Senior Director for Continental Operations at DAI Kenya - Development Alternatives, Inc.

The Senior Director for Continental Operations will lead the implementation of ATI’s activities across Africa; this includes activities funded by Prosper Africa, USAID Washington (AFR and Operating Units), as well as USAID missions on continent.  For this purpose, the Senior Director for Continental Operations will supervise the Regional Directors for Southern Africa, East Africa, West Africa, North Africa and US.  The focus of this role is to provide technical leadership to the teams overseeing the implementation of development interventions, ensuring seamless, efficient, compliant and outstanding service delivery, by ensuring that ATIs partners, both subcontractors and grantees, implement activities as agreed with ATI and produce tangible results.

KEY DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Leading annual work-planning and activity design; supporting buy-in development and scoping based on effective models to maximize impact; lead strategies to engage new and underutilized partners; supporting activity design and resources discussions in existing buy-ins and ensure compliant activity implementation.
• Identifying and developing priority partnerships to create synergies between ATI and other ongoing trade- and investment-related activities in Africa, in close coordination with the Regional Directors.
• Serving as a senior representative for ATI in meetings with officials from USAID, other USG agencies and partners, governments, corporations, capital partners, and other key stakeholders across Africa.
• Managing and overseeing the work of the Regional Directors for Southern, East, West and North Africa and the pool of Activity Managers and Associates operating in ATI’s regional offices.
• Leading cross-learning, engagement and collaboration between teams in the continent to leverage on expertise and experience honed from managing the different buy-ins/activities.
• Ensuring that the services delivered to USG and private sector partners are of the highest quality, that the organizational culture leads to high performance and that human resources are allocated and deployed in an efficient fashion.
• Coordinating with other ATI departments to ensure that the delivery team has the support of the entire organization.
• Ensuring compliance, both among the staff under his/her supervision, as well as private sector partners.

REPORTING:

This position is based in Kenya and reports to the ATI Chief of Party.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s degree and 10 years of experience, or bachelor’s degree and 15 years of experience.
• In-depth knowledge of USAID’s strategic priorities, policies and regulations.
• Minimum 7 years of experience working to develop and maintain strategic partnerships with US Government agencies, African government institutions, international and regional economic bodies in Africa, trade service providers, and other key ATI stakeholders.
• Experience providing targeted advisory assistance to the high-profile USG strategic priorities, demonstrating the acumen and awareness to work effectively in a deadline-driven and highly nuanced political environment.
• Experience and knowledge of trade and investment issues and how they link to US. Government priorities, with the ability to identify trends and strategically adapt activities to improve impact.
• Excellent interpersonal, diplomacy, and leadership skills, including the ability to manage relationships at the highest levels of government.
• Demonstrated ability to motivate and lead a dynamic team of professionals across large geographies.