Reporting to: Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) Platform Manager
Location: Remotely- based in Africa, Europe, or Central Asia
Main Purpose of the position
We are looking for a highly skilled and motivated Project Officer to manage the enhancement and maintenance of our digital assets. The successful candidate will collaborate with various stakeholders to gather and validate requirements, prepare and manage service license contracts, and ensure the successful implementation of development features. These features will ensure our digital assets are fit for purpose and can be reused by other co-sharing stakeholders.
The candidate will work with close collaboration and under coordination of the MEL Platform Manager.
The Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) team at ICARDA is comprised of the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) sub-team, the Knowledge Management (KM) sub-team, the Data Management (DM) sub-team and the Research Software Development (RSD) sub-team. The ICARDA MEL team staff are located in several countries across the globe and work collaboratively with MEL, Data and Knowledge Management teams from the CGIAR System, other CGIAR centers and Research Programs, and non-CGIAR entities.
The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) is a treaty-based international non-profit research organization supported by CGIAR.ICARDA’s mission is to reduce poverty, enhance food, water, and nutritional security, as well as environmental health in the face of global challenges including climate change. We do this through innovative science, strategic partnerships, linking research to development, and capacity development that take into account gender equality and the role of youth in transforming the dry areas. ICARDA works in partnership with governments, universities, civil society, national agricultural research organizations, other CGIAR Research Centers, and the private sector. With its temporary Headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, ICARDA operates in regional and country offices across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. For more information: www.icarda.org.
All CGIAR Centers are currently engaged into a reform process (“One CGIAR’”) that will help ICARDA and CGIAR achieve better impact through more strategically integrated research, unified governance, an integrated structure, and new research modalities across participating Research Centers. This transformation is supported by CGIAR donors who have committed to increased funding as a result of these reforms.
Main responsibilities
1. Development Feature Control:
· Coordinate the implementation of new development features and enhancements, ensuring they receive prior validation from the MEL Platform Manager.
· Coordinate with development teams to ensure timely and accurate delivery of features.
· Track progress and resolve any issues that may arise during development.
· Conduct testing activities to ensure the quality and functionality of enhancements.
2. Stakeholder Liaison:
· Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to collect and document needs and requirements for digital product enhancements.
· Maintain close contact and follow up with stakeholders on the work plan and necessary activities.
· Facilitate regular meetings and communication channels to ensure alignment and transparency.
3. Service Contract Preparation:
· Draft, review, and finalize service contracts related to digital product enhancements.
· Ensure all contractual obligations are met and documented.
· Validate terms and conditions with Grants Team and service providers.
4. Budget Preparation and Approval:
· Develop comprehensive budgets for digital product maintenance and enhancement projects.
· Monitor and control budget utilization to ensure financial efficiency.
· Obtain necessary approvals for budget allocations and adjustments.
5. Capacity Development Activities:
· Create and ensure that user guides and documentation are updated to reflect new features and enhancements.
· Organize online capacity development activities to introduce major changes and train the users.
· Work closely with the user support agent to assist with various requests. Review and validate monthly reports prior to official submission, identifying and documenting areas for potential improvement of the digital tool.
· Review and approve final documentation before release.
6. Work Plan and Activity Follow-Up:
· Together with MEL Platform Manager co-develop detailed work plan for enhancement
· Track project milestones and deliverables to ensure timely completion.
· Provide regular updates to stakeholders on project status and progress.