The HEARTH Project Director oversees all aspects of the HEARTH Okavango project, including program management, performance monitoring, and technical implementation and oversight. They will serve as the principal institutional liaison to USAID regarding the project and will maintain regular communication with the USAID Agreement Officer’s Representative (AOR). They lead and manage the Alliance project team and serve as the principal contact to external project stakeholders, private Alliance partners, other project partners, and public ministries. They will ensure that the TNC-led project team coordinates activities with other USAID-funded projects that have complementarity with the Alliance as well as TNC’s wider Okavango conservation program. The HEARTH Project Director will develop key partnerships with public and private organizations in order to identify and resolve technical issues and to advance the goals and results of the project and the Alliance. They will develop innovative methods, analyses, tools, and frameworks to address the natural system and target community needs. Due to the significance of challenges and opportunities for conservation and communities in the landscape, the HEARTH Project Director will bring and utilize their relevant technical experience to ensure successful project implementation.

Responsibilities to include:

• Provides technical leadership for and supervisory management of the large, complex and multi-sectoral USAID-funded Okavango Angola Alliance project.
• Serves as the primary project liaison with USAID, communicates regularly with USAID and USAID funded activities and attend all USAID partner meetings.
• Supervises the monitoring of key deliverables, outputs, and outcomes as per work plans and sub awardee/contractor agreements.
• Cultivates and develops partnerships with key stakeholders including government agencies, the project’s private sector Alliance partners, implementing partners, collaborating partners and communities.
• Manages high quality and effective multi-disciplinary staff with responsibility for performance management, training and career development and provides assistance to all levels of personnel on expertise related issues and requests.
• Maintains optimal performance standards within budget.
• Manages all the project’s subawards/subcontracts.
• Prepares and submits annual work plans and quarterly and annual performance reports, and ensure progress towards program objectives, including through field visits.
• Supervises and provides technical input into the project’s monitoring, evaluation, research and learning functions and ensures compliance with USAID monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) requirements including data quality assessments and data entry into USAID portals.
• Provides robust technical input and support to all components of the project and the staff and partners responsible for them, ensuring the project achieves lasting and meaningful outcomes and results
• Disseminates best practices; provides training and analysis to best implement organizational measures of success; and develops key partnerships with public and private organizations in order to identify and resolve technical issues and to widely communicate solutions, innovative scientific methods and tools to address the natural system and human wellbeing needs of the project area.
• Makes independent strategic decisions frequently based on analysis, ambiguous information, experience and judgment.
• May require frequent travel domestically and evening and weekend hours.
• May work in variable weather conditions, at remote locations and under physically demanding circumstances.