Chief of Party

Jhpiego seeks a Chief of Party (COP) to provide vision, leadership and direction to
ensure the strategic, programmatic, technical, and financial integrity for an upcoming
USAID Global Health Security (GHS) activity in Guatemala. The goal of the Activity is to build Guatemala’s capacities to prevent, detect and rapidly respond to new and emerging infectious diseases. The GHS activity is expected to strengthen existing Guatemala’s One Health systems, entities, structures, all towards building a resilient, sustainable response to emerging infectious disease threats.

The COP will have the overall responsibility for leadership and management and reporting of all project activities. The COP will be responsible for making key decisions and solving problems in short timeframes while ensuring operational and project quality and integrity. They will serve as the project’s main point of contact with USAID and the Government on routine and strategic matters. The COP will ensure effective organizational management and communication with host country governments and key stakeholders at all levels, including international entities.  The project is expected to operate over a five-year period.

This position is contingent upon award from USAID. Guatemalan nationals are strongly encouraged to apply.

• Provide leadership and strategic direction to ensure programmatic and financial integrity of the project and to achieve rapid and sustained goals, objectives and targets
• Ensure the project is technically sound, evidence-based and responsive to the needs of countries, its people and donors
• Advance goals of locally led development and work closely to strengthen capacities of local institutions
• Ensure compliance with the terms of the award and organizational compliance and adherence to policies and guidelines
• Represent Jhpiego and the project’s progress, achievements and lessons learned to donors, other key stakeholders, and through meetings, conferences, and presentations
• Provide technical leadership and ensure the quality and sustainability of interventions
• Collaborate with the project team to build capacity in area of GHS, One Health and the intersections with health systems strengthening and primary health care
• Ensure USAID guiding principles e.g. locally led development, sustainability, inclusive development and diversity equity inclusivity, gender equality, private sector engagement to name some, are woven into project implementation approaches
• Lead the annual work planning process with the project team, and in close collaboration with USAID, MSPAS, and district/sub-district offices, key stakeholders, partners, and ensure effective resource planning and utilization
• Responsible for the overall management of the project budget and ensure the project delivers on time, on scope and on budget
• With the Technical Director /Deputy COP oversee the preparation, and timely submission of quality project reports to donor
• Participate in relevant technical working groups and other knowledge exchange forums and provide technical leadership and guidance as required
• Mentor, support, supervise and manage a team of highly qualified staff and align their efforts to ensure rapid and sustainable results
• Lead and motivate the project team, ensuring high levels of performance across all areas, fostering a culture of critical problem solving, innovation and strategic thinking
• Provide guidance, in collaboration with staff, to sub-grantees and partners to ensure they deliver on their scope
• Support the development of local organization capacity development plans
• Work with Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) staff to develop M&E frameworks and effectively track data/results, and provide strategic inputs to the project’s Collaborating, Learning, and Adapting (CLA) agenda
• Work with finance and project staff to develop and track project budgets
• Coordinate efforts with the country team lead to ensure alignment with organizational strategy, mission and goals

• Advanced degree in medicine, nursing, health sciences, epidemiology, public health or a related field
• 10+ years of progressively responsible relevant experience in public health surveillance, outbreak investigation and response
• At least eight (8) years of experience successfully managing large, multi-partner, multi-sub-grantee, multi-year international health sector development projects that have implemented successful activities in GHS, infectious diseases, primary health care, and or health systems strengthening projects 
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge in establishing project systems and overseeing project start-up and close-out
• Experience working with sub-/grantees, local and international and knowledge of capacity development approaches for locally-led development 
• Strong analytical and critical thinking skills and ability to translate data into action, and communicate results to wide ranging audiences
• Intimate understanding of local health system and gaps and opportunities in the mentioned technical areas
• Experience hiring and supervising personnel and ensuring they acquire the necessary training and skills to meet evolving project needs
• Excellent diplomacy skills and a proven ability to establish and maintain interpersonal and professional relationships with USAID, host-country counterparts and representatives from other key stakeholders such as NGOs and CSOs
• Previous experience working on USAID-funded projects, matched with an in-depth knowledge of USAID regulations, compliance and reporting requirements
• Excellent skills in facilitation, team building, and coordination
• Excellent verbal, written interpersonal and presentation skills in English and Spanish
• Ability to coach, mentor and develop technical capacity in regional and national projects and technical staff
• Ability to travel nationally and internationally