NDI-Nepal is seeking candidates for a Senior/Program Manager position to serve in a leadership role within the program country team in the planning, design and implementation of the Democratic Processes Project, a five year program funded by USAID that works to strengthen civil society to engage political actors more effectively, and to support Nepal’s E-governance Commission to facilitate policy reforms. This position is contingent on donor funding and based in Kathmandu.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Manages and oversees overall development of key NDI programs on e-governance and democratic processes and is responsible for all major programmatic decision-making related to these programs.
• Designs and implements all associated activities, managing day to day operations of the programs under the supervision of the Lead Country Representative;
• Makes sure program outputs are completed effectively and on time by team members;
• Reviews, edits and coordinates submission of all program reports (Weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual);
• Prepares program briefings by collecting, analyzing, and summarizing information; Writes in- depth political analysis
• Assists the Lead Country Representative to prepare program reports for USAID and Washington DC;
• Collaborates with program, monitoring and evaluation, and administrative teams in development of NDI-Nepal annual work plan, budget and performance monitoring plan (PMP);
• Ensures programmatic goals are achieved and adherence to operational and reporting requirements.
• Acts as liaison between NDI and representatives of the civil society, Parliament, government and political parties, local partners and national and international experts as needed;
• Develops training/workshop materials and manuals for programs and conducts/facilitates trainings, workshops and conferences;
• Travels to the field to monitor and evaluate the program activities;
• Reports program activities to the Lead Country Representative on a regular basis;
• Assists the Country Representative on strategic engagement, political analysis and reporting on a regular basis.
• Provides some strategic support to other NDI programs as and when needed.

EDUCATION AND/OR EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree, preferably in International Relations, Political Science or a related field;
• Minimum of five (5) years in program management, designing, implementing and report writing, preferably for an international NGO working with USG funding;
• Proven skills in the program management cycle as evidenced through previous experience
• Experience managing large budgets
• Previous experience writing political analysis on a regular basis, or in conducting political economy analysis (PEA)

• Minimum of eight (8) years in program managing, designing, implementing and report writing, preferably for an international NGO working with USG funding;
• Strong political analysis and writing skills as evidenced by academic papers, routine written political analysis and/or other forms of content creation.
• Substantial experience working in the field of democracy and governance
• Excellent understanding of financial and budget processes within INGOs and its correlation to program management cycle.

REQUIRED SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Essential:

• Strong managerial skills; ability to take initiative, inspire and motivate staff; strong delegation capacity; very organized
• High level of interpersonal skills and cultural sensitivity to effectively interact with all levels of staff, foreign personnel, members of donor organizations and political party representatives, women’s organizations, media and/or civil society organizations; (without being politically affiliated to any of them);
• Possess strong networks and relationships in government, parties, parliament and civil society.
• Have strong critical thinking and strategic planning skills; able to actively conceptualize, interpret, apply, analyze and evaluate information to reach conclusions or form informed opinions;
• Excellent oral communications skills to engage partners, effectively present information and respond to questions; exceptional writing skills to effectively create clear and concise proposals and reports;
• Proven ability to quickly gather, understand, analyze and contextualize relevant political developments in Nepal’s political environment and report on those to superiors in written and verbal form.
• Strong knowledge of PC-based word processing and spreadsheet applications and experience with Google Apps (Gmail, Calendar, Google Drive, G+, etc.);
• Ability and willingness to travel to regional locations, which are often remote and difficult to reach;
• Able to identify areas for programmatic intervention and develop proposals on the basis of a political analysis; able to introduce new concepts convincingly;
• Takes initiative as a leader and can work independently in a proactive manner without direct support of the supervisor.

Desirable:

• Possess public speaking skills or have experience with conducting trainings and/or presentations;
• Be familiar with using basic qualitative and quantitative research methods, understand how to translate the use of that information to parties and political stakeholders.
• Program management qualification
• Experience working on e-governance or digital governance