Program Development Unit Manager at World Vision Kenya

The job holder will manage two Senior Program Officers who will lead a team of Program Officer. He/ She is expected to provide guidance in the design of proposals, provision of timely/quality reporting and positioning with donors/supporters with the aim of enhancing the reputation of the organization. He/ She should continuously build the capacity of the Program Development Unit as a whole on resource acquisition.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Resource Acquisition

• Lead concept note and proposal development processes, including (i) mobilize teams/partners for design workshop; (ii) draft proposals; (iii) coordinate technical input from agencies and Support Offices; (iv) guide technical alignment with donor preferences (v), ensure compliance with WV and donor submission requirements (e.g. Go-No-Go); (vi) support post-submission lessons-learnt; 
• Lead donor engagement with existing and new donors through: (i) development of pitch products aligned to target’s strategies; (ii) participation in strategic coordination and information-sharing forums; (iii) outreach and presentation to donors; (iv) develop technical collaborations; (v) develop and maintain network of donors and influencers and keep them informed of resilience program’s achievements;
• Lead pre-positioning, including: (i) research donor strategies and identification of entry points for engagement; (ii) mobilize relevant technical data to present to target donors; (iii) coordinate engagement with EARO, Support Office and Global Centre; (iv) prepare donor technical alignment briefs; (v) identify and manage technical consultants, including specialized proposal development writers, technical contributors, etc. to support competitive proposal designs;
• Lead reporting officer for ANCP project: (i) identification of best practices to scale in WVS; (ii) report on-time, on-target and too donor specification; (iii) engagement with DFAT to advocacy to return funding to Africa (Somalia);
• Develop thought-leadership and knowledge products through (i) research of donor priorities to identify compelling themes; (ii) support for the development of compelling research topics; (iii) identification and pre-positioning of technical and academic partners to support resilience learning agenda; (iv) development of communication products for various stakeholders. 
• World Vision resilience contributes to local, regional and global learning through, (i) participation is resilience, Nexus and durable solutions learning forums; (ii) development of learning products to present at forums.
• Manage Somali resilience consortium media prescience through, (i) identification and regular posting of content, (ii) support to agencies to develop/copy-edit Stories of Hope and Tweets to post, (iii) support to World Vision entities to develop and post content.

Grant Management

• Put mechanism in place to ensure poor project progress, unsatisfied implementation quality and donor compliance challenge are flagged to both internal and external stakeholders including but not limited to QA, Ops Managers, and donors in a timely manner
• Supervise PDU team to provide capacity building, refreshing workshop and day-to-day guidance to team on donors and WV partnership grant management guidelines
• Ensure proper record of grants are kept and reported in good time base on WV’s mechanism

People Management

• Develop and update performance management plans;
• Manager a 6 member (2 SPOs and 4 POs) program development team;
• Monitor staff performance and provide real-time guidance;
• Motivate staff members to learn new skills, take on new responsibilities and grow professionally;
• Take remedial actions for poor performing staff; Sustain women’s internship program to overcome systems obstacle to employment in the consortium;

KNOWLEDGE/QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE ROLE

• At least 7 years grant acquisition experience with proven capacity in the development of complex, multi-sector resilience/nexus (humanitarian-to-development) proposal with a preference for fragile contexts
• Preferred: experience implementing via consortiums through INGO, LNGO and government partners through sub-contracting arrangements
• Must demonstrate extensive experience in coordination of multiple local and international stakeholders, including inter/intra-agency, public/private, and government
• Native-speaker-level English language writing capacity with experience in copy-editing for English-language documents
• Proven ability to mobilize multiple technical consultants, partners, private sector and academic partners to develop complex, multi-sector proposals; 3+ years’ experience in the preparation of communication and/or learning products for multiple stakeholders, including donors, governments, agencies, etc.  Strong problem solving, interpersonal and negotiation skills
• Knowledge of rapid assessment including ongoing contextual analysis
• Experience in support supervision, training and coaching staff in food security and Livelihoods programming
• Very strong organizational, management and communication skills.
• Strong ability to train and motivate team

Preferred Knowledge and Qualifications

• A minimum of a Master’s degree in Development Studies, Development Management, Public Policy, Agricultural studies, dryland and/or rangeland management or equivalent and/or at-least 6 years of experience in successful grants acquisition with 10+ different donors
• Good knowledge of both bilateral and multilateral donors such as BHA, ECHO, EU, GAC, WFP, UNICEF to name a few
• Training in humanitarian standards is desirable
• Donor, multilateral and government stakeholder experience required
• Experience in highly volatile fragile state preferred

Travel and/or Work Environment Requirement

• Nairobi-based
• 35% travel to Somalia
• 5% travel to East Africa