Project Managers

Job Description

The University of Arizona is looking for a Project Manager to join the Office of International Development (OID) and in collaboration with the Arizona Initiative for International Development (AIRID). This will be a full-time position based either in our office in Tucson (AZ) or Washington D.C. Serve as a Project Manager for multiple international development projects funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Gates Foundation, and other donors. Assist faculty Principal Investigators (PIs) to manage project work plans, timelines, preparation of deliverables, budget expenditure tracking, and project logistic and operations, including project start up and close down and ongoing financial and technical reporting.

Duties & responsibilities:

Project Management. Take lead on day-day management of designated projects in collaboration with Project Principal Investigators (PIs). This includes:

• • Manage the project mobilization and start-up processes including leading start up teams to register projects, open bank accounts, project offices, etc.
  • Monitor project implementation and support in-country teams, as necessary. Resolve project management issues independently and escalate issues to PI as necessary.
  • Provide support to review, edit, strengthen, and format project reports before client submission, including: establishing reporting timeframes, reviewing processes and team inputs, collating previous client feedback and ensuring requirements are understood and reflected.
  • Coordinate and chair regular Project Reviews with designated projects including tracking of agreed actions and monitoring of risk register and mitigation actions.
  • Work with UAz financial management staff and systems to establish and maintain robust financial management and tracking systems, including managing designated project budgets, monitoring project expenditures, reviewing invoices and supporting documentation and compiling accurate expenditure forecasts internally and to clients.
  • Manage consortia partners and sub-contractors; track labor, contracts and performance and escalate issues as they are identified as appropriate.
  • Develop job descriptions, post job advertisements, sit on recruitment panels and coordinate with HR to hire project staff, as needed
  • Coordinate the administrative activities of the project including mobilizing and demobilizing staff and international consultants, maintaining project files, requesting purchases for goods and services, ensuring submission of project deliverables and close-down.
• Participate in and contribute to OID and AIRID project meetings and events. Provide project information for AIRID website and other information sources
• Additional duties may be assigned.

Knowledge, skills & abilities:

• Ability to think strategically and synthesize wide-ranging ideas and information
• Ability to take initiative, follow through, and work independently
• Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to troubleshoot independently
• Ability to multi-task across an array of projects and activities involving different teams
• Exceptional interpersonal, teamwork, and relationship-building skills
• High level of competence in basic office software, and ability and willingness to learn new software and technologies, including project management software
• Outstanding oral and written communication skills
• Willingness and ability to travel overseas
• Commercially astute with demonstrable aptitude in client service and management.
• Good understanding of project management systems and standards.
• Excellent level of written and verbal English.
• Driven and motivated combined with the ability to establish and maintain positive working relationships both internally and externally to deliver against project and business targets.
• Flexibility, versatility, and tolerant in a changing work environment with the ability to work effectively under pressure and to tight deadlines.
• Willingness to travel to any of UAz’s countries of operation.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s Degree required.
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant work experience is required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Work experience in a development environment (either in a developing country or with a development consultancy/ organization) on USAID funded projects.
• Project management experience preferably on international development projects.
• Work experience in a development environment (either in a developing country or with a development consultancy/ organization).

About the Organization

About AIRID

It is more urgent than ever for scientists, policymakers, and community leaders to work together to address today's most pressing global challenges. From hunger and poverty to conflict, COVID-19, and the ongoing climate crisis, these challenges transcend single actors, sectors and disciplines. That’s why AIRID brings together experts from across the university and around the world to help achieve a more resilient future.

Based at the University of Arizona, AIRID harnesses the far-reaching resources of one of the nation’s top 20 research institutions with expertise in areas ranging from public health to agriculture and food security, climate-adaptation, water security, governance, and the arid lands.

As the state’s designated land-grant university, we are driven to make a real-world impact. In countries and communities across the globe, we work with communities, partners, and governments to conduct research and identify and implement resilient solutions to their development challenges.

What AIRID Does

• Provides thought leadership for discovering innovative solutions to grand challenges
• Serves as a conduit connecting university researchers to communities and partners in the global south and the broader international development community
• Convenes networks of experts from different institutions and disciplines to solve resilience-related international development challenges
• Coordinates research partnerships with local universities and research institutions, Community-Based organizations, Non-Government Organizations, UN Agencies, and others to advance global knowledge, learning and impact on resilience.
• Facilitates scholarship and technical learning and insights to inform research, strategies, and national and international policies related to resilience and international development