Chief of Party, Nigeria Economic Growth at Palladium Group

Project Overview and Role

• Palladium is searching for a Team Leader for an upcoming DFID proposal LINKS – Powering Economic Growth in Northern Nigeria. LINKS will support development of a vibrant and diversified economy in the key northern Nigerian states, with these collectively acting as a powerful engine of northern economic growth.
• Benefits will be both for the states themselves, while also creating real market opportunities for the wider north, counterbalancing the wealth and investment that is currently primarily found in Lagos and the South.
• The programme will focus on the development of high potential pro-poor value chains, selected during a detailed project preparation study, supporting them to become productive, competitive and attractive for investment at every level.
• The Team Leader acts as the central point of leadership for the programme. The Team Leader shall be responsible for representing the programme with a range of external organisations and individuals, including regularly reporting DFID, maintaining strong working relationships with relevant local entities, other programmes, as well as with corporate Palladium staff.

Responsibilities

• Developing strong working relationships with the programme’s contact points in DFID and leading on reporting to them, through both formal and informal channels.
• Maintain relations and represent the programme with the wider DFID country office as needed.
• Develop strong working relationships with the leadership of other development programmes, in particular DFID’s local government and sectoral programming portfolios, and exploit complementarities and synergies between LINKS and them where possible.
• Develop strong working relationships and a regular dialogue on programme progress and challenges with relevant Palladium staff, including the Project Director, Operational and Technical Managers, and ensure LINKS compliance with established Palladium systems and processes.
• Maintain a strong working relationships with the Technical Director and reach a consensus on LINKS overarching, as well as component specific, technical approach and direction
• Represent the programme with an external audience as needed, including with communities of practice and other DFID offices.
• Manages relationships with the host country government, counterpart agencies, project partners and stakeholders and business partners.
• Ensure good staff management practices including staff planning, recruitment, on-boarding, appraisal and development

Project Management:

• Provide guidance, oversight and quality assurance for all project activities, outputs and deliverables. Assume overall responsibility for the effective implementation of work plans to ensure delivery is on time, within budget, meets Client and stakeholder expectations and is contractually compliant
• Monitor implementation progress; maintain up to date project logs and registers; work to resolve issues, manages and mitigates risks; and escalate material issues and risks as appropriate.
• Develop and implement plans for results measurement, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management, value for money analysis and communication management.

Requirements

• At least 15 years working experience in international projects
• At least 10 years of those spent in project in developing countries lasting more than 2 years and managing teams of 10 or more including local and international staff
• At least 5 years of Project Team Leader / Head of Project status in economic development projects with significant elements involving private sector investment and innovation, and budgets over £5 million
• Proven track record of achieving job creation and / or income raising results at large scale and pace (100,000 people plus)
• Relevant Nigeria experience