Entrepreneurship in the territories: is it the right time?
The Deputy Unit Director will be a member of RECOFTC’s Program Coordination and Technical Services (PCTS) Unit and report directly to the unit director. The key responsibilities include overseeing staff, thematic programs, and projects; developing, reviewing, and refining proposals, budgets, and reports; and contributing to and enhancing RECOFTC’s knowledge management systems.
The Deputy Director-PCTS, as a senior member of the PCTS unit, provides guidance and support to the PCTS team and other units in carrying out RECOFTC’s overall strategic plan through the development and execution of the organization’s large project portfolio. The Deputy Director-PCTS promotes project management best practices and serves as a project manager for select projects.
Specific tasks and duties include:
1. Supporting the overall management and development of the PCTS Unit
Program planning, monitoring, and management
- Provide coordination support and technical inputs to RECOFTC’s overall program through participation in strategic planning, annual work planning, program review exercises and regular coordination with other units and teams
- Work closely with teams representing RECOFTCs for main goals to ensure coordination, synergies and the application of cross-cutting considerations
- Support the unit director in leveraging established information processes and products to monitor progress against programmatic targets and implement adaptive management corrections when needed
Staff supervision, capacity building, and staff development
- Supervise one or more PCTS staff at the request of the Unit Director ensuring the establishment of clear expectations, mutual reflection on performance and opportunities for professional development.
- Provide oversight, guidance, review of reporting, and other support to project managers to ensure projects are delivered on time, within scope and within budget
- Identify and provide opportunities for training and development (especially in project management), offer constructive feedback, and support career advancement to help team members grow individually and contribute more effectively to the team's success
Team management and resource allocation
- Assist in coordinating and facilitating regular PCTS team meetings
- Understand the skills and strengths of each team member and assist the PCTS Unit Director in assigning roles and responsibilities that align with staff interests and abilities, ensuring optimal team performance and personal growth
- Monitor the overall PCTS budget on at least a quarterly basis and coordinate adaptive management to ensure that projects remain on track
- Support effective resource allocation across the PCTS project portfolio, ensuring that resources are allocated and utilized based on project priorities and organizational goals
Communications, networking, and knowledge management
- Represent RECOFTC at the highest levels with donors, partners and relevant stakeholders at multilateral and bilateral meetings, conferences and donor events
- Contribute to RECOFTC’s overall knowledge management processes to effectively capture, share, and leverage project insights, lessons learned and project management best practices across the organization
- Contribute to the design of and maintenance of knowledge management systems for the storage, organization, and retrieval of project-related information, documents, templates and lessons learned
Business Development
- Assist in screening opportunities for their potential to contribute to RECOFTC’s committed strategic targets and for RECOFTC’s ability to effectively resource and execute each potential opportunity
- In close coordination with the Business Development team, provide technical leadership and/or support in the development of proposals for new projects or inputs to project consortia including developing relevant theories of change, logical frameworks or other conceptual frameworks as appropriate to and required by the opportunity
- Assist the Business Development and Grants Officer in transitioning projects from a proposal stage to the project start-up phase
2. Supporting the consistent application of project development and management best practices
- Promote RECOFTC Project Management Standards to ensure consistency, efficiency and alignment with organizational goals and strategic priorities
- Understand and promote the effective and efficient use of project management-related tools and systems to support all aspects of project management
- Support project managers in the effective implementation of projects including in all areas enumerated in the “Project management” section below.
- Support the Unit Director in monitoring individual project progress and status on a frequent basis to ensure that project workplans and activities remain on track
- Lead in reviewing, refining, and, where necessary, identifying new tools and processes to support effective application of project management best practices
3. Managing projects
- Manage one or more projects at a time from project initiation to project closure at the discretion of the Unit Director
- Develop comprehensive project work plans, schedules and budgets
- Ensure all elements of RECOFTC’s project initiation process are completed during the project initiation phase
- Apply project planning, risk management, adaptive management and quality assurance processes to ensure successful project execution
- Provide leadership and oversight for the effective delivery of project outcomes, outputs and activities according to plan—applying an adaptive management approach to resources, tasks, and timelines
- Coordinate resource allocation and utilization, including personnel, budget and equipment to ensure optimal resource utilization and alignment with project objectives and priorities
- Identify project stakeholders and establish effective communication channels to ensure alignment, manage expectations and foster collaboration throughout the project lifecycle
- Ensure project implementation and administration strictly follow donor and all other relevant regulatory requirements including securing appropriate national permissions
- Establish and enforce quality standards and processes to ensure that project deliverables meet or exceed expectations
- Proactively monitor project progress, identify potential risks and roadblocks, and take appropriate and timely actions to keep the project on track and within scope, budget and timeline constraints
- Prepare progress reports, annual reports and financial reports of the project together with relevant RECOFTC staff from different units, country programs and partner organizations
- In close coordination with the Knowledge Management, Information Technology, and Strategic Communication (KMITSC) team, lead the development of project communication plans that include establishing and maintaining project information on the web and other media and producing strategic communication products in relevant languages
- Facilitate meetings or provide project presentations to stakeholders, highlighting achievements, challenges, risks and other information as needed and appropriate
- Understand and provide regular inputs into RECOFTC’s monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) systems and processes
- Engage and manage the work of consultants as and when needed to support project delivery
4. Other
- Support the execution of specific projects at the Main Office and Country Offices as needed and assigned by the Unit Director
- Provide technical inputs to relevant projects based on project needs and areas of expertise and experience
- Act as Unit Director during times that the Director is traveling or on leave
- Perform other duties as assigned by the Unit Director
