Cluster Coordinator (3 Positions)

VSO is the world’s leading international organisation working through volunteers to create a fair world for everyone. We focus on people who are marginalised or excluded, including those living in poverty, people with disabilities or illness, and those facing discrimination, violence, disasters, disease, and conflict.

VSO places these individuals at the centre of its work as primary actors and agents of change. We work with communities to identify their priorities, opportunities, and solutions, supporting locally led and sustainable change.

Our Approach

VSO’s Volunteering for Development (VfD) approach supports vulnerable and marginalised people to claim their rights and drive lasting change. It addresses the root causes of vulnerability and marginalisation through three core approaches: social inclusion and gender, social accountability, and resilience. These approaches underpin our work in inclusive education, health, resilient livelihoods and peace building.

About the Job

VSO is a lead implementer of the Internship Opportunities for Young Women program (iWork), financed by the Mastercard Foundation. The program will be implemented in Ethiopia across Amhara, Oromia, and Harari regional states, as well as the Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa city administrations. iWork aims to create internship opportunities for 24,000 financially disadvantaged young people, with a primary focus on young women. The program also promotes inclusion by reaching persons with disabilities, refugees, internally displaced people, and returnees. Through internships, iWork aims to help young women build the skills and experience they need to access dignified and fulfilling work, contributing to poverty reduction and an improved quality of life.

VSO Ethiopia is recruiting a Cluster Coordinator for iWork program.

Role Purpose:

Coordinate the i-Work program implementation within the assigned cluster, sustaining consistent delivery as per the agreed workplans, budgets, quality standards, and donor requirements.  The role manages the cluster-based team members and strengthens collaboration with local stakeholders to support inclusive, gender-transformative and youth-centred pathways into internships, workforce readiness, inclusive workplaces and transition to work for young women and other marginalized youth.

Tasks Responsibilities

 Project Implementation

• Coordinate day-to-day implementation of i-Work activities within the assigned cluster, ensuring delivery aligns with approved workplans, budgets, timeframes, quality standards, donor requirements, project governance and consortium coordination processes.
• Provide technical support for cluster-level delivery of internship placement, host enterprise engagement and workforce development activities in line with agreed roles, responsibilities, and targets for the assigned cluster.
• Coordinate cluster planning, activity scheduling, progress tracking, review meetings and adaptive management with guidance from the Deputy Program Manager (Program Operations).
• Identify and address delivery issues, risks, safeguarding concerns and operational bottlenecks, escalating critical matters through agreed management and governance channels with proposed solutions.
• Coordinate cluster logistics, administration, procurement follow-up and expenditure planning with Finance, Operations and Procurement teams, ensuring compliance, accountability and value for money.
• Support cluster-level implementation of the MEAL plan, including data collection, participant monitoring, learning documentation, field visit notes and timely reporting for VSO, donor, and local government requirements with alignment with the agreed consortium process.

 Partnership Building

• Build and maintain effective working relationships with local government, consortium partners, private sector actors, host enterprises, TVETs, universities, training providers, civil society organisations, OPDs, youth networks and community structures.
• Coordinate cluster-level stakeholder engagement to support inclusive participant outreach, internship placement, workplace readiness, safeguarding, accessibility and local ownership.
• Participate in relevant cluster-level coordination meetings, technical working groups, partnership forums, workshops and learning events as agreed with the Deputy Program Manager (Program Operations).
• Collaborate with MEAL, Finance Operations, Procurement, People, Safeguarding, Security, Communications and technical teams to strengthen planning, financial accountability, risk management, visibility and duty of care.
• Facilitate regular cluster-level coordination, progress reviews, information sharing and learning processes to promote teamwork, accountability, inclusion, and adaptive management.

 People Management and Duty of Care

• Manage cluster-based team members in alignment with VSO people policies and practices; provide coaching, mentoring, development and well-being support, enhance team performance, engagement, collaboration, and people experience in VSO.
• Ensure safer recruitment, effective onboarding and induction, good people management processes, self and team upholding to VSO Policies, Code of Conduct, Safeguarding, People-First principles and Volunteering for Development standards.

Work Location: Addis Ababa (1) Bahir Dar (1), and Kombolcha (1)

Required Qualification

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent knowledge and skills in development studies, Economics, Business Administration, Project Management, Sociology, Social Work, Education, Labour Studies, or related fields.
• MA has an advantage

Experience:

• Significant relevant professional experience in youth employment, workforce development, internship programmes, TVET, livelihoods, private sector engagement, or economic empowerment programmes.
• relevant experience in project coordination or management roles.
• Experience managing donor-funded programmes is required.
• Relevant experience with practical knowledge of youth employment, internship pathways, workforce development, enterprise engagement, inclusive workplace practices, women and youth economic empowerment.
• Lived experience in the project location with the ability to apply gender-transformative, disability-inclusive and youth-centered approaches.
• Experience in the field/ cluster-level implementation including budget, procurement, logistics and field office administration.
• Proficient skills in partnership and engagement to build and maintain cluster-level stakeholder engagement with local government, private sector, host enterprises, TVETs, universities, training providers, civil society, OPDs, youth networks and local communities.
• Practical skills in safeguarding, duty of care, risk monitoring and incident responses, and escalation reporting.
• Proficient skills in people management, coaching and mentoring with effective team management and ability to facilitate learnings and support collaborative teamwork, staff wellbeing and performance at the cluster-level.
• Sound knowledge of participatory M&E and community-level learning facilitation.
• Effective communication and digital skills, including relevant local languages, working English proficiency, and use of Microsoft Office and programme management systems.
• Practical understanding of locally-led development and system strengthening.
• Demonstrated VSO behavioral competencies at the level relevant to the role.
• Commitment to VSO’s vision, mission, values, code of conduct, people-first principles and Volunteering for Development approach.

Travel Requirement

Ability to travel frequently to project field locations, woredas and stakeholder sites within the assigned cluster, and occasionally to other programme locations as required.

Equal Opportunities

VSO promotes equal opportunities and values a diverse workforce.

VSO reserves the right to close this job early if we receive enough applications.

VSO is committed to a fair, transparent and merit-based recruitment. VSO does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process.