Principal Quality Assurance Officer - SNOQ at African Development Bank - AfDB

Reference: ADB/18/120
Location: Côte d’Ivoire
Grade: PL4
Position N°: 50071325

The Hiring Department

• Located within the SVP Complex, the Operations Committee Secretariat and Quality Assurance Department works to continuously enhance the quality and timely delivery of Bank operations, The Department coordinates and supports the Bank’s global efforts towards sharpening the country focus, strategic selectivity and quality of the Bank’s operations.
• Within the Department, the Quality Assurance (QA) Division is an operational support unit of the African Development Bank (AfDB) that focuses on enhancing and mainstreaming the quality and results of the Bank’s strategies and operations. To this end, it is responsible for: (i) setting quality standards for the Bank’s interventions; (ii) strengthening tools and processes throughout operational cycles; and (iii) building staff capacities and facilitating operational knowledge dissemination.

The Position

• Within the Quality Assurance Division, the Principal Quality Assurance Officer will oversee activities and manage relations with the Bank’s relevant departments, including those responsible for public sector operations.
• The incumbent will be responsible for developing and integrating quality assurance and results tools into the project cycle of sovereign operations; strengthening the Bank's overall reporting capacity and to report on its operational performance and development results.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Under the supervision of the Manager, the Principal Quality Assurance Officer will have the following duties:
• Staff guidelines and operational tools. Lead the process of refining and disseminating QaE standards and staff guidelines related to project preparation, implementation and completion through continued testing in collaboration with various project teams bank-wide.
• Quality-at-entry assessment. Support the quality at entry assessment operations, including refinement of the readiness review approach and methodology. Train and coach focal points responsible for QaE assessments; undertake quality controls of RRs.
• Operational performance evaluation: Establish evidence-based and results-based rating systems to capture performance throughout the project cycle at the individual and portfolio levels.
• Quality Control: design mechanisms to monitor compliance with quality standards and verify the integrity of the rating system used for the assessment of sovereign operations, undertake quality control of supervision and completion reports.
• Analytic work. Contribute to the preparation of the Quality Assurance Dashboard with the view to improve results reporting and strengthen the effectiveness of the Bank’s development finance interventions.
• Staff learning and coaching. Facilitate workshops and learning events organized for operational staff, including staff members in field offices and regional resource centres; provide training and mentoring of task managers especially for the mainstreaming of new tools;
• Helpdesk Management and quality assurance clinics. Contribute to helpdesk management activities and provide supports in quality assurance clinics.
• Relationship management. Maintain effective working relationships with staff of Regional and Sector Departments, to ensure Bank-wide ownership/internalization of quality assurance tools.
• Miscellaneous. Undertake other duties as assigned by the Division Manager.

Selection Criteria
Including desirable skills, knowledge and experience:

• Hold at least a Master's degree or equivalent in business administration, economics, statistics or related disciplines.
• Have a minimum of six (6) years of relevant professional experience on quality assurance and results. Experience in IT and data management would be an asset.
• Knowledge of quality assurance policies and operational processes of multilateral development banks.
• Experience in developing training materials and conducting training workshops. Knowledge with e-learning development tools would be an advantage.
• Knowledge of results-based approaches.
• Be customer-oriented, especially in the management of sensitive issues in a multicultural environment.
• Demonstrate innovation and creativity.
• Be able to work independently with a minimum of supervision.
• Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams and coordinate interdepartmental team efforts
• Have proven leadership, coaching and team management skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and spoken) in English or French, preferably with a good working knowledge of the other language.
• Good command of standard applications of the Bank (Word, Excel, Access and PowerPoint); SAP's experience is desirable.