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 3,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities.

Palladium Americas:

Our Americas’ business team has brilliant and passionate colleagues working in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America as well as the Caribbean, fulfilling projects and assignments for clients from institutions, corporations, governments, and foundations based in the Americas. We have offices in Washington, DC, New York City, and Raleigh-Durham, NC.

This Opportunity:

USAID CATALYZE, a $250 Million USAID-funded 8-year program implemented by Palladium, works with businesses, investors and other key market actors to solve the world's most pressing challenges by unlocking private sector financing for development impact, especially in underserved social sectors and frontier countries. CATALYZE is implementing multi-year activities in over 20 countries, with funding from 17 buy-ins from USAID Missions, Bureaus, or Independent Offices.

CATALYZE works, often through performance-based subcontracts or grants, to

  • Develop a pipeline of financeable transactions in targeted geographies and sectors
  • Support financial intermediaries in developing countries to build or strengthen local financial ecosystems
  • Link financeable opportunities to sources of capital, structuring funds, and closing complex transactions
  • Identify and assess blended finance approaches, supporting agency-wide learning and development
  • Develop risk mitigation tools, such as country- or sector-specific blended finance platforms or funds, pre-investment feasibility studies, and other tools that incorporate risk mitigation features
  • Provide catalytic capital, via the grant's mechanism, for seed funding, co-funding, and performance grants that will unlock private financing.

Palladium is seeking an Associate, Project Delivery, to support the CATALYZE project. The Associate will support activities in the Sahel (Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mauritania) as well as activities in Women’s Economic Empowerment.

The Associate, Project Delivery serves as part of an Activity Management Unit that is responsible for the management and delivery of a specific activity buy-in, ranging from $10 Million to upwards of $50 Million each. The Associate position supports the management of effective and efficient financial and compliance activities to deliver work in accordance with contractual obligations, company policies, local country settings, and client rules and regulations. The Associate, Project Delivery, is a valued member of the team completing a variety of tasks that are critical to high-quality project management. This role works closely with a Manager, Project Delivery and a Technical Director/Activity Lead.

Candidates with experience in delivering USAID programs, including contracting and compliance, will receive training on Palladium-specific policies, procedures, and guidelines. Candidates new to USAID contracting will be trained in duties and best practices in project delivery.

You and Your Career:

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in verbal/written communication, organization, and attention to detail, 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!

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Project Management

  • Support project start-up and closeout;
  • Serve as a liaison between the project and the Process Excellence Hub;
  • Contribute to the preparation and maintenance of project specific components of the project management manual;
  • Learn and contribute to training of project staff on company policies, procedures, and guidelines and client rules and regulations (covering for example: security, occupational health and safety, risk management, planning, human resource management, monitoring, reporting, finance, procurement, logistics, IT, communications, audit support and all other such implementation matters);
  • Participate in the development, review, and tracking of progress against project work plans;
  • Support the development and presentation of internal and external reporting, (quarterly Internal Project Reviews [IPRs], project risk assessments, annual reviews, and client deliverables) and ensure these outputs are fit for purpose;
  • Ensure project issues and risks are logged, monitored, and updated in the issues and risk portal (aka register) and escalate risks and issues to corporate/project leadership, as required;
  • Learn to review procurements, budgets, reports, and other documents to ensure compliance with relevant policies and procedures; may conduct spot checks on processes and internal controls including reviewing asset management procedures and updated asset registers for each project, as assigned;
  • Support development of project subcontractor and grants management procedures compliant with both internal policies and procedures, and client rules and regulations;
  • Assist with internal PMU administration, including drafting weekly meeting agendas, tracking tasks, maintaining calendars and deadline reminders;
  • Work towards anticipating project needs and providing compliant, flexible recommendations on processes, or assigned responsibilities, such as suggesting adequate timelines for reviews and coordination between HQ and field offices, proactively handling PMU administrative tasks, etc.;
  • Contribute to technical assistance through reviews, engaging in work planning and discussions with the field team, etc. to build skills with the goal of taking on a more senior role, such as manager, project delivery or a functional area.

Contract and Client Relationship Management

  • Support the monitoring and maintenance of compliance with head/prime contracts;
  • Manage and support contract amendments as required;
  • Provide inputs and support to other PMU members on any client communication or reporting needs;

Financial Management

  • Support monitoring expenditure against budgets and forecasts, including staff costs, operating expenses and procurements; reconciles & reports on all advances monthly;
  • Assist with project financial and cash-flow planning, process monthly Funds Transfer Requests and payments for assigned projects;
  • Review cashbooks / field vouchers and ensure supporting documentation is complete;
  • Help coordinate service providers and process work orders and invoices;
  • Assist with internal financial reporting and tasks including accruals and reviewing client invoices.
  • Support preparation of contract action requests (i.e., travel, personnel additions/changes, subcontracts, grants, budget realignment, etc.);
  • Support audit processes and ensures retention of project records is compliant with company policy.

Human Resource Management and Recruitment

  • Coordinate input and support from HR for recruitment and contracting staff and consultants;
  • Coordinate project staff recruitment and due diligence (i.e., posting job descriptions, due diligence, compliance spot checks, biodata verification, record retention, and contract preparation and onboarding);
  • Maintain project data on relevant systems for short-term and long-term staff and consultants;
  • Support the mobilisation and demobilisation of all international staff (short-term and long-term) including contracting, travel management, security, approvals, payments and induction.

Business Development / Other

  • Contribute to company growth by supporting well-managed projects, ensuring Palladium is seen positively by clients for consideration in future business development;
  • Participate in capture planning, providing inputs on implementation requirements;
  • Provide inputs to proposals and opportunity research as requested;

Reporting requirements

The role reports to the Manager, Project Delivery. Reporting requirements include:

  • Attendance at all regular management team meetings;
  • Provision of regular updates to the line manager, including updates on Key Result Areas (KRAs) and any other material matters and/or areas of concern,
  • Monthly submission of financials and forecasts;
  • Other reporting as requested by the line manager.

Relationships

  • Internally the role will be required to liaise closely with other staff of the CATALYZE Project, including the project delivery team, corporate business services team, Process Excellence Hub, innovative finance/economic growth subject matter experts, and other other units within the Americas Regional Business Partnership.
  • Externally the role will liaise with clients, in-country Palladium staff and stakeholders, subcontractors, grantees, and suppliers.

Authority levels

The role carries a degree of autonomy with appropriate consultation. The role is required to:

  • Prepare and present information effectively, in a variety of formats, to clients, consultants, subcontractors, and colleagues.
  • Analyze and make sound recommendations to the line manager,
  • Contribute to process improvement through innovative and cost-effective proposals/ideas/suggestions.

Essential knowledge, skills and experience:

  • Works with respect and dignity for all colleagues and contributes to a cooperative team working environment.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, in English.
  • Financial acumen and the ability to interpret and analyze financial reports.
  • Basic understanding of management including organizational skills and attention to detail.
  • Sound problem-solving and decision making skills.
  • Ability to travel and work in developing countries for weeks at a time if needed.
  • Ability to work both independently and as a part of a team when required.

Preferred knowledge, skills and experience:

  • Experience implementing USAID-funded programs.
  • Proficiency in French.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - 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, 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 any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com.
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.

This vacancy is archived.

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