Chief of Party, USAID/Nigeria Food Basket Activity

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 Proposal Opportunity:

Palladium seeks a Chief of Party for the upcoming USAID/Nigeria Food Basket Activity, which aims to sustainably reduce poverty, hunger, and malnutrition by strengthening Nigeria’s food and agricultural system (target value chains: maize, rice, and horticulture). The Activity will stimulate agriculture-led, inclusive growth, increasing employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, empowering women and youth, promoting innovation, advancing trade, and lifting people out of poverty.

Position Summary:

The Chief of Party will be ultimately responsible for the efficient and effective oversight of all elements of the Activity. Their primary responsibilities are to provide overall leadership, management, and technical direction of the program, ensuring an integrated vision across components, and a focus on achieving the desired results. This individual must act as the key liaison with USAID and all other counterparts, implementing partners and stakeholders involved with the program. The position requires significant coordination skills, broad general and technical knowledge, an ability to cope with multiple interests and challenges, experience in developing countries, and skills to ensure coherence and consistency in the face of urgent deadlines.

*This is an anticipated project, and all positions are contingent upon award from USAID.*

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Lead technical direction and strategy development for the implementation of the Activity, including leading the development and implementation of annual workplansEnsure an integrated, market-oriented strategic vision across components and partnersServe as principal liaison with USAID staff, other implementing partners, host country government actors and other private and public sector stakeholders to exchange information and develop professional relationshipsMonitor program indicators, evaluate program results, and guide program implementation to deliver results and impactOversee effective use of resources, on-time delivery of project activity reports and partner deliverables, and overall compliance with USAID regulations and Palladium policies and proceduresDevelop systems that support collaborating, learning and adapting (CLA) approach, including establishing a culture of adaptive managementAdminister the program’s financial oversight and procedures, ensuring compliance with established Palladium's accounting principles and USAID regulationsIdentify issues and risks related to program implementation in a timely manner and suggest appropriate program adjustmentsRepresent Palladium and the program to the public and donor community

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in economics, business administration, international development, agriculture, or related field required; master’s degree preferred.Minimum 10 years’ experience in enterprise development and competitiveness, market systems development, value chain development, private sector engagement, trade, finance, or investment.Previous experience as a Chief of Party for projects with similar magnitude and complexity.Knowledge of and experience with USAID rules and regulations.Proven ability to collaborate successfully with host-country government officials, international donors, and private sector stakeholders.Knowledge of agriculture enterprise competitiveness and value chain development; experience working with actors at all levels of agricultural value chains (smallholder to lead firm exporter).Experience designing, promoting, and implementing multi-stakeholder led, market-driven approaches.Demonstrated ability to build staff leadership and management capacity.Experience working in similar contexts.Fluency in English with demonstrated excellence in written and oral communication skills.

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.