Position Title:
Project Management Specialist
Contract Name:
Feed the Future Market Systems & Partnerships (MSP)
Contract No:
7200AA20C00054
Period of Performance:
November 2020 – June 2025 (includes 2-year option)
Place of Performance:
Washington, DC
Maximum Level of Effort (LOE):
Full Time (LTTA)
Project Description: The purpose of the Feed the Future Market Systems & Partnerships (MSP) Activity is to provide USAID/Washington, USAID Missions, and other U.S Government (USG) operating units and their international and local implementing partners with the evidence, capacity, tools, technical assistance, and/or services required to design, implement, monitor, and/or evaluate market systems and private sector engagement activities that lead to inclusive and resilient agricultural-led economic growth, improved food security and nutrition, and/or increased incomes for the poor. The MSP project is a DC-based contract designed to support USAID in its efforts to bring about a major cultural transformation by integrating PSE across all activities, while at the same time deepening MSD and facilitative approaches across the FTF program cycle. MSP will advance learning and good practice in PSE and MSD, ultimately resulting improving the effectiveness of Feed the Future, USAID, and other USG programs to bring about sustained development outcomes at scale.
While the specific MSP activities will be demand-driven, they could include facilitating private sector partnerships such as helping USAID to establish new blended finance mechanisms or develop partnerships that create shared value from the alignment of core business objectives and development goals; supporting USAID in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of market systems and private sector engagement activities; advancing learning on private sector engagement and market systems development through both developing theoretical frameworks and practical implementation tools; and, building capacity of USAID and implementers to design, implement, monitor, evaluate, and learn from market systems and private sector engagement activities.
Context of the Position and General Technical Requirements: Implementation of centrally based buy-in mechanisms involve the traditional demands of project implementation for USAID, while including a strategic element of managing core costs, requiring a constant state of ramp-up readiness, and continuously responding to ambiguous or in flux circumstances. Because buy-ins can occur under short response windows, they require diplomatic and solutions-driven negotiation skills, often with minimal instruction at inception from USAID or DAI senior managers.
Successful candidates must be comfortable with reasonably prolonged periods of unfamiliarity and uncertainty as solutions and implementation strategies are being defined and developed. This requires the Project Management Specialist to have professional agility in the areas of financial and operations management, human resources, contract management, budget management, and a general understanding of international development; more desirably, in the areas of market systems development and private sector engagement.
The Project Management Specialist will be expected to wear multiple hats supporting different work streams on the project, including but not limited to: communications and reporting, operations management, financial reporting and budget management, buy-in management and implementation support, project administration, and supporting the Chief of Party (COP) or Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) in developing tracking or management tools that enhance MSP’s ability to deliver high client satisfaction with buy-in implementation. The Project Management Specialist will be expected to perform a “jack-of-all-trades” role for the DAI MSP project team.
Job Description Requirements: The Project Management Specialist will be principally supervised by the COP but report directly to the DCOP. This means the COP will assign discreet tasks to the Project Management Specialist when needed and across different areas of the project to support the COP’s higher technical and operational vision for the MSP Activity. The DCOP will work closely with the Project Management Specialist in carrying out those tasks to ensure they meet quality and compliance standards of the contract and DAI corporate policies. The DCOP will supervise the Project Management Specialist’s performance and day-to-day tasks. With time, the Project Management Specialist will develop an innate, high-performance ability to anticipate operational needs, stay ahead of financial tracking, and rapidly respond to the technical demands of buy-in clients and the Activity.
Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
Required Qualifications
Desired Qualifications
Reporting: The Project Management Specialist will report directly to the DCOP.
DAI is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer with a commitment to diversity. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin
DAI is an international development companywith corporate offices in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Nigeria, and project operations worldwide. We tackle fundamental social and economic development problems caused by inefficient markets, ineffective governance, and instability. Named one of the world’s top 40 international development innovators, DAI has delivered transformational development results in more than 150 countries for clients including development agencies, international lending institutions, private corporations and philanthropies, and national governments.