Chief of Party, CATALYZE

About Palladium:

Palladium is a global company working to design, develop and deliver positive impact on the lives and livelihoods of people around the globe; broaden access to health, water, power, and infrastructure; build enduring, sustainable, and transformative institutions and market systems to address global challenges; and conserve the natural world. We operate in over 90 countries and have a workforce of 4,000 talented, motivated, and diverse staff of all religions, races, languages, and gender identities. 

This Opportunity:

CATALYZE, a $250M global USAID contract, is in search of a Chief of Party (COP) to serve during the project’s final phase (2025 – 2027) and its transition to management by the USAID Center of Education.

CATALYZE is a global contract structured in a Pay-For-Results fashion, managed by Palladium’s U.S. Business Unit out of Washington, D.C. CATALYZE intends to leverage USAID’s investment significantly, using the governments’ resources to mobilize billions of private capital for development purposes throughout underserved communities, geographies and sectors globally using blended finance solutions over an eight-year period (2019 – 2027). CATALYZE is also an important learning mechanism for USAID and is meant to support USAID missions to increase their understanding of how to design and manage private sector engagement and pay for results programming that mobilizes private capital.  The role requires management and oversight of a portfolio of existing, innovative sub-projects, supervision of learning and evaluation work for the sub-projects, business development to design new programs, and winding down certain CATALYZE Activities concurrently. 

CATALYZE is a framework contract representing a compilation of sub-projects and teams (also known as Activities, or “Buy-ins”) overseen and enabled by a 15-member management team, providing technical and managerial, monitoring, evaluation and learning and communications support to all programs. This centralized management team is led by the Chief of Party and Deputy Chief of Party and is based out of Washington, DC.  The role will supervise and support the success of the operational 12 CATALYZE Activities and Teams including:

CATALYZE Americas Partnership for Enterprise Prosperity (APEP), covering 10 countries in Latin America
CATALYZE Asia Social Protection - Indonesia
CATALYZE Asia Social Protection - Philippines
CATALYZE Early Child Care and Education (ECCE) global work (Africa, India, Latin America)
CATALYZE Edufinance Africa, covering seven countries in Africa
CATALYZE Edufinance Latin America, covering four countries in Latin America (technical work ending 12/24)
CATALYZE Engines of Growth Program covering six countries in the Western Balkans (ending 12/24)
CATALYZE Finance for Resilience in the Sahel (ending 12/24)
CATALYZE Iraq Access to Finance
CATALYZE Market Systems for Growth (MS4G) Ethiopia (including Ethiopia Ukraine Activity)
CATALYZE Private Sector Development (PSD) in Sri Lanka
CATALYZE Women Building Resilience (ending 12/24)

Location and Compensation:

The position is based in Palladium’s Washington D.C.  office.

For our prospective employees in the United States, please note that the full-time equivalent annual base salary for this position is expected to range from $175,000-$190,000 and successful candidates may also be eligible for additional, variable incentive compensation dependent on the role. For part-time employees, the salary will be prorated based on the actual number of hours worked.

Please be advised that a final salary offer will be based on various factors, including but not limited to your qualifications, education, experience, skills, seniority, performance, and Palladium’s business or organizational needs.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the compensation for this position, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. We value your interest in our company and appreciate the opportunity to discuss this opportunity with you.

You and Your Career:

If you are a problem-solver, collaborator, and doer, and you have expertise in global project leadership, USAID, and blended finance, we are interested in hearing from you. 

We are a learning organization and provide growth opportunities from the start.  We pride ourselves on giving you the freedom, resources, and guidance to chart a fulfilling career!

Reporting Lines:

This position will report to the Project Director, CATALYZE
This position will directly supervise six CORE team staff and a few Activity Team Leads (equivalent to Project Directors) on CATALYZE buy-insIn collaboration with the CORE team, this role will also oversee the performance excellence process for all of CATALYZE project staff, including efficient completion of the annual performance review processes

Primary Roles and Responsibilities: 

Overall Management

Manage the final phase of CATALYZE, including project closure, in line with the highest standards of contract management excellence. Serve as direct liaison with USAID in Washington, D.C., on overall CATALYZE management issues
Ensure high quality preparation of all learning and research documents produced by CATALYZE in the final years of project implementation
Supervise Key Personnel and Activity Team Leads (Project Director equivalent) plan, problem-solve for performance issues and execute as needed to ensure operational, financial and compliance excellence in CATALYZE Activity and overall contract management
Lead preparation of a monthly financial report to Palladium leadership, and support Activity Teams to participate in monthly, quarterly and ad hoc internal technical and financial project reviews
Lead the process by which Palladium develops self-evaluations, presentations and invoices related to CATALYZE fixed and award fee
Liaise as needed on behalf of CATALYZE with Palladium’s corporate Finance, Legal, Human Resources and Compliance teams as required
Support new business development and co-creation processes of all new CATALYZE buy-ins to ensure quality/feasible design and rapid creation of all foundational documents

Technical Leadership

Support Activity Team Leads and Project Directors problem-solve as needed to ensure technical, operational, and financial excellence in project management and CATALYZE Activity closure
Conduct site visits, participate in close out and other events, and/or oversee technical assignments in the field for CATALYZE on topics such as blended finance, early childcare and development, early childhood education, business accelerators, gender inclusive finance, private sector engagement, Advisory Services/transaction and financial institution training, among other relevant topics
Contribute to excellence in research, analysis, evaluation, writing and publication of CATALYZE project reports, technical studies, case studies, and program approaches, to capture lessons learned, demonstrate thought leadership and help teams put in place adaptive management.  Share these lessons and learnings internally, with USAID and externally
Support Activity Teams by ensuring quality control on project deliverables (e.g. Assessments, Performance Work Statements, Annual Work Plans, Annual Reports, Award Fee Presentations, Close Out Plans, Final Reports/Positive Impact Case Studies, Quarterly Reports, budgets, progress reports, financial reports, communications, monitoring and evaluation and learning documents, award fee presentations, etc.).
Support Activity teams design and implement innovative grants and procurements  using pay for results methodologies in close coordination with USAID and the private sector
Organize and participate, as needed, in project/program trainings, conferences, webinars, technical workshops and meetings

Client/External Stakeholder Engagement

Serve as principal liaison with the USAID CATALYZE COR/CO and USAID Activity teams.  Support Activity Teams respond to ad hoc client requests as required
Leverage public, private and civil society networks to support Activity Teams design and implement strategic and innovative approaches to expand project impact
Support teams to identify, build and maintain working relationships with international and local consultants and potential employees who can provide technical expertise to Activities
Represent the project and company as needed, participating in outside associations, conferences, and symposia

Business Development

Support the identification, assessment, and pursuit of new opportunities to expand the blended finance portfolio and education and child-care-focused new work of CATALYZE.  Contribute to writing and reviewing project designs for new technical work
Conduct public speaking on behalf of CATALYZE as required to bring on new buy-ins

Essential Criteria:

Heavily demonstrated global project management experience managing USAID contracts with large sub-award funds
Excellent client management skills and ability to liaise comfortably with different constituencies. USAID client management experience preferred
Proven written and oral communication skills, including a track record of report writing, public presentations (moderator, panelist, keynote) and published blogs or articles
Demonstrated supervisory experience of teams of similar size and scope
Financial acumen and the ability to interpret and analyze financial reports, develop and evaluate financial projections, and match programmatic objectives/work plans to costs/budgets
Proven experience in project closure and project design (including developing theories of change, logic/results models or similar design tools, results modeling, pricing and other elements of designing projects for development impact)
Demonstrated professional experience in the subjects of blended finance, development finance and/or private sector engagementWorking experience in the countries and subject areas of remaining CATALYZE buy-ins is preferred, especially subjects of primary and pre-primary education, childcare, workforce development, gender-lend investing, social protection.Additional technical experience in any of the following technical subjects is a plus: micro, small, medium enterprise development, private sector partnerships, transaction assistance, agricultural value chain development/finance, microfinance, digital finance, economic empowerment of marginalized groups and communities
Sound problem-solving and decision-making skills demonstrated in challenging or fluid circumstances
Demonstrated, high level of professionalism, respect and integrity operating within a multi-cultural, values-based organization
Written and spoken fluency in English.  Fluency in other foreign languages, such as French, Spanish or Arabic, is a plus
Travel may be required for an estimated 15-20% of time

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status. 

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse.  All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.