Deputy Chief of Party, Feed the Future (FTF) Nigeria Resilience Activity at Diamond Development Initiatives (DDI)

Job Summary

• The DCOP will support the Chief of Party in meeting Activity objectives and deliverables and in providing overall leadership in technical, administrative, operational, and management aspects.
• The DCOP will support relationship management with USAID/Nigeria, the Government of Nigeria, partners and external stakeholders.

Specific Job Responsibilities

• Manage key aspects of the development, implementation, and consolidation of the Nigeria Resilience Activity.
• Serve as a point of contact to USAID as well as public, private and non-government stakeholders, when needed.
• Manage key functions of the project to meet donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results and budget.
• Contribute to ensuring coordination between program and operations leads.
• Contribute to ensuring the DDI program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy and procedures.
• Effectively supervise and manage talent,team dynamics and staff well-being; provide coaching and mentoring; strategically tailor individual development plans and complete performance assessments; and contribute to the development of staffing plans and the recruitment process of senior staff.
• Manage and mitigate risk through monitoring national and regional issues that may impact staff and programming.
• Ensure all staff members understand and adhere to safety and security policies and plans and update such plans.
• Promote, uphold and model a commitment to the efficient use of agency and donor resources.
• Help ensure compliance with USAID grants, including financial tracking and oversight of partner budgets, finance, administration and reporting to USAID.
• Maintain relationships with key staff of consortium partner organizations, and contribute to coordination of the roles and activities of staff from other consortium member organizations in implementation in line with DDI partnership principles.
• Create and maintain proper conditions for learning, establish a safe environment for sharing of ideas, solutions, and difficulties and possess the capacity to detect, analyse and respond quickly to deficiencies.
• Identify performance gaps and training opportunities for DDI and partner staff and recommend trainings and technical assistance.

Key Qualifications and Requirements

• A Master's Degree or higher in Agriculture, Economics, or Business Administration;
• Demonstrated expertise and a minimum of five (5) years of Deputy Chief of Party experience in managing large to medium-scale livelihood, agricultural development activities, preferably valued at $5 million and above. Knowledge of resilience programming and preferably the African context is also required;
• At least three (3) years of field-based work in a conflict-prone and/or active insurgency/banditry environment;
• Strong technical experience in market system approach to development;
• Demonstrated ability to be collaborative across activities utilizing strong communication and inter- personal skills, with evidence of the ability to productively interact with a wide range and levels of organizations (government, private sector, other activities, NGOs); and
• Strong written and verbal communication skills (proficiency in English). Ability to communicate in Hausa language is a plus.