CARE seeks a Chief of Party for an anticipated USAID-funded, five-year, girls’ education program in Malawi. The focus of this program is to provide education programming for marginalized adolescent girls. This will be accomplished by engaging communities to change social norms and to promote girls’ education; providing training for adolescent girls in all schools to develop and practice core leadership competencies (voice, decision-making, confidence, organization, and vision/motivating others); increasing school access; improving school safety; and policy outreach.
The Chief of Party is accountable for the overall vision and leadership of the project and is accountable for delivering results. The successful candidate should possess significant experience managing program, financial, and operations of USAID- or other international donor-funded projects.
This position is subject to project award and funding.
International relocation and allowances may be available. This position would be based in Lilongwe.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Oversee the completion of all technical requirements, including project results and deliverables, in accordance with the project work plan.
- Build and maintain productive working relationships with USAID, project partners, and key stakeholders. Serve as the primary liaison among all project stakeholders.
- Manage the project’s operational, financial, and administrative priorities; direct the planning and budgeting processes. Create or adapt management systems in line with CARE’s standard operating procedures, ensuring consistency with project needs.
- Build partnerships among international -, national- and community-level stakeholders
- Design and oversee an annual project cycle in accordance with USAID’s annual planning cycles
- With staff and partners, translate project goals and objectives into implementable strategies and plans. Oversee the preparation of quarterly and annual project activity reports, M&E reports, and other deliverables, as specified in the agreement. Report against the project’s targets.
- Represent the project at high-level meetings, conferences, and other fora.
- Guide team members to fulfill the project’s strategic goals and objectives.
- Supervise and mentor senior staff, delegating responsibilities as appropriate. Clearly communicate expectations for staff performance.
Required Skills:
- Master’s degree in a relevant field.
- Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in international development/education project management (some previous USAID program management experience required).
- Experience with education programming for marginalized adolescent girls is required.
- Experience with addressing quality of education, including retention rate and transition from primary to secondary
- Experience in gender transformative pedagogy
- Addressing social norms that contribute to the exclusion of girls from school
- Proven exceptional leadership in the design, management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of similar-sized international donor-supported programs, with skills in strategic planning and thinking, management, supervision and budgeting, and experience managing complex activities involving coordination with multiple program partner institutions.
- Demonstrated skills building and maintaining relationships with host governments, donors, other donor-funded projects and stakeholders, local organizations, and partners.
- Strong oral and written communication skills; excellent demonstrated interpersonal and negotiation skills.
- Experience recruiting, developing, and managing staff and teams.
- Track record of strong commitment to sharing knowledge, documenting experiences, supporting creative initiatives, and sharing credit.
- Experience managing required programmatic and financial reporting requirements. Experience with M&E is a plus.
- Previous experience in Malawi is a strong advantage.
- Fluency in English (spoken and written) is required; knowledge of local languages is a plus.
- Ability to travel within Malawi as required.
