The U-LEAD with Europe Programme announced vacancies for the heads of regional offices in the Dnipropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Khmelnytskyi Oblasts.

In the last few years, Ukraine has developed and adopted various laws in favour of an ambitious decentralisation reform, which reshapes the relations between the national, regional and local levels and builds institutional capacity. The success of the decentralisation reform greatly depends on the coordination and cooperation between the different stakeholders involved into reform implementation at the national, regional and local levels. Given the important new tasks, responsibilities and financial resources that local self-governments have gained, the implementation of the reform has to be accompanied by expert advice, trainings and diverse support measures. U-LEAD (Ukraine- Local Empowerment, Accountability and Development) is a special measure which is conducted as a multi-donor action by the EU and its member states Germany, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark and Poland to support the Ukrainian government in the implementation of the decentralisation reform.

For managing, coordination and support to our regional teams in the mentioned above 8 oblasts of Ukraine, we are looking for highly motivated Heads of U-LEAD Regional Offices with an innovative mind-set, management experience and excellent knowledge of the Ukrainian government's decentralisation reform.

Areas of responsibility

• Coordinating the Programme’s capacity development activities as well as advice and support to hromadas in the respective oblast to efficiently perform tasks and carry out new responsibilities acquired in the course of reforms’ implementation.
• Ensuring good communication and information flows with all stakeholders (political and implementation partners) and supporting them.
• Ensuring and supporting effective internal (within GIZ and U-LEAD) and external (public outreach, traditional and social media) communications of high quality, as well as coordination with the communications and visibility group of U-LEAD with Europe.
• Planning and monitoring the activities of the U-LEAD Regional Office and timely contributions of accurate information to the overall results-based monitoring and knowledge management processes at the Programme and GIZ.
• Promoting a regular multi-level stakeholder dialogue in the respective oblast.
• Ensuring the application of GIZ standards and rules in all operational procedures.
• Managing the local employees of the U-LEAD Regional Office.

Tasks

• Coordinates capacity development needs’ assessment of hromadas in the respective oblast.
• Coordinates Policy Advisers’ and short-term pool experts’ involvement in capacity development and professional advice to hromadas of the respective oblast according to GIZ values, standards and rules.
• Monitors the quality of the pool experts’ support to hromadas, analyses the feedback from events’ participants, introduces measures for overall quality improvement of events.
• Coordinates monthly activity planning processes in the respective oblast
• Ensures result-based monitoring and reporting of the U-LEAD Regional Office’s activities and events, achievements and ongoing cooperation with partners.
• Coordinates the overall knowledge and data management of the U-LEAD Regional Office in the respective oblast, including the identification and collection of good practices and success stories and shares the information in the respective field for public awareness raising, visibility and communication purposes.
• Ensures operational procedures within the U-LEAD Regional Office as well as the application of GIZ standards and rules in all processes concerning procurement, contracts, financial management, communications and visibility, integrity, monitoring, reporting, HR, filing of documents in DMS, DMI, etc.
• Provides consultations and advice on cross-cutting topics such as integrity and anti-corruption, while applying a gender-sensitive approach.
• Oversees the local employees at the U-LEAD Regional Office.
• Provides support to international and local experts during their field visits,
• Communicates regularly with local and regional stakeholders.
• Communicates and cooperates effectively with other U-LEAD Regional Offices and GIZ projects in Ukraine.
• Ensures discreet behaviour vis-a-vis third parties in all internal matters.
• Communicates and reports regularly to the U-LEAD Hub Manager.

Requirements to the candidates

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in the field of administration, economics, law or other relevant fields.

Professional experience

• At least 3 years of managing and coordinating teams.
• Proven track record of the active involvement in the implementation of the decentralisation reform in the respective oblast for at least two last years.
• Experience in administration at municipal or regional level is an asset.
• Proven track record in working with municipalities.

Other knowledge, additional competences

• Sound knowledge of decentralisation and local self-government reform.
• Deep understanding of the specific set-up, its actors and political environment of the respective oblast.
• Excellent project management skills.
• Strong communication, cooperation and negotiation skills.
• Ability to work under stressful conditions and tight deadlines, with people of different professional and cultural backgrounds, result-oriented, well organised and motivated.
• Dedicated to perform as a member of the U-LEAD team.
• Willingness to enhance own skills as required by the dynamics of tasks to be performed.
• Excellent knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook).
• Managing digital data and social media sensitively and responsibly.
• Very good Ukrainian language skills. English or German is an asset.

Employment conditions

Full-time position with 40-hours working week. Frequent travel within the relevant oblast is required. Starting in December 2019. The initial contract duration is until the end of June 2020.

GIZ is an equal opportunity employer and offers an attractive and challenging working environment with opportunities for skill enhancement.

Application

Application comprising of the candidate’s CV and a cover letter in English language explaining the motivation to apply for the job and at least 2 reference letters is to be sent until COB Monday, 14 October 2019 to recruitment.u-lead@giz.de with “Head of Regional Office and the name of the oblast” in the subject line.

Please be aware that the candidate may apply for the Head of U-LEAD Regional Office position in one oblast only.

By sending the application the candidate gives the consent for the personal data processing for recruitment processes solely.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for the next stages of the recruitment process which will include general testing (for those who did not pass it before or willing to improve their scores) and assessment centre.