Position Title: Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist (Multiple Positions)
Solicitation Number: SOL-OFDA-16-000029
Salary Level: GS-13 Equivalent: $92,145 – $119,794
Issuance Date: February 11, 2016
Closing Date: March 4, 2016
Closing Time: 12:00 P.M. Eastern Time
Dear Prospective Applicants:
The United States Government (USG), represented by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA), is seeking applications from qualified U.S. citizens to provide personal services as a Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist under a United States Personal Services Contract (USPSC), as described in the attached solicitation.
Submittals must be in accordance with the attached information at the place and time specified. Applicants interested in applying for this position MUST submit the following materials:
- Complete resume. In order to fully evaluate your application, your resume must include:
(a) Paid and non-paid experience, job title, location(s), dates held (month/year), and hours worked per week for each position. Any experience that does not include dates (month/year), locations, and hours per week will not be counted towards meeting the solicitation requirements.
(b) Specific duties performed that fully detail the level and complexity of the work.
(c) Names and contact information (phone/email) of your current and/or previous supervisor(s). Current and/or previous supervisors may be contacted for a reference.
(d) Education and any other qualifications including job-related training courses, job-related skills, or job-related honors, awards or accomplishments.
(e) U.S. Citizenship
(f) Optional: Where you heard about this job (FedBizOps, OFDA Jobs, Career Fair, etc.).
Your resume should contain sufficient information to make a valid determination that you fully meet the experience requirements as stated in this solicitation. This information should be clearly identified in your resume. Failure to provide information sufficient to determine your qualifications for the position will result in loss of full consideration.
Supplemental document specifically addressing the Quality Ranking Factors (QRFs) shown in the solicitation.
USPSC Application form AID 302-3. Applicants are required to complete and sign the form. This form must be physically signed. Electronic signatures will not be accepted.
Additional documents submitted will not be accepted. Incomplete or late applications will not be considered. OFDA reserves the right to select additional candidates if vacancies become available during future phases of the selection process.
Applicants can expect to receive a confirmation email when application materials have been received. Applicants should retain for their records copies of all enclosures which accompany their applications. Your complete resume and the supplemental document addressing the QRFs must be emailed to:
OFDA Recruitment Team
E-Mail Address: recruiter@ofda.gov
Website: www.OFDAjobs.net
Any questions on this solicitation may be directed to OFDA Recruitment Team via the information provided above.
Sincerely,
Renee Reed
Contracting Officer
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
This position will require significant travel of up to 30 percent of the time.
M&E Technical Assistance:
- Work with regional teams to develop and implement appropriate and useful M&E practices tailored to their regional context and M&E needs.
- Provide M&E technical advice for country portfolios, regional portfolios, global initiatives, or for specific awards.
- Advise regional teams and OFDA partners on appropriate and useful strategies and activities to monitor and evaluate emergency response, early recovery, and disaster risk reduction programming.
- Review and encourage inclusion of M&E in response strategies, project designs, and implementation plans, and other OFDA documents.
- Respond to queries from OFDA staff, other USAID offices, and partners on M&E.
- Provide feedback on M&E plans as a component of proposals submitted by partners.
- Assist in the design and facilitation of M&E training sessions for OFDA staff and partners.
- Assist in the design, clearance, introduction, and implementation of OFDA M&E policy guidance.
- Review and edit a wide variety of M&E products, including evaluation reports, scopes of work, training materials, and memos.
Project Design: External Evaluations and Monitoring Projects
- Facilitate the design, procurement, and implementation of a variety of external performance and impact evaluations, third party monitoring projects, and M&E capacity building projects across OFDA’s worldwide portfolio.
- Liaise with regional teams to identify priority M&E projects for their respective regions.
- Lead inclusive, efficient, and effective design processes for external evaluations, third party monitoring processes, and M&E capacity building projects.
- Liaise with USAID’s Office of Acquisition and Assistance (M/OAA) to ensure planned procurements proceed on schedule.
- Actively participate in procurement processes for M&E projects.
- Serve as the focal point between OFDA teams and contractors implementing OFDA M&E projects.
- Review and provide expert feedback on M&E contract deliverables.
- Assist regional teams in using results from M&E projects to inform program strategy and decision making.
- Serve as the team lead or evaluation specialist on internal performance evaluations; design methods and logistics, conduct interviews, train enumerators, analyze data, generate reports, present results to regional teams.
- Conduct secondary research relevant to evaluation designs.
- Coordinate logistics and administration of OFDA internal evaluations.
- Conduct qualitative data collection and analysis, as part of an evaluation team.
Portfolio Management:
- Independently manage all aspects of award management throughout the award cycle.
- Serve as the Contracting Officer’s Representative, as assigned, for M&E awards and contracts.
- Participate actively in the development of M&E policies, information products, and strategy documents.
- Participate in budgeting and planning processes for M&E actions.
Reporting:
- Provide guidance to staff members that manage all aspects of performance reporting, including reporting on OFDA indicators and performance to OFDA Senior Management Team, DCHA, USAID, Department of State, and Congress.
- When needed, coordinate OFDA responses related to performance reporting, indicator tracking, and achievements.
- Assist, on an as-needed basis, with the development of a systematized approach to reporting OFDA information, including development of Performance Indicator Reference Sheets (PIRS) and utilization of OFDA’s reporting database and software.
General Duties:
- Deploy, on short notice, to serve on DARTs or serve on the Washington-based RMTs, as required, with increasing levels of responsibility to include serving independently as a planning coordinator, program officer, or field officer on a DART or as a planning coordinator on an RMT.
- Backstop other M&E staff as needed.
- Serve as the OFDA after-hours duty officer on a rotational basis, for approximately one week every six months.
EDUCATION/EXPERIENCE REQUIRED FOR THIS POSITION
(Determines basic eligibility for the position. Applicants who do not meet all of the education and experience factors are considered NOT qualified for the position.)
Bachelor’s degree with significant study in or pertinent to the specialized field (including, but not limited to, monitoring and evaluation, social science, international relations, political science, and disaster management) and minimum of seven (7) years of relevant work experience with the USG, NGOs, IOs, UN Agencies, or firms. Such experience must have a humanitarian, development, or transition focus. Experience in the field on a humanitarian response is highly desirable.
Experience must include at least two (2) years of professional field experience on humanitarian, development, or transition programs. Professional experience should also include working on M&E as an internal M&E manager, working as part of an external monitoring team, working as part of an external evaluation team, or other experience directly relevant to M&E. Experience developing or implementing a range of field research methods in a variety of contexts is desirable. Experience designing evaluations is desirable.
Experience working effectively on teams is highly desirable. Experience working with program teams in developing M&E strategies and approaches that fit unique contexts is desirable.
OR
Master’s degree with significant study in or pertinent to the specialized field (including, but not limited to, monitoring and evaluation, social science, international relations, political science, and disaster management) and minimum of five (5) years of relevant work experience with the USG, NGOs, IOs, UN Agencies, or firms. Such experience must have a humanitarian, development, or transition focus. Experience in the field on a humanitarian response is highly desirable.
Experience must include at least two (2) years of professional field experience on humanitarian, development, or transition programs. Professional experience should also include working on M&E as an internal M&E manager, working as part of an external monitoring team, working as part of an external evaluation team, or other experience directly relevant to M&E. Experience developing or implementing a range of field research methods in a variety of contexts is desirable. Experience designing evaluations is desirable.
Experience working effectively on teams is highly desirable. Experience working with program teams in developing M&E strategies and approaches that fit unique contexts is desirable.
SELECTION FACTORS
(Determines basic eligibility for the position. Applicants who do not meet all of the selection factors are considered NOT qualified for the position.)
· Applicant is a U.S. Citizen.
· Complete resume submitted. See cover page for resume requirements. Experience that cannot be quantified will not be counted towards meeting the solicitation requirements.
· USPSC Application form AID 302-3. Applicants are required to complete and sign the form. This form must be physically signed. Electronic signatures will not be accepted.
· Supplemental document specifically addressing the Quality Ranking Factors (QRFs) submitted.
· Ability to obtain and maintain a Secret up to Top Secret level clearance.
· Satisfactory verification of academic credentials.
QUALITY RANKING FACTORS (QRFs)
(Used to determine the competitive ranking of qualified applicants in comparison to other applicants. The factors are listed in priority order from highest to least.)
QRF #1 In 750 words or less, please describe your experience in monitoring and evaluating humanitarian programs. Explain how your background in this field would make you an asset to OFDA’s M&E team.
QRF #2 In 750 words or less, please prepare a short memo for senior decision-makers at OFDA describing how integrating M&E into OFDA’s work supports OFDA’s mandate of saving lives, alleviating human suffering, and reducing the social and economic impacts of disasters. The memo should answer the question, “Why should OFDA spend money and time on M&E?”
QRF #3 In 750 words or less, please explain how specifically the monitoring and evaluation of humanitarian programming differs from that of development programming.
BASIS OF RATING: Applicants who meet the Education/Experience requirements and Selection Factors will be further evaluated based on scoring of the QRF responses. Those applicants determined to be competitively ranked may also be evaluated on interview performance and satisfactory professional reference checks.
Applicants are required to address each of the QRFs in a separate document describing specifically and accurately what experience, training, and/or education they have received as it pertains to each factor. Be sure to include your name and the announcement number at the top of each additional page. Failure to address the selection factors and/or Quality Ranking Factors may result in not receiving credit for all pertinent experience, education, and/or training.
The most qualified candidates may be interviewed and required to provide a writing sample. OFDA will not pay for any expenses associated with the interviews. Professional references and academic credentials will be evaluated for applicants being considered for selection. Note: Please be advised that references may be obtained independently from other sources in addition to the ones provided by an applicant. OFDA reserves the right to select additional candidates if vacancies become available during future phase of the selection process.
The Applicant Rating System is as Follows:
QRFs – 30 points
QRF #1 – 10 points
QRF #2 – 10 points
QRF #3 – 10 points
Interview Performance Round 1 – 10 points
Interview Performance Round 2 – 50 points
Satisfactory Professional Reference Checks – 10 points
Total Possible Points: 100
How to apply:
APPLYING:
Applications must be received by the closing date and time at the address specified in the cover letter.
Qualified individuals are required to submit:
1. Complete resume. In order to fully evaluate your application, your resume must include:
(a) Paid and non-paid experience, job title, location(s), dates held (month/year), and hours worked per week for each position. Dates (month/year) and locations for all field experience must also be detailed. Any experience that does not include dates (month/year), locations, and hours per week will not be counted towards meeting the solicitation requirements.
(b) Specific duties performed that fully detail the level and complexity of the work.
(c) Names and contact information (phone/email) of your current and/or previous supervisor(s). Current and/or previous supervisors may be contacted for a reference.
(d) Education and any other qualifications including job-related training courses, job-related skills, or job-related honors, awards or accomplishments.
(e) U.S. Citizenship
(f) Optional: Where you heard about this job (FedBizOps, OFDA Jobs, Career Fair, etc.).
Your resume should contain sufficient information to make a valid determination that you fully meet the experience requirements as stated in this solicitation. This information should be clearly identified in your resume. Failure to provide information sufficient to determine your qualifications for the position will result in loss of full consideration.
2. Supplemental document specifically addressing the QRFs shown in the solicitation.
3. USPSC Application form AID 302-3. Applicants are required to complete and sign the form. This form must be physically signed. Electronic signatures will not be accepted.
Additional documents submitted will not be accepted.
By submitting your application materials, you certify that all of the information on and attached to the application is true, correct, complete, and made in good faith. You agree to allow all information on and attached to the application to be investigated. False or fraudulent information on or attached to your application may result in you being eliminated from consideration for this position, or being terminated after award, and may be punishable by fine or imprisonment.
To ensure consideration of applications for the intended position, please reference the solicitation number on your application, and as the subject line in any email.
DOCUMENT SUBMITTALS
Via email: recruiter@ofda.gov
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