Team Leader

Doing the right thing. We are active in Switzerland and 20 countries on four continents. Join us with a commitment to help us bring about a more caring society, here in Ethiopia.

CARITAS Switzerland (CACH) has been working in Ethiopia for 50 years. Currently CACH cooperates with a wide range of civil society, research, and private sector actors in Ethiopia. Registered as an International Foreign Charity Organization in Ethiopia, CACH is also operational at project implementation level. CACH’s main working fields are Income, Climate, Migration and Humanitarian Aid/Nexus. Our current operational covers southern and Eastern Oromia, and Tigray regions, across which several projects are being implemented.

 Job summary:

The Team Leader (TL) provides overall strategic, operational and partnership leadership for the NUTR-INVEST program in Ethiopia. The role leads a multi-stakeholder consortium that mobilizes investment and innovative financing solutions to strengthen nutrition-sensitive and climate-resilient agri-food value chains.

The TL is responsible for delivering program results through effective consortium management, stakeholder engagement, investment facilitation and donor-compliant program implementation. The position works closely with government institutions, financial service providers, investors, private-sector actors and development partners to promote sustainable market-based solutions that improve food security, nutrition and economic opportunities.

The TL provides strategic oversight to ensure nutrition objectives are embedded across program interventions and financing mechanisms, while fostering innovation, learning and evidence-based adaptation. The role includes capacity strengthening of partners and staff, representation of the program at national and international levels, and the development of strategic partnerships that support sustainability and scale beyond the program lifetime.

Tasks and responsibilities

Main tasks and responsibilities

Strategic leadership and program management

• Provide overall leadership and strategic direction for program implementation.
• Ensure achievement of program objectives, outcomes and impact targets.
• Lead annual planning, budgeting, forecasting and adaptive management processes.
• Monitor program performance and initiate corrective actions where required.
• Manage program risks and maintain an effective risk mitigation framework.
• Ensure integration of nutrition, climate resilience, gender equality, market systems development and social inclusion across all program components.
• Promote innovation and continuous improvement throughout implementation.

Consortium leadership and partnership management

• Lead and coordinate the program consortium and ensure alignment around common objectives and delivery standards.
• Manage relationships with international and national consortium partners, financial institutions, investors, government entities, private-sector actors and other key stakeholders.
• Organise and facilitate Steering Committee and governance meetings.
• Foster strategic partnerships that enhance program impact and sustainability.
• Ensure transparent communication, accountability and collaboration among all partners.
• Represent the program in high-level stakeholder engagements and coordination platforms.

Oversight of innovative finance mechanisms

• Provide oversight of all financing facilities and investment mechanisms established through the program.
• Ensure effective deployment and performance monitoring of investment and lending instruments.
• Coordinate with financial service providers to strengthen access to finance for program beneficiaries.
• Monitor financial leverage, investment mobilisation and portfolio performance.
• Identify opportunities for scaling, replication and institutionalisation of successful financing models.

Private Sector Engagement and investment facilitation

• Lead implementation of the program’s private-sector engagement strategy.
• Facilitate identification and development of commercially viable investment opportunities.
• Support investment readiness of SMEs, producer organisations and value-chain actors.
• Strengthen collaboration between public actors private enterprises, investors and financial institutions.
• Promote development of market-based solutions supporting nutrition-sensitive economic development.
• Facilitate mobilisation of public and private investment in targeted value chains.

Program quality, technical oversight and learning

• Ensure high technical quality across all program interventions.
• Oversee implementation of the program’s MEAL framework.
• Promote evidence generation, learning and adaptive management.
• Ensure regular analysis of program performance and emerging opportunities.
• Lead development of lessons learned, case studies, policy briefs and knowledge products.
• Facilitate dissemination of best practices and program innovations.

Financial management, compliance and grant oversight

• Ensure sound financial planning, management and budget control – in this sense the TL must have a proven capability to in budget management and controlling.
• Monitor expenditure, forecasts and program financial performance.
• Ensure compliance with donor regulations, contractual obligations and organisational policies – EU compliance experience and knowledge is thus a requirement and shall be specifically stated in the application.
• Oversee procurement processes and grant management systems.
• Ensure compliance with EU visibility, reporting and audit requirements.
• Oversee Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) and related compliance processes where applicable.
• Review and approve technical and financial reports prior to submission.

 Human resources and team leadership

• Lead, supervise and mentor program staff.
• Establish clear objectives and performance expectations.
• Promote a culture of accountability, collaboration and learning.
• Support staff development and capacity strengthening.
• Ensure effective coordination between technical, operational and support functions.
• Ensure Compliance with CACH standards and Donor requirements

Representation

• Represent CACH’s interests in the sector / project area.
• Serve as the Focal representative of the sector and represent Caritas Switzerland in the sector program-related matters.
• Maintain constructive relationships and secure strategic alignment and collaboration with government institutions, donors, investors, development partners and private-sector stakeholders.
• Promote and advocate for program objectives, approaches and results, contributing to policy dialogue, sector coordination and stakeholder engagement at national and sub-national levels.
• Facilitate enabling partnerships and secure the support of relevant authorities to address implementation challenges and advance program objectives.
• Promote the visibility and positioning of the program and Caritas Switzerland.
• Identify opportunities for program growth, strategic partnerships and resource mobilisation.

Management / Planning

• Lead comprehensive project cycle management from start-up to close-out including guiding initial launch activities (staff recruitment, partner agreements, inception workshops) and ensuring proper close-out procedures and documentation are completed in accordance with organizational and Ethiopian regulatory requirements​;
• Contribute to the preparation of competitive concept notes and proposals. Coordinate with technical advisors, field teams, and partners to design multi-sector projects that incorporate best practices and lessons learned from existing programs, in alignment with both donor priorities and community needs​;
• Lead coordinated planning process of the project with the project staff and implementing partners;
• Support project staff in preparing realistic and participatory detailed implementation plan (DIP) adequately broken down into annual, quarterly, monthly, and bi-weekly plans;
• Engage community and private actors (producers, transporters, sellers) in the planning process;
• Align project plan with the plan of the local and regional government whenever possible and necessary.

Coordination, Implementation, Monitoring and Reporting

• Follow up reporting deadlines in line with the CACH CO internal processes, donor and other deadlines and as per CACHs reporting table;
• Follow up with the concerned staff, the project launching events, and all related and relevant documents and procedures are planned and conducted (MEAL plan, procurement plan, Detailed Implementation Plan (DIP) etc.) and that all concerned staff and stakeholders are represented during those events;
• Follow up with the PMs that the MEAL, procurement plans, and DIP are followed and if needed updated;
• Conducting and facilitating monitoring visits of donors, government officials and other concerned staff and stakeholders upon need and requirement;
• Facilitate disbursement of fund for timely procurement, labour mobilization, transportation, and supervision of project activities;
• Follow up with the project staff’s that project activities are adjusted according to seasonal variability if allowed and required;
• Facilitate regular meetings with co-implementing partners to discuss pending project matters and to jointly plan activities;
• Follow up with the concerned staff’s keeping track of the project log frame indicators during monitoring. Instil the habit of log frame monitoring among the other co-implementing partners;
• Quality and content control reports as per government, donor and internal requirements and revise reports as per the comments of CACH private sector engagment Lead/CD.

Leadership and Resource Management

• Acting as supervisor for selected project staff’s.
• Technical leadership for Thematic focus Nutrition and Agribusiness, Conflict Sensitivity, SMEs and selected other sectors or sub-sectors.

Program Approach

• Use and encourage partners to use participatory approaches as far as possible throughout the project cycle in site identification, implementation operation and maintenance of schemes;
• Be informed about local context and needs and make use of indigenous knowledge to check the appropriateness propose activities, technologies and approached;
• Take account of gender, Do-No-Harm environment and other important cross-cutting concerns in program design, implementation, and reporting; carryout activities in a way that reflects the needs of specific groups and individual’s e.g., elderly people, women, children, and people with disabilities.
• Support the implementation of the HDP Nexus approach through regular coordination and information exchange with the Humanitarian Aid unit;
• Support the development of country program strategies and plans (e.g. country strategic frameworks, sectoral plans).

Other and Specific Tasks

• Co-signatory on specific contracts and documents as per the demarcation of authority for the Country Office;
• Staying up to date with internal and donor as well as government standards and tools;
• Advisory services for staff and partner organisation in the assigned field;
• Facilitating meetings and taking of meeting minutes as required;
• Other duties as assigned to her/him in the scope of his assignment.

Communication

• Pro-actively inform about donor and government rules and regulations and share the information to all concerned staff and partners;
• Regular direct reporting to the Unit, Country Director (CD) and/or Regional Director (RD);
• Facilitate effective internal communication between the program, finance, MEAL, logistics, HR and senior management to ensure smooth project implementation and timely decision-making. Ensure that critical updates from the field are documented and shared with relevant units;
• Reporting to the supervisor in case of difficulties, problems, and uncertainties with regard to Finance, HR or Logistics. Pro-active communication with both, the supervisor and the technical supervisor (if applicable and different), by this ensuring that activity and work plans are communicated to all concerned people to create the highest possible level of transparency (related also to daily works, extraordinary works, leave days, travel plans and others);
• Promote transparent and inclusive communication channels with target communities, ensuring that feedback mechanisms are embedded in program/project implementation. Ensure community concerns and feedback are shared and integrated into program design and adjustments.

Educational qualification & professional experience:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics, Finance, Agribusiness, Rural Development, International Development, Business Administration, Agricultural Economics, Nutrition or a related field.
• Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible experience managing complex development programs.
• At least 5 years in a senior leadership or Team Leader role.
• Demonstrated experience working with private-sector engagement, market systems development, blended finance, impact investing or inclusive business models.
• Proven experience managing large donor-funded programs, in particular EU-funded programs.
• Experience managing multi-partner consortia (national and international partners) and high-level stakeholder relationships.
• Experience working with financial institutions, investment funds or SME financing initiatives is a strong asset.

Competencies

• Strong strategic leadership and decision-making skills.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and partnership-building abilities.
• Strong understanding of investment facilitation and private-sector development.
• Excellent program and financial management skills.
• Strong negotiation, communication and representation capabilities.
• Ability to manage complexity and lead multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving and adaptive management skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English; Amharic and other Ethiopian language skills are a strong asset and knowledge other EU languages is an advantage.