Vacancy Announcement

ETHIOPIAN AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION AGENCY

Position:                          Senior PMO Analyst, PPMO (Re-advert)

Term of Employment:   One year with possibility of extension

Duty Station(s):              Addis Ababa

Required Number:         One

Salary & Benefits:           Competitive

Application Deadline:    December 15, 2019

BACKGROUND:

The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government agency created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATA envisions that, by 2025, smallholder farmers are commercialized with greater incomes, inclusiveness, resilience and sustainability, contributing to Ethiopia’s achievement of middle-income country status.

The agency focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Resources (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.

Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.

Our Culture

We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results.  Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great team work to achieve excellent results.

At ATA, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector.  We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training.  We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Senior PMO analyst is accountable for ensuring the use of standard project management processes and tools across ATA.   He/she is responsible to collect, analyze, and interprets project performance data and report project status, trend, variances and suggestion on improvement. The senior analyst facilitates the organization and identifying of priority projects that are aligned with Agriculture Commercialization (ACC) Cluster initiatives and Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agenda deliverables. The analyst will closely follow and facilitate priority project development and track the completion of each stage within the specified constraints.

This position will report directly to the Director of Project Portfolio Management Office. The Project Portfolio Management team sits within the Implementation Support (IS) Vertical, which strives to standardize project/program/portfolio management practices in the agency and elevate project management skill of ATA project teams that drive the impact and effectiveness of the ATA’s and partners’ work with smallholder farmers. As part of the PPM management team, the senior analyst will closely collaborate with PPM team, project team leaders, members within IS vertical, MOA staff and key stakeholders.  The position will be based in ATA Head Office.

 ESSENTIAL DUTIES:

• Liaise with PPM senior project managers, project leaders within ATA and ensure the implementation of agreed project management methods, templates, processes and tools throughout the project lifecycle across ATA.

• Provide support to project teams on the use of project management templates, process and tools

• Facilitate workshops for project prioritization and development of priority.

• Collaborate with the relevant unit in the IS/ATA on the collection, classification, analysis, interpretation and reporting of project performance data and KPIs.

• Develop a mechanism to monitor and control the project performance data.

• Monitor the execution of priority projects within approved schedule, budget and scope (without compromising quality) and produce performance reports including status, progress, variance, forecasting and trend when applicable.

• Analyze interdependencies between projects and establish link between them.

• Train project team on project management, methodologies, tools and processes.

• Play a critical role in the promotion of the PPMO implementation and develop and maintain project information organization systems.

• Develop and support effective communication mechanisms between the project teams.

• Carry out quality assurance review as required

• Develop and maintain project information organization systems

• Regularly seek feedback from ATA and partner project teams, analyze the feedback and initiate improvement on project management methodologies, processes, tools and support
• Undertake any other related tasks as specified by the director.

• Bachelor's or master’s degree in computer science and related fields.

• At least 8/6 years of relevant experience in BSc/MSc respectively, 3 to 5 years’ experience in project management.

• Knowledge and use of standard project management tools and techniques.

• Strong analysis and critical thinking skills.

• Proficiency in data collection, analysis and reporting tools.

• Experience in Microsoft Excel, Power Point, Power BI and SharePoint.

• Well organized and have understanding of the big-picture while also having a keen eye for detail

• Good prioritization skills.

• Demonstrated ability to build relationships and influence people without authority.

• Energized by a fast-moving environment with an emphasis on high performance, accountability and results.

• Strong Communicator, able to communicate at all level and encourage teams to complete their projects on time and in budget.

• Strong set of personal values, including integrity, honesty and desire to be of service.

• Associate level certification in project management is advantageous.

• Fluency in Amharic and English is required.