Vacancy Announcement
ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY
Position: Delivery Team Leader, MoANR / MoLF / ORPO Delivery Units
Term of Employment: 3 years
Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Required Number: Three (3), with one position in each Delivery Unit
Salary & Benefits: Competitive
Application Deadline: Open, rolling basis
BACKGROUND:
The Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) has been established by the Government of Ethiopia (GoE) to identify and address systemic bottlenecks to Ethiopia’s agricultural development. The Agency does this through problem-solving, implementation support, and capacity building of stakeholders involved in implementation of interventions that address the systemic bottlenecks. The interventions are part of the GTP II Agricultural Transformation Agenda, and are overseen by the Agricultural Transformation Council chaired by the Prime Minister.
ATA is supporting the placement of Delivery Units in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (MoANR), Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MoLF), and Oromia Regional President’s Office (ORPO) to support these partner institutions efforts to further strengthen their coordination and implementation activities. Delivery Units (DUs) have been successfully introduced in over 20 countries including recently in Ethiopia, to enhance and accelerate implementation for high-priority government initiatives. DUs are therefore fundamentally program management offices mandated to work in partnership with existing institutions to ensure effective delivery in critical areas. The MoANR and MoLF Delivery Units will focus specifically on GTP II Agricultural Transformation Agenda activities for which these Ministries are the primary owner and accountable institutions in the agriculture and livestock sectors, and will be jointly overseen by each Ministry’s and the ATA’s senior management through the end of GTP II. The ORPO Delivery Unit will focus on the Regional Government’s top priority initiatives
These Delivery Units will be active in a number of key areas:
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Delivery Team Leader will report to the DU Coordinator who leads the Delivery Unit, and work closely with him or her on planning, prioritization and day-to-day management of the Delivery Unit’s activities. The Delivery Team Leader will support the DU Coordinator in aligning on priorities with senior leadership, agreeing annual plans and targets, establishing strong relationships with owners of priority initiatives as well as other senior stakeholders, putting in place regular performance monitoring and management routines, escalating critical issues requiring senior leadership involvement, and acting on feedback provided by senior leadership in DU performance.
The Delivery Team Leader will also directly oversee and manage Senior Delivery Analysts, Delivery Analysts and Data & Reporting Officers in the DU, ensuring the DU is operating effectively and delivering against the agreed DU priorities. In the capacity he or she will support these staff to effectively engage with initiative owners, initiative owners and/or their team members to ensure effective planning and target-setting, timely and accurate reporting, proactive identification of performance issues, identification, prioritization and problem solving of underlying challenges, and prompt escalation to senior leadership where appropriate. He or she may also independently manage the engagement with a number of initiative owners.
In addition, the Delivery Leader will lead provision of light analytical problem solving support to senior leadership on high priority requests, such as analysis of trends, strategic planning or policy analysis. He or she will also support strengthening execution and day-to-day project, activity management / execution, problem solving and reporting capacity of other staff through preparing and delivery trainings. Finally, he or she will provide regular coaching and feedback to junior staff reporting to him or him to ensure their effectiveness and rapid development.
Candidates for these roles must therefore bring an entrepreneurial, can-do attitude, and enjoy working in a fast paced organization that is mission and results driven. They will have very strong analytical and critical thinking skills, and extensive experience applying these in diverse contexts for strategy development and initiative design, planning, reporting and problem-solving, including managing small teams of analysts. The ideal individuals will also demonstrate strong attention to detail, and excellent written and verbal communication, project and team management, and stakeholder management skills. Strong candidates will also have the ability to exercise good judgment in a variety of situations, multitask and work under pressure and competing priorities. The Delivery Team Leader will receive one month of initial refresher training, ongoing trainings, and regular guidance and coaching from the DU Coordinator and other senior staff.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
· Support DU Coordinator in planning, management, execution and reporting of DU activities while ensuring effective partnership with internal and external stakeholders, focused specifically on supporting:
o Lead the annual plans, targets and budgets development for the DU around critical focus areas
o Putting in place robust annual planning, target-setting and budgeting process with owners of priority initiatives, and regular performance monitoring and management routines with senior leadership, initiative owners and relevant stakeholders
o Providing effective upward reporting and timely escalation of critical issues to the (MoANR / MoLF / ORPO) senior leader, and the Delivery Management Director at ATA where relevant, on prioritized initiatives as well as progress, challenges and constraints of the Delivery Unit
o Proactively seeking and actioning feedback on DU performance from the (MoANR / MoLF / ORPO) senior leader, and the Delivery Management Director at ATA, including through production and discussion of a monthly performance report on the DU
o Overseeing identification, prioritization and effective delivery of technical and analytical problem-solving support for challenges in implementation of priority initiatives, as well as light analytical support to (MoANR / MoLF / ORPO) senior leadership provided on a demand basis
o Proactively engaging ATA teams or external partners for heavier or more analytical problem solving support where needed
· Take on key responsibilities of the DU Coordinator when he or she is on leave or out of office
· Oversee and manage Senior Delivery Analysts and Delivery Analysts in their responsibilities to:
o Facilitate and support planning and target-setting by initiative owners and/or their teams, including through providing analysis and recommendations on key issues to inform these activities
o Undertake regular follow-up and monitoring of the activity management and reporting for assigned initiatives, working closely with initiative owners and/or their teams
o Work with initiative owners and/or their teams to identify strategic and operational issues hindering achievement of targets, and support problem-solving to identify high-impact, and feasible solutions
o Ensure critical issues are effectively escalated to Delivery Team Leader and/or Delivery Unit Coordinator
o Provide light analytical problem solving support to senior leadership on high priority requests
o Develop materials and provide capacity building support on planning, activity management / execution, reporting and problem-solving
· Oversee and manage Data & Reporting Officer in his or her responsibilities to:
o Support design, development and roll out of enhanced planning, project management and reporting templates, tools, processes and systems, and serve as a liaison and resource person for the DUs and host institution staff in these areas
o Troubleshoot data collection and reporting tools, systems and activities
o Apply data analysis and statistical techniques to assess trends, forecast future performance, and generate insights from data
o Producing value added reports for decision-making through analysis and synthesis of data, and provision of recommendations
o Develop data management and information exchange manuals and guidelines for effective data collection, storage, analysis and interpretation
o Serve as point person in the DU to track progress and provide support on data collection and reports preparation
o Continuously monitor and identify challenges to timely, accurate and effective reporting, and propose and support implementation of enhancements to tools, processes and systems to address these challenges
o Support engagement and alignment with the Planning and Programming functions in each host institution in the areas of data collection and management systems, data analysis and reporting
o Advise DU host institution staff and implementing partners on data collection, management and reporting activities required to support timely and effective reporting to senior leadership
· Directly take on these activities listed above where required
· Provide regular coaching and feedback for these staff, and draft performance reviews
· Support the DU coordinator on organizing DU related training events, workshops, and briefing sessions etc. as a focal point.
· Bachelor’s or Master's degree in any field with minimum GPA of 3.0 and above
· More than 5 years of experience in a management consulting setting or other roles focused on applied analysis, strategy development and project design, or project management and reporting
· Proven record of structuring and delivering challenging projects or work streams in a range of areas, managing analytically-focused teams, and ability to use diverse applied analytical methods and tools to develop new insights
· Excellent critical thinking and analytical skills
· Very strong skills with Microsoft Office (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Access) required, experience with database systems preferable
· Self-starter with strong motivation, ownership and commitment to drive transformation
· Exhibits an innovative and high-performance mindset and culture, and can perform at a high level under pressure and in challenging environments
· Can act as a champion for change and can effectively support change management efforts
· Strong team player with excellent relationship building and management skill, ability to promote dialogue and communicate clearly and confidently, and a network of professional contacts
· Proactively seeks and acts on feedback to drive own development and contributes to others’ development through active coaching and sharing knowledge and best practices
· Strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service
· Fluency in English and Amharic languages. Fluency in Afan Oromo required for ORPO Delivery Unit