Senior Environmental Programs Advisor At International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc.

About Us

International Business & Technical Consultants, Inc. (IBTCI), a U.S. based international development consulting company established in 1987, has worked in over 100 countries and implemented over 300 projects. IBTCI serves government agencies, private sector companies, and several donor agencies. IBTCI specializes in monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) and institutional support across many areas and sectors including, but not limited to, conflict and crisis, democracy and governance, agriculture, economic growth, food security, education, environment, and global health.

Job Title: Senior Environmental Programs Advisor

Department/Location: USAID Mexico

Period of Performance: 12 Months

Reports To: ISPI Project Manager

Type: Consultancy

Clearance Required:Facilities Access

Overview:

The Senior Advisor will effectively serve as a subject matter expert to support the Environment Portfolio and a key member of the team implementing USAID/Mexico’s five-year, $100 million Global Climate Change (GCC) and rural development program. This role involves supporting a large sustainable landscapes portfolio, promoting sustainable agricultural practices, coordinating rural development activities, and establishing private sector partnerships. The Senior Advisor will provide strategic guidance, portfolio implementation, and work closely with colleagues from various U.S. departments and Mexican officials to advance Mexico’s climate commitments. This position requires strong project management, design, and mentoring skills, as well as excellent interagency teamwork abilities. Strong Spanish language skills are highly recommended. The Senior Advisor reports directly to the Office Director.

Responsibilities

Essential Duties/Tasks and Responsibilities:

Office Oversight (40%)

• Provide ongoing program coordination across the USAID climate and sustainable development portfolio.
• Identify resources to support USAID programs and foster efficient management processes by adopting technically sound and cost-effective approaches.
• Ensure local leadership and voices are effectively harnessed in the design and implementation of USAID/Mexico programs.
• Serve as the point of contact for information requests from the US Embassy, USAID/Washington, and other stakeholders, and review and verify the quality of responses.
• Support the design and procurement process for new programs and revise current awards to align with new strategic approaches.
• Support the Office Director in budget planning and monitoring obligations, commitments, and expenditures for grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements.
• Ensure timely preparation and submission of documentation for activities with input from team members and implementing partners.
• Guide, mentor, and coach OSD staff on managing priorities and prioritizing workload.
• As needed, coordinate temporary duty visits and high-level visitor site visits, including organizing site visits and providing briefing materials.

Strategic and Technical Leadership (40%)

• Provide thought leadership across USAID’s climate and sustainable development programming, including energy efficiency, carbon markets, deforestation reduction, and sustainable agricultural practices.
• Engage with the donor community to identify synergistic opportunities for OSD engagement and represent OSD in donor working groups.
• Provide guidance for the successful implementation of climate and energy activities to ensure accountability for results and timely corrective action plans.
• Model collaboration best practices with GOM counterparts, USG staff, and implementing partners in the design, implementation, and evaluation of programs.
• Engage key development partners and private sector representatives to identify synergies and complementary investments.
• Build a culture of data use for decision-making through annual portfolio and quarterly program performance reviews.
• Ensure site improvement monitoring visits and data quality assessments are routinely implemented and results inform program implementation.
• Support the development of sustainability planning and frameworks for climate programming.
• Strengthen OSD outreach efforts by drafting, reviewing, and editing materials which describe OSD’s portfolio, including success stories, monthly bullets, and fact sheets, among others.
• Support the design and procurement processes for new project awards, ensuring alignment with strategic visions and policies.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of capacity-building and systems strengthening activities and best practices.
• Make recommendations to improve alignment of the climate portfolio with evolving conditions and reflect these in strategic and planning documents.
• Develop communication materials to showcase USAID activities and highlight successes.

Project Portfolio Management (20%)

• Conduct routine project monitoring and evaluation, including leading site visits to ensure proper implementation of activities.
• Maintain regular communication with implementing partners to ensure sound technical and financial management approaches.
• Support coordination across USAID/Mexico implementing partners by coordinating and leading Communities of Practice.
• Review partner work plans, scopes of work, and other documentation to ensure feasible, results-oriented, gender-sensitive approaches with clear outputs.
• Review and determine the appropriateness of proposed agreement modifications.
• Assist implementing partners and A/CORs in troubleshooting implementation problems and ensuring compliance with activity agreements, including prompt closeout of activities.
• Elevate major management or politically sensitive issues to the attention of the Office Director, along with suggestions on how to resolve the issue.

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements:

• A minimum of ten years of progressively responsible professional experience in the design, management, and/or analysis of sustainable development programs.
• Experience working in technical oversight, design, monitoring, and evaluation of environmental and sustainability programs in low-resource settings.
• Demonstrated experience in designing or managing programs related to climate change, biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, or sustainable development.
• Fluent English required. Spanish is extremely helpful but not required.

Education: Minimum of a master’s degree in a relevant professional discipline such as environmental science, sustainable development, international development, public policy, or a related field.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Demonstrated understanding of sustainable development principles, climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and related systems, including program design, implementation, and evaluation.
• Understanding of how to coach, lead, and mentor in a multicultural, multi-agency environment.
• Demonstrated ability to represent programs and priorities to a wide range of internal and external parties including the U.S. Embassy Front Office, inter-agency partners, senior host government officials, USAID senior management, and others.

  Demonstrated capacity to manage and oversee a multisectoral sustainable development initiative.

• Demonstrated emotional intelligence, including the ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the ability to understand and influence the emotions of others, fostering a positive and collaborative working environment.
• Demonstrated ability to work with multiple U.S. and host country government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.

Working Environment: Work is typically performed in an office environment. Currently the company is allowing for hybrid work in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia (DMV) area. This can be updated by the company.

Physical Requirements: This is largely a sedentary position that requires the ability to speak, hear, see, and lift small objects up to 20 lbs.

Supervisory Responsibility: This position does not have supervisory responsibilities.

Travel: International travel may be required and may include travel to fragile and/or conflict-prone zones.

Please note that this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

About the Organization:

IBTCI has been in business since 1987. We specialize in Monitoring, Evaluation, Research & Learning (MERL), Institutional Support (IS), Financial & Risk Management (FRM), Supply Chain Management & Procurement (SCMP); Social & Behavior Change (SBC) and Capacity Building. We provide these services across many sectors including, but not limited to, agriculture, resilience & food security, conflict & crisis, democracy & governance, economic growth & trade, education & human capacity development, energy & infrastructure, environment & climate change, global health & WASH and humanitarian and disaster assistance. At IBTCI, our colleagues are encouraged to collaborate and be part of the solution while getting the tools and guidance needed to grow and support our clients’ missions.

IBTCI is committed to a policy of equal employment opportunity for all persons without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identification, age, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, disabled veteran or Vietnam-era veteran, or any other classification protected by applicable anti-discrimination laws. We prohibit and do not tolerate any form of discrimination or harassment. VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

If you are an applicant with a disability that requires a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process or are limited in the ability, or unable to use the online application system and need an alternative method for applying, you may contact the Talent Acquisition team at TalentAcquisition@ibtci.com (Do not send your resume to this account, for consideration please apply in our career page, https://careers.ibtci.com/jobs).