Job Description

Job Summary

• The Program Officer (PO) will be responsible for designing and implementing a portfolio of small grants in a specific geographic or thematic area, to be determined by the Program Manager. 
• The PO will work within close collaboration with Senior Management (including USAID) and community stakeholders and contribute to identifying, prioritizing and designing activities that will respond to community development priorities in order to further the objectives of the Connection program.
• The PO, working with a small multidisciplinary team and will be charged with oversight of project activities to ensure that all tasks are completed within timeframe and budget parameters defined during project design.
• The PM will be tasked with the programmatic and administrative closeout of all activities, including final reporting, request and delivery of goods and services (in concert with procurement staff), disbursement of funding (in concert with finance staff), and disposition of any project inventory.
• The PO will serve as a point of contact for local-level actors and community stakeholders to ensure that all activities fit within a strategic and coherent portfolio. The PO will be expected to report daily to and receive guidance from Senior Management.
• The PO will be expected to liaise with various levels of stakeholders, including government officials, civil society organizations and community actors; the selected candidate must be able to maintain good relations with all associated parties.
• In addition, the Program Officer will be expected to collaborate with Program Managers, Program Officers, and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) unit to share lessons learned and jointly design program strategy.
• The Program Officer will report to the Program Managers. This position will be based in Yola.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the oversight of a portfolio of projects, under the close supervision of the Program Manager.
• In concert with senior management and Program Manager advise on the programmatic design of new projects, including identification of potential local partners and beneficiaries, monitor implementation to ensure timely completion and adherence to budget and administrative and programmatic closeout throughout the portfolio of activities.
• Take an active role in the program’s learning process by feeding information in a timely manner on political and security developments in the PM’s target area.
• Develop activity-level Theory of Change (TOC), thinking strategy about the contribution of each activity to the overall program objective.
• Coordinate with Government of Nigeria (GoN) officials, community stakeholders and civil society actors to ensure coherent and strategic programming as part of a unified project endeavour.
• Establish community-level project oversight committees to ensure community buy-in of activities.
• Help set up transparent management and oversight mechanisms and work to incorporate as wide a range of project beneficiaries, GoN and other important stakeholders as possible.
• Utilize program database for project development and management, including updating information on projects and activities per week.
• Comply with all Creative and USAID procedures and policies with regards to ethics and compliance, grants management, HR, finance, procurement, operations and security.
• Perform other tasks, as assigned.

Qualifications

• A University degree in a related field is required
• At least 2 years of general work experience is required.
• Experience in working with communities to implement grassroots development projects preferred.
• Prior experience in grants management with international-funded projects is highly desirable.
• Proficiency in using Microsoft office: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc. is required.
• Ability to work under short deadlines and efficiently handle multiple tasks.
• Attention to detail and the ability to function well in a team.
• Experience of working in a conflict environment is a plus.
• Fluency in oral and written English is required.
• Fluency in Hausa and/or Kanuri is required.