Department Lead-Africa

Responsibilities

This position leads the A&AS support for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Africa Department (CT-AF). The Africa Department strengthens the capabilities of partner nations and the international community to the goals and objectives of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Program.

The Africa Department Lead serves as lead A&AS support to the Government Department Chief and is directly responsible for overseeing a diverse team of A&AS Project Analysts, Subject Matter Experts, Project Managers, Financial and Acquisition Managers and Scientists. The Department Lead is responsible for the overall direction of the Africa A&AS Team and is responsible for client delivery across all positions and functions of the team.

Key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Serves as senior program strategy advisor to and directly supports the Africa Department Chief on all facets of program execution. Maintains broad situational and scientific awareness in support of CTR missions and future strategy, advising the Africa Department Chief, as appropriate.
• Provides program management support for the full range of CT-AF deliverables across various missions and activities in one or more countries/projects.
• Responsible for providing capable, competent, and qualified A&AS support to the Africa Department and the CTR mission.
• Ensures program-level deliverables across the Department meet quality and schedule requirements.
• Leads over 25 A&AS personnel organized in three Teams: Project Management, Science, Operations, and Acquisitions and Agreements. Personnel expertise includes program and project management, financial management, technical Cooperative Threat Reduction, construction, and acquisition.
• Leads a broad range of activities, including Department-level strategic planning; coordinating multiple projects and their interdependencies; managing and utilizing staff resources to ensure team success; and generally supporting government Project Officers and Africa Department leadership with recurring and pop-up deliverables.
• Leads oversight of program-level acquisition life cycle preparation, tracking, and management (monitor cost/schedule/scope, budget, deliverables, expenditures, and other needs).
• Supports management of the annual budget for Africa focused cooperative threat reduction activities.
• Directly supervises the Division Team Leads and the Senior Operations Manager.
• Provides overarching leadership of the Africa A&AS team in support of the full range of CTR activities.
• Ensures comprehensive project-level support for the full range of CT-AF deliverables across the CTR mission and activities in portfolios in the Africa geographic region.
• Defines Africa A&AS team tasking, metrics, and milestones; responsibilities and resources; and cultural and quality expectations across the team. Continuously monitors progress, on-time delivery, quality, and cost/schedule control to identify and resolve risks and issues early.
• Champions best practices, innovation, and process improvement across the team.
• Coordinates with the CTR A&AS Program Manager and fellow CTR A&AS Department Leads in support of Africa needs and strategic objectives.
• Proactively works with Team Leads and government counterparts to identify deficiencies in key knowledge, skills, and abilities, and coordinates/delivers training to mitigate potential risks.
• Identifies risk areas across the Department, highlighting impact to mission and proactively developing solutions.
• Adjusts A&AS organization and billets (including FTEs and LCATs) to manage activities and balance workload across A&AS teams. Monitors and, as needed, realigns A&AS staff to ensure mission coverage and program priorities, as well as pivot to address emerging threats/risks.
• Monitors team travel, resolves conflicts, and ensures reasonable travel loads.
• Ensures development, implementation, and tracking of the Director’s Operational Imperatives.
• Prepares and monitors staffing realignments for A&AS and government members to incorporate personnel changes, policy priorities, and emerging threats/risks
• Oversees Department-level travel planning and requirements (ATRIP submission, ATFP plans, logistics support requests, trip book development, trip report, and others as needed).
• Supports Department country assessments and validating project metrics on a recurring basis.
• Ensures consolidation, review, and approval of quarterly project fact sheets and regional/country summaries for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
• Leads annual management cycle activities, including Program Management Reviews (PMRs), Program Objective Memor