About IREX
IREX is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to building a more just, prosperous, and inclusive world by empowering youth, cultivating leaders, strengthening institutions, and extending access to quality education and information. Founded in 1968, IREX has an annual portfolio of over $150 million, works in more than 100 countries worldwide with offices in 20 countries, and a global staff of 700.
Summary of Position
IREX seeks a qualified Deputy Chief of Party (DCOP) candidate for an anticipated $10M, five-year USAID-funded Sustainable Skills for a Just Transition Activity in the Mpumalanga region of South Africa. This Activity will strengthen the responsiveness of skills programs and institutions to market needs, thereby enabling them to create employment and earnings opportunities demanded by the energy transition. The DCOP will be responsible for supporting the Chief of Party in the management of the program and provide high-quality technical inputs to achieve program objectives.
Primary Responsibilities:
- In conjunction with the Chief of Party (COP), oversee the engagement of a diverse workforce ecosystem of actors, including the private sector, learners, education institutions, policy makers, and donors, within targeted high-growth sectors to address the skills gap and contribute to greater market system competitiveness.
- Provide technical oversight to partner training programs that close the skills gap in the new energy sector.
- Work closely with the COP to coordinate technical assistance across all program activities.
- Build and maintain relationships with employers, business associations, and other private sector stakeholders, and ensure their buy-in throughout the project.
- Facilitate productive and sustainable cross-sectoral collaboration between the business community, education institutions, and government.
- Lead or co-lead work planning process.
- Contribute to monitoring, evaluation, and learning; project communications; and project reporting.
- Directly supervise and manage contributions for weekly, quarterly, annual, and ad-hoc reports.
- Other duties as required.
Primary Qualifications:
- Master’s degree in a relevant field such as education, international development, non-profit management.
- At least five (5) years of previous relevant experience and expertise in the TVET sector or workforce development activities.
- Bachelor’s degree with at least seven (7) years of relevant experience also considered.
- Good network of relevant stakeholders in the region and good knowledge of the TVET system in South Africa.
- Experience working with private and public sector partners to leverage additional sources of funding to meet project objectives.
- Strong understanding of the education and training landscape in South Africa
- Experience with, or strong understanding, of the green economy
- Excellent communication, teamwork, facilitation, and networking skills.
- Successful track record of supervising, designing, managing, and implementing complex donor-funded technical assistance projects (with strong preference for past international-funded education project management experience).
- Proven leadership qualities and excellent management, representational, and organizational skills.
- Demonstrated ability to track and manage budgets and plan both strategically and creatively to meet project objectives.
- Professional level proficiency in spoken and written English, and the ability to provide written reporting in English for the project required.
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