Peace, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance Practice Area Leader

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• Peace_and_Conflict_Practice_Leader_Position_Description.docx

Description

PEACE AND CONFLICT PRACTICE AREA LEADER

About SI

Social Impact (SI) is an Arlington, VA-based international development consulting firm. We provide a full range of innovative management consulting, technical assistance, and training services to strengthen international development programs, organizations and policies.

SI has an emerging Peace and Conflict Practice consisting of work with USAID/OTI under the Program Development Quickly III (PDQ III) IQC; USAID/CMM through a two-year developmental evaluation of its people-to-people reconciliation small grants programs; and several individual task orders including a major conflict assessment utilizing the CAF 2.0 framework for USAID/Sudan.

SI aims to strategically expand its Peace and Conflict Practice, leveraging existing and new clients and opportunities, as it makes the transition from a small to medium sized business.

Position Description

SI is seeking a Peace and Conflict Practice Leader to support the growth and development of our emerging Peace and Conflict Practice through current and new clients and project opportunities, and by providing thought leadership on peace and conflict at SI. The primary function of the Peace and Conflict Practice Leader will be to serve as the IQC Manager for the USAID/OTI PDQ III IQC. This will include helping to network and identify peace and conflict specialists for individual task orders; overseeing the support of field teams; regularly updating our COR and other USAID colleagues; and attending/leading post-field work debriefs and periodic client meetings.

In addition, with support from SI Program Managers, the Practice Leader will also provide management oversight and support for SI staff and short-term technical assistance teams working on SI’s conflict-related projects and programs.

Primary Responsibilities

Peace and Conflict Practice Leader (60% during year one and expanding as Practice is developed)

• The Practice Leader will be responsible for developing and implementing the strategy for building SI’s Peace and Conflict Practice working with SI’s President and senior staff. This will include, over time, building the requisite full-time staffing structure to support the growing practice. The Peace and Conflict strategy will leverage SI’s existing prime contracts with USAID, the MCC and State Department while expanding to new clients.
• The Peace and Conflict Practice Leader will be the IQC Manager on SI’s USAID/OTI PDQ III IQC. Contract, with option years, runs through September 2017.
• The Practice Leader will be responsible for Quality Assurance on other existing contracts focused on peace and conflict.
• The Practice Leader will lead selected technical assistance assessment and evaluation teams focusing on peace and conflict issues.
• Building the Peace and Conflict Practice is a multi-year commitment and realistically will require aminimum 2-3 year time frame to significantly expand opportunities. The Peace and Conflict Practice Leader is willing to commit to this time frame and is expected to be a key member of SI’s management team.

Reporting Responsibilities

• The Peace and Conflict Practice Leader will report directly to SI’s President and will coordinate closely with SI’s VP for Evaluation Services, the VP for Programs and other Practice Leaders.

Business Development (expected 40% time)

Lead scoping, positioning, planning, marketing and proposal development related to expanding SI’s Peace and Conflict Practice with both current and new clients. The Practice Leader will identify and qualify new opportunities, write technical sections for proposals, review draft proposals, identify peace and conflict experts and team leaders for bids, and work with the Finance Department to estimate level of effort and project budgets.

Candidate Requirements

• MA or Ph.D. in International Development, Peace and Conflict, Political Science or similar field (required)
• Academic training and practical experience in quantitative research/evaluation including in-depth knowledge and experience with quantitative, qualitative and participatory evaluation designs and methods (required)
• Demonstrated experience (minimum 5 yrs with PhD or 10 with Master’s) managing or providing technical guidance for peace and conflict assessments, evaluations and assessments (required)
• Demonstrated experience leading short-term evaluation and assessment teams with highly rated products/reports (required)
• Demonstrated team building, team management and conflict management skills for short-term technical assistance projects (required)
• Ability to travel overseas for short-term assignments (required)
• Demonstrated ability to write clearly under deadline (required)
• Experience working in developing countries (required)
• Field experience in managing small and medium-scale data collection activities and surveys (strongly preferred)
• Experience working with USAID, DOS, DOL/ILAB Development Bank and International NGOs working in the Peace and Conflict arena (preferred)
• Proficiency in a foreign language, such as Arabic, French or Spanish (preferred)

Performance Metrics

Project/Program Performance. For projects that the Peace and Conflict Practice Leader leads or supervises the key performance metrics are:

1. Client satisfaction. Ratings of 5 (“exceptional”) or 4 (“very good”) on Customer Performance Ratings (CPRs) for all rating categories: (i) quality of technical work, (ii) timeliness/adherence to schedule, (iii) cost control, (iv) business relations and (v) management of key personnel.
2. Project financial performance. Profitable financial performance of projects (and peace and conflict IQCs for which the Peace and Conflict Practice Leader has direct responsibility) following full recovery SI’s indirect labor rate plus fee (profit) and all costs incurred on the project.
3. Team skills. “Exceptional” or “very good” ratings of the Practice Leader’s team management skills from short-term and long-term team members. Rating categories include: (i) team planning, (ii) leadership, (iii) team building, (iv) communication, (v) collaborative problem solving (vi) conflict management, and (vii) mentoring of less experienced team members.
4. Billable time. We expect the Peace and Conflict Practice Leader to be billable at least 50% time.

Business Development. The Peace and Conflict Practice Leader is expected to:

1. Lead the technical writing for the upcoming IQCs and task orders. This will including capture and prepositioning, assembling teams, writing technical elements of bids. Expected minimum win rate of 50-60% on Task Order proposals.
2. Supervise, review and provide QA for the preparation of other peace and conflict-related Task Orders (evaluations, assessments, studies, toolkits) that are led by other SI team members or consultants.
3. Maintain strong client relationships on peace and conflict-related projects and IQCs and succeed in generating new business with existing clients.
4. Establish relationships with new clients and succeed in generating new business with these groups.

Pay and Benefits

Salary will be commensurate with the candidate’s capabilities, experience, and salary history. Standard benefits include paid leave, health insurance, IRA.