Vacancy Announcement
OROMIA REGIONAL’S PRESIDENT OFFICE DELIVERY UNIT – SUPPORTED BY THE ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY
Position: Manager, ORPO Delivery Unit
Term of Employment: 2 years
Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Required Number: One (1)
Salary & Benefits: Competitive
Application Deadline: Open
BACKGROUND:
The Oromia Regional President’s Office (ORPO) is aiming to further strengthen their coordination and implementation activities through the deployment of an ORPO Delivery Unit (DU) focusing on the Regional Government’s top priorities: (i) Road and Potable Water Infrastructure, (ii) Unemployment and (iii) Urban Land Management. 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 ORPO Delivery Unit will be active in a number of key areas:
The deployment of the Delivery Unit at the Oromia Regional President’s Office is supported by the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA). 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 in the sector.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Manager will be seconded at the Oromia Regional President’s Office (ORPO) and report to the DU Head who leads the Delivery Unit, working closely with him or her on planning, prioritization and day-to-day management of the Delivery Unit’s activities. The Manager 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 Manager will also directly oversee and manage Associates and a Data & Reporting Officer 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 Manager will lead provision of light analytical problem solving support to the 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 her to ensure their effectiveness and rapid development.
Candidates for this role 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 Manager will receive one month of initial refresher training, ongoing trainings, and regular guidance and coaching from the DU Head and other senior staff.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES: