The purpose of the USAID Economic Resilience Activity is to improve the overall economic resilience of eastern Ukraine. Resilience is “the ability of people, households, communities, countries, and systems to mitigate, adapt to, and recover from shocks and stresses in a manner that reduces chronic vulnerability and facilitates inclusive growth.” This activity aims to improve the economic resilience of eastern Ukraine through accomplishing the following objectives:

• Inclusion: building the capabilities of vulnerable populations to capitalize on entrepreneurial and MSME economic opportunities;
• Growth: helping micro, small and medium businesses innovate, invest, and expand markets; and
• Transformation: working with coalitions and leaders to articulate a vision for the future and put in place a modern, diverse, SME-friendly economy.

By accomplishing these objectives, the economy of eastern Ukraine will be more diversified, more integrated with the rest of Ukraine, less dependent on Russia, and the region’s residents will be better equipped to compete for the jobs of the future, thereby improving the economic resilience of the region. The activity will work primarily in the Donetsk and Luhansk oblast — together known as the “Donbas” region — but will also be active in the surrounding oblasts and throughout Ukraine as required to achieve the objectives.

About the job

The IT Sector Officer coordinates relations with local IT businesses to identify and engage potential IT sectors partners.  The IT Sector Officer develops relations with IT businesses, public institutions and other stakeholders needed for realizing IT sector goals. The IT Sector Officer is based in Mariupol and reports to IT Sector Lead.

Your main duties and responsibilities will be:

IT Sector Activities:

• Contribute in developing a strategic visioning/planning framework for helping target IT businesses to develop business plan for the future growth and cooperation with innovative manufacturing companies and roadmap to reach the goals;
• Assist to organize public events on increasing visibility of the IT industry in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, support business-to-business meetings;
• Provide support to prepare IT businesses for trade cooperation events and fairs (on-line and off-line);
• Work closely with ERA’s Workforce Development Specialists to collect information about what skills prospective IT sector employees need (based on gaps employers have identified)
• Participate in opportunities research for implementation of economic development strategies in IT sector;
• Detect and engage potential IT sectors partners according to criteria developed with sectoral consultants;
• Maintain IT sector partner profiles that include background information, participation in ERA interventions, work plan, accomplishments and constraints;
• Manage relationships with growth sector partners regarding participation in ERA interventions including identification of their needs, overseeing their applications for participation, following up on program activities;
• Facilitate IT sector interventions and partners’ capacity building activities to support local tourism sector stakeholders, vegetable growing farms, beekeepers and biofuel counterparts in expanding their cooperation for mutual benefit;
• Coordinate capacity building of IT companies in searching for funding and potential investments from national and regional development programs;
• Facilitate cooperative work with government bodies departments of economic development;
• Lead written correspondence to provide public information and other communications materials;
• Assist sectoral consultants in gathering data and conducting analyses about IT sectors and potential partners;
• Coordinate with local training providers and consultants to ensure their curricula cover needed skills, including the latest technologies;
• Other related tasks as requested by IT Sector Lead.

Grants and Contracts Assistance:

• Collect information and draft grant SOW for proposals to support the IT industry in the target region;
• Participate in the evaluation of grants proposals submitted by IT Sector partners in line with their reliability and ability to achieve the goals with a focus on Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and the Azov region of Zaporizhzhia Oblast;
• Monitor grants performance of IT companies in close cooperation with Grants management team, coordinate technical assistance activities progress and ensure that activities are aligned with the USAID ERA plans and performance indicators;
• Monitor implementation of direct interventions;
• Draft SOWs for grants agreements and purchase agreements, prepare necessary documentation.

M&E Assistance:

• In coordination with MEL team regularly collect performance results in the IT sector, and advise on key gaps and needs in the sector in Eastern Ukraine.
• Work closely with ERA’s performance monitoring team to obtain all data needed for reporting against relevant targets.
• Gather feedback from recipients, collect and/or support collection of M&E data for Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning purpose;
• Support and conduct necessary data collection in order to report against Activity performance indicators;
• provide required information and data for M&E reporting in required format.

Communication:

• In coordination with Communication department organize dissemination of relevant publications and other project materials to the sector stakeholders and final beneficiaries; coordinate administration and maintenance of relevant digital media (web page and social media.
• Coordinate with Communications department and ensure proper media coverage of the IT sector intervention activities; participate in preparing press releases, public statements, and information on behalf of the ERA.
• Other related tasks as requested by Communication Director and Economic Resilience Strategy Lead.

Reporting:

• Produce reporting documents on IT Sector activities;
• Prepare monthly reports on growth sector partner activities outlining progress and barriers to project realization;
• Prepare accurate and timely field reports and other project documentation as required; maintain project files;
• Keep respective activity records in DAI corporate system (TAMIS).

About you

• BA/MA degree and 3 years of experience or a master’s degree and 2 years’ experience;
• At least two years of experience providing operational or technical assistance to development programming in Ukraine or similar country context;
• Demonstrated technical experience in development of IT sectors;
• Experience working in Eastern Ukraine preferred;
• Excellent communications and personnel management skills and who can relate to people at all levels of an organization;
• An energetic, forward-thinking and creative individual with high ethical standards and appropriate professional image;
• An extremely well organized and self-directed individual with sound technical skills, analytical ability, good judgment, and strong operational focus;
• Fluency in English is preferred, fluency in Ukrainian is required.

Job Expectations

In this position, you are expected to share the DAI four core values:

• Integrity: commit to civil and ethical behavior, play by the rules, and do the right thing;
• Responsibility: be accountable to clients, partners, grant recipients, beneficiaries, colleagues, and communities where we work. If you fall short, you own up, fix the problem, and get it right the next time;
• Excellence: adhere to the highest technical and professional standards in innovation, learning, and service;
• Global Citizenship: respect cultural diversity and treat everyone everywhere with professionalism and dignity to make the world a better place.

WE OFFER

Contract length: 12-months employment agreement with a possibility of extension until August 2024.

Salary Level: We offer competitive market-based salary level for candidates with relevant experience.

Duty station: Mariupol

Benefits: all benefits envisaged by Labor Code of Ukraine, corporate medical insurance for employees and immediate family members.

Start date: ASAP

Application process

All applicants must send a cover letter and updated CV (no longer than four pages) in English to [email protected], please mention in the subject IT Sector Officer, Mariupоl

Closing date for applications: September 26, 2021

For further information about the DAI GLOBAL LLC, please consult our website dai.com If you want to learn more about Economic resilience Activity, please visit our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ERAUkraine.