Senior Area Program Manager

About the Hiring Group

RTI's International Development Group brings together RTI experts and capabilities across food security, agriculture, energy, environment, water, governance, and economic opportunity. RTI leverages its experience in designing and delivering multisectoral programming and technical solutions to build resilience and prosperity and promote economic growth and security around the world.  

Project Description.

The purpose of the Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture activity is to increase access to healthy diets, particularly for women and children, by improving competitiveness, inclusiveness, and resilience of the Ethiopian food and agriculture system.  The project scope targets private sector partnerships engaged in a market systems approach to strengthening the Ethiopian food system. The project collaborates with the Ministry of Agriculture and many other agencies and USAID programs to leverage resources and achieve impact at scale.

Position Description

The Area Program Manager is responsible for coordination in Amhara from the office in Bahir Dar, will be leading the implementation and coordination of all technical activities at the regional level while providing oversight to day-to-day project operations. The Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture activity has established regional field offices that will maintain local relationships and make locally focused programmatic decisions for market actors supported by the project.

This position will be based in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, and will report to the Senior Area Program Manager. 

Your primary responsibilities will include but not be limited to:

• Overall coordinate and manage Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture activities in the Amhara region. 

• Oversee all activities involved with grant, procurement, logistics, HR, and IT functions for the regional office. Responsible for data collection and submission to main office. Ensure compliance of such activities with established RTI and donor policies and procedures. 

• Support and coordinate with Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture technical teams in nutrition, food and agriculture systems, and market systems to ensure technical quality of core activities to ensure scale and impact across sectors. 

• Develop and maintain relationships with private sector actors within their regions, engaging them as grantees, learning partners, and stakeholders in local food market systems. Oversee and coordinate local partners, sub-contracts, and grantees implementation and reporting. 

• Engage with other donors and donor-funded activities by including them as active participants in learning agendas and events, to ensure that learnings are shared, and successes are amplified and replicated. 

• Coordinate and work closely with regional government and district (woreda) level government for smooth and collaborative technical implementation of Feed the Future Ethiopia Transforming Agriculture activities.  

• Continually monitor field travel and day-to-day risk assessments. Overall security management is of paramount concern given the volatile environment throughout Amhara region. Therefore, taking care of staff and property, and coordinating closely with the RTI and Transforming Agriculture security protocols, is of critical importance. 

• Ensure that regional support needs are clearly identified to the head office. 

• Supervise and support technical and operational staff in the field, including coordination in the preparation process of work plan development and activities implementation, monitoring of activities and progress made using partners’ data platform, identification of needs for technical. 

• Master’s degree and 6 years of experience, or a Bachelor’s degree and 8 years of experience, or the equivalent combination of education and experience. 

• Prior experience working on USAID or other donor-funded projects in a similar capacity preferred. 

• Knowledge of Amhara region required. Prior experience working in Amhara region preferred.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Demonstrated skills in building, mobilizing, and leading multidisciplinary teams, with preference for experience with USAID project management. 

• Supervisory experience required, with proven ability to work under pressure, and with multiple concurrent demands. 

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills. 

• Verbal and written fluency in English and Amharic required. 

• Current resident of Bahir Dar city and/or willingness to relocate immediately. 

• Ability to travel and work throughout Ethiopia in difficult terrain/conditions at times. 

Skills Required:

• Social / Science / Project / Management / Development