Deputy Chief of Party, USAID/Advancing Digital Democracy

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

The Digital Solutions and Transformation Portfolio within the Data Informatics and Analytical Solutions (DIAS) Community of Practice is seeking a Deputy Director to lead an upcoming global project to support USAID’s Advancing Digital Democracy activity. The Program aims to support the development of digital innovation that respects human rights in partner countries. The DIAS Practice is a dynamic and innovative group with talented and passionate members, working together to strengthen and harness digital and data ecosystems to accelerate development investments and outcomes and create positive impact. 

The Deputy Director will provide managerial and operational support to the project. The Deputy Director will lead a team of passionate democracy, digital rights and digital development professionals and program managers to implement a wide range of activities that promote open, secure, and inclusive digital democracies in which data-driven technologies advance, rather than undermine, democratic values and respect for human rights. The Deputy Director will have experience developing and implementing organization wide strategies, with strong interpersonal skills to develop and manage complex relationships across various stakeholders in various sectors. Finally, the Deputy Director will have demonstrated management experience of large global USAID programs to ensure delivery of wide variety of technical activities in service of advancing USAID’s digital democracy agenda.

This is a full-time, key personnel senior position based in Washington, DC and is contingent upon award.

You and Your Career

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in strategic planning, leading global projects with USAID, or relevant digital democracy and human rights experience, we are interested in hearing from you. We are a learning organization and provide growth opportunities from the start.  We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources, and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Reporting and Supervision

The Deputy Project Director will report to the Project Director and will work closely with USAID/Washington D.C. and USAID Missions.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

The Deputy Director shall provide support to the Project Director with strategic leadership and oversight of the activity.
Serve as a member of the senior leadership team of the program and support the Project Director in oversight of project staff and buy-in activities.
Co-lead and oversee programmatic functions, i.e., development of work plans, budgets, quarterly/annual reports, and ensure effective implementation of program strategy
Maintain effective and open communication throughout the project with the Project Director, Objective Leads, project operations teams, and other relevant stakeholders
Work with the Project Director and other project staff to continuously refine implementation processes by integrating lessons learned and best practices
Serve in an acting capacity in the absence of the Project Director.
Oversee the design and strategy of new project buy-ins and workplans, ensuring timely submission to and approval by the client and ensure that agreed activities and targets are fully accomplished, meet expected technical and management quality standards, and are delivered on schedule and on budget.
Identify opportunities and negotiate partnership programs to leverage synergistic donor, governmental, and organizational resources.
Manage and mentor a team of senior technical and program management staff and facilitate strong communication and coordination with and between all team members.
Cultivate and provide oversight to a network of diverse local and international project subcontractors and grantees to ensure quality and timeliness of deliverables and facilitate regular communication among implementing partners to encourage maximum participation in the project.

Key Competencies Required

At a minimum, have a bachelor’s degree (master’s degree preferred in business administration, information systems, democracy, or international development) and fifteen (15) years of experience adaptively managing USAID activities, including contracts and buy-ins, and proven experience building and managing dynamic, flexible teams.
Strong financial management experience including the ability to develop, track and monitor budgets and overall financial health of the project.
Strong interpersonal skills with a high level of emotional intelligence for effective communication and interaction within the project and to promote and position the project in the broader digital transformation arena.
Sound management skills to guide all project human, technical, and financial resources.

Professional Expertise

Experience leading large-scale USAID activities that catalyze democracy, governance, or economic growth outcomes world-wide; prior experience as Chief of Party, Project Director, Deputy Director, Team Leader, etc., on project(s) of similar scope, scale, and complexity preferred.
Experience cultivating and managing relationships across multiple technical sectors, including digital development, policy and strategy, democracy, digital rights, digital inclusion, and/or digital transformation.
Strong communications, writing, and oral presentation skills in English. Professional fluency in additional languages preferred (e.g. French, Spanish, Portuguese)
Willingness to travel up to 30% of time

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.