Chief of Party, USAID/Madagascar Arakisa 

About Palladium: 

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.   

This Opportunity: 

Palladium is seeking a Chief of Party (COP) to lead an anticipated five-year USAID-funded project intended to support the Government of Madagascar in building sustainable, resilient, and interoperable health information systems (HIS) to enable access, analysis, and use of quality data to improve the health and well-being of all Malagasy.  

The Chief of Party will provide overall leadership, management, and technical direction of the program, ensuring an integrated vision among different components and actors. They will be responsible for meeting the project’s technical objectives through high-quality implementation, managing financial resources, program staff, and partnering agreements, maintaining strong collaborative working relationships with the Government of Madagascar and local partners, and managing monitoring, evaluation, and learning, including client reporting. The COP will represent Palladium and act as the principal liaison for USAID, the Government of Madagascar, other donors, community and non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. The position will be based in Antananarivo and is contingent upon award and USAID approval. 

Location: Antananarivo, Madagascar 

Primary Roles and Responsibilities:  

Providing technical direction and guidance for all project activities, ensuring program activities are technically sound, responsive, and appropriate.  Developing, managing, and maintaining strategic partnerships with USAID, Government of Madagascar, other U.S. government agencies and projects, host-country governments and counterparts, international donors, multilateral organizations, and local partners.  Serving as the primary point of contact for USAID/Madagascar AOR and Government of Madagascar and ensuring smooth communication flow.  Managing and supervising the work of technical and program management staff and consultants, facilitating strong communication and coordination with and between all team members.  Leading the development of annual work plans and budgets for timely submission to and approval by the client and ensuring that agreed activities and targets are fully accomplished, meeting expected technical and management quality standards and delivering expected results on schedule and on budget.  Facilitating proactive technical and programmatic monitoring, evaluation, learning, and adaptation across all levels of the project to mitigate risks to the program and refine program focus to apply lessons learned, respond to emerging needs, and take advantage of new opportunities.  Ensuring appropriate and timely documentation and dissemination of key results and deliverables. Producing technical, quarterly, and annual reports in line with reporting guidelines and deadlines.  Overseeing strategic communication activities to highlight and disseminate good practices, successes, and lessons learned from project implementation.  Providing oversight of project subcontractors and sub-grantees, ensuring quality and timeliness of deliverables, and facilitating regular communication and coordination to encourage maximum participation in the project.  
Identifying opportunities and negotiating partnership programs to leverage synergistic donor, governmental, and organizational resources.  Ensuring effective contract implementation in strict compliance with contract clauses, adherence to Palladium and USAID’s guidelines and procedures.   Ensuring effective internal systems for program delivery; results tracking and reporting; staff recruitment, mobilization, and retention; and contracting and financial management to respond to dynamic program needs rapidly and efficiently.   Performing any and all other project-related tasks as required by the Project Director in Palladium HQ.  

Essential Criteria: 

A master’s degree in a related field of study, such as public health, information systems, information sciences, health informatics, digital health, data science, or a related field.  A minimum of 10 years of experience leading and managing operational, project management, and administrative duties for USAID or U.S. Government-funded projects, or other internationally funded programs.  Significant professional experience in fields related to the successful implementation of this project, such as national health information systems development and implementation, digital health strategy implementation, and data management and use.  Proven experience working in partnership with the Government of Madagascar, particularly the Ministry of Health.  Proven ability to build and manage effective partnerships and communicate a common vision among diverse partners to achieve mutual goals and objectives, including with U.S. government agencies, host-country governments and counterparts, international donors, multilateral organizations, and civil society and private sector partners.  Strong understanding of health systems and health information systems in Madagascar.  A record of capability to effectively manage and guide staff and all project technical and financial resources.  A record of risk management and mitigation, including the ability to identify issues and risks related to implementation in a timely manner and suggest appropriate adjustments.  Evidence of strong oral and written communication skills in French, including evidence of quality report writing and presentations. Proficiency in English is also required.  Attention to detail and the ability to perform multiple tasks and balance competing priorities effectively and efficiently, often within a required timeframe.  Malagasy nationals with relevant experience are encouraged to apply.  Must be willing to live and travel within Madagascar.  

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.   

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.  

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse.  All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.