The Energy Security Project (ESP) is a five-year project funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)  and the largest USAID project in Ukraine so far. The ESP is implemented by a USAID Contractor, Tetra Tech ES, Inc., a California-based leading provider of services in the areas of water, environment, infrastructure, resource management, energy, and international development. 

The ESP mission is to enhance Ukraine’s energy security, improve the energy legal and regulatory environment in the country, and increase the resilience of Ukraine’s energy supply. This will help to support country’s economic development and sustain its democracy. ESP is working closely with the Government of Ukraine (GOU) to develop competitive energy markets. By doing so, ESP will facilitate private sector-led energy investments to provide affordable, reliable, resilient, and secure energy for all Ukrainians.

BACKGROUND:

For a long period, Ukraine was lacking clearing or guaranteed settlement at various commodity markets (including electricity and natural gas markets) and this led to the huge accumulation of debts, namely at the electricity markets. 

Last year, the Law 738-IX passed the Verkhovna Rada and became effective on July 1, 2021.  Among other things, the law provides basic regulation for clearing activity (including licensing) and organized commodity trading (including electricity and natural gas markets). The secondary legislation to be drafted by the National Securities and Stock Market Commission (hereby “NSSMC”) simultaneously will include clearing licensing requirements, clearing regulations, etc.  This Law has also amended the Electricity Market Law introducing basic clearing principles to the electricity market.

ESP supports the establishment of a clearing house (central counterparty) including organizational and legal establishment, staffing, support with internal processes and key IT procurements.

Such clearing house to be organized as energy clearing house (hereby “ECH”) with possibility to take over other markets at later stages.  The ECH to service several trading platforms active in energy trading (such as State enterprise Market Operator, Ukrainian Energy Exchange and, possibly, NPC Ukrenergo as balancing platform operator) and exchange respective trading information with transmissions system operators in electricity and gas sector, settlement banks and general clearing members, registered reporting mechanisms, trade repositories and respective regulators.

The ECH will start its activity with clearing of spot products in gas and electricity, electricity forwards with physical delivery.  Once clearing of such products will be tested and proved, the gradual expansion to other products (including electricity and gas derivatives) with higher risks allocation will be performed, scaling to other markets is also possible in future.

To support establishment of the ECH, ESP is going to organize a respective project implementation unit (hereby “PIU”). 

In addition, ESP is in the procurement process for clearing system software.  The system to be used by the energy clearing house. It is not off the shelf product (but is an existing product requiring modifications) and needs to be localized and developed in line with Ukrainian legal framework and specifics of Ukrainian markets (capital and commodity markets).

The respective RFI was published in Spring 2020, ESP has carefully analyzed the responses and issued RFP Clearing system software in December 2020.  During May – July 2021 ESP has reviewed the proposals and made various interviews and demonstrations of proposed systems. 

ESP is going to award the contract to the selected IT vendor within September – November 2021, and thus is preparing for a contract negotiation and contract implementation.  The contract is to cover the design phase (2-3 months), the IT development period (6-8 months), the installation, the migration and all testing phases. 

OBJECTIVE:

The IT Project Manager’s objective is to assist ESP / PIU with procurement and delivery of the clearing system software. This is a short-term consultancy or full-time position with 8 hours commitment per day during design/project planning/testing stage and 4 hours per day during the development stage.

APPROACH:

The IT Project Manager will closely interact with the IT vendor, monitor and control the delivery of the clearing system software and will provide oversight in the design phase, the IT development, installation, migration and test phases.

TASKS:

• Interaction and relationship with major stakeholders and the IT vendor of the clearing system software;
• Active participation in the procurement and delivery of the clearing system software (including assistance with IT contract drafting; active participation in design phase, IT development, installation, migration; all testing; pilot launch, coordination with potential users of the clearing system etc.);
• Daily interaction with the IT vendor (including project plan development, progress monitoring and change request management, ensuring the timely clearing system’s delivery based on the technical / functional requirements and features, follow up on technical issues related to the clearing system and connectivity issues, etc.);
• Interaction with stakeholders, other consultants and participation in meetings, calls and negotiations as requested by ESP;
• Other tasks as requested by ESP and agreed with the IT Project Manager.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information systems, engineering or another relevant field;
• At least 5 years of professional experience as a project manager, product owner, IT auditor or business analysist.
• Understanding of software development life cycles (waterfall, Agile, SCRUM/Agile. Lean, , experience with issue tracking systems (e.g., JIRA);
• Experience in running development projects using agile and scrum methodology;
• PMI Project Management and/or Prince II training and practical experience;
• Scheduling and project management KPI definition and tracking and estimate to complete assessment experience;
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including technical and functional business writing skills and clearly reporting on status;
• Experience in working with wide circle of stakeholders to identify and clarify requirements and needs, coordinate actions between stakeholders;
• Fluency of Ukrainian and English.

To apply: Please submit a CV in English and a brief cover letter with the title of the position in the subject line to [email protected] 

There is no deadline associated with this position, Tetra Tech may fill the position when a qualified person is found.  Only candidates who have been selected for an interview will be contacted. 

To find more about USAID Energy Security Project, visit the Project website https://energysecurityua.org, follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/usaidesp/, LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/energysecurityua/ and Youtube