Creative Associates seeks a Chief of Party (COP) for an anticipated USAID-funded program in Angola.  The Chief of Party (COP) serves as the Implementers’ designated person for overall management of the in-country relationship with OTI and providing  leadership for field management of the Task Order. The COP is responsible for financial and program management, oversight, and reporting of Contractor progress and quality of performance in meeting the activity undertakings of the program. Under the guidance and overall technical direction of OTI, the COP provides oversight of activities, including supervision of the program field staff, ensuring appropriate activity design, implementation, management, monitoring and evaluation, and compliance with USAID rules and regulations. 

Reporting: 

The COP will report to the Project Manager in the Creative Headquarters and will supervise the Deputy Chief of Party- Operations.   

• Making key decisions and solving problems in short time frames while ensuring operational and program integrity. Overall program direction is provided by USAID/OTI through the TOCOR and CR. 

• Management, oversight, and reporting of Implementer  progress and quality of performance in meeting the activity undertakings in this program. 

• Financial and program management, oversight, and reporting of Contractor progress and quality of performance in meeting the activity undertakings in this program.  

• Serving as the Implementer’s designated person for overall management of the in-country relationship with USAID/OTI. 

• Maintain open and ongoing communication with the USAID/OTI CR and DCR. 

• In close consultation with the CR, providing oversight of grant activities, including supervision of the program staff, ensuring appropriate grant design, ensuring that procedures are established and complied with for grant development, grant worthiness, grant implementation, management, monitoring, evaluation, and grant closing. 

• Under the guidance of the CR and/or their designee(s), responsible for contributing to the design and implementation of the M&E system at the activity and program levels and for ensuring that all programming is properly monitored and evaluated. 

• Developing familiarity with, and maintaining daily usage of, the USAID/OTI Activity Database, and ultimately responsible for ensuring that the relevant staff use, maintain, and upload weekly the Activity Database, and that data is consistent and complete. 

• The Chief of Party supervises the Deputy Chief of Party – Operations.  

• Other duties as assigned. 

Required Qualifications: 

• A minimum of six (6) years of relevant work experience and a bachelor’s degree or ten (10) years of relevant work experience without a bachelor’s degree. Relevant experience delivering contracts or cooperative agreements   in complex, high-speed and challenging field operations in developing countries. At least three (3) years of this experience shall include managing these field operations.  

• A minimum of three (3) years of supervisory experience.  

• Experience with programs that provide quick delivery of assistance in response to emerging windows of opportunity.  

• Experience with grant management. 

• Experience in the hiring and supervising of host country local personnel and ensuring, when need arises, that they secure necessary training required to meet program needs. 

• Financial management experience, including budgeting; financial management (tracking, reporting and accounting); and procurement.  

• Experience with context analysis and responsive activity design, development, and implementation. 

• Fluency in written and oral English.  

Desired (but not Required) Qualifications: The following are highly desired but not required:  

• Experience with in-kind or cash grants to local organizations.  

• Supervisory experience working with culturally and geographically diverse staff.   

• Experience working on programs in a politically sensitive and challenging environment 

• Working proficiency in written and oral Portuguese. 

Qualities: Based on USAID/OTI’s experiences, a strong COP for a USAID/OTI SWIFT VI Program should: 

• Lead close, daily collaboration with USAID/OTI’s in-country staff. 

• Take programmatic and strategic direction from USAID/OTI staff. 

• Have strong management and leadership skills, including the ability to mentor staff. 

• Be a “hands on” manager who is actively engaged in all aspects of program management. 

• Understand USAID/OTI’s need for direct program communication with all program staff. 

• Have demonstrated past representational experience with host governments, other donors, and civil society and demonstrated success with inter-agency coordination and joint programming ideally. 

• Be flexible, and take an optimistic and creative approach to problem solving- willing to think outside of the box.