Save the Children is seeking a Chief of Party (COP) for an anticipated five-year USAID-funded Resilience Food Security Activity (RFSA) in Uganda. The RFSA will work at the individual, household, and community levels using the Graduation Approach to address the underlying causes of food insecurity in the face of shocks and stresses. The estimated implementation timeframe for the RFSA is 2025 – 2030.
The proposed program will be an integrated, multi-sectoral food and nutrition security intervention. The COP is responsible for the overall management and representation of the activity and is ultimately accountable for the delivery of desired program results, an effective adaptive management approach, relationships with a range of stakeholders, including USAID, public and private partners, and management of the program team and consortium. The Chief of Party (COP) will provide strategic leadership and overall management of the RFSA project, ensuring alignment with donor expectations and adherence to Save the Children’s program quality standards.
Hiring is contingent upon successful award of the project and USAID approval of the candidate.
National candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
This position will be based in Kampala, Uganda.
What You’ll Be Doing (Essential Duties):
- Manage the overall administrative, financial, and technical activities of the program.
- Lead overall program planning, putting in place team structures, technical and operational approaches, infrastructure, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and feedback loops required for program delivery and success.
- Provide strategic and technical leadership, defining and implementing activities to achieve project goals and objectives. Oversee technical direction and project delivery, ensuring compliance with performance frameworks and operational policies.
- Lead partnerships within the program consortium, as well as with external stakeholders as needed, to foster the teamwork required for program success.
- Represent the program to donor officials, host government officials, partner representatives, local stakeholders, working groups and team members.
- Manage relationships with consortium partner organizations, coordinating roles and activities.
- Develop communication strategies and materials that comply with donor and SCI’s branding requirements. Publish program results and deliver presentations, ensuring effective information dissemination about project achievements and lessons learned.
- Ensure alignment and cross-learning with Save the Children’s program and technical priorities in country and with the US Office.
- Build a strong program leadership team ensuring effective coordination between key technical, operational, and administrative functions.
- Review, approve and contribute to major program strategies such as the M&E plan, the learning plan, the collaborating, learning, and adapting (CLA) approach, the gender strategy, and technical or thematic strategies. Provide oversight and quality control to the program’s thematic approaches and implementation, leading course corrections as required.
- Lead annual planning processes and associated donor resource requests, monitoring implementation progress as compared to these plans.
- Ensure the quality of all program deliverables, inclusive of activities, outputs, documentation, and reporting.
- Ensure sound program financial management and reporting.
- Ensure sound program logistical and operational structures and management.
- Ensure compliance with donors, host government, and Save the Children policies and procedures.
- Recruit, develop and manage the program team, ensuring that adequate and appropriate capacity building plans are in place and that human resources policies are appropriate for team retention and high performance.
- Demonstrate a commitment to gender and youth integration in both the programmatic and operational aspects of the activity.
- Ensure that the program deploys an effective CLA approach, such that the activity can evolve in a changing context to achieve desired outcomes.
- Oversee the program’s security management approach, working with country office counterparts.
Required Qualifications:
- University degree required. A master’s degree in development studies, international relations, agriculture, economics, business administration, or a related field preferred.
- 10-12 years of senior level professional experience designing, managing, and implementing large, complex ($25M+) USAID-funded international development activities, preferably in a program director, Deputy Chief of Party or Chief of Party role.
- Proven leadership skills managing projects of a similar size and scope in developing countries facing complex, volatile, and uncertain contexts.
- Experience with USAID and US Government regulations.
- Prior experience effectively managing USAID development or resilience activities; preferably involving the Graduation approach.
- Demonstrated experience in managing program implementation, financial reporting, reporting procedures and systems, and staff.
- Experience in recruiting and strengthening the capacity of program staff.
- Proven ability to build and maintain relationships with host country governments, donors, and other key stakeholders.
- Previous work experience working in Uganda or East Africa and technical expertise in food and nutrition security, resilience, natural resource management, livelihoods, or similar.
- Familiarity with the social, political, economic, and cultural landscape of Uganda is preferred.
- Understanding and demonstrated commitment to the importance of gender and youth dynamics in programming.
- Skills in adaptive management and learning techniques highly preferred.
- Proven success serving in a leadership role for a project addressing issues related to food security, nutrition, resilience, agriculture, natural resource management, livelihoods, or similar, preferably in Uganda.
- Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills in English.
- Commitment to child rights and to the aims and objectives of Save the Children.
About Save the Children
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.
Our work for children and their families requires that we commit—at every opportunity—to work together to identify and dismantle persistent systemic and structural racism, inequality, and any other forms of discrimination in this country and beyond. As an anti-racist organization, Save the Children will not tolerate discrimination in any form—in our employment practices, amongst our staff, in our leadership or toward the people we serve. We stand in solidarity with all people to fight for equal rights, justice, inclusion, and belonging.
Save the Children is committed to conducting its programs and operations in a manner that is safe for the children it serves and helping protect the children with whom we are in contact. All Save the Children representatives are explicitly prohibited from engaging in any activity that may result in any kind of child abuse.
Save the Children is committed to minimizing safety and security risks for our valued employees, ensuring all are given training, support and information to reduce their risk exposure while maximizing the impact of our programs for children and families. Our shared duty, both agency and individual, is to seek and maintain safe working conditions for all.
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