Field Implementation Director, USAID New Primary Education Activity | Ethiopia | 2024

The anticipated USAID New Primary Education Activity will work in areas affected by crises in Ethiopia, while deepening interventions to promote holistic foundational learning for children in these areas. This activity will target primary school age children and include out-of-school children who may be suited to those grade levels. This may include overage children, based on the understanding that many children will enter primary school late. As this activity will focus on strategies to target the significant portion of children who do not gain foundational skills on time, within these grade levels and age ranges, the activity will target the lowest performing students and/or those children who have dropped out or who are at risk of dropout. The anticipated USAID New Primary Education Activity will support areas severely affected by conflict, drought and other natural disasters, and where learning outcomes are lowest. We are looking for individuals who have a passion for making a difference in the lives of people around the world.

Chemonics seeks a Field Implementation Director for the anticipated New Primary Education Activity based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Field Implementation Director will serve as an interface between the technical teams of the project and regional staff, grantees, and/or subawardees for activities. They will be responsible for ensuring grants and subawards are made and implemented in compliance with USAID policy and regulations.

Responsibilities: 

• Oversee technical and operational management of regional staff and grants and subaward activities over multiple regions of Ethiopia. 
• Directly supervise regional staff in multiple different regions of Ethiopia. This position will require frequent travel across the country to monitor and supervise implementation of activities
• In consultation with the COP, provide program leadership, strategy development, management, and oversight of programming. 
• Serve as a key liaison between regional actors, project technical staff, and other project stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with Chemonics policies and procedures and USAID rules and regulations related to human resources, procurement, grants, finance and administration, and subcontracting. 
• Ensure the use of appropriate management tools to plan, organize, and monitor costs and resources to achieve project objectives. 
• Oversee the regional programs’ work planning, budget, performance management, and coordinate with the Director of MERLA on monitoring and evaluation and strategic communications to ensure that all project assistance is technically sound and appropriate. 
• Identify and mitigate potential issues and risks related to project implementation in a timely manner and drive appropriate programmatic adjustments. 
• Serve as a member of the project’s senior management team. 
• Lead procurement of office, field staff, and programmatic equipment and services in compliance with Chemonics’ and USG regulations. 
• Review project inventory list to ensure all items are logged and captured correctly.
• Other duties as assigned by the Chief of Party.

Qualifications: 

• Minimum of 10 years of demonstrated experience in education activity implementation and/or international development on USAID funded programs. 
• Master’s degree in relevant field or an equivalent combination of education and work experience in a relevant field. 
• Minimum five years of experience with grant management on international donor funded development activities. 
• Track record of progressive responsibility on the implementation of and management of grants or subawards on USAID-funded programs of similar scale, scope, and complexity. 
• Strong ability to collaborate, build partnerships, and coordinate with host country governments, U.S. government agencies, the private sector, program beneficiaries, grantees, and subawardees. 
• Demonstrated leadership, versatility, and integrity;
• Proficiency with software such as Microsoft Office Suite; 
• Proficiency in English required.