John Snow Inc. vacancy for a Nigeria Country Program Officer

The USAID | DELIVER PROJECT is a worldwide program managed by John Snow, Inc. and funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The project strengthens the supply chains of health and family planning programs in developing countries to ensure the availability of critical health products to customers. The Nigeria Country Program Officer (PO) backstops country operational and technical development activities managed from the Washington DC office.

The Nigeria Country Program Officer provides day-to-day operational support, facilitates ongoing communication, routine budget and activity monitoring, and coordinates the technical activity implementation of the USAID | DELIVER PROJECT’s Nigeria field office. They are an integral member of a three-person team (Regional Manager (RM) and Finance and Administration Manager (FAM)) that provides support to and management of the Nigeria field office implementing the donor's program. He/she works under the supervision of a regional manager and in close collaboration with the Malaria and Reproductive Health and Family Planning technical advisors assigned to the Nigeria portfolio of activities. The project is scheduled to end September 2016 thus close-out and transition activities will be a major focus for this country portfolio.

 

Country team operational management:

• Manages routine communications between the home office and the field office including coordination of routine home office country team meetings.
• Facilitates communications between country teams, field offices and other project teams/technical resources (supply operations, task order advisors, supply chain systems strengthening, capacity building, etc.).
• Assists with administration and logistical arrangements for training and conferences.
• Represents the RM in his/her absence.
• Participates in short term technical assistance (STTA) missions as needed.
• Maintains project technical files.
• Arranges shipping of supplies and equipment and routine mailings.
• Attends country-related technical meetings, seminars, and debriefings, acting as team's representative when appropriate, and reporting key information to team members.
• Supports country team in facilitating collaborative relationships with partner organizations, donors and clients. 
• In collaboration with the RM, coordinates and provides input to workplan development and monitoring.
• Facilitates and participates in the development of, and/or the timely completion/review of, country program and technical reports.
• Assists RM with dissemination of information on country innovations, program results and lessons learned, and provides information for the project website and other management information systems. 
• Assist FAM with financial and administrative management of country and team activities; provides technical input to developing sound and up-to-date financial projections that reflect workplan activities. Assist the RM to review the implementation of technical activities against workplan goals, establish milestones, and identify corrective actions as necessary to ensure workplan objectives are achieved.

Short-term technical assistant support to the Nigeria office:

• Serves as primary contact for STTA activities for field offices.
• Coordinates development, technical review, and approval of scopes of work for STTA activities. 
• Facilitates processes for international consultants; including development of the consultant contract, communicates SOW, travel arrangements, deliverable sign-off, and submission of a completed expense report.
• Manages subcontractor work order process for program initiatives.
• Submits STTA requests to STTA manager for discussion at Resource Allocation (RA) meetings. Represents country team at the RA meetings as needed.

Direct support to the Nigeria country program operations:

• Provide guidance on contractual rules and regulations. 
• When necessary prepare RFPs for warehousing and transportation services and manage the proposal review and selection process.
• Provides ongoing training and mentorship to the SCOD staff to improve their budgeting, planning, and subcontractor management capabilities.
• Facilitates international travel arrangements for project counterparts including: visa processing, travel advances and travel insurance for DELIVER-sponsored travel, if necessary.
• Serves as the interface with project contracts unit and the field office on technical procurements when assigned; assist with development of field-based subcontracts; monitoring completion of subcontract deliverables; facilitating actions for other USAID approvals (e.g. waivers).
• Review all contracts prepared by the Supply Chain Operations Department (SCOD), ensuring appropriate vendor award procedures have been followed, budget is accurate, and the activity supports workplan objectives and the strategic goals of the project.
• Serve as the liaison between the Senior Contracts Administrator, Task Order Finance Managers, RM, and SCOD to troubleshoot issues and create consensus.
• Works with the Malaria Technical Manager and the in-country Malaria program team to evaluate and forecast supply chain warehousing and transportation capacity needs.
• Serves as point of contact for time-sensi

• Master’s degree or equivalent work experience in the field of international family planning, health, or development desired.
• Developing country experience desirable.
• Ability to work independently and manage various projects in a team setting, with minimal supervision.
• Strong organizational and communication skills.
• Experience with USAID highly desirable.
• Authorization to work in the US required.
• Interest in health, population, and/or development issues.
• Excellent written and verbal English language skills.
• Ability to work comfortably in the MS Office package.