INTRODUCTION TO GGGI

The Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) is a treaty-based international, inter-governmental organization dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies. To learn more please visit about GGGI web page.

CONTEXT

GGGI’s Latin America & Caribbean (LAC) regional office oversees a portfolio of programs across eight countries in the region, delivers cross-cutting technical assistance, and develops new projects and programs with GGGI Member countries. As part of this work, the regional office actively seeks new business opportunities and projects with donors and development partners. As such, the core work of the organization in the LAC region is high impact project delivery, which requires effective, efficient, transparent, and agile operations to ensure success. As GGGI’s work in the region gross, the LAC regional office is seeking an Operations Senior Associate who can support the standardization, improvement, and high performance of operations and the staff who deliver them.

Based in Mexico City, the Operations Senior Associate, LAC will provide training, capacity development, and risk management support to guide administrative and financial operations in the region, in line with GGGI’s rules, regulations and policies. The Senior Associate will have an agile approach to work, be highly organized and transparent, while also promoting a service-oriented approach to operations. It is expected that the Senior Associate will be a quick, self-driven learner who can learn the rules and systems of GGGI to both implement them in country and regional teams and transfer that knowledge to others. The Senior Associate will provide capacity building and training to project managers, administrative, and operational staff to champion robust operational processes and financial management for both new and existing regional programs.

In line with GGGI’s rules and regulations–including finance policies and accounting standards, procurement rules and regulations, Human Resource rules, regulations and policies, GGGI’s Project cycle Management Processes, and donor agreements—the Operations Senior Associate, LAC will standardize processes and build capacity in the region for budget and financial management, processing and delivery of procurement contracts, recruitment and human resources management, reporting and managing requirements for donors, and other operational tasks as required. This role is expected to identify gaps, find solutions, and enhance capacity to address the operational challenges that GGGI faces in the rapidly growing LAC region. The incumbent will be motivated to empower teams through standardized tools and strategies to enhance their operational capabilities and ultimately enable impactful project delivery.

PURPOSE

The role of the Operations Senior Associate, LAC is to:

• Oversee all aspects of finance, administrative, human resources, and logistics management of the LAC Regional Office and maintain quality control of regional operations
• Provide operational support and direction for new and emerging projects and programs
• Enhance the capacity of administrative, operations, and project management staff across the region
• Deliver capacity building, identify tools for replication, understand knowledge gaps, and seeks to find creative and practical solutions for training and capacity building in order to ensure a baseline standard of operational delivery in the LAC region

ENGAGEMENT

• Responsible for the financial and budget management of the regional office
• Ensure the process integrity and compliance with GGGI’s finance regulation, finance policies, rules, regulations and procedures
• Provides capacity building to country teams on financial and budget management, through onboarding and ongoing learning and development
• Identifies capacity gaps and rolls out training opportunities for existing staff to ensure that a standard baseline level of operational capacity is met in country teams
• Informs and trains country office in operational processes, including through identifying opportunities for standardization and process improvement
• Communicates regularly with country teams, regional team, and GGGI headquarter teams to align regional operations and integrate new processes and requirements that enhance project management and delivery
• Guides and support country teams to integrate operational considerations into resource mobilization proposals
• Coordinates efforts to set up robust operations in new countries, and improve operations in existing countries
• Maintains regular communication with country, regional and headquarter teams on a regular basis to understand and identify emerging challenges and risks

DELIVERY

• Develops and implements robust processes for developing, managing and tracking budget execution in line with yearly work programs and donor funded projects
• Promotes the alignment of operational processes align with needs and requirements of donors
• Supports and rolls out best practices for document management, ensuring a culture of sharing, collaboration and capturing lessons learned
• Identify opportunities for improving operations, financial and portfolio management
• Leads efforts to increase capacity across operational functions and GGGI’s Internal systems and processes
• Delivers training and capacity building on a regular basis, both formally and informally, include demand-driven (by request) and systematically planned (through an overarching capacity building plan)
• Prepares emerging operation team members to train others through a training of trainers approach
• Supports and rolls out best practices for document management, ensuring a culture of sharing, collaboration and capturing lessons learned
• Assists in the hiring process and onboarding of new staff, and delivers training, guidance and ongoing support to operations staff in the region
• Promotes the use of and builds capacity across the region on the use of GGGI corporate systems in the region including ERP, E-Recruitment, GGGI e-Green Procurement Portal, GGGI Online, Saba Talent Space, and CRM/Salesforce
• Proactively identifies project and portfolio operational risks, and identifies strategic mitigation strategies and solutions with the regional team
• Demonstrates an agile and flexible approach to operations, that maintains alignment with GGGI’s systems, processes and transparency standards
• Looks for opportunities to enhance operations, and proactively provides new ideas to regional team
• Leads and/or contributes to working groups for operational processes across the region
• Trains new and existing administrative staff to develop a service oriented regional operations function

REQUIREMENTS

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in administration, economics, finance, public administration, management, environmental management, engineering, or any discipline related to the assignment.
• Three to five years of professional experience in above fields.
• Working experience with international or technical assistance organizations that deliver donor funded projects
• Strong understanding and ability to execute operational processes that lead to successful project delivery
• Highly organized, transparent, and cognizant of the importance of following rules, regulations and processes while also flexible enough to adapt to the needs of a growing, young organization
• Knowledge and experience of working with government officials and development partners in the LAC region
• Strong Spanish and English communication (speaking, writing and presentation) skills, including publication of written material and ability to produce high-quality visual aids

FUNCTIONAL

• Leadership, teamwork and creative problem-solving abilities
• Experience in financial management, procurement, and improving operational processes
• Experience with donor reporting and enhancing operations to meet donor requirements
• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to work under pressure and to establish and maintain effective work relationships with people of different backgrounds
• Proven project delivery experience, i.e. administering the delivery of results within budget and on time, standardizing processes, working with a team
• Ability to develop and maintain working relations with internal and external stakeholders
• Committed to learning about green growth, climate change, project management, and high quality operations
• Ability to multi-task and prioritize under stressful circumstances.

CORPORATE

• Understand and actively supports GGGI’s mission, vision and values.
• Promote an organizational culture of trust, transparency, respect and partnership.
• Manage emotions and stress positively, builds rapport and resolves conflict easily.
• Promote creativity and innovation among staff.
• Be able to lead where needed and provide solutions to operational challenges
• Processes and shares information easily and is excellent at problem solving
• Manages emotions and stress positively, builds rapport and resolves conflict easily
• Flexibility to work in an international environment where values, world views, and time zones may vary widely

WORKING CONDITIONS

The Operations Senior Associate, LAC is a National Position at X7 grade level in GGGI’s Mexico national salary scale. The base salary of the position starts from USD 38,860 per annum depending on qualifications and experience. GGGI provides 15% of base salary towards retirement plan/long-term savings, 27 days of annual leave, and private health insurance that covers dental and vision. GGGI is committed to providing a work environment that is sufficiently flexible to accommodate diverse life-cycle challenges and assist Staff members to achieve a better balance between work and personal/family commitments, thus ensuring high performance, long-term productivity, and well-being of Staff members.