Title of Position: Project Director, Poverty Elimination

Position Location: Houston, Texas

Reports To:  National Council Senior Operating Officer and Vice President 

Deadline to Apply: January 31, 2025

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT:

Jamati poverty elimination has been and continues to be a top priority for Mawlana Hazar Imam. To address the needs of the economically marginalized segments within the Jamat, the Council for USA is working on formulating a structured, coordinated, and focused method of permanently redressing poverty. The Council for USA would like to engage a Project Director to support a scale up of its Poverty Elimination programming, including the case management system. 

 

POSITION DESCRIPTION:

The Council for USA is seeking to hire a Project Director with the managerial, technical, and operational background to scale up its Poverty Elimination programming. The Director will work with the Aga Khan Social Welfare Board and the National Poverty Elimination Forum to enhance/establish processes, systems, and human resources required for a proactive, sustainable, and scaled approach to poverty elimination.

 

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Project Planning, Management & Delivery

• Co-lead the development and facilitate execution of a long-term poverty elimination plan to guide resource mobilization and partnerships with internal and external institutions.

• Recruit and lead a multi-disciplinary volunteer team of diverse backgrounds to deliver the program objectives.

• Co-lead the monthly Poverty Forum and National Leads meetings to better understand key domains and review strategies for achieving sustainable progress in those domains.

• Maintain and follow-up on key decisions of the Poverty Forum utilizing the OKR tracker. 

• Develop and oversee adherence to semi-annual work plans, along with details for functional teams within the project structure.

• Coordinate with AKEPB and Skills Development Initiative (SDI) Livelihoods’ Leads to review ongoing market analyses focused on employment, entrepreneurship, and skills enhancement opportunities for the Jamat.

• Review and operationalize the program approaches, policies, and procedures, while ensuring that the program objectives are achieved within the given parameters and in the most sustainable, time and cost-effective manner.

• Engage with key stakeholders (including the Jamat, national leadership and Central Office for Poverty Elimination (COPE) to establish and communicate contextually-appropriate development pathways & interventions.

• Formalize relationships with national, regional, and local service providers to enhance delivery of the program.

• Execute the decisions and agreed policies of the National Poverty Forum (the overall governance body for Family Development Programming).

• Ensure coordination between the National Case Oversight Committee and Local Case Review Committees.

• Coordinate all training and facilitate making all content cohesive.

• Review poverty elimination and family mentorship training material to ensure content is updated and cohesive. 

• Incorporate learnings from internal and external research projects into the existing service delivery model.

 

Program Budgeting, Monitoring and Reporting

• Work with AKSWB and Monitoring and Evaluation Lead to develop comprehensive and consistent quality documentation of all elements of the project, including theory of change, logic model, and M&E plan for key impact evaluation metrics.

• Compose and submit regular written progress reports as well as verbal program updates during meetings and calls.

• Together with partners and team members, lead all aspects of poverty elimination related data tracking and management including case management related data.

• Develop, monitor, and report on the annual budgets.

• Coordinate, review, and approve accounting reports, financial transactions, and subsidies, while ensuring financial integrity of the program.

 

General Administration

• Assist the Senior Operating Officer and team members in ensuring smooth and efficient operation of all Poverty Elimination programming.

• Provide overall coordination of, day-to-day direction, professional expertise, and support to local service delivery.

• Ensure confidentiality of sensitive matters relating to the Council and its operations and safeguard all documents, files, and records of the Jamati Institutions.

• Undertake other duties and responsibilities as may be required from time to time.

 

Professional Development

• Actively participate in a global Community of Practice (CoP) calls with the Central Office for Poverty Elimination (COPE) by cataloging and sharing knowledge, tools, insights, and experiences of the program in the USA.

• Raise issues and concerns regarding common needs and requirements across jurisdictions and assist in the development of solutions to address them.

• Continue to pursue learning related to poverty elimination research and best practice to share with larger team. 

CANDIDATE PROFILE:

Education:

• Degree from a national or internationally recognized university, in a relevant field such as international development, social sciences, business administration, or a related field (Masters degree preferred). 

Professional Experience:

• Professional with a minimum of 5 years of professional experience with a reputed organization (ideally in the field of international development, innovative finance, or nonprofit management).

• Successfully led the delivery of a large project and management of a multi-functional project team (or a mid-sized organization in a senior management position).  

• Jamati institutional and volunteer experience is a significant asset.

Attributes & Skills:

• Absolute discretion and the ability to handle sensitive information.

• Goal-oriented, data-driven, with a positive ‘can-do’ attitude and strong problem-solving skills.

• Demonstrated ability to build strong, supportive, and collaborative working relationships with internal team members and the leaders and members of stakeholder organizations.

• Proven ability to lead and motivate professional and volunteer team members from diverse backgrounds.

• Experience in writing actionable reports that build on input from multiple stakeholders, crafting proposals and related presentations, and developing other documentation.

• Experience in setting, attaining, and/or measuring performance indicators and outcomes.

• Experience in preparing budgets, coordinating the preparation of annual audits.

• Experience in working with databases and interpreting data is an asset.

• Comfort with public speaking in front of small groups and wider audiences.

• Proficiency in MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

• Professional qualification in project management or similar is considered a strong asset.

• Must have excellent oral and written communication skills in English.

Minimum Requirements: 

• Requires a flexible schedule in order to accommodate a non-traditional work week, including some evenings and weekends.