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Form of workJob Description
Position Title: USAID A&A Specialist Consultant (Transition Awards)
Minimum Education and Experience: Bachelor’s degree and 20 years of relevant experience
Substitutions and Equivalents: Master’s degree and 16 years of relevant experience, JD/ABD and 14 years of relevant experience, or Ph.D. and 10 years of relevant experience.
Anticipated Start Date: o/a March 11, 2024
Project: Partnerships Incubator
Location: Virtual
Level of Effort/Hours: Part-time Consultancy (30-60 hours)
Kaizen, A Tetra Tech Company, is an incubator for innovative, scalable solutions that address emerging market challenges and opportunities. Our proven solutions catalyze locally driven, organizational, and institutional performance improvements and shift the development model into one that is bottom-up and ongoing. We leverage existing knowledge, innovative technologies, and business models to drive development.
We are hiring a highly motivated Senior USAID Acquisition & Assistance (A&A) Specialist Consultant (Transition Awards) looking to create a social impact in a fast-paced and rewarding work environment. This position is for the USAID-funded Partnerships Incubator project, which started in October 2019 and ends on September 30, 2024.
About the Partnerships IncubatorUSAID aims to diversify its partner base by removing barriers to engagement and creating avenues for new and nontraditional partners to work with the Agency. The Partnerships Incubator was set up as a global service hub to address this need by amplifying USAID’s external communications efforts to strengthen and diversify the Agency’s partner base, expanding Agency capacity for partnerships, and supporting partner organizations working with USAID.
The Partnerships Incubator works with USAID headquarters and Missions to identify and engage new and local partners, provide training and capacity-strengthening assistance, and develop tools, resources, and models to advance USAID’s partnership goals. The project also designed, developed, and launched WorkwithUSAID.org, a free, USAID-funded resource hub designed to connect partners to peers and experts, improve their organizational readiness, and prepare them to receive USAID funding.
Position OverviewUSAID’s Bureau for Management, Office of Acquisition & Assistance (M/OAA), advances the Agency’s efforts to establish innovative procurement solutions. The Office’s A&A Lab is a forward-leaning group, challenging the status quo and introducing new ways of working when it comes to procurement approaches for USAID. They have a network of like-minded A&A professionals across USAID with whom they collaborate to generate and distribute A&A Guides (i.e., packaged guidelines, samples, and/or templates) to inform Missions, Bureaus, and Operating Units. The Guides cover a range of contracting issues with the intention of influencing and improving USAID operations.
The Senior USAID Acquisition & Assistance (A&A) Specialist Consultant (Transition Awards) will draft a new A&A Guide for USAID focused on how to implement Transition Awards.
The consultant will conduct research of open sources addressing Transition Awards. From this research, the consultant will develop a guide (i.e., packaged guidelines, samples, and/or templates) to facilitate the use of Transition Awards. The guide will be approximately 5-10 pages in length. The Incubator will follow guide templates provided by the A&A Lab for formatting, layout, content, tone, and design. Drafts will be submitted to M/OAA Leads for review and approval before moving to final guide development. The anticipated delivery date for completion of this Transition Awards guide is April 15, 2024.
The selected consultant will bring a deep understanding of USAID operations, a commitment to project success within the USAID framework, excellent writing skills, and a results-oriented approach. The consultant will highly benefit from direct experience using Transition Awards to conduct the research and write the "how to" guide for Agreement Officers / Contracting Officers to reference when using the transition award mechanism.
Principal Responsibilities
- Conduct research of open sources related to Transition Awards.
- Conduct research of open sources over a range of contracting issues. Research could include, for example, review of GAO cases, GAO or various IG audits, reports of various contracting associations, and interested stakeholders.
- Develop guidelines, samples, and/or templates for Transition Awards.
- Collaborate with Partnerships Incubator leads and USAID personnel.
- Other related duties, as assigned.
- Bachelor’s degree and 20 years of relevant experience, OR Master’s degree and 16 years of relevant experience, OR JD/ABD and 14 years of relevant experience, OR Ph.D. and 10 years of relevant experience.
- Direct experience with Transition Awards is highly beneficial.
- Excellent writing skills with an ability to structure content for ease of readability and navigation.
- Experience with FAR, CFR, ADS, AIDAR, and the USAID-implementing partner paradigm is required.
- Experience with complex procurement activities for USAID contracts, grants, and cooperative agreements is required.
- Comprehensive knowledge of USAID A&A processes and procedures and a full understanding of USG laws, regulations, policies, and procedures governing each type of A&A mechanism is required.
- Comprehensive understanding of general USAID operations, regulations, and requirements.
- Adaptability to evolving USAID guidelines.
- Highly collaborative.
- Ability to work in multiple cultures, highly motivated, self-starting, intellectually curious, flexible, a passion for learning, and deeply committed to social impact.
- Knows the importance and relevance of taking initiative and being a problem solver.
- Strong interest and ability to deliver innovative solutions.
- Strong interest and experience in international development.
Qualified applicants should send a resume/CV with a well-written cover letter (let your writing skills shine – please delight us).
Applicants must submit all requirements to be considered for the position, including a resume, cover letter, and a pre-engagement questionnaire which will be shared by email. The deadline to submit is 11:59 p.m. on March 5, 2024. We intend to hold interviews on a rolling basis.
No phone calls, please. Only finalists will be contacted.
The above statements describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, and skills required of personnel so classified.
Please note: All current employees are contracted through September 2024. The stated term of employment is aligned with the fifth year of our contract.
For candidates applying for positions based in Kaizen's office in Washington, DC, we utilize career.place to mitigate bias in the recruitment process. Upon submitting an application, candidates will receive an email from career.place, prompting them to go through the anonymous screening. In order to be considered for a role, candidates must respond to career.place and proceed with the application. We do not currently use career.place for project positions outside of the United States.
At Kaizen, A Tetra Tech Company, we find strength in our diversity. We are committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive working environment in which everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfill their potential. We know that we can only do development differently if we are open to and inclusive of new and unique perspectives. We encourage candidates of all abilities, ages, gender identities and expressions, national origins, races and ethnicities, religious beliefs, and sexual orientations to apply. Further, we urge parents and non-parents, married and unmarried, those from different or non-traditional educational backgrounds, and persons of all other diverse identities or experiences to apply. Kaizen is an equal opportunity employer.
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