Chief of Party, Workforce Development Program (Mexico)

BACKGROUND
The International Youth Foundation (IYF) invests in the extraordinary potential of young people. Founded in 1990, IYF builds and maintains a worldwide community of businesses, governments, and civil society organizations committed to empowering youth to be healthy, productive, and engaged citizens. IYF programs are catalysts for change that help young people obtain a quality education, gain employability skills, make healthy choices, and improve their communities. To learn more visit www.iyfnet.org [1].

This position will support IYF’s work under the expected United States Agency for International Development (USAID)/Mexico Cooperative Agreement for an activity focusing on Mexico’s northern border region entitled Workforce Development (WFD) for Youth in Mexico: Strengthening Education-to-Employment Systems. The overall goal of the program is to support Mexican initiatives at a systemic level to increase labor market skills acquisition among youth, adapt upper- and post-secondary education and training programs to labor market needs, and increase portability of skills across the education, training and labor market systems.

The program will support systemic changes that facilitate job search and skills matching for youth entering the workforce and strengthen competency-based certification. In addition, the program will seek to support and assist Mexican governmental, non-governmental, private sector and academic institutions to work together to adopt, implement, and account for more effective policies that address critical workforce skills gap-related issues, creating necessary linkages for the education to employment continuum to function more effectively. More specifically, this activity will directly address the deficit of workforce-ready skills in youth, while also supporting the participation of education institutions, Government of Mexico at the national and subnational levels, as well as the private sector and local NGOs in building an education to employment system to support youth employment, skills building in critical areas identified by employers and recognized competency-based certifications processes.  This program will support targeted organizations that support youth transition from formal (i.e. class-room based) and informal (i.e. non class-room based) education or training opportunities to the workforce and will work at a strategic level with the private sector and post-secondary learning institutions to identify those skills that are most in demand by the workforce and then adjust curricula to better meet these needs.

The program will take place in the northern border area of Mexico, which is defined for these purposes to be – at a minimum – the Mexican states of Baja California, Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon, with a preference for an approach that reaches or has an impact on all six Mexican states which border the United States.  USAID anticipates making an award no later than September 30, 2013 with a performance period of 36 months.

JOB SUMMARY
The Chief of Party (COP) will provide strategic guidance and leadership related to the planning, management and implementation of the USAID-funded program as described above and will oversee all program activities in a timely, high quality manner.  This includes overseeing and managing program operations); coordinating the development and support to multi-stakeholder alliances at the state, federal and local levels; ensuring the provision of high quality capacity building assistance; ensuring proper oversight of IYF personnel, financial management and administration; and coordinating with other stakeholders in the region to ensure that IYF leverages effective resources in implementing the project initiatives. S/he will also be responsible for establishing strong relationships with the appropriate donor representatives and serve as the liaison with USAID.

The COP will be based in Mexico and will be responsible for overseeing overall program implementation on a full-time basis.  S/he will be directly responsible for the program staff, including the Senior Technical Advisor.  The COP will report to IYF’s Latin American Program Director, based in Baltimore, MD, USA.  Hiring for this position will be contingent upon IYF securing funding from USAID for this activity and USAID’s approval of the candidate for this position.  To be eligible for this position, applicants must have the legal authority to work and reside in Mexico; this position is a local hire position and Mexican nationals are encouraged to apply. 

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES/SPECIFIC DUTIES

• Provide overall strategic management  of the program ensuring all aspects of the program are well coordinated, executed on time and ensuring that IYF maximizes the resources and talents leveraged, and the outcomes and impacts are achieved.  This includes the development of an overall plan for the program, annual plans, budgets, timelines and other required deliverables which are essential for good execution.
• Support and supervise staff and consultants involved in the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of this program. 
• Foster and maintain excellent and effective relationships with USAID and other donors, including Mexico government officials. Act as the primary liaison to Mexican government partners.
• Ensure the creation and maintenance of strong alliances at the local, state and federal levels and effective participation of multiple stakeholders (government, business, civil society organizations, and youth).
• Ensure fiscal integrity and with support from IYF administrative and financial staff, compliance with all USAID and IYF rules and regulations.  Successfully engage private sector partners and others in an effort to leverage more resources for this program and with support from IYF’s Business Development department, ensure financial commitments are secured.
• Produce effective written reports and oral presentations on the program, including preparing periodic reports, updating on developmental challenges facing the program, and articulating the program’s success in meeting deliverables.
• Reponsible for creating a communications strategy for this program and ensure IYF programs are well represented with local and international media, at events and with key audiences in Mexico and US.

SUPERVISOR
This person will report to Latin American and Caribbean Director based in the IYF offices in Baltimore, MD.

REQUIRED SKILLS & QUALIFICATIONS

• Demonstrated excellence in strategic management of managing complex programs across multiple sites.
• Strong leadership skills and demonstrated ability to manage and motivate teams. 
• Significant experience developing and supporting multi-stakeholder partnerships for social change in one or more countries in Latin America.
• Demonstrated expertise in youth employability issues, upper and/or higher education and training, education or labor policy development.
• Demonstrated experience managing USAID-funded programs.
• A Master’s degree or higher in economics, education, public administration or a closely related field is required.
• Demonstrated ability to find viable solutions to complicated problems in a flexible, time-sensitive and creative manner and solid “troubleshooting” skills and sound judgment in dealing with partners experiencing implementation challenges.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Spanish.

LOCATION
Mexican states of Baja California, Chihuahua or Nuevo Leon with travel to other areas, as needed.

TO APPLY
Please submit the following documents via email to jobs@iyfnet.org [2] with "Mexico WFD-COP-Your Name" in the subject line:

1. Completed IYF Field Office Application for Employment [3]
2. Cover Letter 
3. Resume

APPLICATION DEADLINE:  April 19, 2013

The International Youth Foundation is an Equal Opportunity Employer.