Career Opportunities at Abt Associates

Description

• Abt Associates is currently seeking a qualified Operations and Logistics Manager for the upcoming Resilience in Northern Ghana (RING) II - Systems Strengthening Activity.
• This Activity focuses on enhancing the ability of all stakeholders to address poor nutrition and weak resilience in northern Ghana. The RING II - Systems Strengthening Activity will result in sustained improvements in the delivery of local services to achieve measurable improvements in the nutrition and resilience of an estimated 85,000 reproductive-aged women and children under five years old.
• Under the supervision of the Finance and Administration Director, the Operations and Logistics Manager will be responsible for providing administrative, logistical, and financial support to the project such as working closely with technical teams to anticipate needs for project events and staff travel and to make all necessary \ travel arrangements.
• In addition, h/she will maintain an accurate inventory of expendable and non-expendable property and develop a system for filling project documents, invoices, and other supporting documentation.
• This position will require frequent travel to regions and districts where the program is being implemented.
• The activity will work in the following regions: Northern, North East, Upper East, and Upper West.

Key roles and responsibilities:

• Working with key personnel in Tamale and Regional Coordinators in the field, support a process to develop and implement a strategy to roll out the program operations effectively and accountably to all both regions and the central office.
• Provide technical assistance where necessary financial and operations management to ensure capacity to manage sub-contracts effectively and accountably.
• Working closely with the Human Resource Partner in Home office and Human Resource Manager in Tamale, lead on human resource matters for Abt employees and consultants, which includes compliance with relevant local laws, regulations, and tax issues and Abt corporate policies such as hiring, onboarding of staff, benefit tracking, and termination. 
• Support in the establishment, maintenance, and documentation of a strong procurement function for goods and services including establishment of tendering process to promote transparency, evaluation of vendors’ proposals, selection of vendors, negotiation with vendors for payment terms, through development and approval of purchase orders.  
• This will also include establishing preferred vendors for recurrent procurements in Tamale and the field offices. 
• Support in the establishment, maintenance, and documentation of a strong logistics function which includes project inventory management, conference organization, air and ground transportation, fleet management, and visitor management.   
• Support in office management for Tamale and all nine field offices from set up to close out including managing lease holds, internet service provision and connectivity, equipment purchase, and management of relations and disputes with landlords and sub-tenants.
• Working closely with the Security Manager, ensure security of Abt’s staff, program operation, and assets. 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree (preferred), in Business, Finance, Accounting, or other relevant field. Bachelor’s Degree in relevant field required;
• At least 8-10 years of experience in a management position in the public or private sector;
• Demonstrated knowledge, skills and/or experience in administration, financial planning and management, and procurement, and other management support areas, as required.
• Knowledge of USAID and FAR.
• Experience implementing donor-funded projects in Sub-Saharan Africa specifically in Ghana, experience with USAID projects is highly desirable.
• Proven experience in coordination, planning, and leading programs with International NGOs desired.
• Excellent presentation and writing skills.
• Strong interpersonal, and team building skills.
• Experience in the development, implementation, monitoring and reporting of projects.
• Solid computer skills in MS-Office applications, including MS Word, MS Excel and PowerPoint.
• Ability and willingness to travel approximately 25% of the time to program locations within Ghana.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree + Nine years of relevant experience, or Master’s Degree + Seven years of relevant experience, or PhD + Four years of relevant experience

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Background

• Abt Associates is currently seeking a qualified Governance Lead for the upcoming Resilience in Northern Ghana (RING) II - Systems Strengthening Activity.
• This Activity focuses on enhancing the ability of all stakeholders to address poor nutrition and weak resilience in northern Ghana.
• The RING II - Systems Strengthening Activity will result in sustained improvements in the delivery of local services to achieve measurable improvements in the nutrition and resilience of an estimated 85,000 reproductive-aged women and children under five years old.
• Under the supervision of the Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP), the Governance Lead will provide leadership and management oversight of technical activities that seek to strengthen local government’s ability to deliver equitable and robust quality services.
• These services will aim to strengthen adoption of behaviors that promote nutrition and resilience of poor and food-insecure households in northern Ghana.
• The Governance Lead will also support districts to better manage policy implementation, to effectively use data for planning and decision-making, and to develop budgets and annual plans that reflect constituent priorities.
• This position will require frequent travel regions and districts where the program is being implemented.
• The activity will work in the following regions: Northern, North East, Upper East, and Upper West.

Responsibilities:

• Design and advise on implementation of technical activities that strengthen local governments’ capacity to plan, budget, and deliver services at the district level.
• Provide technical expertise and thought leadership to encourage participatory and inclusive approaches to planning that incorporate multisectoral approaches to nutrition and resilience programming.
• Provide technical and administrative oversight for the implementation of a results-oriented program strategy regionally and in specific districts.
• Facilitate collaboration across program components and with advisors to ensure implementation of activities in each district.
• Assist in annual work planning and contribute to quality operational plans, budgets, and reports.
• Provide input to the project’s research and monitoring and evaluation activities and work with Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) team to incorporate lessons learned to enhance project results.
• Provide input to regular status and progress reports to USAID.
• Provide inputs to the finance and administration team necessary for project budget projections, expenditures, tracking and reporting.
• Collaborate actively with project staff and stakeholders and promote a culture of collaboration.
• Ensure that lessons learned and best practices are documented and shared.
• Travel frequently to sub-regional offices for compliance, training, and tracking consistency across implementation activities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in public financial management, economics, international development, community development, nutrition or a related field with 10 years of professional experience or Bachelor’s degree and at least 12 years of professional experience.
• At least 5 years’ experience managing the implementation of field-level activities, including working with district government officials and local civil society/community-based organizations in northern Ghana.
• Demonstrated experience encouraging local government accountability to its constituents for equitable delivery of services that respond to population needs.
• Demonstrated team building and team management leading to high quality work in a timely, cost effective manner.
• Experience working with international development organizations in Ghana required.
• USAID experience highly preferred.
• Excellent writing skills required.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal communication and computer skills.
• Verbal and written fluency in English.
• Ghanaian nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree + Twelve years of relevant experience, or Master’s Degree + Ten years of relevant experience, or PhD+ Eight years of relevant experience