Chief of Party I- Highlands Resilience Activity

About CRS

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding.

About CRS in Ethiopia

For over 60 years, CRS Ethiopia has taken the lead in responding to natural and human‑made disasters affecting Ethiopia’s most vulnerable communities. Moving beyond emergency response, CRS’ disaster mitigation and recovery projects in drought‑ and flood‑prone areas have rebuilt individual and community assets through non-food interventions in the form of agriculture, livestock, health, nutrition, and water and sanitation assistance. In fiscal year 2022, CRS Ethiopia served 10.8m people directly, and 1.8m indirectly.

Job Summary:

As Chief of Party I you will provide leadership and overall management of the Highlands Resilience Activity(HRA) to serve the poor and vulnerable. Your leadership, management and technical knowledge will ensure the delivery of high-quality programming and advance the position of CRS as a leading agency in livelihoods’ field. You will ensure consistency of implementation, strategies and approaches; oversee monitoring and evaluation; and lead the technical coordination of the selected value chains and microfinance interventions of the Project. The successful candidate will have a proven track record leading US government projects and working with CSOs, FBOs and host governments to help develop and support different value chains.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• Lead all aspects of the development, implementation and consolidation of the Highlands Resilience Activity, including sharing how the project contributes to the thought leadership of the industry. Serve as the primary point of contact to USAID as well as public, private and non-government stakeholders.
• Ensure the project is designed and implemented to meet donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results and budget, including strategies for phase out and sustainability. Ensure coordination between program and operations leads. Ensure the CRS program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy and procedures.
• Effectively manage senior programming and operations talent. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching and mentoring. Strategically tailor individual development plans and complete performance assessments for direct reports. Oversee the development of staffing plans and the recruitment process of senior staff.
• Lead the establishment of value chain platforms to specific subsectors, create linkages between the stakeholders involved in the value chains and provide overall support for market and agri-business development to the Project.
• Manage and mitigate risk through monitoring national and regional issues that may impact staff and programming. Ensure all staff understand and adhere to CRS staff safety and security policies and plans.
• Promote, uphold and model a commitment to the efficient use of agency and donor resources. Ensure compliance with USAID grants, including financial tracking and oversight of partner budgets, finance, administration and reporting to USAID. Approve program expenditures, budget adjustments, and cost modification requests to donors.
• Oversee the development of communication strategies and materials, complying with donor and CRS’ branding and marketing requirements and procedures.
• Coordinate relationships with consortium partner organizations, including organization of review/planning workshops. Contribute to coordination of the roles and activities of staff from other consortium member organizations in implementation in line with CRS partnership principles.
• Promote the sustainability of the value chains through effective networking, linkages to other programs, capacity building of project staff, and institutional strengthening of implementing partners, CSOs, and host government counterparts.
• Create and maintain proper conditions for learning. Establish a safe environment for sharing of ideas, solutions, and difficulties and the capacity to detect, analyze and respond quickly to deficiencies. Identify performance gaps and training opportunities for CRS and partner staff and ensure the design and delivery of high quality training and technical assistance.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong strategic, analytical, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills, with capacity to see the big picture and ability to make sound judgment and decisions.
• Strong relations management abilities. Ability to relate to people at all levels internally and externally. Strategic in how you approach each relationship.
• Team leadership abilities with diverse/multi-disciplinary teams. Coaching skills.
• Strong communications and presentation skills; able to develop tailored and persuasive messaging for varied audiences.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-oriented and results-oriented.

Required Languages – English (Level IV written and oral) is required.

Travel– 50% within Ethiopia

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Country Representative, Head of Programs, Finance Manager, Deputy Chief of Party, technical leads

External: Ethiopia government representatives, USAID representatives in Ethiopia, implementing partner program managers, private sector stakeholders

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic Qualifications

• Masters degree in International Development, International Relations or a relevant technical area. PhD preferred.
• 7 or more years’ relevant management and technical experience.
• 5 years experience managing donor funds, including multi country grants. Strong knowledge and experience in budget management.
• 5 years of staff management experience and abilities that are conducive to a learning environment. Experience coaching senior program staff.

Preferred Qualifications

• Education: Master’s degree or equivalent in Agriculture, Economics, or Rural development is preferred.
• Experience: Demonstrated expertise and a minimum of 7 years of chief-of-party experience in managing large (preferably $15 million and above), livelihood, agricultural development and/or inclusive market systems programs with a market-orientation is strongly preferred.
• Recognized leader in sector as demonstrated by peer reviewed publications, conference presentations etc.
• Demonstrated experience of successful program management, including management of complex, high-value, multi-activity projects, with complicated logistics.
• Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Knowledge of CRS partnership strategy a plus.
• Ability to represent and present at high levels.
• Experience in MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio), Web Conferencing Applications, and information and budget management systems.

Agency REDI Competencies (for all CRS Staff):

These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfill his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Personal Accountability
• Acts with Integrity
• Collaborates with Others
• Builds and Maintains Trust
• Open to Learn
• Strategic Mindset
• Develops and Recognizes Others
• Leads Change

***Our Catholic identity is at the heart of our mission and operations. Catholic Relief Services carries out the commitment of the Bishops of the United States to assist the poor and vulnerable overseas. We welcome as a part of our staff people of all faiths and secular traditions who share our values and our commitment to serving those in need.

Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skill, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.

Note: All positions requiring residence or frequent travel outside their home country must undergo and clear a pre-employment medical examination.

CRS’ talent acquisition procedures reflect our commitment to safeguarding the rights and dignity of all people – especially children and vulnerable adults – to live free from abuse and harm.

CRS welcomes candidates from the countries and regions in which we work. In the event the successful candidate is an expatriate or global telecommuter, the anticipated duration of the assignment is informed by a term limit, based on the type and level of the job and the needs of the agency.

CRS is an Equal Opportunity Employer