Vacancy Announcement

Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency

Position: Deliver Unit Head

Term of Employment: One year with a possibility of extension

Duty Station(s): Amhara Bureau of Agriculture, Bahir Dar

Required Number: One

Salary & Benefits: Competitive

Application Deadline: January 31, 2021

ESSENTIAL DUTIES

• Ensure there is a strong and visible backing for the Delivery Unit from the RBoA Head and senior leadership to ensure successful implementation of delivery.
• Work closely with the RBoA Head to identify a small set of well-defined priority focus areas for the bureau, with support from the Technical Support Unit Head as needed.
• Establish strong, trust-based relationships and regularly engage initiative owners and relevant internal or external senior stakeholders around priority area planning, performance management, and problem-solving, to ensure strong buy-in and engagement required for achieving goals.
• Lead the Delivery Unit Members and their day-to-day activities to ensure the unit is effectively delivering on its responsibilities:
• Ensure DU staff catalyse delivering mindset as opposed to status quo mode of operation.
• Develop clear annual plans, targets, and budgets for the Delivery Unit, ensuring the units time is being spent on the right priorities.
• Ensure the effective engagement of members with initiative owners and other stakeholders.
• Provide coaching and manage the performance of DU staff.
• Provide effective upward reporting and timely escalation of critical issues to the Head of the Amhara BoA, the Bureau’s leadership, and the Executive Director of the Amhara Regional ATA Office where relevant, on progress, challenges, and constraints around the delivery of prioritized goals.
• Put in place robust implementation planning, target-setting, and budgeting process and tools with owners of priority initiatives and ensure effective use for facilitating delivery.
• Maintain regular performance monitoring and management routines with senior leadership, initiative owners, and relevant stakeholders to maintain focus on goals, ensure visibility on progress, and regularly problem-solve for implementation challenges.
• Drive the proactive identification, prioritization, and effective problem-solving of key implementation challenges to maintain progress against goals:
• Lead day-to-day problem-solving activities of the DU team with the priority area implementation owners to identify root causes of issues challenges and develop impactful recommendations.
• Collaborate with RBoA leadership/staff, the TSU, ATA regional and federal project teams and ATA Analytics Team or outside consultants as needed to solve more complex issues.
• Manage Delivery Members, supporting them with work planning and prioritization, clearing roadblocks, and skill-building.
• Facilitate linkage and coordination between the various regional implementers working on prioritized activities to facilitate timely delivery of impact.
• Proactively seek and action feedback on DU performance from the Head of the Bureau and the BoA’s office as may be appropriate to continuously improve the team and its implementation model.
• Work with ATA SI Senior Director and other Regional BoA DU Heads in sharing learnings and best practices as well as on matters related to priority areas to ensure a streamlined implementation.
• Contribute to recruitment, onboarding, and initial and ongoing capacity building of staff in DU to ensure the right talent is hired.
• Perform other related duties as may be required, related to accelerating delivery of priority agendas.

How to Apply

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) CV (maximum 3 pages) to https://apply.ata.gov.et by mentioning the position title on the subject line.

Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.

Women are highly encouraged to apply.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Minimum of MBA, MA, MPA, or master’s degree in management, leadership, business administration, project management, economics, agricultural science, public administration, and other relevant fields
• At least 10 years of work experience, preferably in a management consulting or large program management setting or other roles focused on strategic planning, program/project design, management, and reporting, and applied analysis; five of the ten years of experience should be in a leadership or managerial position.
• Broad experience in leading, structuring, and managing programs/projects, analytically focused work, and senior management reporting and decision support, in a range of sectors or topic areas.
• Navigate and achieve change in the agriculture sector – has knowledge or experience of operating in a political environment and driving reforms through public-sector decision-making processes such as budget setting, legislating, and procurement.
• Think logically to sequence and plan the delivery of prioritized strategies with pace, optimism, and urgency.
• Experienced in using data and other evidence to make arguments and solve problems – an analytical thinker, able to commission and interpret a wide range of statistical analyses and translate technical information to a lay audience.
• Demonstrated experience in designing and writing high-quality presentations and reports – produces clear, concise, and compelling narratives through a combination of expert prose, use of data, graphics, and exceptional engaging storytelling; able to coach others in producing high-quality work.
• Strong understanding of public and development sector issues and organizational culture, and ability to effectively liaise with senior and mid-level leadership in government organizations.
• Understanding of the Agricultural Sector and its various challenges and possibilities with a broad perspective on how the entire system operates and how the public, private and non-government organizations operate.
• Good experience of working at regional government offices and civil society or private sector sectors.
• Hands-on experience in delivery mechanisms in public institutions highly desirable
• Self-starter with strong motivation, vision, ownership, and commitment to drive delivery.
• Highly collaborative leadership style and demonstrated success in leading, motivating, managing, and developing high-performance teams.
• Exhibits an innovative and high-performance mindset and culture, and can perform at a high level under pressure, with a high workload, and in challenging environments.
• Highly results-oriented and delivery focused, with the ability to strengthen the accountability of others.
• Can act as a champion for change and can effectively support change management efforts.
• Strong team player with excellent relationship-building skills, ability to promote dialogue, and communicate clearly and confidently.
• Proactively seeks and acts on feedback to drive their development and contributes to others’ development through active coaching and sharing knowledge and best practices.
• Strong knowledge and skills in Microsoft Office Suite, and various program/project management and data and reporting systems.
• A strong set of personal values including integrity, honesty, and desire to be of service.
• Fluency in English and Amharic languages required.