About the Role
As Chief of Party, you will provide leadership and overall management of the USDA Food for Peace (Title II) emergency food assistance program in Kenya. This program serves food-insecure and vulnerable populations, including food-insecure communities in arid and semi-arid lands (ASALs). Your leadership, management, and technical knowledge—particularly in commodity management and large-scale USG-funded programs—will ensure the delivery of high-quality programming and advance the position of CRS as a leading agency in emergency food assistance. As a senior leader, you will proactively manage security and mitigate security risks.
Key Responsibilities
- Program Leadership & Management: Lead all aspects of the development, implementation, and consolidation of the Food for Peace program in Kenya, ensuring alignment with emergency food security objectives and USDA requirements.
- Stakeholder Representation: Serve as the primary point of contact to USDA/FAS, the U.S. Embassy, and national stakeholders including the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA), line ministries, and humanitarian coordination platforms.
- Coordination & Partnership: Ensure strong coordination with public, private, and non-governmental partners to maximize impact and avoid duplication. Coordinate relationships with consortium partner organizations.
- Program Quality & Compliance: Ensure the project meets donor expectations in terms of timely and quality results, budget, beneficiary targeting, food distribution, and nutrition outcomes. Ensure CRS program quality standards are adhered to per MEAL policy.
- Logistics & Commodity Management: Provide strategic and technical leadership for all commodity management systems, including procurement planning, call forwards, port clearance (Mombasa), inland transport, storage, and distribution.
- Team & Talent Management: Manage senior programming and operations talent. Provide coaching, mentoring, and complete performance assessments.
- Risk & Security Management: Monitor national and regional issues impacting staff and programming. Ensure adherence to safety and security policies.
- Financial Oversight: Manage and mitigate financial risk. Ensure compliance with USDA/FAS grants (including 2 CFR 200), financial tracking, and partner budget oversight.
- Learning & Capacity Building: Establish a learning environment, identify performance gaps, and design high-quality training for CRS and partner staff.
Qualifications and Experience
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in international development, International Relations, or a relevant technical area. Master’s degree is preferred.
- Experience:
- 5-8 years of relevant management and technical experience, including senior leadership roles on USDA or USG-funded programs.
- Demonstrated experience managing large-scale commodity-based programs (e.g., Food for Peace, or USDA McGovern-Dole).
- Proven expertise in commodity management systems, logistics, and supply chain operations.
- Strong experience managing complex budgets, donor compliance, and financial oversight.
- At least 2 years of staff management experience with a track record of coaching senior program staff.
- Languages: English required.
- Travel: Ability to travel up to 30% to field locations, including remote ASAL counties.
