Deputy Chief of Party 1 (DCOP 1) Full Time NEW

Title: Deputy Chief of Party 1 (DCOP 1)

Department: Programming (Restore Africa)

Report to: Chief of Party – Restore Africa

Duration: Full-time

Job Location: Kampala, Uganda

Vacancies: One (1)

About CRS:

Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. CRS works to save, protect, and transform lives in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion, or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance, and peacebuilding.

CRS’ Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Portfolio

Under the Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation strategic priority area, CRS aims to ‘drive uptake and scaling of nature-based solutions and novel financing mechanisms to support national and community level efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change’. CRS currently has three projects which fall explicitly under this strategic priority area, and is in discussions with other donors to start additional and related programs:

• Restore Africa, which aims to restore 560,000 hectares of land with 352,500 smallholder farmers across 31 districts (Climate Asset Management funded)
• Accelerating and Scaling Climate Smart Jobs within Restore Africa – Market Linkages for Livelihoods and Land Restoration (M4R – FCDO funded) in 17 districts, focusing on 60,000 small-holder farmers and 40,000 hectares also engaged in Restore Africa.
• Mixed-Use Agroforestry in Refugee Hosting Districts (World Bank / MinWE funded), targeting 17,550 hectares and 87,782 smallholder farmers

These projects aim to assist smallholder farmers, with an average landholding of 2 hectares (minimum 0.5 hectares, maximum 20 hectares) to diversify production within their agroforestry systems, including through payments for carbon sequestration through integration of trees into their plots. The projects also aim to incentivize smallholder farmers to be able to invest in activities which restore health to their soil and increase productivity over time, as well as meet their own food security and economic needs.

Job Summary:

As the Deputy Chief of Party I, you will be a key member of the Restore Africa team, supporting the effective implementation of land restoration initiatives in Uganda. Your strong management and technical expertise will contribute to high-quality program delivery and reinforce CRS’s reputation as a leading agency in land restoration and climate finance. As a senior leader, you will also play a proactive role in overseeing security management and mitigating security risks.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

Project Leadership and Implementation

• Manage key aspects of the development, implementation, and consolidation of Restore Africa in Uganda. Serve as a primary point of contact for GEA and, when needed, for public, private, and non-government stakeholders.
• Ensure all project approaches and activities align with Government of Uganda (GoU) priorities, plans, and policies.
• Address bottlenecks, communicate security-related adaptations, recommend programmatic shifts with the COP and technical experts, and scale up best practices to achieve high-quality program implementation.
• Regularly review the project strategy to ensure continued relevance and recommend adjustments or alternative approaches to technical working groups and senior management.

Program Quality and Standards

• Oversee key project functions to meet donor/investor expectations related to timely results, quality implementation, and budget performance.
• Support coordination between program and operations teams for harmonized and effective delivery.
• Ensure compliance with CRS program quality standards, including CRS policies, MEAL procedures, and project management requirements.

Talent Management and Supervision

• Provide effective leadership, supervision, and talent management for project staff.
• Foster positive team dynamics and promote staff well-being.
• Provide coaching and mentoring, tailor individual development plans, and complete performance assessments for direct reports.
• Contribute to staffing plans and support recruitment processes for senior project staff.

Risk Management and Security

• Monitor national and regional developments that may affect staff or programming and manage associated risks.
• Ensure staff understand and adhere to CRS safety and security policies and support regular updates to security plans.
• Communicate security responses and adaptations as required.

Resource Stewardship and Compliance

• Promote and model the responsible use of agency and donor resources.
• Ensure financial compliance, including tracking and oversight of partner budgets, financial management, administration, and reporting.

Partnership and Stakeholder Engagement

• Maintain strong relationships with consortium partners and support coordination of roles and activities in line with CRS partnership principles.
• Ensure programme staff effectively engage federal, regional, and district authorities.
• Support partners in preparing quarterly and annual reports, addressing capacity gaps to improve reporting quality.

Learning, Improvement, and Capacity Strengthening

• Create and maintain an enabling environment for learning by encouraging open sharing of ideas, solutions, and challenges.
• Identify performance gaps and recommend capacity-building interventions for CRS and partner staff.
• Ensure mechanisms are in place for continuous learning, adaptive management, and timely response to implementation deficiencies.

Basic Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in international development, international relations, or a relevant technical field such as natural resource management, land restoration, or climate change financing.
• Minimum of 3–5 years of relevant management and technical experience in natural resource management, land restoration, and/or climate change financing.
• At least 3 years of experience managing donor-funded projects, including strong knowledge and experience in budget management.
• Proven experience in managing complex, multi-activity projects with challenging logistics, as well as experience working within or managing consortia.
• Demonstrated staff management abilities that support a learning-focused environment, including experience in coaching and mentoring staff.

Preferred Qualifications and Experience

• Experience engaging partners and strengthening partnerships. Knowledge of CRS partnership strategy is a plus.
• Experience in the MS Office package (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and Visio), web conferencing applications, and information and budget management systems.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong strategic, analytical, systems-thinking, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to see the bigger picture and make sound judgements and decisions.
• Excellent relationship management skills, with the ability to engage effectively with stakeholders at all levels, both internally and externally, and to take a strategic approach to relationship building.
• Proven team leadership abilities, particularly in managing diverse and multidisciplinary teams, along with strong coaching and mentoring skills.
• Proactive, resourceful, solutions-orientated, and results-driven, with the ability to anticipate challenges and recommend effective responses.

Required Languages: Excellent command of written and spoken English required.

Travel: Must be willing and able to travel up to 50 % to project sites with occasional international travel.

Agency-wide Competencies (for all CRS Staff)

Agency competencies clarify expected behaviours and attitudes for all staff. When demonstrated, they create an engaging workplace, help staff achieve their best, and help CRS achieve agency goals. These are rooted in the mission, values, and guiding principles of CRS and used by each staff member to fulfil his or her responsibilities and achieve the desired results.

• Personal Accountability—consistently takes responsibility for one’s own actions.
• Acts with Integrity—consistently models values aligned with CRS Guiding Principles and mission. Is considered honest.
• Builds and Maintains Trust—shows consistency between words and actions.
• Collaborates with Others—works effectively in intercultural and diverse teams.
• Open to Learn—seeks out experiences that may change perspective or provide an opportunity to learn new things.

Agency Leadership Competencies:

• Lead Change—continually looks for ways to improve the agency through a culture of agility, openness, and innovation.
• Develops and Recognizes Others—builds the capacity of staff to reach their full potential and enhance team and agency performance.
• Strategic Mindset—understands role in translating, communicating, and implementing agency strategy and team principles.

Key Working Relationships:

Supervisory Responsibilities: Project Management Unit (PMU) Project Managers (Implementation).

Internal: Project-Specific: Finance and Operations Deputy Chief of Party, Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning Project Manager, Technical Unit Project Manager. Other: CRS/Uganda Country Representative, Head of Programming, Head of Operations, and US/Regional Technical Advisors.

External: Implementing partner managers, the Government of Uganda, organisations, representatives from for-profit and other non-profit organisations, representatives of non-traditional public donors including the private sector, financial service providers, and others.

“Disclaimer: This job description is not an exhaustive list of the skills, effort, duties, and responsibilities associated with the position.”

Tagged as: Catholic Relief Services, Uganda