Title
Program Specialist
Location
Washington, DC
Department Name
Program Delivery
Pact Overview
Summary: The Program Specialist (PS) works collaboratively with the Program Delivery team, regional portfolio team, and country office teams to provide efficient support to project operations and donor award administration in the Latin America, East/West Africa and Global (EWAG) Projects portfolio. The PS can expect to engage with programming that integrates diverse technical areas and approaches including capacity development, governance, and engaging markets for improved livelihoods, health, natural resource management. The PS will support all members of the EWAG Program Delivery team and be in communication with country office staff and HQ departments to ensure coordinated support for project implementation, country office operations, and advancing country office and Pact strategy.
The PS reports to the Senior Program Officer, EWAG.
Specific Duties:
The PS provides support to the program delivery function by:
Providing operational and administrative support to projects as needed; coordinating timely and comprehensive responses to country and project teams’ requests and needs
Assisting in the review of scopes of work, project reports, work plans, and other project documents, and ensure quality of content
Support development of budgets for project activities, buy-ins and task orders and spending and cash projections for internal and external audiences.
- Maintaining good knowledge of project issues, operations and working environment
- Keeping track of projects’ up-coming due deliverables and reporting dates; helping track monthly financial reports, in cooperation with project directors, country offices and Program Officers.
- Coordinating preparation of project-related consultant agreements and tracking related payments
- Supporting recruiting and onboarding processes for project staff
Working with and supporting PD staff and country offices to ensure project compliance with donor and Pact’s operational policies and regulations
Helping to coordinating startup process for new projects and country offices and close-outs for projects and countries where operations are ending
Ensuring high-quality project descriptions, documents, case studies, and other relevant documents are posted to internal and external websites
Establishing and maintaining a document filing system for each project; copying relevant email traffic to project archives; preparing documents for off-site storage
- Maintaining project information, profiles, and contact lists are entered and updated in Pact’s databases and shared network drives
- Scheduling meetings, as requested, and taking minutes
- Coordinating administrative support from the Shared Services department
- Following up with relevant HQ departments on requests from country offices and project directors
- Supporting monthly country calls, including planning, logistics and taking minutes.
- Assisting in regular team and portfolio meetings and other cross-departmental coordination meetings
- Ensuring project intellectual capital is properly captured, filed and disseminated;
- Participating in the recruitment of staff as required
- Participating in Program Delivery team-wide meetings and initiatives
- Traveling to country offices to provide support as needed
- Assisting the Regional Vice President and Regional Director as needed.
- Other related tasks.
Minimum Qualifications
BA in a related field and 2+ years of relevant experience (or equivalent)
Ability to travel regularly and at short-notice
Fluency in written and spoken English
Preference for:
- Masters degree in a related field
- At least 2 years of experience working in a developing country or in a similar role in international development
- Fluency in Spanish, French or Swahili.
Skills and Abilities
Behavioral Competencies
Leadership
- Ability to sustain interpersonal and professional relationships with internal colleagues and contacts in donor and peer organizations
- Basic understanding of Pact’s strategy and how tasks contribute to the greater good
- Consistently works within internal process and procedures
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Engagement in corporate initiatives, as requested
Project Management
- Good planning and time management skills
- Good written and oral communication skills
- Ability to problem-solve
- Ability to multitask, adapting to frequently changing priorities
- Good negotiating and conflict resolution skills
Technical Skills
- Baseline experience in one of Pact’s technical areas or a support function
- Basic knowledge and understanding of donor policies and regulations
- Competence using common desktop applications
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