Activity Lead, CATALYZE

Activity Lead, CATALYZE

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

To serve as the Activity Lead (equivalent responsibilities to a Project Director) for the CATALYZE Sahel Finance for Resilience buy-in and new Catalyze and Palladium projects as required. The CATAYZE Sahel Finance for Resilience buy-in activity (“F4R” or “the Activity”) is designed to deploy $12.7 million over four (4) years to connect financial intermediaries to farmers, cooperatives, and companies of all sizes in the agricultural sector and to youth entrepreneurs in Burkina Faso and Niger.
CATALYZE is a $250M, USAID-funded project managed by Palladium’s U.S. Business Unit out of Washington, D.C. which intends to mobilize a billion U.S. dollars in capital for underserved communities globally using blended finance from mostly private sector actors over an eight-year period. In addition to being Activity Lead for Sahel, the role will also involve business development and design of new programs for this ever-growing project.

The role will be to serve as the overall responsible party to deliver the stated objectives and targets in related Scopes of Work and Performance Work Statements under this and other Palladium activities. The role reports to the CATALYZE Chief of Party/Executive Director Amanda Fernandez, supervises field teams, the Activity Management Unit members in Washington, D.C., and closely liaises with our client USAID, stakeholders, and private sector entities.

Location

The position is based in Palladium’s Washington, D.C. office. Other locations where Palladium has an office will be considered in extenuating circumstances.

You and Your Career

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in project leadership, USAID, fluency in French, and blended/micro finance, 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:

Technical Leadership

• 
  Provide technical, operational, and financial leadership and supervision to CATALYZE home offices in Sahel and other areas and field teams to promote successful design and implementation of project activities including quality assurance and risk mitigation. Decentralize project management to the extent possible to the field teams in line with Palladium’s management model
  
• Provide guidance and facilitate required technical assistance and training when appropriate to technical team members and implementing partners to develop and execute a robust pipeline of innovative financing transactions together with financial institutions, large corporations and investors that can serve as “anchors” in business models and facilitate access to technology and finance, and Business Advisory Services Providers (BASPs) to identify and close transactions
  
• Lead the identification, assessment, and pursuit of new business opportunities to achieve the CATALYZE ceiling
  
• Conduct and/or oversee technical assignments for CATALYZE and potentially across Palladium on topics such as inclusive finance, digital platform development, supply chain traceability, risk management, market systems development, private sector engagement/development, BASP and FI training, among other relevant topics
  
• Engage with entrepreneurs, investors, large corporations with interests in investing in developing country firms, USAID, financial institutions and other commercial actors to generate interest and action in expanding innovative and blended finance solutions, to meet CATALYZE and Palladium’s ambitious impact goals
  
• Identify, build, and maintain positive working relationships with international consultants and partners who can provide technical expertise to programs under supervision
  
• Contribute to research, analysis, writing and publication of technical studies, case studies, and program approaches, and analysis of results and lessons learned to inform CATALYZE buy-ins and Palladium’s communications strategies and learning agenda, to demonstrate thought leadership, and support adaptive management
  
• Conduct field visits and participate in project events and conduct public speaking inside and outside the Sahel region and other areas as required

Contract and Client Relationship Management

• 
  Monitor and maintain compliance with head/prime contracts including agreement action requests (i.e., travel, personnel changes, grant approvals, budget realignments, etc.)
  
• Liaise with Contracts and Compliance department 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
  
• Oversee the development, and management of subcontracts and 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

Project Management

• 
  Serve as the Activity Team Lead (equivalent to Project Director) on the CATALYZE Sahel project, overseeing the Burkina
• Faso-based project team and home office activity management unit (AMU). Serve as a Team Lead for new CATALYZE
• Activities or new Palladium programs as required
  
• Advise the project team on work planning, budgeting, progress, and financial reporting internally and for our client, USAID, and ensure quality control of all project deliverables
  
• Lead implementation of the AMELP for Sahel and other buy-ins as needed, as well as associated CLA processes and learning
  
• Support appropriate utilization of U.S. Government resources in line with U.S. Government and Palladium rules and regulations. Identify project performance and contract management issues and lead or support their timely resolution as appropriate
  
• Provide consistent management guidance and oversee the completion of the annual performance review processes for the
• AMU, the Executive Director and the project teams
  
• Lead the process by which Palladium develops annual requests to USAID to invoice the results-based fee associated with CATALYZE Sahel and other buy-ins

Key competencies required:

• 
  Written and spoken fluency in English and French. Fluency in other foreign languages is a plus
  
• Proven professional experience managing donor programs in inclusive finance or impact investment. Additional experience in any of the following areas is a plus: climate finance, micro, small, medium enterprise development, private sector partnerships, agricultural value chain development/finance, microfinance, traceability systems, digital finance, economic empowerment of marginalized groups and communities
  
• Demonstrated familiarity with relevant ecosystem actors in the inclusive finance realm, including DFIs, commercial banks and microfinance institutions, impact investors, transaction advisors and other technical specialists. Professional experience in Niger and/or Burkina Faso is a plus
  
• Minimum of five years of successful experience managing international development programs and teams overseas with budgets over $5M, and using innovative grants and subcontracts as a development tool
  
• Proven, positive client relationship management skills
  
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, including a track record of report writing, public presentations (moderator, panelist, keynote) and published blogs or articles
  
• Financial acumen and the ability to interpret and analyze financial reports, develop and evaluate financial projections, and match programmatic objectives/work plans to costs/budgets
  
• Experience developing theories of change, results frameworks, logic models, and other elements of adaptive programming for impact
  
• Sound problem-solving and decision-making skills demonstrated in challenging or fluid circumstances
  
• Demonstrated, high level of professionalism, respect and integrity operating within a multi-cultural, values-based organization

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.