Technical Director - USAID, Advancing Protection and Care for Children in Adversity

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:

USAID’s APCCA strategy seeks to deliver better outcomes for children around the world who face significant deprivation and danger and provides a shared basis for continued evidence-based, and collaborative action. The APCCA strategy is made up of three strategic objectives: 1) ‘Build Strong Beginnings’; 2) ‘Put Family First’; and 3) ‘Protect Children from Violence’. This position specifically revolves around objective 2 ‘Put Family First’ and supporting those most vulnerable children who are, or are at risk of, living outside of family care by promoting, funding, and supporting nurturing, loving, protective, and permanent family care.  

The Technical Director (Child Protection) will be ultimately responsible for providing technical leadership to the project strategy and implementation of project activities. The Technical Director should have a broad understanding of the context in which the program’s activities will be implemented, with experience that spans across the project’s three objectives. Their primary responsibilities are to provide overall leadership, management, and general technical direction of the program, ensuring an integrated vision among different components and actors, and a focus on achieving the desired results. This individual must identify issues and risks related to implementation in a timely manner and suggest appropriate adjustments. 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 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:

The Technical Director shall provide support to the Chief of Party with strategic leadership and oversight of the activity.
Serve as a member of the senior leadership team of the program and support the Chief of Party in oversight of project staff
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 Chief of Party, Objective Leads, project operations teams, HQ staff, and other relevant stakeholders
Work with the Chief of Party 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 Chief of Party.
Oversee the design and strategy of new activities, ensuring 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 consultants, subcontractors and grantees to ensure quality and timeliness of deliverables and facilitate regular communication among implementing partners to encourage maximum participation in the project.   
Communicate with HQ regular technical updates and support other technical leadership tasks, as assigned by the Project Director.

Key Competencies Required:

Bachelor’s degree (master’s degree preferred) in social services, international development, etc)
Fifteen (15) years of experience adaptively managing USAID activities and proven experience building and managing dynamic, flexible teams. 
Technical experience relating to prevention of child-family separation, reintegration and family-based alternative care.
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 child protection arena.
Sound management skills to guide all project human, technical, and financial resources.
Proven experience in the development and improvement of policy and legal frameworks.
Ability to successfully plan for and manage family and community-based services.
Evidence of engagement with the social services workforce, training and competency development would be a plus.
Experience implementing care reform activities in Ukraine.
Excellent written and verbal communications skills; ability to write technical documents in Ukrainian and English

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 accommodation 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.