Vacancy Announcement
ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY
Position: Technical Support Unit Head, Amhara BoA Technical Support Unit
Term of Employment: One year with possibility of extension
Duty Station(s): Amhara Bureau of Agriculture, Bahir Dar
Required Number: One
Salary & Benefits: Competitive
Application Deadline: January 31, 2021
The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.
The ATA focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate the development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative and other programs.
ATA is currently in the process of launching a Technical Support Unit (TSU) along with a Delivery Unit in the Amhara Bureau of Agriculture (BoA) to enhance the bureau’s technical capabilities in selected priority areas. The unit’s responsibilities include providing targeted technical support during planning, implementation, and performance management, providing policy and strategy support/advisory, building the capacity of the implementation owners, and providing other strategic support on senior leadership’s high priority requests.
Our Culture
We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results. Our culture is one where talented, dedicated, and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great teamwork to achieve excellent results.
At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution to changing the country’s agricultural sector. We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training. We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training, and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Technical Support Unit (TSU) Head will report directly to the Head of Bureau of Agriculture where the TSU is placed and will work in collaboration with the ATA Regional Office Executive Director and the ATA HQ Systemic Interventions Senior Director. The TSU Head will be responsible for building the technical capabilities of the bureau focusing on the selected areas of assignments. To fulfill this duty, he/she will work with the RBoA and DU Head to align on priorities and mobilize the unit (Senior Technical Experts) on the identified focus areas.
The TSU Head’s primary responsibility is to ensure the unit is effectively delivering on the objective of enhancing technical capacity through close management of the TSU staff and activities, establishing and cultivating internal/external relationships, and leading efforts to build the capacity of RBoA staff for creating sustainable change in the system. The Head will also provide support around Policy and Strategy and other high-priority requests from leadership.
Candidates for these roles must therefore bring a can-do attitude and enjoy working in a fast-paced organization that is mission- and results-driven. An ideal TSU Head candidate must have very strong leadership, senior stakeholder management, and team management experience, and a track record of effectively leading the planning and execution of major programs, projects, or initiatives. They also have to demonstrate very strong analytical and critical thinking skills, attention to detail, and excellent written and verbal communication, and program and project management skills. Strong candidates should demonstrate the ability to exercise good judgment in a variety of situations, multitask, and work under pressure and competing priorities.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES:
o Work with RBoA leadership to understand key gaps and plan for the unit’s activities, collaborating with the DU as needed.
o Support STE’s in executing their day-to-day activities, providing targeted mentorship, training and advise as needed.
o Receive and prioritize priority request from senior leadership and allocate technical resources.
o Manage the performance of TSU staff.
o Conduct capacity gap assessment, design capacity building packages and facilitate provision working with the Delivery Unit.
o Continuously receive feedback from leadership and staff and implement corrective measures.
o Regularly engage with DU Head to enable results achievement.
o Create positive working relationships with RBoA leadership and staff.
o Co-lead change management efforts working with the DU head and communicate and be an advocate for the delivery message.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS