Senior Program Specialist

Title: Senior Program Specialist

Portfolio: Southern Africa, South Sudan, and Colombia (SASS)

Location: Washington, DC

Summary:

The Senior Program Specialist (SPS) works collaboratively with the Program Delivery team, regional portfolio team, and country office teams to provide efficient support to project operations and donor award administration in the Southern Africa, South Sudan and Colombia portfolio. The SPS can expect to engage with programming that integrates diverse technical areas and approaches including capacity development, governance, and engaging markets for improved livelihoods, health, natural resource management. The SPS will be in regular communication with country office leadership and HQ departments to ensure coordinated support for project implementation, country office operations, and advancing country office and Pact strategy.

The SPS reports to the Senior Program Manager, SASS.

Specific Duties:

The SPS provides support to the program delivery function by:

• Providing operational and administrative support to projects as needed; coordinating timely and comprehensive responses to country teams’ requests and needs

• Assisting country office staff in the development of project reports, work plans, and other project contractual obligations, and ensure timely submission and quality of content

• Maintaining full knowledge of the project status, operations and working environment in order to proactively facilitate country project operations

• Tracking monthly financial reports in cooperation with country offices

• Coordinating preparation of project-related consultant agreements and tracking related payments

• Working with and supporting country offices to ensure project compliance with donor and Pact’s operational policies and regulations

• Helping in coordinating startup process for new projects and country offices and close-outs for projects and countries where operations are ending

• Ensuring high-quality project descriptions, documents, case studies, and other relevant documents are posted to internal and external websites

• Establishing and maintaining a document filing system for each project; copying relevant email traffic to project archives; preparing documents for off-site storage

• Maintaining project information, profiles, and contact lists are entered and updated in Pact’s databases and shared network drives

• Scheduling meetings, as requested, and taking minutes

• Coordinating administrative support from the Shared Services department

• Following up with relevant HQ departments on requests from country offices

• Coordinating monthly country calls and ensuring timely follow up on action items

• Assisting in regular team and portfolio meetings and other cross-departmental coordination meetings

• Tracking business development opportunities and contributing to proposal development efforts in cooperation with Opportunity Development

• Cooperating with the Program Advancement team

• Ensuring project intellectual capital is properly captured, filed and disseminated;

• Participating in the recruitment of staff as required

• Participating in Program Delivery team and organizational initiatives

• Traveling to country offices to provide support as needed

• Support a country office as assigned by the supervisor

• Assisting the Regional Vice President and Senior Program Manager as needed.

• Other related tasks.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in a related field and 4+ years of relevant experience (or equivalent)

• Ability to travel regularly and at short-notice

• Fluency in written and spoken English

Preference for:

• Master's degree in a related field

• At least 2 years of experience working in a developing country or in a similar role in international development

• Fluency in French is HIGHLY preferred

Skills and Abilities:

Behavioral Competencies

• Strong in all areas

Leadership

• Ability to sustain interpersonal and professional relationships with internal colleagues and contacts in donor and peer organizations

• Basic understanding of Pact’s strategy and how tasks contribute to the greater good

• Consistently works within internal process and procedures

• Strong interpersonal skills

• Engagement in corporate initiatives, as requested

Project Management

• Good planning and time management skills

• Good written and oral communication skills

• Ability to problem-solve

• Ability to multitask, adapting to frequently changing priorities

• Good negotiating and conflict resolution skills

Technical Skills

• Baseline experience in one of Pact’s technical areas or a support function

• Basic knowledge and understanding of donor policies and regulations

• Competence using common desktop applications

How to apply:

To apply for this position, please visit our website at www.pactworld.org