Chief of Party

Project Description:
The anticipated USAID/Burma All Youth Learning (AYL) Activity is a 5-year activity that will seek to expand educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth (10-29 years old) to receive quality foundational and livelihoods-oriented education and training, with a particular focus on Burma’s out-of-school and conflict-affected youth, and to provide other necessary and relevant wrap-around support. The project will strengthen the capacity of education and training institutions and organizations to provide relevant, marketable skills training and consider the enabling environment for youth employability and work to forge linkages with businesses, industry, and local employers in areas where youth reside to ensure that training and skills development are relevant and respond to actual employer needs. AYL will also strengthen the enabling environment for youth to use educational assets and build leadership skills. The project will support non-state education systems and providers in their work to offer education to disadvantaged youth and aim to strengthen their capacity to educate youth as well. Ensuring equity and diversity of beneficiaries and devising strategies to reach the most disadvantaged and marginalized will be top activity priorities.

Position Description:
The Chief of Party is responsible for the overall implementation and oversight of the project including managing the annual work plan and budgeting process; creating/maintaining an effective project management team; overseeing an effective monitoring and evaluation system; and coordinating activities and sub-grantees/subcontractors to achieve results. This individual will be the primary liaison with the funder (USAID), key stakeholders, and other implementing partners. Her/his primary responsibilities are to provide overall leadership, management oversight, and technical direction for the project, ensuring an integrated vision across components and actors, with a focus on achieving the results defined in the contract. The Chief of Party will be expected to identify issues and risks related to program implementation in a timely manner and suggest appropriate program adjustments. S/he will supervise activity implementation and ensure activities meet stated goals and reporting requirements. The Chief of Party will have demonstrated ability to work in complex and volatile environments, across different cultures, and manage diverse teams to deliver impact within agreed timelines.

Job Summary/Responsibilities:

- Provide leadership to the project team, technical and operational aspects of the project, including planning and implementation of the project; ensuring clarity over plans and priorities, and models and facilitates effective teamwork.
- Provide technical and managerial leadership, including capacity building to the project team, including staff, partners and stakeholders, as per the design.
- Oversee the development and implementation of program work plans and strategies aligned with donor and government priorities.
- Collaborate with partner organizations (both public and private), USAID and other key stakeholders to achieve the project’s objectives.
- Coordinate and is responsible for the preparation of the annual work plans, budgets, and annual progress reports, in a timely fashion for submission to USAID.
- Ensure high technical standards are used to guide the technical and programmatic aspects of work plans and activities.
- Plan, direct, and coordinate activities to ensure that goals and objectives are accomplished within prescribed time frame and funding parameters.
- Establish project teams and standard operating procedures to meet project goals and ensure compliance with policies.
- Responsible for induction of project staff, ensuring their familiarity with mandate values, quality standards, policies and program objectives and their individual responsibilities in upholding these standards and policies.

Required Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s Degree: Master’s degree preferred in education, public administration, international development, or related field from an accredited university; Ph.D. or Ed.D. is highly preferred.
- Minimum 12 years of experience in education intervention activities, and experience managing complex donor-funded development activities in challenging environments. Experience in conflict-affected environments is preferred.
- Strong knowledge of, and commitment to, gender and social equity issues in education.
- Relevant management, supervisory, technical experience working with programs that are of a similar scope and scale to this program.
- Demonstrated leadership, effective organizational development, partnership-building, managerial, teambuilding and communication skills on complex projects in fragile contexts.
- Demonstrated ability to work in complex environments, across different cultures, and manage diverse teams to deliver impact within agreed timelines across a broad geographi