DEPUTY CHIEF OF PARTY

Position Title: Deputy Chief of Party

Location: Monrovia, Liberia

Reports to: Chief of Party

Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) is recruiting for an anticipated USAID-funded bilateral community health award that aims to deliver quality health services at the community level through community health cadres and their supporting systems.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

The Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) is the primary technical lead and will take an active leadership role in the strategic direction and technical leadership of the project. They will provide support to the Chief of Party (COP) for reporting and for cultivating open and collaborative management relationships with the USAID/Liberia Mission, the Ministry of Health (MOH) and other entities within the Government of Liberia (GOL), project and implementing partners, and other relevant stakeholders. This includes acting on behalf of or representing the COP, as necessary. They will be responsible for technical oversight of the project, while ensuring compliance with USAID and Johns Hopkins University (JHU) processes and regulations. They will have depth and breadth of technical expertise and experience in community health, health system strengthening, and other related areas, a solid professional reputation, interpersonal skills and professional relationships to fulfill project requirements. They will support the COP to oversee all project implementation, project communications, monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL), and all financial and programmatic reporting activities to ensure a cohesive project. This is a Key Personnel role approved by USAID.

Specific duties and responsibilities include:

• Work in partnership with the COP to set the project vision and strategy with input from the USAID Agreement Officer’s Representative (AOR) Team, the project Senior Management Team, CCP leadership, and other stakeholders.
• Support the COP to lead the vision, design, and implementation of the program activities according to a larger program goal.
• Assure that CCP and the project team meet commitments to USAID for all project deliverables, outputs, and other related activities by ensuring they are high-quality and evidence-based, submitting them in a timely manner, and engaging and leading training and capacity-strengthening efforts. This includes submission on relevant knowledge management platforms.
• Represent the COP, as needed, by representing the project at all levels to USAID and other key stakeholders, including collaborating agencies.
• Support the COP in cultivating open and collaborative relationships with USAID, the GOL, including the MOH and other relevant line ministries, local civil society organizations, and other partners and stakeholders.
• Work with COP to put in place tools, processes, and structures to ensure excellence in programs, products, and deliverables to meet program goals.

Program Management

• As the community health technical expert for the project, ensure a process of using data to inform strategies, work plans, and program direction. Lead and provide guidance to the team for all technical aspects of the project.
• Maintain efficient communication with US-based program and research teams.
• Maintain frequent, open, ongoing communication with US-based program and research teams in all locations (offsite, in headquarters, and internationally).
• Ensure adherence to JHU, CCP and donor rules, regulations and policies.
• Identify and address technical assistance needs independently
• Contribute to budget development, tracking and resource allocation decisions.
• Oversee technical staffing, roles and responsibilities, and level of effort to meet program goals.

People Management

• Design and manage effective team structure to meet program goals.
• Facilitate and model frequent, open, ongoing communication with program team members in all locations (in-country, at headquarters, and internationally).
• Supervise, mentor, and coach staff. This may include:
  • Orient and train new staff members.
  • Conduct regular (at least quarterly) check-ins and annual performance reviews with all supervisees.
  • Identify and recommend appropriate professional development opportunities for supervisees.
  • Provide coaching and mentoring to promote continued growth and improvement among supervisees and other staff.
• Lead and build staff capacity in technical work, including training and curriculum development, strategies, toolkits, communication materials, scripts, job aides, and needs assessments.
• Oversee and ensure the quality of work produced by staff or team. Provide information to others about their quality of work. This includes raising concerns about errors, omission, and poor-quality products to the staff member responsible for that work and requesting revision of work that is not high quality.
• Manage group work and effective team functioning independently; includes identifying and filling staffing gaps and independent contractor identification and hiring
• Operate in compliance with all JHU supervisory policies.

Technical Work

• Lead the development and implementation of in-country technical work, including trainings, workshops, and program support. This includes leading technical areas and larger activities driven by data, making programmatic adjustments as needed to reach programmatic targets.
• Demonstrate senior level experience in community health, including community level service delivery, health system strengthening, knowledge management, capacity strengthening, etc.
• Demonstrate technical expertise in relevant technical areas: family planning/reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, maternal, newborn, and child health, malaria, global health security, gender, youth, and social inclusion, with sufficient understanding in all the areas to provide technical guidance and guide collaboration and coordination efforts.
• Stay abreast of trends and align project strategies with those current trends and the priorities of government stakeholders, implementing partners, and the donor.
• Support COP in ensuring activity integrity technically, administratively, and financially.
• Demonstrate high-level technical communication, including writing reports, creating and giving presentations, and facilitating trainings or group discussions.
• Support the collaboration, learning, and adaptation (CLA) agenda for the project.
• Produce and edit documents, work plans, reports, and presentations.
• Ensure excellence in programs, products, and deliverables to meet program goals.

Professional and Organizational Growth

• Support strategic partnership development and donor cultivation.
• Stay abreast and contribute to global technical knowledge.
• Represent the project, CCP, and JHU at relevant external meetings and events. This may include delivering technical presentations, networking, relationship building, and initiating and following through with opportunities for collaboration.
• Engage and collaborate with other programs and staff across CCP.
• Recognize and address factors that might strategically impact a program or the CCP and propose solutions to appropriate staff members.
• Proactively seek opportunities to expand leadership and management skills.
• Request or initiate quarterly check-in meetings with supervisor to assess performance, strengths and areas for improvement in your current position, and establish professional goals.
• Identify opportunities for bringing new skills into CCP, including attending JHU courses and seminars, conferences, and external trainings.
• Occasional domestic and international travel required, with potential for evenings and weekend work.

Minimum Qualifications (required)

• Master’s degree in public health, social sciences, or related field. If the candidate does not have a Master’s degree, they should have a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field with a minimum of 15 years of professional experience in delivering community health and professional experience working in mid to senior management positions.
• At least five (5) years of senior level management experience in the design, implementation, and management of programs of similar size, complexity and setting.
• At least (5) five years of senior level community health technical experience.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Senior level experience in community health. Experience in the integration of community health with social and behavior change communication preferred.
• Experience working in Liberia, including excellent knowledge of the various counties and regions, and national issues impacting community health services and community cadres.
• Demonstrated leadership skills and experience in building and maintaining productive working relationships.
• Proven record of building teams and fostering collaboration to achieve program goals, meet program milestones, and produce quality program results.
• Ability to work independently in a high profile, fast-paced and multi tasked environment.
• Demonstrated understanding of USAID priorities.
• Knowledge of U.S. Government (USG) health initiatives and related reporting requirements and funding parameters.
• Exceptional communication skills in written and spoken English.

Preferred Qualifications

• Liberian citizenship.
• Prior experience as USAID DCOP or other senior level position.
• Experience in West Africa.

Other Requirements

• May require up to 25% travel in Liberia, and internationally, as needed.
• Collaborate with US-based team on a routine basis.
• Excellent past performance references.
• Other duties may be assigned.

How to Apply

All candidates are encouraged to submit e-mail applications with copies of their current CV, cover letter and three professional referees. Please indicate which position you are applying for in the subject line of the email.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and must be received no later than 11:59 PM Liberia local time on September 20, 2024, at ccpliberia-hr@jh.edu

Late submissions will not be considered.

Please note: This position is contingent upon securing award and USAID approval of key personnel (if applicable).