Technical Specialist, Terrestrial, Asia-Pacific
Position Circumstances
- Career Category: Social Work, Resources & Environment, Research / Development
- Schedule:Full-time
- Salary: Negotiable
Start Date: As soon as possible
Duration of Contract: Two-year, fixed-term contract
Probation Period: Three months
Gross Annual Salary: USD 34,170
Location: Asia Pacific Regional Office, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Hours of Work: This is a full-time position, working Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 5:30pm, with 1.5 hours break from 12:00pm to 1:30pm.
Reports to: Senior Technical Advisor (Conservation Impact & Risk); Asia Pacific Key working relationships:
- Regional Director, Asia-Pacific
- Country Programme Teams, Asia-Pacific Finance Business Partner, Asia-Pacific
- Technical Specialist, Marine, Asia-Pacific Statutory Funding Team
- Development and Communications Teams
Purpose:
- Provide key input to the effective design and delivery of terrestrial (including freshwater) projects within Asia-Pacific (AP) through direct technical advice and input and through actively enabling the integration of skills, knowledge and experience from across the organisation.
- Carry out technical assessments of potential projects within AP, in line with Fauna & Flora’s strategy, considering feasibility, conservation impact and long-term sustainability, and advise the Senior Technical Advisor AP accordingly.
- Support terrestrial project managers throughout the AP Region, ensuring appropriate and adequate Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning (MEL) is in place for projects, in close collaboration with the UK MEL team.
- Provide technical guidance to the design of major new or existing projects or programmes and the development of major new funding opportunities.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Technical delivery
- Provide technical input and support to projects within the terrestrial AP portfolio for which this post is not the lead, helping to ensure robust and technically strong delivery on Fauna & Flora’s work; identifying potential partners/collaborators and sharing key technical information and emerging science and policy to support project success.
- Take responsibility for ensuring delivery (including a large writing component) of specific reports to donors and clients within agreed internal/external deadlines and fulfil Fauna & Flora internal reporting procedures.
- Support with the data analysis and writing of scientific publications on Fauna & Flora’s research conducted by local research teams.
- Develop strategic targeted external communication materials, in collaboration with Fauna & Flora’s Communications Team, in line with programmatic priorities and approaches and to support project delivery or programmatic objectives.
- Help develop project budgets in consultation with the Finance Business Partner, AP, in line with agreed work plans, Fauna & Flora’s financial management system and policies, and specific donor requirements and ensure financial tracking and oversight of these budgets in accordance with Fauna & Flora financial management policies and procedures.
- Help to ensure that projects comply with Fauna & Flora operating standards, policies and procedures, and with contract and grant requirements; and that field operations are conducted to a high standard of health, safety, welfare, environmental good practice and cultural sensitivity in consultation with the Senior Technical Adviser, AP.
- Where necessary and appropriate, ensure that appropriate agreements or MOUs are in place to support in-country or international working relationships or partnerships.
- Project Management
- Assist in-country teams with the management and administration of projects on a day-to-day basis, considering Fauna & Flora’s ethos, approaches to project implementation, as well as specific grant agreement requirements.
- Support Fauna & Flora partners, and other local team members, to ensure project objectives are in accordance with the strategic objectives of Fauna & Flora and the regional programme.
- In collaboration with Project Managers and the MEL Team, ensure that strong monitoring and evaluation frameworks are in place for all projects and support the analysis of monitoring data and dissemination of lessons learnt from all projects.
- In collaboration with the country teams, take responsibility for ensuring delivery of specific reports to donors and clients within agreed internal and external deadlines, and fulfil Fauna & Flora’s internal reporting procedures.
- Ensure that proposals, reports, and other project outputs produced by programme staff and partner organisations are of a high standard and, wherever possible, reflect Fauna & Flora’s philosophy and any donor branding requirements.
- Maintain regular communications with the Senior Technical Advisor AP, swiftly bringing to their attention any issues that may affect operations and delivery.
- Conduct project-site visits for consultation, planning, technical and implementation support, and monitoring activities.
- Development
- In collaboration with the appropriate regional team members and Fauna & Flora’s fundraising teams, identify funding opportunities and develop targeted proposals to secure support for Fauna & Flora’s terrestrial work in AP.
- Working with the appropriate teams, help ensure that project development ideas and new funding proposals are reviewed in line with agreed strategic plans and Fauna & Flora’s project cycle process.
- Working with in-country teams and the Finance Business Partner and as required, assist with proposal development to help ensure accurate budgeting, staff and overhead charging and cost recovery; ensure resulting contracts or grant agreements comply with Fauna & Flora operating standards and implementation conditions in the region.
- Maintain awareness of other initiatives in countries of Fauna & Flora operation within the region, identifying key players, areas and focus of operation and emerging gaps.
- Help coordinate technical inputs and reviews from relevant Fauna & Flora cross-cutting teams.
- Learning
- Work to share skills and develop internal capacity within the AP team on conservation issues.
- Where appropriate and agreed, lead processes to build capacity (technical or organisational) for in-country partners, in collaboration with the regional and cross-cutting teams.
- Communicate actively about the work of the AP programme and related issues through internal mechanisms (intranet, downloads, etc.) to ensure internal awareness and engagement on these issues, and externally (including blogs and a dedicated Twitter feed) to promote Fauna & Flora as a credible partner in the biodiversity conservation field.
- Work collaboratively with colleagues across Fauna & Flora to capture learning and keep abreast of new and emerging issues in order to shape conservation responses across the AP and other Fauna & Flora programme areas and themes.
- Contribute to the development or review of Fauna & Flora’s conservation strategy, in the region and globally, as needed, feeding in knowledge and information on the regional conservation landscape, including emerging opportunities, constraints or relevant initiatives by other stakeholders.
- General
- Liaise with relevant national and local authorities; conservation organisations and local partners to ensure mutual awareness, appropriate collaboration and/or harmonisation, and ensuring a good and up to date knowledge of other initiatives in the region.
- Provide technical reviews for internal and external grants on a range of conservation issues.
- Assist in promoting the AP activities, internally and externally, liaising with and providing written material to the Communications Department on project issues.
- Maintain an effective record of contacts and project activities.
- Assist in dealing with external enquiries relating to Fauna & Flora’s work.
- With agreement of Line Manager, perform any other tasks that may be requested from time to time that are appropriate to skills and experience, including broader representation of Fauna & Flora.
Benefits:
- 25 working days annual leave entitlement
- Medical insurance
- Annual return flight home
- Relocation flight on commencement of employment
- Repatriation flight on termination of employment
- Relocation allowance/Repatriation allowance
- Accommodation allowance
Expected Profile of Candidates
Qualifications:
- Postgraduate Degree in equivalent qualification/experience in biodiversity conservation or related science/social science
Skills & Knowledge:
General & Technical Skills
- Proven technical competency in terrestrial biodiversity conservation in SE Asia
- Excellent organisational skills, with structured and methodical approach to work and a clear focus on results
- Financial management and numeracy skills, including budgeting and reforecasting at an appropriate level
- Excellent written communication skills, including report and proposal writing, and strong verbal communication skills
- Facilitation skills, particularly in the context of project design
- IT literate
- Regional language skills
- Scientific article writing
- Substantial professional experience in biodiversity conservation, including field work
- Proven experience in applying new and emerging technologies, particularly bioacoustics, in the field
- Proven experience in project management, design, development, implementation, impact monitoring and evaluation
- Experience of providing technical input and support to the work of others
- Proven grant management experience
- Experience of working in SE Asia
- Experience working with government agencies, communities and community-based
- organisations, partner NGOs and for-profit entities
- Experience of working overseas
Soft Skills
- Ability to prioritise and manage time
- Demonstrates Fauna & Flora’s values
- Rigorous and diligent approach to work
- Ability to work under pressure and to deadlines
- Ability to deal with challenges in a positive way, ready to adapt to changing priorities
- Team player, demonstrating ability to seek out and harness the views and contributions of others
- Ability to work within a multi-cultural
- Ability to undertake international travel to Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar,
