Ethiopia: Deputy Chief of Party

CARE Ethiopia seeks a Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) for a potential USAID-funded food security and livelihoods project. The project would seek to assist rural households that are currently receiving support from the Government of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) to achieve food security and resilience. International relocation and allowances may be available for this position. This position is subject to availability of funding. Candidates must be approved by USAID.

Core to the DCOP’s work will be the promotion of a data-driven, learning culture that pursues on evidence-based actions to expand successful activities and adjust or terminate initiatives that fail. Building the overall project team capacity to work in these ways and communicating best practices to relevant parties will be central to those efforts.

The DCOP will be responsible for leading the development of high-quality and practical project implementation plans that meet the technical expectations of the project theory of change. S/he will lead a team of senior technical advisors and coordinate a Technical Working Group including representatives from implementing and technical partners. The DCOP will lead development of implementation plan, identify and resolve challenges and promote ongoing learning and quality improvements throughout the life of the project. The DCOP will lead the development of standard operating procedures and work across the implementation teams to ensure project objectives and targets are met while promoting learning and innovation.

The DCOP would work closely with the Chief of Party to guarantee quality, efficiency, integrity, and learning throughout project duration. Specifically, s/he will be the overall lead on project strategies and implementation and provide oversight and technical guidance to and resolve challenges in implementation of the program’s theory of change, results framework, monitoring and evaluation framework, and work plans.

Primary responsibilities:

• Lead a team of technical advisors to develop and routinely enhance the GRAD implementation plan and standards. Oversee the coordinated planning (of activities and budgets) and implementation of the project in line with state-of-the art strategies, technical standards, and CARE priorities and program principles.
• Build and manage strong working relationships with all GRAD implementing partners to ensure the implementation plan is applied consistently and with high-degrees of quality. Facilitate the resolution of technical conflicts amongst partners and foster a healthy partnership team.
• Oversee the development of the project M&E plan and on-going project monitoring.
• Work with a variety of external technical supporters / partners to integrate their expertise with relevant project components
• Ensure efficient use of project resources and adherence to USAID standards and compliance with USAID rules and regulations
• Coordinate closely with the project Chief of Party and other senior management team members to assure overall project performance. Represent the COP and CARE in external forums.
• In collaboration with the Chief of Party, ensure the adequacy of planning, monitoring and reporting and competence for the effective scale up of program interventions to meet established programmatic and financial targets and time frames.

Required skills:

• Master’s degree in International Development, Agriculture/Agronomy, Public Health, Nutrition, Water and Sanitation Engineering, Economics, and/or related field.
• Minimum of 10 years of recent and progressively more challenging experience working in food and nutrition security.
• Substantial (5+ years) experience working in a management capacity on USAID-funded projects and knowledge of USAID rules and regulations.
• Experience with rural development, food and nutrition security programming, livelihood and market development, and/or natural resources management
• Working on or leading projects that incorporate one or more of the following as cross-cutting approaches: gender equality and women’s empowerment, youth empowerment, climate change adaptation, market resilience, and/or social accountability and governance.
• Proven leadership skills and demonstrated experience recruiting, developing, and managing local and international staff and consultants.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with host governments, donors, other donor-funded projects and stakeholders, local organizations, and partners.
• Experience writing and managing program and financial reporting requirements.
• Substantial previous experience working in Ethiopia and knowledge of the food and nutrition security landscape in the country is required.
• Fluency in written and spoken English is required. Knowledge of Amharic is a plus.

https://chp.tbe.taleo.net/chp02/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=CAREUSA&cws=1&rid=3072