Chief of Party, USAID Sustainable Skills for a Just Transition Activity
South Africa
Full Time
Senior Manager/Supervisor
About IREX
IREX is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to building a more just, prosperous, and inclusive world by empowering youth, cultivating leaders, strengthening institutions, and extending access to quality education and information. Founded in 1968, IREX has an annual portfolio of over $150 million, works in more than 100 countries worldwide with offices in 20 countries, and a global staff of 700.
Position Summary:
IREX seeks qualified Chief of Party (COP) candidates to lead an anticipated $10M, five-year USAID-funded Sustainable Skills for a Just Transition Activity (SS4JT) in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The Activity will develop Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programs aligned with skills needs for green jobs and entrepreneurial development in non-energy sectors. This will strengthen the responsiveness of skills programs and institutions to market needs, creating employment and earnings opportunities for communities impacted by South Africa’s energy transition.
The COP will provide overall programmatic and technical leadership to the program.
Primary Responsibilities:
IREX is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to building a more just, prosperous, and inclusive world by empowering youth, cultivating leaders, strengthening institutions, and extending access to quality education and information. Founded in 1968, IREX has an annual portfolio of over $150 million, works in more than 100 countries worldwide with offices in 20 countries, and a global staff of 700.
Position Summary:
IREX seeks qualified Chief of Party (COP) candidates to lead an anticipated $10M, five-year USAID-funded Sustainable Skills for a Just Transition Activity (SS4JT) in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The Activity will develop Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programs aligned with skills needs for green jobs and entrepreneurial development in non-energy sectors. This will strengthen the responsiveness of skills programs and institutions to market needs, creating employment and earnings opportunities for communities impacted by South Africa’s energy transition.
The COP will provide overall programmatic and technical leadership to the program.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Provide strategic and technical leadership to the program, including a comprehensive vision for transformational outcomes for the activity’s intermediate results.
- Create and implement a strategy to strengthen TVET providers developing skills for green jobs in Mpumalanga province’s non-energy sectors
- Oversee monitoring, evaluation, learning, and reporting to ensure the program adapts as needed to meet objectives and learning is acquired and shared broadly to maximize impact and sustainability. Contribute to project communications and reporting
- Serve as principal liaison with USAID and develop productive collaborative relationships with a wide range of key stakeholders including government officials, private sector partners, vocational education and training institutions and other training providers, other donors and implementers, civil society, program beneficiaries, and others
- Ensure program activities are implemented on schedule, within budget, and coordinated to maximize efficiency and effectiveness.
- Oversee program budgeting and forecasting, financial management, compliance and subgrants management.
- Oversee and drive a private sector engagement strategy towards the development on industry demanded workforce solutions
- Integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout program implementation and promote an evidence-based positive youth development approach
- Represent IREX publicly and support its organizational development
- Other duties as assigned.
- Master’s degree in a relevant field such as education, international development, non-profit management
- Minimum 12 years of relevant experience in leading programs focused on education, workforce development, TVET, skills development, institutional strengthening, and/or private sector engagement, with experience working in the Sub-Saharan Africa region strongly preferred
- Knowledge of energy transition and expertise in developing private sector led workforce solutions highly preferred
- Successful track record of supervising, designing, managing, and implementing complex donor-funded technical assistance projects (with strong preference for past USAID-funded project management experience)
- Proven ability to establish strong working relationships with senior government officials, education institutions and administrators; media, civil society, and private sector leaders; international donors; and other stakeholders.
- Strong leadership, management, and organizational skills
- Demonstrated ability to track and manage budgets and plan both strategically and creatively to meet project objectives in compliance with USAID rules and regulations
- Strong understanding of the South African context highly preferred
- Fluency in written and spoken English, required.
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