Hybrid- Associate Director of Economic Growth

Position description

The Resilient Food Systems team is seeking candidates for an Associate Director to lead its Economic Growth focus area. The Associate Director works closely with the Senior Director of Resilient Food Systems (DFS) to provide technical guidance and oversee implementation of Counterpart’s portfolio of donor-funded Food Security projects. Along with the Senior Director, the Associate Director plays an important role in portfolio growth, including leading new business development and portfolio growth initiatives, as well as contributing to Counterpart’s technical capacity in building resilient food systems through his/her leadership of the focus areas of economic development. The Associate Director collaborates with field-based Chiefs of Party (COPs), the Program Support Unit (PSU), and with HQ functional departments to ensure that field projects deliver expected results on time, within budget, and in compliance with Counterpart and donor policies and regulations.

Counterpart’s current Resilient Food Systems portfolio is comprised of projects focusing on school feeding and nutrition as well as agricultural market systems development. Growth objectives include expanding funding in agricultural value chain and market systems development, community resiliency, education, nutrition and disaster risk reduction.

The Associate Director reports to the Senior Director of Resilient Food Systems and works in close collaboration with COPs and functional departments to identify and resolve gaps in project performance, revenue, or business protocols. To do this, the Associate Director works across projects, with the authority to convene project-specific, portfolio-wide, or cross-functional groups as needed. The Associate Director’s workflow is guided by the schedule of deliverables described in the specific duties and responsibilities below.

Responsibilities

Award Management

• Serves as principal donor contact and relationship manager for a selected portfolio of projects.
• Ensures frequent and transparent communication with donor on project activities and problem solving.
• Provides program technical leadership, strategic planning, management and quality control to support the implementation of projects within budget, established time frames, standards of quality, and donor satisfaction.
• Supports the development and implementation of annual work plans in collaboration with the Chiefs of Party and field staff. Supports the field team in establishing programmatic targets, collecting and maintaining program monitoring records, and writing program and financial reports.
• In consultation with the Chiefs of Party and field teams, coordinates with relevant support departments to ensure projects have adequate resources and required clearances to implement high quality projects within budgets and on time.
• Coordinates with the MEL department and Chiefs of Party to identify opportunities for collaboration, learning and adaptation of project activities in response to changing contexts. Lead development of technical learning agenda development with program teams.
• In collaboration with PSU and other support departments, monitors program finances and monthly pipelines, and provides guidance to field teams concerning program expenditures, and budget projections.
• Coordinates the process of hiring consultants, overseeing performance to ensure contractual compliance.
• Reviews and evaluates program deliverables: work plans, program performance and evaluation plans; and ensures their timely implementation.
• Reviews and evaluates quarterly and final program reports.
• Approves the issuance of high value purchase orders, independent consultant agreements, and subawardee/subcontractor invoice payments, as needed.

Portfolio Growth

• Participates in strategy development and implementation for the Resilient Food Systems practice area. Responsible for developing Counterpart’s sub-strategy for the economic growth focus area.
• Monitors donor funding opportunities in Counterpart’s target technical areas in close collaboration with the New Business Development team to identify and champion proposal efforts in alignment with the practice area strategy.
• Serves as Technical Lead on proposals, leading the technical design for new proposal efforts, contributing to technical narrative sections and coordinating with proposal teams to ensure recruitment, budgets, management and MEL strategies align with the technical design.
• Represents Counterpart at industry networking events.

Technical Capacity Building

• In alignment with the Resilient Food Systems strategy, document and build Counterpart’s technical approach to economic growth.
• Develop training manuals and tools that contribute to building Counterpart staff capacity in designing and implementing quality technical programs in economic growth.
• Identify opportunities to document and present technical learning to both internal and external audiences.
• Participate in industry learning events, working groups and other fora.

Staff Management

• Participates in recruitment, resource planning, supervisory meetings, goals planning, and mid-year and annual performance reviews for staff they supervise and oversee.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in International Development, Business, Economics, Agriculture or related technical field or equivalent experience. Advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum of ten (10) years’ experience in project management positions, with experience managing projects funded by USAID and/or USDA. Previous work experience food security and economic growth programs preferred. Work experience in developing countries preferred.
• Proven thought leader in economic growth.
• Proven track record of strategic thinking and problem solving.
• Ability to facilitate, mentor and lead.
• Strong written, verbal, analytical and organizational skills.
• Experience working on complex programs with multiple components in fragile environments.
• Demonstrated ability to manage partner relationships (sub-grantees, institutional partnerships.)
• Ability to communicate effectively to create consensus and find common solutions in inter-cultural settings.
• Fluency in written and spoken English. Proficiency in Spanish, Portuguese or French preferred.
• Alignment with Counterpart’s values.

Annual Salary Range: $92,706-$148,329

Application instructions

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