The Brazil Trade Facilitation Programme is a 4-year, £14 million component of FCDO’s Brazil Prosperity Fund Programme. The programme aims to assist Brazil to increase trade flows, make foreign trade more inclusive in the country, creating jobs for women and men which will drive economic growth that supports inclusion, women’s economic opportunities and poverty reduction in the country. The programme will modernise and integrate processes in Brazilian ports and ensure that they catalyse growth by acting as strategic assets around which clusters of Brazilian SMEs can grow and enter global value chains. The programme is divided into 2 key components: 1) Ports Modernisation, and 2) MSMEs Inclusion.
Role:
The Team Leader of the Brazil Trade Facilitation (BTF) Programme acts as the central point of leadership for the programme. The Team Leader will be responsible for representing the programme with a range of Brazilian partners, government stakeholders and external organisations and individuals, including regularly reporting to FCDO, and maintaining strong working relationships with relevant local institutions, entities, other donor programmes, the project team based in Sao Paulo and Brasilia as well as with corporate Palladium staff.
Responsibilities:
Programme Management
* Provide guidance, oversight and quality assurance for all project activities, outputs and deliverables;
* Assume overall responsibility for the effective implementation of work plans to ensure delivery is on time, within budget, meets client and stakeholder expectations and is contractually compliant;
* Monitor implementation progress; maintain up to date project logs and registers; work to resolve issues, manages and mitigates risks; and escalate material issues and risks as appropriate;
* Develop and implement plans for results measurement, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management, value for money analysis and communication management;
* Ensure good staff management practices including staff planning, recruitment, on-boarding, appraisal and development;
* Oversee the preparation and delivery to the client of budget variations and contract amendments;
* Oversee the management of subcontractors and ensure their submission of high quality and timely delivery of milestones;
* Identify, monitor and capture overall programme risks in Client’s risk register and internal risk board.
Stakeholder Management
* Build on and develop strong working relationships with the programme’s contact points in the Brazilian Government, national agencies, FCDO and other donor programmes in the trade facilitation, ports modernisation and SME development space, and leading on reporting to them, through both formal and informal channels;
* Manage relationships with the Brazilian government, counterpart agencies, project partners, stakeholders and business partners in Brazil as well as the UK, and represent the programme with the wider FCDO country office or an external audience as needed, including with communities of practice and other FCDO offices;
* Develop strong working relationships with the leadership of other donor programmes, particularly FCDO’s SME development and trade facilitation programmes, and exploit complementarities and synergies between BTF and them where possible;
* Develop strong working relationships and a regular dialogue on programme progress and challenges with relevant Palladium staff, including the Project Director, the Project Management team and Technical Support staff.
Client Management
* Develop a strong and pro-active relationship with the programme management team at the FCDO as well as their senior decision makers and report to them on a regular basis;
* Ensure that our deliverables and requests from the client are delivered timely and in high quality.
Team Management
* Communicate regularly and clearly with and manage the team to ensure deliverable schedules, roles and responsibilities and deadlines are understood and met;
* Lead team meetings, internally and with externals such as subcontractors / delivery partners and the client;
* Maintain a strong working relationship with the Palladium Project Management team and reach a consensus on BTF’s overarching, as well as component specific, technical approach and direction;
* Lead with the Project Manager and Director in the preparation of work plans and budgets; staffing plans; performance improvement plans and other plans as required. Ensuring that team receive the guidance, resource and support needed to deliver their work;
* Bridge communication between programme management team and in-country teams to ensure timely delivery of milestones;
* Provide big picture, strategic direction and focus for the programme;
* Mentor the team to ensure innovative idea generation within the programme
Technical Knowledge / Context Understanding
* Strong technical knowledge in MSMEs inclusion strategies and ports modernisation;
* Strong experience in delivering complex programme and proactivity.
Requirements:
* Advanced degree in international development, public administration, public policy, business administration, or a closely related field
* Substantial experience in leading or managing complex programmes, teams and interventions effectively, preferably in a trade facilitation environment and in the Brazilian context
* Experience working with key government departments and institutions involved in trade facilitation and SME development, preferably also ports modernisation or management
* Experience with private sector engagement and in international development, preferably in Brazil
* Very good understanding of governance, public administration and key private sector players in Brazil and ability to leverage the same
* Strong expertise in building and managing programmatic relationships with high level stakeholders from government, civil society and donors
* Ability to access and engage with the highest ministerial levels in Brazil
* Experience working with donor (preferably UK) funded programmes
* Understanding of local financing and development issues and familiarity with development impact indicators
* Demonstrable experience working with teams, with strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills, including managing and mentoring senior members of staff
* Effective oral and written communication skills, including strong writing and editing capabilities in English; ideally also in Portuguese, but not essential
* Extensive experience in project management, contract administration, compliance, and other project operations and management areas
* Strong skills in effective client relationship management
* Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, ability to multitask, and ability to work well under pressure
* Eligibility to work in Brazil
Brazilian nationals are strongly encouraged to apply, but not a must.
Applications will be assessed on a rolling basis.
This vacancy is archived.