The Digital Impact Alliance (DIAL) is a global alliance to enable the digital ecosystem to deliver greater scale, efficiency, and social impact as it creates more inclusive digital economies in emerging markets. Working with partners, DIAL generates evidence of what works through a series of demonstration projects, distils insights and tools to promote scale-up and replication, and provides mechanisms to encourage knowledge sharing, collaboration, and co-investment throughout the ecosystem.
DIAL is funded through a collaboration among the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and hosted within the UN Foundation in Washington, D.C.
DIAL’s strategy has been refined in recent months to focus on three inter-connected “bets” that address pressing needs in the digital development eco-system. Each bet is comprised of multiple projects, many of which are cross-cutting, which has increased our need for more cross matrix team management.
To meet this growing need, DIAL is creating the role of Director, Program Operations to play an integrating role across the team. He/ She will be someone who sees the big picture, understands the programmatic steps needed to execute a vision, and can work collaboratively to connect disparate efforts together. The Director, Program Operations will play a key execution role in delivering DIAL’s strategy, coordinating the annual planning process for the organization and running all internal team meetings including offsites. S/he will play a “connecting” role, coordinating across the organization to design and track DIAL wide KPIs, support DIAL’s organizational culture development, and manage the M&E team. S/he will coordinate closely with Operations as they develop, implement and manage cross-cutting tools for the organization, working closely with Senior Director, Operations.
This role is primarily an internal one and is designed to strengthen cross functional relationships. He/she will be a leads team member and will be responsible for working across our program teams to ensure that all projects deliver against our program outcomes. The role requires an experienced program manager with existing knowledge and track record in the Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) space. He/she will have a proven track record of working in large, complex international development &/or humanitarian projects managing program health by developing dashboards and tracking milestones against workplans. He/she will be measured on the ability to strengthen productive program linkages across the organization, connecting existing work more efficiently together and helping identify new areas of opportunity.
The Director will report directly to DIAL’s CEO. Key performance metrics for this role will reflect improvement in cross-program integration, milestone delivery and improved team satisfaction.
Key roles and responsibilities for the Director of Program Operations:
Measurement:
- Support DIAL’s annual planning and reporting process for donors and Board members, working closely with Business Operations to harmonize planning, reporting and financial tools to provide an overall program view
- Design and lead with M&E the organizational KPI process to track leading and lagging organizational indicators and report out to the team and Board
- Lead cross-cutting internal dashboard reporting that tracks progress towards achieving these KPIs. He/she will lead efforts to collate and coordinate the overall organizational dashboard that acts as business intelligence hub working closely with Business Operations and M&E personnel.
- Supervise M&E personnel to ensure that program measures are linked directly to results frameworks
Team Culture:
- Manage the weekly staff and leads team meeting agendas, as well as team retreats, working with individuals across the organization to streamline gathering materials, communicating expectations and following through on agreements.
- Support DIAL’s values committee, working closely with team members to ensure that our values and team agreements are incorporated and practiced as team norms.
- Work with the Leads team and staff to ensure a vibrant and healthy culture
Special Project (periodic):
- Lead special learning projects for the CEO focusing on the future of technology for development or partnership management
- Demonstrated excellence (more than 8 years) in program management running a large scale international development project. Preference given to PMP certified candidates
- Demonstrated excellence (more than 5 years) in leading proposal management efforts from inception to award, ideally with U.S. and international funding institutions
- Demonstrated experience (more than 5 years) working in technology programs.
- Demonstrated experience (more than 3 years) working closely with M&E personnel
- Demonstrated ability to influence and collaborate effectively across diverse teams and develop strong team cultures. Candidates must have held a similar role for at least two years.
- Outstanding oral and written communications skills that inspire diverse audiences to act, with ability to crystalize complex technical content into compelling stories
- Passion for DIAL’s mission and an understanding of the needs of its potential partners, either relating to technology, international development or a blend of the two
- Substantive professional experience working in emerging markets
- Demonstrated experience delivering results through teams, partners, colleagues and consultants.
- Comfort with ambiguity and ability to organize conflicting opportunities
- High attention to detail and commitment to quality
- Entrepreneurial, with a talent for creative problem solving, perseverance, flexibility and resilience
- Results-oriented with a bias for thoughtful action
- Ability to manage multiple priorities with grace and humor
For full-time employees we offer an excellent range of benefits, including a choice of two health plans through CareFirst (PPO or HDHP), dental insurance, vision discount plan, Life Insurance, Supplemental Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability, Long-Term Disability, Long-Term Care Insurance, Health Club Discounts, Commuter Benefits, and Employee Assistance Program.
12 Paid holidays, 4 weeks of vacation, 10 sick days, 3 personal days and 8 weeks of parental leave (mother or father), access to the UNFCU Credit Union, 150% match on our 403b retirement plan, flexible spending accounts, health savings accounts, and discounted Zipcar membership.
The role will be based in Washington D.C., relocating if s/he does not presently live in the area. The team will not consider applicants living outside of the DC area. Candidates must have prior US work authorization, and willing to commit to global travel up to 10% of the time.