Contract Management Specialist – Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) Lesotho II
About MCA Lesotho II
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is a U.S. Government corporation focused on assisting countries dedicated to good governance, economic freedom, and investing in people in May 2022, MCC signed a five-year agreement (“Compact”) with the government of Lesotho (GoL) aimed at poverty reduction through inclusive and sustainable economic growth in the country.
The Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) – Lesotho II, is an entity established by the government to act as the accountable entity to implement the compact, with the authority to bind the government with regards to all program activities.
Lesotho Compact
The Lesotho health and horticulture compact aims to benefit 2.5 million people by growing, strengthening, and organizing the private sector in Lesotho and improving the government’s coordination to deliver critical services necessary to support private sector development.
It will achieve this goal through investments in Health System Strengthening (HSS), strengthening of the business environment, and Market Driven Irrigated Horticulture (MDIH), providing sustainable income for smallholders and increasing climate resilience by replacing rain-fed subsistence farming with irrigated commercial horticulture in select locations.
The GoL is committed to passing several key reforms that will help make this compact successful, including reforms that address gender equality, working conditions and worker safety, as well as land and water rights. All of the compact’s projects focus on overcoming barriers to the economic inclusion of women, youth, and the rural poor.
Position Objective
The Contract Management Specialist will be responsible for overseeing contract and overall project performance. specifically, the incumbent will coordinate with various departments and stakeholders to ensure that project activities are completed according to plan, on time, within budget, and in line with the contract. they will be working with project leads on planning; creating project schedules and timelines; budgeting; communicating project progress with stakeholders; and risk management. in addition, they will use project management tools and software to support project performance and to monitor project progress.
Key responsibilities
- Build and maintain project schedules and critical project information, using project management tools to integrate activities across key functional areas.
- Proactively identify risks, and ensure clear and effective communication with project leads, key team members, management, and cross-departmental stakeholders.
- Monitor project progress compared to plans via engagement with sub-teams and key support functions.
- Develop, utilize, and deploy standard project management tools.
- Leverage relationships and networks, with guidance from management and project leads, to proactively identify and remove obstacles to drive project performance and results.
- Schedule, prepare for and facilitate key team performance review meetings including creating thoughtful agendas, ensuring appropriate participation, contributing project management insights, and following up to ensure the team continues to make progress.
- Participate in departmental initiatives and workstreams aimed at improving project implementation, processes and finding new efficiencies; and connect the teams with required project information.
- Train MCA-LesothoII project staff to be proficient in the use of relevant software packages and developed standard project management tools.
Qualifications and Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, Project Management or Business Management.
- Project Management Professional (PMP) certification and/or formal coursework/training in Project Management from a credible institution is strongly preferred.
- Minimum of three (3) years of experience in Project Management or a related role is required.
- Demonstrable experience in at least one project where you monitored project performance in a development project involving large infrastructure.
- Demonstrated ability to create and analyze detailed, cross-functional project plans (including Gantt charting) and manage execution and change against those plans.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in both Sesotho and English.
- Demonstrated ability to work independently to effectively accomplish goals in a team setting.
- Ability to succeed in a dynamic environment, demonstrating flexibility to respond to changing priorities.
- Effective interpersonal skills and ability to work collaboratively across diverse teams and networks; able to foster cooperation amongst other professionals, using the diverse perspectives of others to generate ideas.
- Highly organized and capable of working with attention to detail.
- Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to build alignment around complex situations.
- Competency in digital tools such as MSTeams, Power Bi, MSProject, Spotfire, Sharepoint.
- Knowledge and use of FIDIC is strongly preferred.
Applications should be accompanied by the following documents:
- Curriculum vitae containing detailed work experience;
- Cover letter confirming interest and availability;
- Soft copies of higher education and professional certificates (if available);
- A completed online application form (can be accessed from https://lesotho-jobs.tenderwell.app – cv template MCA Lesotho II)
Only applications that are submitted on or before the deadline will be considered.
We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Submit your application online via: https://lesotho-jobs.tenderwell.app – hard copy applications will not be considered.