Deputy Chief of Party – Operations Prime Impala Resources

Prime Impala Resources seeks a Deputy Chief of Party-Operations (DCOP-Ops) for the anticipated USAID Zambia Agriculture Diversification Support Activity (ZADS) opportunity. This activity aims to contribute to transforming Zambia’s agricultural sector into an efficient, equitable, and sustainable producer of high quality and nutritious food for consumption, sale, and trade. This transition will foster growth in Zambia’s agricultural sector and enhance resilience to climate shocks while improving the market competitiveness of the targeted agricultural commodities and increasing the consumption of nutritious foods at the household level.

The three outcomes of the activity are:

Outcome 1: Increase agricultural yields and diversified food production among small agribusinesses;
Outcome 2: Enhance market systems through robust private sector engagement and strengthened value chains of selected agricultural commodities from producers; and
Outcome 3: Enhance dietary diversity and improve food security.
The DCOP-Ops is accountable for ZADS Operations, including finance and budget management, procurement and logistics, grants, and human resources. They will, with the COP, be responsible for ensuring operations support to the achievement of ZADS results and will, therefore, work closely with the DCOP-Technical and Outcome Leads. The DCOP-Ops acts as the COP, as delegated, in the absence of the COP.

Their key responsibilities include:

• Support the chief of party in developing and implementing key management systems that will support project planning, reporting, and performance management; financial management; property and technical procurement systems; subcontracts and grants management; and personnel management;
• Identify challenges, obstacles, and difficulties affecting the operation and effectiveness of project implementation, develop strategies to solve these problems, and work with the chief of party and USAID as needed to install and implement these strategies;
• Produce annual budget forecasts, ensure accurate tracking of project expenditure, and monitor overall financial performance of the project;
• Monitor and support the standardization of operational systems and policies for the project;
• Oversee compliance with U.S. government regulations, Prime Impala Resources corporate policies, Zambian law, and any supplemental policies developed specifically for the project;
• Directly supervise and provide regular and constructive feedback to project staff;
• Participate in the development of the annual work plan and formulation of other deliverables and reporting to USAID;
• Facilitate the use of tools and systems required to plan, implement, track, report and quality control the project’s technical activities. This will include work planning, monitoring and evaluation, scopes of work, progress reporting, and other documentation submitted to USAID;
• Oversee recruitment and hiring of all local staff;
• Act as the COP, as delegated, in the absence of the COP; and
• Perform other duties as required to ensure successful project implementation.

The DCOP-Operations minimum required qualifications:

• Graduate degree in finance, accounting, business management, human resources or related field, or a Bachelor’s degree and seven years of demonstrated successful experience leading operations on a comparable USAID funded project;
• Minimum four years directing Operations in a complex organization of comparable scale to this development activity;
• Minimum three years proven experience overseeing donor budgets and financial reporting;
• Four years managing grants and procurement, preferably in a USAID context;
• Superb interpersonal skills and a proven ability to work effectively with different stakeholders and on teams;
• Familiarity with Zambian labor law desirable; and
• Fluent English required, and fluency in Bemba and/or Nyanja desirable.