PETCO Ethiopia is implementing 5-year consortium project joint with Center of Accelerated Women Economic Empowerment (CAWEE) and Ethiopia Enterprise Development. The program is funded by the MasterCard Foundation contract to Enable Young Women and Men to Find Dignified and Fulfilling Work in Manufacturing in Ethiopia by capacitating existing SMEs. The program aims to:

• Build SME capacity to sustainably create new jobs and improve existing ones through offering tailored business capacity building and mentorship; enhancing access to markets and raw materials flow; and improving SMEs’ human resources capacity to create safe and inclusive working conditions for young women and men.
• Improve Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) offerings to better prepare women and youth to enter the workforce (facilitate school-to-work transition).
• Facilitate a robust financial ecosystem to help SMEs access tailored financial services that allow them to grow and increase employment opportunities for young women in particular, and to invest in infrastructure that can improve young women and men’s working conditions.
• Strengthen the enablers (ecosystem) to foster private sector engagement, stakeholder coordination synergy, and policy development for sustainable and scalable job growth.

Duties and Responsibilities

The senior Program Director will provide strategic support to Program in line with organizational policy and client expectations. S/he will closely works with consortium partners, program leads and partners the program deliverables, outputs and outcomes. The Senior program Director will oversee program implementation, monitoring, evaluation, learning, reporting, staff capacity building across the consortium; and support the consortium team.

Specific responsibilities of the senior program Director include, but are not limited to:

• The development, design, and management/monitoring of the “Enabling Young Women and Men to Find Dignified and Fulfilling Work in Manufacturing” program.
• Direct the implementation of the program according to the strategic goals and objectives of the program.
• Plan the program from start to completion involving deadlines, milestones and processes ;
• Oversee the contracting process of implementing partners, including the budget, work plans and capacity assessments, according to program implementation rules and regulations;
• Prepare and process project agreements and amendments, in coordination with relevant units (i.e. procurement unit);
• Oversee the consortium’s program implementation activities
• Devise evaluation strategies to monitor performance and determine the need for improvements
• Supervise all program and project managers involved to provide feedback and resolve complex problems
• Discover ways to enhance efficiency and productivity of procedures and people
• Apply change, risk and resource management principles when needed
• Liaison and Network with various stake holders, both government and nongovernment, during the execution of the program
• Read reports prepared by sector leads and program specialists to determine progress and issues
• Ensure the consortium’s operations and activities adhere to the planned Budget and activities, implementation manual, legal guidelines and internal policies.
• Keep senior management and donors informed with detailed and accurate reports and presentations
• Oversee the administrative aspects of program implementation
• Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues
• Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders
• Establishes and nurtures positive communication with partners
• Maintains networks and knowledge assets for use in visibility and image activities
• Makes recommendations on the design and delivery of image activities
• Evaluate program effectiveness and provide recommendations for areas of improvement
• Ensure accuracy of record, timely submission of documents to the donor and Management team; and follow-up on payments to partners and disbursement to sub- grantees.
• Coordinate the tasks of the consortium.
• Maintain accurate records of all projects

Required skills and qualifications

• Master’s Degree in a relevant discipline (Development Studies, Project Management, Leadership, Social Science, Economics) and related.
• At least 10 years of experience working in senior program management
• Experience of enterprise development
• Recognized experience in consortium management and grant management.
• Good knowledge in the area of enterprise development, job creation, youth development and value chain;
• Excellent command of monitoring, evaluation, and learning methodologies
• Critical-thinking and decision-making skills
• Excellent organizational, verbal, and written communication skills to manage program communications and disseminate program information are required
• A collaborator, self-starter, critical thinker, adaptive and flexible, as well as team-player
• Proficient in finding creative solutions to complex problems
• Strong time management skills and ability to multi-task
• Strong sense of purpose and self-driven
• Excellent skills in MS Excel, Word, PowerPoint; Etc.
• English language fluency required, and additional local language is an advantage.