OTI Regional Team Leader – Southern and Eastern Africa

The OTI Regional Team Leader – Southern and Eastern Africa is a full-time Personal Services Contract (PSC) position at the GS-14 equivalent level and located in Washington, DC. Offers for this position are due no later than April 27, 2022 at 1:00pm Eastern Time. For full information about this position, as well as instructions on how to apply, please read the entire solicitation at www.OTIjobs.net.

INTRODUCTION:

The Regional Team Leader is a member of the USAID Conflict Prevention and Stabilization (CPS) Bureau/OTI Field Programs Division (FPD), reports to the OTI Chief of FPD, and is based in Washington, D.C. OTI currently has six regional teams as part of its Field Programs Division: Southern and Eastern Africa. West and Central Africa (AFR), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), Asia, Middle East (ME), and Europe (EUR). OTI’s Regional Teams are responsible for all program implementation-related activity in the specific region.

Under this solicitation, the Regional Team Leader will be responsible for overseeing specific OTI country programs in any of OTI’s six regional teams, with the first assignment in Southern and East Africa. This is a program-funded USPSC position that focuses the vast majority of its time on managing country programs. The Regional Team Leader will ensure that U.S. Government funds are spent wisely, in coordination with other key actors, and in a manner that reflects OTI standard practices and U.S. Government policy.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

At the GS-14 Regional Team Leader level:

Note: Duties and responsibilities are listed in order of importance for this position.

• Lead and oversee an OTI Regional Team, including Deputy Team Leader(s) and Program Managers in Washington D.C.; and Country Representatives and implementing partners in the field and at headquarters. Oversee the management, logistical, budget, administrative, human resources, and contractual issues for the program;

• Responsible for setting overall strategic priorities for OTI programming and engagement in the region toward advancing U.S. foreign policy objectives and OTI’s mandate. Perform complex country and program analysis to maintain a “watch country” list, and develop existing and future strategies in high-priority countries;

• Apply a sound understanding of USAID’s programmatic and operational processes in Washington D.C. to support transition programming overseas, including assessment and conceptualization, design, management, analysis and evaluation of political transition and/or post-conflict activities. Perform complex country and program analysis to maintain a “watch country” list, and develop existing and future strategies in high-priority countries;

• Represent OTI equities on inter- and intra-agency policy and crisis task forces, in addition to developing and maintaining collaborative relationships with USAID, Department of State, Department of Defense, and other U.S. Government Agencies, to share programmatic information and coordinate Intra-agency and Inter-agency development efforts;

• Design staffing plans to meet overall program objectives, and provide managerial and supervisory support to staff. Ensure staff work objectives and tasks are well defined, that recruitment is initiated immediately when staffing needs arise. Ensure that staff is highly qualified, trained, and mentored in all critical aspects of OTI operations and programming. Ensure that employee performance evaluations are completed in a timely manner in accordance with OTI office policy;

• Monitor and evaluate OTI country programs through regular communication with staff, reviewing reports from the field and Washington D.C., liaising with relevant OTI teams, as well as conducting regular site visits;

• Supervise the implementation of OTI-financed activities, including overseeing and/or managing the selection of program implementers such as Grantees, Contractors, and Personal Services Contractors;

• Negotiate, oversee and manage the overall Regional Team country budgets to ensure that the team procurement plan is kept up to date, and that country programs are appropriately budgeted for. Additional responsibilities include working to secure additional funding from other U.S. Government sources, and ensuring that the team is trained on all the appropriate systems and tools for budgeting, finances and procurement;

• Liaise with grassroots organizations and their constituencies, national and local government officials, U.S. Government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and donor and international organizations, to monitor and evaluate OTI country program activities;

• In conjunction with OTI Washington D.C. staff and the Country Representative in the field, oversee, develop and manage, an OTI close-out strategy that will ensure reasonable and effective handover to follow-on USAID and/or other donor programs;

• Ensure the proper documentation for contracts, grants or cooperative agreements is generated and retained in conformance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR), agency and office guidelines;

• Assume higher representational responsibilities, potentially serving as Acting Chief of Field Programs in their absence; and,

• Serve on temporary details within OTI, other USAID bureaus/offices, or other USG agencies under this scope of work for a period not to exceed six months. Duties performed while on detail must be directly related to the scope of work. Contracting Officer (CO) approval is required for the temporary detail. Any extension past the six months requires CO approval.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

At a minimum, the offeror must have:

(1) A Master’s Degree with seven (7) years of work experience;

OR

A Bachelor’s Degree with nine (9) years of work experience;

AND

(2) Seven (7) years of project management experience with any of the following organizations: a non-governmental organization in community development, mediation/arbitration, conflict resolution, democracy and governance, international law, human rights activities, and/or political analysis; an international assistance organization, or a U.S. Government foreign affairs agency;

(3) Two (2) years of overseas field experience (in person or virtual). A virtual temporary duty (TDY) is defined as work that would have been conducted in an overseas location if not for the global COVID pandemic;

(4) Three (3) years of supervisory experience (including mentoring, guiding, and/or training staff);

(5) Demonstrated experience in contract and grant management, including the design, management, and evaluation of political transition project activities.

Please direct questions about this position or the offer process to the OTI Recruitment Team at [email protected].