Senior Manager, Project Delivery, Early Childhood Care and Education, CATALYZE (Spanish Speaking)

Senior Manager, Project Delivery, Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE), CATALYZE (Spanish Speaking)

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:

CATALYZE is a $250 million 8-year program, designed to mobilize $2 billion in private capital, especially to underfinanced social sectors (such as education) and higher risk countries (especially low-income and post-conflict countries) around the globe, complemented by a cross-cutting inclusion of gender-lens investing. CATALYZE serves as a "platform of platforms" that provides services to many missions and bureaus that "buy in" to tap the CATALYZE investment and pay-for-results project management expertise. Our aim is for investors to explore and find commercially viable opportunities and approaches to creating jobs, developing sustainable social services, tightening, and rationalizing supply chains, and advancing inclusive growth - ultimately, reducing the need for development institutions to provide donor funding.

Palladium is seeking a Spanish-speaking Senior Manager, Project Delivery, to support the CATALYZE project and the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) activity. The ECCE activity aims to enhance access to low-cost and high-quality ECCE which unlocks inclusive development, improving child outcomes, promoting women's economic empowerment, enhancing family welfare, and driving overall economic growth. CATALYZE ECCE Activities are currently operating in Latin America (Honduras and Paraguay) and East and Southern African (Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda and South Africa).

The Senior Manager, Project Delivery, plays a key role in leading day-to-day management activities of the project team, harmonizing technical goals and compliance with our client agreements, regulations, and internal policies.

Location and Compensation:

The position can be based in Palladium's Washington D.C. office. Remote highly-qualified candidates that are authorized to live and work in the United States may be considered.

For our prospective employees in the United States, please note that the full-time equivalent annual base salary for this position is expected to range from $100,000 to $110,000 and successful candidates may also be eligible for additional, variable incentive compensation dependent on the role. For part-time employees, the salary will be prorated based on the actual number of hours worked.

Please be advised that a final salary offer will be based on various factors, including but not limited to your qualifications, education, experience, skills, seniority, performance, and Palladium's business or organizational needs.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the compensation for this position, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We value your interest in our company and appreciate the opportunity to discuss this opportunity with you.

You and Your Career:

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in project management, financial management, and project compliance, 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 role reports to the ECCE Activity Lead
  
• This role will supervise one or more Associate(s), Project Delivery
  

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Project Management

• Plan and manage the project life cycle, supporting in-country operations as needed
  
• Participate in the development, implementation, and monitoring of project work plans, tracking and reviewing project deliverables and monitoring project delivery against spending forecasts
  
• Support development and presentation of internal and external reporting (for example: quarterly Internal Project Reviews, CPARs, project risk assessments, annual reviews, and client deliverables)
  
• Support development of project subcontractor, grant management, and procurement procedures compliant with internal and client's rules and regulations
  
• Serve as the project's primary liaison with corporate services, Project Delivery, and Compliance and Project Excellence Hub
  
• Ensure project issues and risks are logged, reported on, managed and mitigated; and escalate risks and issues to Practice and Project Excellence and Compliance Hub leadership, as required
  
• Contribute to technical assistance through reviews, engaging in work planning and discussions with local partners and Monitoring and Evaluation teams, etc.
  
• In collaboration with the Compliance and Project Excellence Hub and corporate services, provide training and guidance to project staff on, and ensure compliance with, company policies and client rules and regulations (covering as required risk management, project planning, human resource management, monitoring, reporting, finance, procurement, logistics, IT, communications, audit support and all other project managements matters)
  

Contract and Client Relationship Management

• Serve as a point of contact with service providers and address contractual matters as required
  
• Monitor and maintain compliance with head/prime contracts including agreement action requests (i.e., travel, personnel changes, grant approvals, budget realignments, etc.)
  
• Liaise with C&C to communicate with contracting and agreement officers or other client representatives on any matters that make legal or financial commitments for Palladium
  
• Monitor and report on overall progress against agreed targets, milestones, outputs and activities
  
• Develop, manage and support contract amendments as required
  
• Liaise with and respond to requests from clients in conjunction with the project's director, including providing or giving inputs on reporting
  
• Support project advocacy with internal and external stakeholders
  

Financial Management

• Ensure company policies for financial management are implemented and are compliant with the client's rules and regulations
  
• Report monthly on the status of partner budgets/invoicing and grants
  
• Ensure that project levels of delegated authority issued are in accordance with Palladium's Expenditure Approval and Signature Authority Policy and Guidelines and manage the process for higher-level approvals as required
  
• Collaborating with Financial Management establish project charge codes, ensuring they meet client and project requirements for cost allocation, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting
  
• In collaboration with Treasury, facilitate project bank accounts set-up with appropriate company and project signatories
  
• Ensure the project financial calendar is adhered to including monitoring, reconciling, and reporting expense advances monthly
  
• Leads monitoring budget progress against forecast as one metric to track project progress against its work plan; proactively seeks to solve shortages or overages against the frozen forecast as needed
  
• Review monthly Funds Transfer Requests (FTRs) to ensure they reflect budget progress and forecasting and seek approval for them as needed
  
• Serve as a coordinator for service providers and approve (or obtain approval for) work orders and invoices; ensure the accuracy of client invoices (including monthly, milestone and performance based invoices)
  
• Monitor, reconcile and report expense advances monthly
  
• Support the external audit process as needed and ensure retention of project records is compliant with company and client policy
  

Human Resource Management and Recruitment

• Oversee project human resource planning, recruitment, contracting, and coordinate inputs from Compliance, HR, and Talent Acquisition teams (i.e. benefits, local labor law, etc.);
  
• Working with associate, maintain project data on relevant HR systems for short-term and long-term staff and consultants; is maintained accurately
  
• In conjunction with the PMU and Project Delivery, engage in employee onboarding and training, educating new staff on policies, procedures, tools, and Palladium's culture;
  
• Actively monitor, review, correct, and provide feedback on all supervisee's work products, providing additional training and support where necessary
  
• Take a proactive role in staff development, including working with supervisees to identify professional development opportunities, and holding monthly coaching sessions to advise them on project management best practices, core competencies, and general work skills and behaviors.
  

Business Development / Other

• Contribute to company growth by ensuring assigned projects are managed well, ensuring Palladium is seen positively by clients for consideration in future business development
  
• Participate in capture planning, providing inputs on implementation requirements
  
• Provide input and support business development of the company as required
  
• Complete other duties as assigned
  

Essential Criteria:

• Experience working in one of the following technical areas: ECCE, education, women's economic opportunities, and private sector capital mobilization
  
• Fluency in Spanish
  
• Prior experience with USAID contracts and cooperative agreements
  
• Works with respect and dignity for all colleagues and promotes a cooperative team working environment
  
• Formal Project Management training and expertise is helpful
  
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  
• Financial acumen and the ability to interpret and analyze financial reports
  
• Sound problem solving and decision-making skills
  
• Ability to work with a low level of supervision and as a part of a team
  
• Strong management skills with ability to mentor, coach, lead, develop and evaluate staff
  
• Ability to travel and work in developing countries for extended periods of time if needed
  

Desired Criteria:

• Experience working in the international development sector
  
• Experience working in Latin America
  

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.