CRS is recruiting in anticipation of an award – recruitment for all candidates is contingent upon successful award of the project.
*Strong preference for candidates in the Washington D.C. area*
Background
CRS is seeking Chief of Party candidates for an anticipated multi-county child development, care, and protection project. The overall objective of the project is to strengthen national systems that protect vulnerable children, support families, and improve early childhood development through locally led and sustainable approaches. The project will improve outcomes for vulnerable children by strengthening child protection systems, supporting families and caregivers, advancing integrated early childhood health and development, and reducing reliance on residential care.
Job Summary
The Chief of Party II will provide vision, leadership and overall management of a large, complex, multi-country child development, care and protection project to serve vulnerable children, families, and communities. The Chief of Party’s strategic leadership, management, and technical knowledge will ensure the delivery of high-quality programming and advance the position of CRS as a leading agency in child protection, family strengthening, family-based care, and integrated early childhood development. The Chief of Party will serve as the primary point of accountability for overall project performance, milestone achievement, donor engagement, consortium and resource partner management, safeguarding, risk management, and compliance. As a senior leader, the Chief of Party II will proactively manage security and mitigate security risks while promoting locally led systems change, cross-country learning, government ownership, sustainability, and adaptive management.
Roles and Key Responsibilities
- Lead all aspects of the development, implementation and consolidation of the assigned project, providing strategic leadership for multi-country implementation, ensuring alignment, coordination, and accountability across participating countries, technical teams, and project partners. Serve as the primary point of contact with the donor as well as public, private and non-government stakeholders.
- Ensure the project is designed and implemented to meet donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results, milestone completion, and budget, including strategies for phase out and sustainability. Lead coordination efforts between program and operations leads to ensure CRS program quality standards are adhered to.
- Ensure successful completion of project milestones through monitoring, and verification of milestone-based deliverables, ensuring timely completion of project commitments and donor reporting requirements.
- Effectively lead senior programming and operations talent. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching and mentoring. Strategically tailor individual development plans and complete performance assessments for direct reports. Oversee the development of staffing plans and the recruitment process of senior staff.
- Proactively manage and mitigate risk by monitoring national and regional issues that may impact staff and programming. Ensure all CRS staff safety and security policies and plans are regularly updated and all staff understand and adhere to these policies.
- Oversee implementation of safeguarding and child protection standards across all project activities, partners, and participating countries.
- Ensure compliance with donor and CRS policies, including financial tracking and oversight of partner budgets, finance, administration and donor reporting. Approve program expenditures, budget adjustments, and cost modification requests to donors in line with sound stewardship of donor and CRS resources.
- Represent CRS programming in international circles, highlighting innovative work. Publish program results and deliver presentations. Oversee the development of communication strategies and materials, complying with donor and CRS’ branding and marketing requirements and procedures.
- Manage relationships with consortium partner organizations, including organization of review/planning workshops. Coordinate the roles and activities of staff from other consortium member organizations to ensure implementation is in line with CRS partnership principles.
- Promote cross-country learning, knowledge management, and adaptive management, facilitating the use of evidence, data, and lessons learned to strengthen project performance and contribute to agency and sector learning.
- Create and maintain proper conditions for learning. Establish a safe environment to share ideas, solutions, and difficulties. Build the internal capacity to detect, analyze and respond quickly to deficiencies.
- Identify performance gaps and training opportunities for CRS and partner staff and ensure the design and delivery of high-quality training and technical assistance.
- Provide strategic oversight of consortium partners, sub-awardees, and vendors, ensuring strong performance, compliance, risk management, and alignment with project objectives, donor requirements, and milestone commitment.
