Job Description
The Knowledge Management Specialist (KMS) supports the Office of Africa (OA) within USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (USAID/BHA). BHA leads and coordinates the U.S. Government’s humanitarian assistance efforts overseas in response to natural disasters and protracted crises. The Bureau also supports early recovery efforts that restore and protect basic systems and services and invests in risk reduction programs that prevent or reduce risks associated with chronic and recurrent hazards.
The KMS is a member of the Program Support Unit (PS) within OA’s Management and Integration Team (MIT). The KMS works with OA’s programming teams and other units in the MIT to create a space for learning, support knowledge management and sharing across the office, and develop tools and resources in support of OA’s humanitarian assistance activities. Day-to-day work assignments and oversight are provided by the MIT Deputy Team Lead for the PS Unit, another MIT Deputy Team Lead, or the MIT Team Lead, with formal supervisory and evaluation functions performed by a Macfadden contract supervisor.
Core KMS duties include and are not limited to:
- Maintaining and providing recommendations to improve existing KM guidance and tools;
- Supporting the development of new learning resources at the office and team levels;
- Providing technical KM support and resources to OA teams;
- Coordinating with colleagues in OA and other BHA offices, as requested, in support of KM and learning activities;
- Researching means of capturing program and technical skills and expertise to strengthen professional staff response readiness within OA;
- Monitoring existing and planned learning opportunities and gaps in international disaster response plans and efforts, multi-year resilience and early recovery programs, and major humanitarian issues and challenges across Africa;
- Tracking humanitarian issues & priorities for OA while applying knowledge management practices and capturing learning opportunities for OA regional teams;
- Developing and supporting implementation of templates and systems to standardize communication, learning, and capacity development within OA;
- Researching and sharing best practices for troubleshooting challenges to learning that OA staff may encounter in their daily work;
- Preparing and reporting out on office-level learning initiatives;
- Drafting success criteria to track OA programmatic and process progress toward desired outcomes; and
- Supporting special projects as assigned.
The KMS may be assigned to serve on BHA Response Management Teams (RMTs) based in Washington, D.C., or on BHA Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs) or other field teams located overseas. Such assignments depend on the needs of BHA, the suitability of the KMS to meet those needs, and the approval of BHA’s contracting officer representative, among other factors.
- Bachelor’s degree with minimum eight years of progressively responsible experience OR Master’s degree with minimum six years of progressively responsible experience OR at least 10 years of progressively responsible experience. Professional experience may include internships.
- Demonstrated experience in developing, implementing, and supporting successful KM and organizational learning practices, processes, and policies.
- Demonstrated experience working collaboratively and productively with stakeholders throughout an organization.
- Ability to work well under pressure and in fast-paced environments, balancing competing priorities and demands.
- Strong applied knowledge of the MS Office Suite (Word, Outlook, Excel, and PowerPoint) and Google applications.
- Familiarity with USAID, BHA, or USG work environments is helpful but not required.
Qualified candidates should also:
- Possess strong communication, problem-solving, and customer-service skills,
- Have strong organizational skills and exceptional attention to detail,
- Possess excellent judgment and reliability,
- Be capable of following up on actions without prompting,
- Be flexible and adaptable to changing circumstances, and
- Be able to work independently and in a team environment.
Ability to obtain and maintain a US Government issued Secret clearance for the duration of your employment. Only applicants who currently hold an active Secret or higher-level security clearance or who are eligible to receive a Secret security clearance will be considered for this position.
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