Senior Program Officer

Job Profile: 

Counterpart International is currently seeking a Senior Program Officer (SPO) to provide HQ oversight and support to Global Inittiatives. The SPO will liaise with all departments at HQ to provide strategic, technical and operational guidance to the Global Initiatives to help meet programs’ goals and objectives. The SPO will provide a borad management support ensuring all transactions meet financial, administrative and compliance requirements. The SPO will contribute to proactively building Counterpart’s reputation, technical capacity and resource base in the organization and in the growth of the Global portfolio. The Senior Program Officer will be also responsible for a range of business development opportunities, including research, capture and proposal writing. This is a full time position based in Arlington, VA. This position will report to the Director of Global Initiatives.   

Primary Responsibilities:

The primary responsiblities for this position are as follows:

• Provide overall HQ program leadership, strategic planning, management and quality control to support the implementation of projects within budget, established time frames, standards of quality, and donor satisfaction.
• Support the development and implementation of annual work plans. Support the field team in establishing programmatic targets, collecting and maintaining program monitoring records, and writing program and financial reports.
• Support, monitor and evaluate program performance through regular tracking of financial and programmatic reports, M&E data, and communication with the field teams:

• Monitor program finances and monthly pipelines, and provide guidance to field teams concerning program expenditures, and budget projections working closely with HQ Finance Officer and field grants and finance managers;
• Review and evaluate program work plans, program performance and evaluation plans; ensure their timely implementation;
• Review and evaluate quarterly and final program reports.

• Troubleshoot project problems, and identify and implement creative solutions where needed.
• Monitor the grant making and management cycle:
• Ensure that RFAs are strategically designed to contribute to the overall programmatic goal;
• Review sub-recipient grant packages for quality control before they are send for signature;
• Review the grant tracker to ensure timely reporting on payment disbursements;
• Ensure the cost share requirement is met (if applicable) and booked appropriately;
• Ensure teams are in compliance with the new DoA protocol, approval processes and thresholds.
• Identify best practices and lessons learned, and based on that learning, develop suggested amendments/revisions to Counterpart’s methodologies as appropriate.
• Support coordination of program implementation activities with internal and external partners and stakeholders.
• Identify and recommend relationships with strategic stakeholders, corporate, non-profit or governmental partners and donors, and with the DGI support negotiations to achieve program excellence.
• Maintain knowledge of issues facing the country offices including the operational environment and potential risks associated with the implementation of awards.
• Support the expansion and diversification of Counterpart’s Global portfolio by:

• Participate in the proposal review and development of budget process.

• Identifying opportunities for growth of the portfolio;   
• Cultivating and leveraging strategic donor relationships;
• Promoting the organization’s ability to meet existing donor and beneficiary needs.
• Represent Counterpart at conferences, professional forums, workshops, events related to Global Initiatives relevant for current program portfolio.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

Required:

• Bachleor’s Degree, plus a minimum of five (5) years of relevant experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience is required, including at least two years of experience managing or backstopping USAID-funded programs.
• Ability to motivate and inspire teams to perform well, producing high quality deliverables throughout project cycle from planning, management, and execution to troubleshooting.
• Sound and demonstrated project management experience, including budget and financial management, and monitoring and evaluation.
• Knowledge of applicable Federal government regulations (FAR, AIDAR, ADS, CFR, OMB).
• Experience with M&E and program planning, implementation and reporting.
• Ability to produce high quality deliverables throughout the project cycle from planning, management, and execution to troubleshooting.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong computer skills, including MS Office Suite program, and web-based research tools.
• Strong and demonstrated inter-personal skills, sound judgment, ability to work with diverse teams.
• Proven multi-tasking skills and attention to detail under time-pressure and on short-deadlines.
• Fluency in English.

Preferred:

• Demonstrated understanding of the operational environment in several countries/regions and technical understanding of civic participation and governance issues in closing civic spaces, is preferred.