Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency Senior Project Portfolio Manager Jobs in Ethiopia

Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency Senior Project Portfolio Manager Jobs in Ethiopia

Vacancy Announcement

Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency

Position: Senior Project Portfolio Manager, PPMO

Term of Employment: Through July, 2020

Duty Station(s): Addis Ababa

Required Number: 1

Salary & Benefits: Competitive

Application Deadline: Feb 16, 2019

Background

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector.

The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The agency focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources (MoALR), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda.

Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects.

Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.

Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results.

At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.

We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.

We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

Position Summary:

The Senior Project Portfolio Manager (SPPM) is responsible to manage the establishment of Project Portfolio Management Office (PPMO) within ATA and support PPM regional senior project managers in leading regional PMOs.

The SPPM will facilitate and coordinate the identification and prioritization of projects and programs within the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Deliverables (TAD) and Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) initiatives.

The SPPM will support project/program team and build their project/program/portfolio management capacity. She/he monitors projects/programs performance and promote the alignment of projects/programs with the organizational strategy.

This position will report directly to the Director of Project Portfolio Management Office.

The Project Portfolio Management team sits within the Implementation Support (IS) Vertical, which strives to standardize project/program/portfolio management practices in the agency and elevate project management skill of ATA project teams that drive the impact and effectiveness of the ATA’s and partners’ work with smallholder farmers.

As part of the PPM senior management team, the SPPM will closely collaborate with senior PPM team, project team leaders and senior members within IS vertical. The position will be based in ATA Head Office.

Essential Duties

Ensure the successful establishment of PPMO that will add measurable value to the ATA

Support and engage with senior leadership team in aligning projects and programs to ATA’s strategic goals

Develop and maintain effective and innovative project/program/portfolio management culture across ATA

Evaluate projects and programs across ATA, identify common trends, collaboration areas, potential bottlenecks and opportunities for refocus

Coordinate dependencies and risks across the projects and programs in ATA, advise on risk mitigation techniques and escalate unresolved risks promptly

Perform regular performance checks on projects and programs in ATA and make recommendations for improvements when required

Develop project portfolio governance framework

Develop project selection criteria

Create a platform for efficient collaboration and coordination of federal and regional PPMO teams and facilitate experience sharing among them

Support and train project team in collaboration with senior PPM team on project management processes, tools and techniques

Create/develop simple and powerful project/program/portfolio management processes, tools in collaboration with the PPM senior staff and regional PMO project managers
Hire, manage and develop PPM team members

Regularly seek feedback from ATA and partner project teams for improvements to project management tools, training and support

Continuously strive for improvement by introducing effective and flexible tools and processes in collaboration with the senior PPM team based on feedback.

Evaluate and select best suit PPM software solution

Follow international trends in project/program/portfolio management and share knowledge with PPM team and ATA project leaders when important

Perform additional tasks when assigned by the Director

Required Qualifications:

Master’s/Bachelor Degree in project Management, Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Business, Economics, or other relevant field. Master’s degree in one of the above supplemented with a formal project/portfolio management trainings.

At least 8 years professional experience for MSc/MA candidates, and 10 years relevant experience for BA/BSC holders among which 6 to 4 years’ experience in the direct management of large, complex, long-term projects/portfolios in government and the private sector or in international development, including responsibility for people management, goalsetting, budgeting, work planning, meeting targets, and capacity building

Highly structured thinker and communicator – who can quickly and clearly envision and explain a system that makes people’s jobs easier

Demonstrated ability to build relationships and influence people without authority

Highly adaptive and resourceful problem solver in rapidly changing environments

Energized by a fast-moving environment with an emphasis on high performance, accountability and results - who has a drive for excellence and enjoy being around others with the same drive

Strong set of personal values, including integrity, honesty

Team builder - who provides the element that holds the team together in common purpose toward the right objective

Previous Project Portfolio management and PMO experience is advantageous

Experience working in developing countries is highly preferred

Project Management Professional (PMP) Certification or equivalent required
Program Management Professional(PgMP) certification advantageous

Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP) certification desired

Fluency in English required

How to apply:

Application instruction

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit
(i) a cover letter,
(ii) CV (maximum 5 pages), and
(iii) a completed ATA Application Form at Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency Senior Project Portfolio Manager Jobs in Ethiopia

Also, please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application form.

Women are highly encouraged to apply.

NB. Only short listed candidates will be contacted.