Senior Operations Manager, FEWS NET 8 Knowledge Base , East and Southern Africa (ESAF)

Chemonics’ East and Southern Africa Regional Business Unit is seeking a Senior Operations Manager, FEWS NET 8 Knowledge Base. 

Since its establishment in 1985, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) project aims to sustainably prevent food insecurity and famine across the globe by delivering to the U.S. Government and partners early warning on the location, causes, and magnitude of current and future food insecurity; improving the quality and timeliness of information and analysis useful for achieving sustainable food security; and strengthening innovative local, national, regional, and international capabilities to understand and appropriately address current, recurrent, and likely future food insecurity. Chemonics has been implementing FEWS NET since 2000, beginning its eights phase (FEWS NET 8) in 2024.  

 

FEWS NET 8 Knowledge Base (FEWS NET 8 KB) is a $65 million project which will create and update FEWS NET’s knowledge base about livelihood zones and market systems on which FEWS NET’s acute food insecurity early warning analyses are predicated, thereby ensuring that USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) is able to allocate emergency food assistance effectively and in accordance with humanitarian principles.   

 

The full-time DC-based (remote eligible) Senior Operations Manager for FEWS NET 8 KB will manage and provide administrative, operational, human resources, finance, and logistical support to the FEWS NET KB Team in the United States and country teams. Reporting to the Operations Director, the Senior Operations Manager will ensure that the US-based project office and country presence teams are well-managed, and contribute to the timely completion and distribution of project deliverables.  

Responsibilities: 

• Manage procurement, staff travel, logistical, operational, recruitment and personnel management and administrative tasks for the FEWS NET 8 KB team;  
• Support FEWS NET 8 KB team staff involved in deliverable development and implementation of KB; 
• Support the management of local logistics and operations assistants in each target county; 
• Identify and recruit short-term experts and staff; 
• Coordinate work with vendors and subcontractors and maintain partner relationships and contractual agreements; 
• Ensure that project procedures are complied with for start-up, activity implementation, management, and closeout; 
• Coordinate with Facilities, A/V, and IT support department on facility, equipment, and supply needs for the US-based project team. 
• Support in finalizing project and financial deliverables and reports for completeness and readiness for submission; provide copy-editing support as needed; 
• Ensure that program implementation is in accordance with regulations and procedures and the specifications determined in the FEWS NET 8 KB Task Order; 
• Support effective and efficient field activities; 
• Ensure timely uploading of deliverables to the Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) and the Development Data Library (DDL) on an ongoing basis; 
• Undertake other duties as assigned by the Operations Director and COP. 

 

Requirements:

• • Minimum 5 years of relevant experience; 
    
  • Minimum 1 year of staff management experience; 3 years preferred;  
  • Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience; Master’s degree preferred; 
  • Experience supervising or mentoring employees desirable; 
  • Experience living and working in a developing country context is preferred; 
  • Experience with USAID/Washington and field operations, programs, policies, and procedures desirable; 
  • Solid knowledge of Microsoft Windows systems and Office suite,