Chief of Party job at Pathfinder International: career opportunity in Uganda

Job Title :   Chief of Party - Uganda
Organisation:Pathfinder International
About Pathfinder International
Pathfinder International is a global leader in sexual and reproductive health. We place reproductive health care at the center of all that we do—believing that it is not only a fundamental human right, but is critical for expanding life opportunities for women, families, communities, and nations, and paving the way for transformations in environmental stewardship, decreases in population pressures, and innovations in poverty reduction. Pathfinder provides women, men, and adolescents with a range of quality health services—from contraception and maternal care to HIV prevention and AIDS care and treatment. Pathfinder strives to strengthen access to family planning, ensure availability of safe abortion services and post-abortion care, advocate for sound reproductive health policies, and, through all of our work, improve the rights and lives of the people we serve.

Program Overview

Pathfinder is seeking a Chief of Party to provide overall strategic leadership and oversight for the Advocacy for Better Health program in Uganda. The goal of the Advocacy for Better Health program is to contribute to improvement in quality, availability and accessibility of health services. The purpose of the program is to increase the citizens’ voice for quality service delivery. The program shall also facilitate community input in developing and delivering better services. It shall lay the foundation for increasing citizen participation in the health sector and foster cooperation among civil society actors on issues of common benefit which shall strengthen the sector over the long term.

Position Purpose

The Chief of Party (COP) is responsible for representing the project and providing overall leadership in technical, program, and financial management. S/he serves as the liaison with USAID, and host country government agencies including local governments, development partners, and civil society organizations including community based organizations to provide day-to-day technical and managerial guidance. The COP has the overall responsibility to meet the Project’s strategic objectives, to supervise all the activities undertaken by Pathfinder and its subcontractors in the name of the project, and to provide direction to both technical and administrative aspects of the Project. The COP promotes, articulates, and ensures a common program vision and strategy among the partner and local organizations. S/he is responsible for the development and timely implementation of integrated workplans, reports, and project and staff performance monitoring. The COP works closely with senior Project staff members on project and subproject management and administration to meet project responsibilities in accordance with USAID regulations. The COP provides day-to-day technical advice, and routine troubleshooting and assistance to meet country government and USAID requirements.

Duties and Responsibilities
 Provides strategic direction of all project activities. Develops and updates the project strategic plan, ensuring that programmatic directions are technically sound, evidence-based, and consistent with USAID priorities.
    Ensures that project performance objectives and mandates are implemented in a timely fashion and meet the highest quality standards.
    Serves as the senior representative for the Project to USAID, host country government agencies, development partners, and civil society organizations. Cultivates and strengthens positive, productive relationships and ensures that Pathfinder is consistently viewed as an effective implementing partner achieving project targets.
    Together with other members of the leadership team, seeks to leverage non-USAID funds (such as multinational corporations and foundations) to support expanded program activities.
    Directly supervises senior Project staff members such as the Deputy Chief of Party/Advocacy and Partnership Specialist, Finance and Grants Manager, Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist and Capacity Development Specialist.
    Ensures systems are established to measure accomplishments, track work in progress and use of project resources, and evaluate impact of services provided by implementing partners.
    Works closely with Project staff, and with implementing agencies and their respective long-term advisors, to design and operationalize an annual project planning cycle, which formulates comprehensive, integrated annual project workplans and budgets.
    In collaboration with the Finance and Grants Manager, establish and maintain the ongoing financial and grants operations, ensuring compliance with Pathfinder’s policy and USAID contract provisions. Conduct monthly reviews to ensure accountability of all project activities as well as the accurate and timely reporting of finance deliverables.
    Works with Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist to provide leadership and direction to M&E strategies, frameworks, plans and indicators to capture project performance and results. Leads a periodic implementation review process to monitor progress and to identify specific actions that may be needed to achieve expected results.
    Manages and coordinates activities of subcontractors and partners to create synergy and ensure that project responsibilities are carried out in accordance with donor regulations.
    Selects, hires, and supervises staff; assigns roles and responsibilities, manages performance.
    In coordination with the Pathfinder Contracts Officer, contract with and manage local individuals/organizations for identified tasks according to donor and Pathfinder procedures. Negotiate consultancy agreements and develop capacity of local partners in mandated program areas.
    Partner successfully with Pathfinder’s Program Director and Headquarters financial, technical, and operations officers by providing accurate and timely reporting and updates on the project progress.
    Ensure that appropriate security guidelines and procedures are established, maintained, updated regularly, and adhered to by staff. Monitor the security situation and provide leadership for staff in emergencies.

Qualifications and Skills
Masters’ degree or higher in Public Health, social sciences, international development or related field.
    Minimum of 10 years of experience in development working with local governments, civil society and communities.
    Minimum of five (5) years’ experience managing USAID-funded health programming, especially with a focus on capacity building, advocacy, community mobilization, behavior change,  and/or health systems strengthening.
    Experience interacting with host country government agencies including local governments, development partners, and civil society organizations including community based organizations.
    Demonstrated understanding and knowledge of decentralization in the Uganda context, Uganda’s sociopolitical economy, advocacy, health and education sectors.
    Demonstrated team player with visionary leadership.
    Excellent managerial and operational experience, preferably in managing large donor projects involving coordination with multiple program partners or institutions in Uganda or the region.
    S/he shall have depth and breadth of technical expertise and experience, a solid professional reputation, interpersonal skills and professional relationships.
    Past experience of working with USG supported projects and knowledge of financial rules and regulations at a senior level.
    Experience in developing program work-plans, budgets, managing implementation, staff and short-term technical assistance.
    Excellent representational and communication skills, written and oral proficiency in English, and verbal communication skills in one or more local languages.
    Demonstrated ability to lead a project team and achieve results
    Travel throughout the project area in Uganda and to the US will be required.

Application procedure
http://www.candidatemanager.net/cm/Micro/JobDetails.aspx?&mid=YDUB&jid=UCXDDFF
Closing date: Not provided