisation and encourage applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply.