Term of Employment: One year with possibility of extension
Duty Station: Addis Ababa
Required Number: One
Application Deadline: December 04, 2022
Job Description
BACKGROUND:
The Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) is a strategy and delivery-oriented government Institute created to help accelerate the growth and transformation of the country’s agriculture sector. The ATI envisions to be the leading center of innovative solutions for the transformation of Ethiopian Agriculture by 2030.
The Institute focuses on two primary national approaches to catalyze agricultural transformation. First, we support the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), its affiliate institutions, and other partners to identify and address systemic bottlenecks within an Agricultural Transformation Agenda. Second, we support Regional Governments to accelerate the development of high-priority commodity value chains in clearly defined geographic clusters, through the Agricultural Commercialization Clusters (ACC) Initiative.
Our major activities include conducting strategic and analytical studies, providing technical implementation support, coordinating platforms to better integrate partners and projects, and designing and directly leading a number of implementation projects. Our headquarters are in Addis Ababa, and we have regional offices in Amhara, Oromia, SNNP, Sidama, South-West, and Tigray regional offices, allowing us to work closely with a wide range of public, private and development sector partners across the country.
Our Culture
We have an exceptional team of highly competent employees with a proven track record of success in managing complex activities and achieving transformational results. Our culture is one where talented, dedicated and adaptable individuals are committed to doing their best and exhibit great teamwork to achieve excellent results.
At ATI, we provide an exceptional platform for people who want to achieve their highest potential and make a meaningful contribution in changing the country’s agricultural sector. We offer rewarding work in a young, fast-paced growing organization with passionate, committed, motivated colleagues and excellent career development and training. We recognize our most valuable assets are our staff and are committed to providing our employees with the tools, training and mentorships necessary to achieve their career goals.
POSITION SUMMARY:
The Program Assistant mainly focuses on administrative and operational support to the ACC and SI Senior Directors. The Program Assistant will prioritize urgent issues requiring attention, monitor deadlines, ensure the accuracy of communications, greet visitors and answer phone calls, receive, and distribute mail and issue correspondences, gather data and maintain files, and serve as the primary point of contact for internal and external constituencies on all matters pertaining to the Office. The Program Assistant will also serve as the Office Manager for the ACC Vertical office space, taking responsibility for the day-to-day organization and coordination of office operations, procedures, and resources to facilitate the effectiveness and efficiency of the Office. She/he reports and provides general administrative support to the office, including scheduling, drafting & compiling meeting minutes, completing expense forms of SD, organizing, and supporting team-wide activities, setting up and managing team office equipment and resources, and handling other ad hoc requests.
The successful candidate will have an innovative, can-do attitude, and enjoy working in a fast-paced result driven organization. He/she will have experience demonstrate strong attention to the detail, and excellent written and verbal communication, and organizational skills.
MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBLITIES
- Undertake a broad variety of administrative and secretarial tasks for the Senior Director, including managing an extremely active calendar of appointments; composing and preparing correspondences that are sometimes confidential; arranging meetings; making judgments about priorities and rescheduling where necessary; arranging complex and detailed travel plans, itineraries, and agendas; compiling documents for travel-related meetings; and completing expense reports.
- Plan, coordinate and ensure the SD schedule is followed and respected. Provide “gatekeeper” and “gateway” role, creating win-win situations for direct access to the SD’s time and office.
- Research, monitor, prioritize, and swiftly follow up on all incoming issues and correspondences addressed to the SD.
- Act as first point of contact for the Office for both visitors and telephone enquiries, internal and external. Use appropriate judgement to determine relevant course of action, including referral to other appropriate ATI staff.
- Collect report and presentations from teams and compile properly, manage online and physical filing systems, support planning and budgeting, and undertake various quantitative analyses to support team management activities
- Work closely and effectively with all Program Teams within the Office to keep them well informed of and prepared for upcoming commitments and responsibilities, following up appropriately. Arrange for team check-ins and briefing documents; quality control and pull together team requests and advice; organize pre-meetings and where appropriate attend to take notes.
- Support department-wide meetings, events, and projects including travel, finance and procurement activities
- Maintain stationery supplies and manage the office area including seating, internet connectivity, printers and other equipment
- Proactively support the SD in delegating assignments and requests to other teams within the Office and across the ATA. Actively follow up to ensure responses are provided and deadlines are met.
- Maintain the SD’s stakeholder and other contact information. Design filing systems; define procedures for record retention; ensure protection, security and effective transfer of files and records.
- Handle other high-priority ad hoc requests from the Senior Director, and use good judgement to deal appropriately with urgent requests when Senior Director is absent or engaged
- Perform any related activities as directed by the supervisor
- Other duties as assigned by SDs and directors of the programs
Required qualifications, competencies, skills, trainings, and experience:
- Minimum 6 years for Diploma or 1 years for Bachelor degree relevant experience relevant in any field of study, with strong performance.
- At least 2 years of relevant experience in a corporate or development agency setting as a program, executive, or administrative assistant
- Excellent written and oral communication skills including local language
- Resourceful, confident, positive and energetic
- Team player with good relationship management skill
- Organized and detail-oriented
- Proven ability to effectively prioritize workflow
- High standards of ethics and confidentiality to handle sensitive information
- Proficient in Microsoft Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel
- Fluency in written and spoken English, Amharic, and other regional languages
HOW TO APPLY
APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS
We invite all candidates meeting the required qualifications to submit (i) a cover letter and (ii) a CV (maximum 5 pages) to https://apply.ata.gov.et
It is mandatory to mention the position title under the subject line of your cover letter.
Please DO NOT submit scans of certificates with your application.
Women are highly encouraged to apply.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.