DAI is currently seeking a
Chief of Party (COP) for an anticipated five-year USAID-funded Community
Nutrition and Health Activity in Bangladesh. This Activity will focus on addressing nutrition outcomes of the most vulnerable segments of the population through a targeted community-health system strengthening approach. The primary objective seeks to support maternal and infant and young
child nutrition status by 1) improving the quality of nutrition and
health services provided at the community level; 2) improving nutrition and health behaviors, and 3) strengthening governance for nutrition at national and sub-national levels. The Activity also seeks to improve communities’ resilience to shocks as a cross-cutting outcome.
The Chief of Party ensures the implementation of high impact, quality programming, and proven interventions that meet stated goals and reporting requirements.
This position will be located in Dhaka and is contingent upon donor approval and funding.
The COP will be responsible for providing strategy, technical leadership and overall management direction for the program. This position will be responsible for project inputs, program strategy, external representation and
coordination with project counterparts, USAID, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), other donors within the sector, and other programs as necessary. The COP is ultimately responsible for compliance with the agreement results and the oversight of program activities that will meet the stated objectives of the program.
- Lead the accurate and quality implementation of the program and its agreed workplans, ensuring the program is flexible, responsive, innovative and adaptive to change.
- Work closely with the team to provide technical direction, review all aspects of the program and progress towards delivering program outputs and outcomes, as well as financial (monitoring and forecasting), risk, and USAID satisfaction.
- Work closely with the various teams to ensure the use of adaptive approaches of testing and incorporating learning to improve program delivery, results and to inform strategic choices.
- In coordination with the team, develop effective relationships with key stakeholders including Government of Bangladesh officials at the national and sub-national levels, civil society, and the media, and attend high level meetings and events.
- Lead overall program planning, putting in place team structures, technical and operational approaches, infrastructure, monitoring and evaluation (M&E), and feedback loops required for program delivery and success and submission of quality timely deliverables. Oversee the timely submission of all agreed deliverables to USAID.
- Lead the full program team and maximize the collaborative working approach and engagement with key stakeholders.
- Provide overall coordination of the institutional/organizational capacity strengthening of local NGOs and other key stakeholders.
- Build and strengthen relationships between and among DAI, USAID, other donors, policy makers, key program stakeholders, technical and implementing partners, national and local nutrition networks disseminating key lessons learned.
- Ensure that efficient systems to support all aspects of the program (including sub-grant management, financial, capacity building, performance monitoring and reporting) are in place and support the effective use of project resources in compliance with USAID rules and regulations and DAI policies.
- Identify and effectively manage all key risks related to the program, including compliance with USAID rules and regulations and DAI policies.
- Represent the project with USAID, the Government of Bangladesh, donors, partners, and other key stakeholders supporting similar interventions.
Required Qualifications
- Post-graduate education (master’s or higher) in public health, nutrition, health sciences, or related field.
- Minimum of 10 years experience managing health and/or nutrition programs in developing counties contexts and ideally, in Asia.
- Prior experience as COP or Deputy COP is ideal.
- Prior experience delivering large-scale nutrition (nutrition-specific and sensitive) projects of similar or related nature, size, and complexity and demonstrated experience in the management of large inter-disciplinary teams.
- At least five years of demonstrated experience in managing and supervising a technical team and in project design.
- Experience in successfully establishing and managing collaborative relationships and partnerships with donors and government counterparts at the senior level.
- A history of productive involvement with governmental health systems, processes, and service delivery models involving communities in developing countries.
- Demonstrated leadership in strategic planning and thinking, management, supervision, and budgeting.
- Demonstrated leadership abilities, problem-solving skills, collaboration experience, creativity, and willingness to innovate.
- Strong working familiarity with USAID regulations and policies.
- Fluent oral and strong analytical, written English communications skills are required.
- Experience in Asia, with experience in Bangladesh preferred.
DAI is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer with a commitment to diversity. DAI does not discriminate in employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, parental status, veteran status, or other non-merit factors.
