Position Description

EnCompass seeks Chief of Party candidates at multiple levels for an anticipated United States Agency for International Development (USAID) evaluation, learning and monitoring initiative (ELMI) for Somalia.

Based in Nairobi, this anticipated 5 year project will provide USAID/Somalia with a central platform for the procurement of support services that will strengthen, support, and facilitate USAID’s capacity for utilizing MEL approaches that will improve development outcomes and strengthen the capacity of USAID/Somalia’s strategic partners. The program will also provide support to USAID/Somalia and implementing partners on performance monitoring, data verification, evaluations, organizational learning and capacity building, and knowledge management.

In addition to providing overall leadership, management, and technical direction, the COP will have experience working in performance management, organizational development, strategic decision-making, quality control, and project learning, preferably in the USAID context and with Collaboration, Learning and Adapting (CLA) practices.

We are looking for someone who can facilitate learning and build relationships, with high political acumen and strong conflict prevent and management skills. S/he must be an inclusive leader, who can navigate change with flexibility and emotional resilience. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience focusing on results and impact, with strong strategic vision and an understanding of systems approaches to programming. S/he will understand how to foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning and will maintain high self-awareness and personal improvement skills.

The position will be full-time and be based in Nairobi with travel throughout the region, including across Somalia.

Position Duties and Responsibilities

The COP will lead the activity, providing technical guidance to and supervising both international and national staff and consultants. The COP will be the primary point of contact with USAID staff, including the Contracting Officer and Contracting Officer’s Representation (CO/COR).

Essential functions include:

• Serve as the main point of contact for the activity, providing vision, direction, leadership, and management for the project.
• Provide technical, operational, and managerial oversight to all aspects of the program to ensure all activities, and deliverables are executed with quality and timeliness
• Establish and maintain highly collaborative working relationships with the Government of Somalia, USAID/Somalia and USAID/Washington as required, along with relevant in-country stakeholders; serve as the primary point of contact for USAID and as the principal liaison with USAID staff, institutions, and country partners to exchange information and develop professional relationships.
• Manage the country team, ensure technical capacity of staff; provide technical assistance and backstopping when required
• Ensure that all activities are undertaken in full compliance with EnCompass’ standard operating procedures, USAID policies and regulations, and national policies and laws.
• Promote sustainability of project activities with effective networking, linkages to other programs, capacity building of project staff, and institutional strengthening in support of the journey to self-reliance
• Ensure documentation and dissemination of findings, impact, innovations, and lessons learned.
• Engage fully as a member of the EnCompass staff team, including participating in staff meetings and other EnCompass.
• Ensure optimal use of human, financial, and physical resources to successfully meet project milestones, objectives, deliverables and targets
• Other duties as assigned

Position Requirements

Qualifications

• A graduate degree in a social science, economic, development studies or a related field
• Minimum of ten (10) years of progressively increasing responsibility in managing large comprehensive contracts of similar nature, size and complexity, preferably in Somalia or West Africa.
• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in monitoring and evaluation and/or capacity building preferred
• Former supervisory experience is required

Experience and Skills

• Prior experience as a senior manager or COP leading complex donor-funded projects; experience managing USAID projects strongly preferred
• Professional experience in Africa; knowledge of / experience in Horn of Africa and/or Somalia strongly preferred
• Strong experience with evaluation standards and practices required
• Experience working in performance management, strategic decision-making, and project learning
• Experience building monitoring, evaluation, and learning capacities of USAID staff, implementing partners, and government counterparts highly preferred
• Experience managing complex relationships with a variety of stakeholders
• Ability to work with host-country governments at different levels
• Substantial experience in managing a team using mixed research methods of similar magnitude
• Strong communication, supervision, and management skills required
• Working knowledge of and experience with USG-funded program management, policies, regulations and procedures
• Strong familiarity with USAID evaluation and CLA practices
• Familiarity with USAID/Somalia Mission is preferred
• Excellent communication, both verbal and written English skills