Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency Senior Project Portfolio Manager, PPMO Jobs

Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency Senior Project Portfolio Manager, PPMO Jobs

Job Id: 223981

Category: Agriculture

Location: Addis Ababa

Career Level: Managerial Level (Manager, Supervisor, Director)

Employment Type: Full time

Salary: Competitive

Job Description

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: One

Salary & Benefits: Competitive

Application Deadline: October 5, 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 develop and maintain project portfolio guidelines, governance; tools, templates, procedures and processes; develop project prioritization criteria which aligns with ATA existing processes and strategic plan and support regional project managers in establishing and leading regional PMOs.

The SPPM will facilitate and coordinate the identification and prioritization of projects within the Agricultural Commercialization Cluster (ACC) program and the Agricultural Transformation Agenda Deliverables (TAD). The SPPM will support project/program team and build their project/program/portfolio management capacity.

She/he monitors projects/programs performance and lead the alignment of projects/programs with the organizational strategy and the delivery most strategically important programs and projects.

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 PPM team, project team leaders and senior members within IS vertical. The position will be based in ATA Head Office.

Essential Duties

Develop project portfolio management guideline, governance, tools and processes.

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.

Monitor projects and programs across ATA, identify inter dependencies and 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 other duties as assigned.

Job Requirements

Master’s/bachelor’s degree in Project Management, Engineering, Agricultural Economics, Business, Economics, or another relevant field. Master’s degree in one of the above supplemented with a formal project/portfolio management training is preferable.

At least (8 years) of relevant experience for Master’s and (10 years) for Bachelor’s , among which 6/8 years 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, goal setting, 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 Instructions

We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to send (i) a cover letter and (ii) CV (maximum 3 pages) at http://apply.ata.gov.et

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.

Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency Senior Project Portfolio Manager, PPMO Jobs