Manager, market systems development manager in Mercy Corps

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About Mercy Corps:

Mercy Corps is a leading global organization powered by the belief that a better world is possible. In disaster, in hardship, in more than 40 countries around the world, we partner to put bold solutions into action — helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within.  

Now, and for the future. 

The Program Summary

Enhancing resilience is at the heart of what Mercy Corps does and how we work. Mercy Corps strengthens sources of resilience to enhance the capacities of people, markets, and institutions to handle shocks, reduce risk, build more equitable and responsive systems, and improve well-being. Through our programs, partnerships, and influence, we support communities to cope, adapt, and ultimately thrive. 

The 3-year FCDO-funded Building Livelihoods and Opportunities for Optimized Markets (BLOOM) program aims to provide resilience support (farm & off-farm) to improve the food security and self-reliance of vulnerable, war-affected households and communities by protecting and restoring their food production and livelihoods. BLOOM will address immediate livelihood needs and market barriers in conflict-affected oblasts utilizing a push-pull approach: Track 1 provides direct support (push) where needed, while Track 2 supports and strengthens the market systems Ukrainians rely on most both in and out of crisis (pull). Track 1 strengthens the resilience of vulnerable populations, helping them cope and adapt within ongoing crisis. This includes farm and off-farm cash grants, capacity strengthening, and protection services. These efforts, delivered in partnership with local actors, promote equity by enabling vulnerable households to transition from meeting immediate needs to economic self-reliance (Outcome 1). Track 2 complements Track 1 with “pull” mechanisms to improve quality and responsiveness of the social and economic systems communities rely on. A Market Systems Diagnostic will identify systemic barriers that hinder micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises’ (MSME) resilience and growth. The program’s Growth and Resilience Opportunity Facility (GRO Facility) will offer a suite of customized support for local actors, including a Challenge Fund, to pilot inclusive business models and catalyze local investment. By integrating real-time learning from Track 1, the Diagnostic will inform evidence-based, targeted solutions to meet Ukraine’s evolving recovery needs (Outcome 2). 

The Position

The primary objective of this role is to develop and oversee a portfolio of MSD-aligned financial sector interventions that address structural barriers in access to finance and stimulate sustainable market-level outcomes. This includes leading pilot design, negotiating strategic partnerships, structuring co-investment models, and ensuring effective implementation, adaptive management, and results tracking.

A further objective is to influence systemic change within the financial ecosystem by strengthening market relationships, shifting incentives, and promoting scalable models that expand inclusive finance for MSMEs and underserved populations. The Manager will contribute to sector-level learning, strategic positioning, and evidence generation to inform programmatic decision-making and future investment.

The Market Development Manager provides strategic leadership for the design, implementation, and scaling of Market Systems Development (MSD) interventions within the financial services sector. The role is responsible for shaping the sector strategy, identifying high-impact systemic constraints, and building a robust pipeline of commercially viable pilot initiatives that strengthen financial market performance, inclusion, and resilience.

As a senior representative of the program, the Manager leads engagement with financial institutions, fintech companies, investors, regulators, and industry bodies to catalyze sustainable market change. The position ensures that interventions align with partner incentives, crowd in private-sector investment, and contribute to long-term systems transformation rather than short-term gap filling.

Essential Responsibilities

The Market Development Manager will drive the development and implementation of market system interventions aimed at expanding inclusive access to digital solutions, financial products, and economic opportunities. The Market Development Manager will lead the design, testing, and scaling of Market Systems Development (MSD) interventions in Ukraine’s financial sector. The role focuses on identifying systemic constraints in access to finance, co-creating pilot solutions with financial institutions and market actors, and coordinating implementation to strengthen inclusive and sustainablefinancial markets.

Strategic Market Leadership & Opportunity Identification

• Lead ongoing analysis of Ukraine’s financial services ecosystem, including banking, non-bank financial institutions, fintech, MSME finance, digital financial services, and capital market dynamics.
• Identify systemic constraints, incentive misalignments, and structural bottlenecks affecting MSMEs, vulnerable populations, and underserved regions.
• Translate market intelligence into a coherent sector strategy and prioritized intervention pipeline aligned with Market Systems Development (MSD) principles.
• Position the program strategically within the financial ecosystem by identifying leverage points for systemic change and private-sector crowd-in.

Portfolio & Pilot Strategy Development

• Design and oversee a portfolio of MSD-compliant pilot initiatives addressing barriers in access to finance, risk-sharing mechanisms, financial product innovation, and digital financial inclusion.
• Define robust theories of change, results chains, and system-level outcome metrics for each intervention.
• Ensure pilots are commercially grounded, incentive-compatible, and structured for sustainability and scale from inception.
• Assess financial, operational, and reputational risks and ensure mitigation strategies are integrated into pilot design.

Market & Opportunity Analysis

• Monitor trends in Ukraine’s financial services ecosystem (banking, non-bank financial institutions, fintech, MSME finance, digital financial services).
• Identify systemic constraints affecting MSMEs, vulnerable groups, and underserved regions.
• Translate market insights into intervention concepts aligned with MSD principles.

 Pilot Design & Development

• Develop pilot concepts addressing barriers in access to finance, risk-sharing, digital finance adoption, or financial product innovation.
• Define clear theories of change, results chains, and success metrics for each pilot.
• Assess commercial viability and incentives of market actors before pilot launch.
• Partnership Development & Management
• Identify and assess potential partners, including banks, MFIs, fintech companies, credit unions, business associations, and guarantee facilities.
• Lead due diligence and partner selection processes in coordination with technical and compliance teams.
• Facilitate co-creation sessions with market actors to identify shared interests, validate incentives, and design commercially viable interventions.
• Negotiate partnership roles, cost-share structures, deliverables, and sustainability plans.

 Stakeholder Influence & Systems Change

• Engage senior-level regulators, policymakers, sector associations, and ecosystem actors to address structural constraints and enable market-enabling reforms.
• Identify opportunities to crowd in additional market actors, investment capital, and replication pathways.
• Strengthen market relationships and promote models that influence incentives, behaviors, and competitive dynamics within the financial sector.

Monitoring, Evidence & Learning Leadership

• Guide the development of intervention-level and sector-level metrics in collaboration with the MEL team, capturing behavioral change, business practice shifts, investment mobilization, and systemic effects.
• Oversee documentation of market shifts, partner performance, and emerging evidence of systems change.
• Lead preparation of strategic progress updates, learning briefs, and sector insights for senior management and donors.
• Promote cross-team learning, strategic reflection, and continuous improvement across the financial services portfolio.

Managerial Responsibilities

• Provide direct supervision, technical guidance, and performance management to team members.
• Lead annual work planning and budgeting processes for the financial services portfolio, ensuring strategic alignment with program objectives and donor requirements.
• Oversee resource allocation across pilots and partnerships, ensuring efficient use of program funds and achievement of cost-share targets where applicable.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, mentoring, and professional development of team members to strengthen sector expertise and MSD capacity.
• Contribute to program-level strategic planning, reporting, and representation with senior stakeholders and donors.

 Safeguarding responsibilities 

• Actively learn about safeguarding and integrates it into their work, including safeguarding risks and mitigations related to their area of work.
• Practice the values of Mercy Corps including respecting the dignity and well-being of participants and fellow team members.
• Encourage openness and communication in their team; encourage team members to submit reports if they have any concerns using reporting mechanisms, e.g., Integrity Hotline and other options.

Supervisory Responsibility

The Market Development Manager provides direct supervision and technical leadership to the market development team and short-term consultants. The Manager is responsible for setting clear performance objectives, conducting regular performance reviews, and ensuring team members deliver high-quality, MSD-aligned interventions. The role includes mentoring staff to strengthen analytical capacity, partnership management skills, and systems-thinking approaches.

The Manager oversees work planning, task allocation, and resource prioritization across the financial services portfolio, ensuring alignment with program strategy, budgets, and donor requirements. The position also ensures strong cross-functional coordination with MEL, finance, compliance, and operations teams to maintain implementation quality, accountability, and risk management standards.

In addition, the Manager fosters a collaborative and learning-oriented team culture, promoting adaptive management, evidence-based decision-making, and professional development. The role requires modeling ethical leadership, strong stakeholder representation, and effective communication both internally and externally.

Accountability

Reports Directly To: Economic Recovery Advisor

Works Directly With: BLOOM technical teams and MEL team

Accountability to Participants and Stakeholders

Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts toward accountability, specifically to our program participants, community partners, other stakeholders, and to international standards guiding international relief and development work. We are committed to actively engaging communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

Minimum Qualification & Transferable Skills

• Master’s degree in Finance, Economics, Business Administration, Public Policy, International Development, or a related field (or equivalent combination of education and senior professional experience).
• Minimum 5–7 years of progressive professional experience in financial sector development, banking, investment, fintech, MSME finance, or market systems development programs, including experience at a strategic or leadership level.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing market-based pilots or financial products (e.g., MSME lending schemes, risk-sharing instruments, digital finance solutions).
• Strong understanding of Market Systems Development (MSD) principles, systems thinking, and sustainability frameworks.
• Experience engaging and negotiating with financial institutions, including banks, MFIs, fintech companies, or investment actors.
• Proven ability to develop theories of change, results chains, and performance indicators for financial sector interventions.
• Familiarity with Ukraine’s financial sector and economic recovery context strongly preferred.
• Experience working on donor-funded programs (e.g., USAID, FCDO, EU) is an asset.
• Fluency in Ukrainian and professional proficiency in English required.

Success Factors

The successful candidate will be capable of multi-tasking, rapid decision-making, have initiative, drive and a lot of energy, as well as have high emotional intelligence, constructive communication skills and proven experience with capacity building. They will be committed to long-term program sustainability and the delivery of high-impact activities at the community level. Successful Mercy Corps team members have a strong commitment to teamwork and accountability, thrive in evolving and challenging environments, and make effective written and verbal communication a priority.

A strong team member will be conscientious, with excellent judgement, capable of multi-tasking, prioritising, problem-solving and attention to detail with strategic vision.  They must have the confidence, and humility, to work effectively with a large variety of people who will be diverse culturally, economically and in social status. S/he must be sensitive to political and cultural nuance and able to consistently apply excellent judgment to a variety of demanding and fast-changing situations, as well as the ability to foster solid working relationships with Mercy Corps staff.  Working as part of a team and coordinating with project personnel, as well as strong organizational skills, are essential to this position.

Living Conditions / Environmental Conditions

The position is based in Kyiv or Lviv or Dnipro or Odesa and it requires up to 20% travel to support country programs, which may include travel to insecure locations where freedom of movement is limited and areas where amenities are limited.  Housing for this role is in individual housing and staff will have access to good medical services and the living situation is of a high standard. During the field trips living conditions will be adjusted to the field conditions.

Ongoing Learning

In support of our belief that learning organizations are more effective, efficient, and relevant to the communities we serve, we empower all team members to dedicate 5% of their time to learning activities that further their personal and/or professional growth and development.

Team Engagement and Effectiveness 

Achieving our mission starts with how we build our team and collaborate. By bringing together individuals with a variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives, we strengthen our ability to solve complex challenges and drive innovation. We foster a culture of trust and respect, where every team member is valued for their contributions, empowered to reach their full potential, and motivated to do their best work.

We recognize that building a strong and effective team is an ongoing process, and we remain committed to learning, improving, and growing together.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Mercy Corps is an equal opportunity employer committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other characteristics protected under applicable law.

Safeguarding & Ethics

Mercy Corps is committed to ensuring that all individuals we come into contact with through our work, whether team members, community members, program participants or others, are treated with respect and dignity. We are committed to the core principles regarding prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse laid out by the UN Secretary General and IASC and have signed on to the Interagency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. By applying for this role an applicant confirms that they have not previously violated an employer’s sexual misconduct, sexual exploitation and abuse, child safeguarding or trafficking policy. We will not tolerate child abuse, sexual exploitation, abuse, or harassment by or of our team members. As part of our commitment to a safe and inclusive work environment, team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner, respect local laws and customs, and to adhere to Mercy Corps Code of Ethics Policies and values at all times. Team members are required to complete mandatory Code of Conduct eLearning courses upon hire and on an annual basis.

As an applicant, if you witness or experience any form of sexual misconduct during the recruitment process, please report this to Mercy Corps Integrity Hotline ([email protected]). 

Deadline for submission of applications: 10 March 2026

Тільки попередньо відібрані кандидати будуть запрошені на співбесіду.

Persons with disabilities and veterans are welcome to apply for this position.

Mercy Corpscreated a workplace for the employment of persons with disabilities and veterans, and proper working conditions for this vacancies, but this does not limit the number of people who can apply for this vacancy.