Technical Director, Jobs in Uganda, at Mercy Corps Uganda - 2015

Uganda: Economic Strengthening Technical Director, Uganda (219326-927)

This position is contingent on funding

Position Title:Economic Strengthening Technical Director, Uganda (219326-927)

Duty Station: Gulu and Jinja

Organization: Mercy Corps Uganda

Employment Type:Full Time Permanent

Reports to:Chief of Party

Application Deadline:22 Nov 2014

PROGRAM/DEPARTMENT SUMMARY:

Mercy Corps has been operating in Uganda since 2006 and works to catalyse change makers within the Ugandan private sector, civil society and government to create economically dynamic, healthy and secure communities. Our works focus on building resilience and enable economic growth, improve opportunities to attain better health and nutrition, and improved governance and conflict management. We implement programs in the northern districts of Pader, Kitgum, Agago, Lamwo, Kaabong, Abim and Kotido with funding from USAID, USDA, Walmart Foundation, SDC, DFID as well as other private donations. Mercy Corps programs in Kitgum currently focus on economic and market development, agriculture, financial services, and women s empowerment.

Mercy Corps is looking for a qualified candidate to fill the position of Economic Strengthening Technical Directorfor the upcoming USAID funded five years program on BetterOutcomes for Children and Youth in Eastern and Northern Uganda. The program goal is to improve the wellbeing of children and youth orphaned by HIV and other adversities in Uganda. It mainly focuses on orphaned and vulnerable children, youth and their caregivers to have improved access and utilization of health, nutrition, education, and psychosocial wellbeing and reducing abuse, exploitation and neglect. The Economic Strengthening Technical Director will be the lead for the economic empowerment sector of the program. The sector priorities include meeting immediate economic needs of the most vulnerable target groups though temporary interventions to uplift and integrate them in to market systems;

increased savings and access to credit opportunities; increased opportunities for income growth and building assets;

and better access to group based education and support programming. The program will be implemented in Northern and Eastern Uganda.

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

The Economic Strengthening Technical Director will responsible for the overall management of the economic empowerment component of the program.

S/he will be the technical lead in setting strategies, interventions designs, and activity implementation to improve the economic conditions of target groups through improved access and utilization of services and products. The Director will lead a team of experts and work closely with the other component leads.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

·Provide leadership and strategic vision of program implementation, development and management.

·Coordinate, manage and motivate program teams through ensuring that they have clear objectives/individual work plans as part of performance management) and receive meaningful feedback on their performance.

·Coordinate and work closely with the other component leaders to ensure integrated approach to program implementation

·Identify, assess and develop partnership strategies for potential private sector, civil society and government partners.

·Establish and maintain productive working relationships with Local Government officials and line departments, soliciting their participation in all activities where appropriate.

·Make on-site field visits regularly to provide technical back stopping and/or design suggestions.

·Ensure proper logistics, administration, human resources and transport needs of the program are conducted within Mercy Corps policy and with the maximum benefit to the program.

·Manage the recruitment and training of program staff to ensure staffs are of the quality and capacity to successfully implement activities. Monitor and advise on staffing needs throughout the program.

·Exercise sound judgment to ensure project expenses are reasonable, allocable and prudent.

·Ensure all project funds are spent in accordance with donor rules and regulations.

·Oversee the program filing system and ensure that information is organized according to the reporting and auditing needs of the program. Ensure required levels of confidentiality.

·Support the development and continual revision of a dynamic, program-wide monitoring and evaluation system linked to program strategies, indicators, and information management tools, which supports program management, accountability and learning.

·Ensure that program team members are paying sufficient attention to the continual gathering and digestion of operating environment and activity reports, and that teams are holding frequent activity review sessions to continually re-examine the relevance and impact of the program.

·Produce written reports on the program capturing impacts related to all activities.

·Ensure establishment and maintenance of relationships with communities, village councils and local government in target operation areas.

·Mercy Corps team members are expected to support all efforts towards accountability, specifically to our beneficiaries and to international standards guiding international relief and development work while actively engaging beneficiary communities as equal partners in the design, monitoring and evaluation of our field projects.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY:

The Economic Strengthening Technical Director will have supervisory responsibility of a team of experts under the sector.

WORKS DIRECTLY WITH:

Finance Director, Program Directors, Country Director, Consortium team members, technical experts, Senior Operations Manager

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

·Master’s Degree or higher in social sciences or social work, or a closely related field is required.

·3 – 5 years of relevant experience

·S/he must have at least three years of experience designing, implementing and managing household economic strengthening initiatives in/for developing countries.

·Experience in leveraging private public partnerships is preferred.

·Strong interpersonal, writing and oral presentation skills in English are also required.

·Two years of experience living or working in a developing country is desired.

·Experience in building and maintaining strong/productive relations with implementing and strategic partner agencies is preferred.

·Demonstrated attention to detail, ability to follow procedures, meet deadlines and work independently and cooperatively with team members.

·Demonstrated success building, managing and leading a team of professionals.

·Strong computer literacy with a full knowledge of office applications.

SUCCESS FACTORS:

The successful Economic Strengthening Technical Directorwill be a self-starter, multi-tasker, and able to work effectively and respectfully with local government, private sector, civil society and community based organizations.

He or she will have a demonstrated experience in setting up and managing systems and procedures as well as experience in building team commitment toward the achievements of program objectives.

S/he will be a team-player with positive attitude to problem solving and conflict resolution. The successful candidate will have strong technical skills in economic market development and will be focused on team-building and capacity-building of national staff, and will be able to apply creative solutions to program quality.

S/he will also have ability to juggle multiple priorities under tight deadlines, and to calmly and diplomatically deal with unexpected events impacting program operations.

LIVING CONDITIONS:

This position will be based in Gulu or Jinja town. Both Gulu and Jinja are capital towns of the respective districts, with stable security situation and basic amenities. Gulu and Jinja have basic health services and no international schools. Restaurants and diversions are available. Water and electricity are generally available with occasional outages. Housing is available in secure locations with access to the standard utilities.

The position requires frequent travel to field sites where one will encounter more basic living conditions.

Mercy Corps Team members represent the agency both during and outside of work hours when deployed in a field posting or on a visit/TDY to a field posting.

Team members are expected to conduct themselves in a professional manner and respect local laws, customs and MC’s policies, procedures, and values at all times and in all in-country venues.

Mode of application:

To apply to this position please click the link below and follow the application instructions below.

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