TechnoServe: Senior Program Manager 2020 Job Vacancy

By | February 28, 2020

TechnoServe works with enterprising people in the developing world to build competitive farms, businesses and industries. We are a nonprofit organization that develops business solutions to poverty by linking people to information, capital and markets. Our work is rooted in the idea that given the opportunity, hardworking men and women in even the poorest places can generate income, jobs and wealth for their families and communities. With more than four decades of proven results, we believe in the power of private enterprise to transform lives. In 2019, TechnoServe was rated the No. 1 non-profit for fighting poverty by Impact Matters

Program Description

TechnoServe’s East Africa region has full country programs in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, with a program in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The region has a diverse portfolio of projects, including programs in coffee, horticulture, dairy, food processing, youth and women’s economic empowerment, producer organization strengthening, and micro-retail.

Position Description

The Senior Program Manager provides direct support for regional programs including program management, donor inquiries, lead technical audits, manage the annual budgeting process and other activities that directly support the programs. This position serves as a critical member of the regional operations team and in this role provides advice to regional team leaders in a leadership capacity. The position fosters a workplace environment consistent with TechnoServe’s mission and core values.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

Program Management (40%)

  • Build the management capacity of field teams by developing managerial tools such as budget trackers, work plans, report templates and charters and monitoring their execution and refinement
  • Support and monitor country teams in the development and execution of annual budgets and midterm budget reviews
  • Ensure the timely delivery of expenditure reports (including variance analyses) to divisional leadership and country directors
  • With the Regional Director, develop and manage EA region and division annual budgets, including direct bill
  • Support the Regional Director and Country Directors in the development of annual regional and country plans
  • Negotiate, develop and execute agreements and modifications in collaboration with field teams, as needed
  • Serve as lead for program technical audits and other donor inquiries related to programmatic results for EA programs, overseeing research, strategy and framing/drafting TNS response in conjunction with field offices, divisional and Head Office leadership
  • Provide general program support to the regional division, country and regional programs by reviewing reports, maintaining key programmatic files, and facilitating the review, updating, and processing of contracts, etc.
  • Support overall quality control of EA programs, flagging issues and areas of concern for divisional and home office leadership and disseminating lessons learned and best practices
  • Manage assignments of selected consultants and fellows, providing feedback on deliverables and work planning as needed
  • Mobilize new programs and support proper closeout of ending programs as needed
  • Act as interim program manager or other type of temporary attachment to East Africa projects, as needed
  • Manage stakeholder relationships for new and existing programs as needed
  • Support the identification of country gender champions. Promote active collaboration of gender champions at the country, regional, and corporate level
  • With country gender champions, ensure all projects and proposals include genderspecific targets. Facilitate the collection and dissemination of lessons learned and best practices related to gender integration. Promote and support gender assessments
  • Work with country leadership to implement system to track country-level entity compliance (registration, statutory, regulatory, etc.) and ensure all certificates/documentation are current.

Reporting and M&E (30%)

  • Manage the compilation, refinement and submission of quarterly Program Status Reports (PSRs) for the region
  • Provide technical review and editing of key donor reports, M&E plans, terms of reference for external program evaluations and other key program deliverables
  • Strengthen report writing capacity of program managers by developing and rolling out tools such as report-writing guidelines, templates and trainings
  • Work with field staff to develop and refine program logframes and ensure their integration with internal reporting needs, and work with them to develop program targets, report annual performance via the corporate measurement system and analyze data for accuracy and trends
  • Act as liaison for the region for all internal reporting systems, helping advocate for improvements and refinements to organization-wide systems such as corporate measurement in conjunction with field staff
  • Design and manage divisional program filing system and reporting calendar; work with new and existing programs to ensure systems integration of all active programs

New Business Development (5%)

  • Provide occasional support to the new business development process, which can include proposal management, writing and research, recruitment, budget development, or other forms of support, as needed
  • Support the development of market analyses and donor scans, as required

Human Resources/Office Management (15%)

  • Support the recruitment and orientation of new program managers, directors and senior field staff on TechnoServe policies, procedures, structures and tools;
  • Support staff development of country Human Resource/Office managers, particularly in countries that are thinly-staffed
  • Oversee candidate management for key staff positions, and contribute to timely and effective recruitment of staff, consultants, volunteers and interns by developing Scopes of Work (SOWs), vetting CVs, interviewing and checking references
  • Develop and manage databank of recruitment resources and tools to be shared across the region
  • Manage on-boarding and orientation of new divisional and regional staff
  • Facilitate staff and client training on program management, M&E, advising businesses competently and collaboratively, financial literacy and gender, as demanded

Knowledge Management and Marketing (10%)

  • Develop and deploy knowledge-sharing tools and platforms
  • Develop marketing collateral such as factsheets, press releases and articles for external distribution
  • Organize and facilitate internal meetings and communications to strengthen the organizational culture of WA as a Division, across country teams and the divisional team
  • Serve as the key liaison between EA and Home Office, representing EA perspectives on policy issues
  • Provide leadership and represent EA in practice groups
  • Respond to requests regarding EA and programs from Marketing, Finance, Office of the President and Board of Directors
  • Performs other related duties as required

Required Skills and Experience

  • Bachelor’s degree in international relations, economics, business or other relevant subject.
  • At least 7 years of program management experience in international development, preferably in Africa
  • Detail orientation, including strong organizational, analytical and quantitative skills
  • Ability to anticipate demand, manage multiple tasks / projects and meet tight deadlines
  • Proven team player with strong interpersonal and cross-cultural skills
  • Excellent computer skills in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Internet
  • Strong written communications skills
  • Willingness to travel internationally at least 30% of the time

Success factors

Competency is a combination of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) directly related to successful performance on the job.

Core Competencies include:

  • Integrity and honesty: Is widely trusted; seen as a direct, truthful individual; presents truthful information in an appropriate and helpful manner; keeps confidences; admits mistakes; does not misrepresent himself or herself for personal gain.
  • Team Work/ Relationships: Works co-operatively and flexibly with other members of the team with a full understanding of the role to be played as a team member and/or leader, to achieve a common goal. Ability to build and maintain effective relationships and networks.
  • Learning attitude: Proactively takes advantage of opportunities to learn. Actively identifies new areas for learning; applies and shares new knowledge and skill appropriately.
  • Diversity/Inclusiveness: Demonstrates an understanding and appreciation for diversity and supports diversity efforts. Interacts effectively with and inclusively with people of all races, cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds, religions, ages, and genders.
  • Communication: Expresses ideas effectively in individual and group situations. Listens effectively; shares information, ideas and arguments; adjusts terminology, language and communication modes to the needs of the audience; ensures accurate understanding; acts in a way that facilitates open exchange of ideas and information; uses appropriate non-verbal communication.
  • Decision making/Problem Solving: Is able to analyse situations, diagnose problems, identify the key issues, establish and evaluate alternative courses of action and produce a logical, practical and acceptable solution. Is able to make effective decisions on a day-to-day basis, taking ownership of decisions, demonstrating sound judgement in escalating issues where necessary.
  • Results Oriented/ High Quality Deliverables: Stays focused on the efforts necessary to achieve quality results consistent with programmatic or departmental goals. Demonstrates the ability to achieve effective results; works persistently to overcome obstacles to goal achievement. Accomplishes tasks by considering all areas involved, no matter how small; showing concern for all aspects of the job; accurately checking processes and tasks.
  • Planning & Time Management: Establishes a course of action for self and/or others to accomplish a specific goal. Effectively plans, schedules, prioritizes and controls activities; identifies, integrates and orchestrates resources (people, material, information, budget, and/or time) to accomplish goals. Prioritizes work according to the program or department’s goals, not just own job responsibilities; manages own time effectively.
  • Business Acumen: The ability to use information, ask the right questions and take decisions that make an impact on the overall business performance.

Job Specific/Technical Competencies include:

  • Financial & Resource Management: The ability to estimate, justify, and manage appropriate funding levels to support goal accomplishment. Managing Resources is about understanding human, financial, and operational resource issues to make decisions aimed at building and planning efficient project workflows, and at improving overall organizational performance.
  • Computer Literacy: Demonstrates knowledge and ability to use specific computer programs or applications for own functional area. Has the ability to improve performance by integrating new and existing technology into the workplace.
  • Internal Client Focus: Client Focus is based on the ability to understand the client’s needs and concerns in the short to long-term and to provide sound recommendations and/or solutions.
  • Compliance & Governance: Compliance with and knowledge of company policies, applicable legislation, grant requirements, donor contracts, the local labor code and tax laws.

Managerial Competencies:

  • Emotional Intelligence: The act of knowing, understanding, and responding to emotions, overcoming stress in the moment, and being aware of how your words and actions affect others. Emotional intelligence consists of 4 attributes: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
  • Strategic Thinking: Managers should recognize key actions, underlying problems, make connection and patterns, see consequences and implications. Anticipates obstacles realistically and plans ways to deal with them.
  • Staff Development: Managers are required to work with employees to plan on the development of skills and abilities so that they can fulfil current or future job/role responsibilities more effectively.
  • Trust to Delegate: Managers should have trust and willingness to assign responsibilities to direct reports and give them discretion and authority to carry them out.
  • Feedback/Coaching (mentoring): Managers should give instructions, suggestions, explanations, and feedback to subordinates. (SPI+R)

Apply

To apply online click here or send your Cover Letter and detailed CV to apply@jobs.dumaworks.com marking the subject as “3685”, Your Full name & Phone number e.g. 3685 Barack Obama, +2547xxxxxxxx. If you don’t follow these instructions, your application will not go through.

Deadline for receiving applications: Saturday, 29 February 2020

N.B.

* You will receive a confirmation email and an alert to take a basic screening test over SMS or online. The email with the test may not arrive immediately. Please be patient. The email/SMS test will typically be 5-8 questions to help us understand your background. Regular SMS rates apply to the test.

If you apply and don’t meet these minimum qualifications, we will not be able to move forward with you application.