Renewable World announces vacancy for Technical and Procurement Manager

Nepal Technical and Procurement Manager

Location: Kathmandu, with frequent travel to regions within Nepal
Contract: 24 months initial fixed term contract with potential for extension based on performance
Responsible to: Country Director, Nepal, with a dotted line into the Global Technical Lead
Responsible for: Line management: Technical Interns, Dotted line – Technical Officers

About Renewable World
We are an ambitious and rapidly growing INGO, head quartered in the UK, with a global team of around 30 staff based in Nepal, Kenya and the UK. We work with partners to deliver transformative change by improving people’s access to clean energy and empowering them through training, knowledge sharing and making connections.
Our vision is for “A sustainable and fairer world where clean energy is accessible to all”. Every day we are working hard to deliver our mission “To enable the world’s poorest people to transform their lives by improving their access to clean energy, empowering them to develop sustainable and resilient livelihoods, and mitigating the impact of climate change”.
We have already improved the lives of over 85,000 people, and we are on-track to surpass our goal of reaching 100,000 people by the end of 2022. We our ambitious about scaling our impact to 2030 and beyond, with an immediate target of reaching 500,000 people by 2030, across our portfolio of programmes in Nepal and Kenya.

We focus on four key areas where we believe we can achieve the greatest impact in transforming lives through clean energy:

• Energy for Livelihoods: Improving incomes and welfare through using energy for productive purposes, and in doing so empowering women and reaching the poorest.
• Energy for Climate Change: Helping people adapt to climate change and protect ecosystems through energy-enabled climate-smart agriculture and early warning systems, and mitigating climate change through clean energy and carbon offsetting.
• Energy for Health and Education: Using renewable energy to supply clean water for drinking, health and sanitation, electrifying remote health centres and schools to improve health and education outcomes, and enabling cleaner cooking.
• Energy for Catalytic Impact: Developing systemic impact and activating demand through the productive use of energy, sustainable multi-stakeholder partnerships, and piloting scalable innovations.

We aim to live and breathe our values which are: Excellence; Networked; Empathy; Resourceful; Gravitas; and Yes we can.

Role Summary
This is a fantastic opportunity for an experienced engineer, who is confident in overseeing the procurement, delivery and management of all clean energy systems within our rapidly growing Nepal portfolio. As we scale up our operations, this role will be critical in helping RW to achieve our ambition of reaching 500,000 people with clean energy systems, collaborating with our project delivery team to ensure these systems enable energy poor communities to use these productively to generate an income and improve their lives.

This position will help drive technical delivery and operational excellence across RW’s programmes in Nepal, and play an important role, with the support of our Global Technical Manager, in rolling out our technical procurement systems and processes in Kenya, transferring our best practice knowledge from our Nepal operations.

The post holder will be accountable for the installation and project management of the technical components of RW’s projects in Nepal, working closely with our local NGO partners and private sector vendors. As we increase the breadth and quantity of clean technologies in our programming, this post will need to deliver outputs to agreed quality and pace and guide the project delivery team to meet agreed workplans in this area.

The successful applicant, who will join the team as a member of RW Nepal’s Senior Management Team, will possess sensitivity to caste, gender and economic class and will, at all times, adhere to Renewable World’s Safeguarding Policy and enhanced Code of Conduct. Strong communications skills and an ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders including government at all levels, donors and rural communities on the ground are essential. Strong skills in written work, reporting and national level coordination will be required, with a commitment to undertake frequent field travel across Nepal, including a willingness to spend extended periods traveling to project sites within Nepal.

Detailed purpose

1. Technical project management: Identify technical partners, support the team to leverage funding for technical components of RW’s renewable energy centred project, and oversee all renewable energy components of RW’s projects, from procurement through to commissioning.
2. Technical team development: In collaboration with Project Managers, define technical team roles and responsibilities, oversee technical staff recruitment, capacity building and technical management, and manage technical interns as made available.
3. Procurement: In Nepal, manage all technical procurement and provide quality control for planned and under-construction projects to partners, communities and the project team. Additionally, oversee RW’s global procurement policy, procedures and technical procurement.
4. Technical advice and input: Build the technical understanding of the Renewable World Nepal team and partner organisations to achieve sustainable impacts through distributing renewable energy services.
5. Methodology: Implement and adhere to the global programme protocols and standards for all projects, including RW’s Community Centred Model (CCM), and risk management processes.

Main Duties and Responsibilities
1. Technical project management

• Build RW’s network of technical service providers, covering extensive range of clean energy technologies, including water lifting, clean cooking, institutional electrification, value chain technologies, and broaden this scope to include new technologies.
• Support the project delivery team to leverage funding for technical components of RW’s renewable energy centred projects, from multiple stakeholders including the government and the private sector.
• Oversee and directly monitor the technical team’s delivery of all renewable energy components of RW’s projects, from planning, feasibility studies, implementation, and post construction phase.
• Offer technical assistance to the project team, play a pivotal role in identifying problems (technical and business model/methodology) and efficiently resolve them to achieve improved outputs.
• Ensure technical components of the projects are delivered within the given budget, timeframe and agreed grant parameters, oversee quality assurance and risk management, and agree catch-up plans with Project Managers where required.
• Ensure health and safety measures are implemented throughout the project period, providing guidance to the project delivery team, monitoring the delivery of health and safety measures and overseeing the delivery of any recommendations made to adhere to the highest standards.

2. Technical team development

• Support project managers to recruit qualified technical staff, including leading on job description development, recruitment processes, and induction periods.
• Organise technical training for the technical staff and wider project team as relevant, according to needs and available project and operational budget, through direct delivery of training and engagement of relevant third part trainers.
• Hold regular technical team meetings to build the team cohesiveness and pre-plan the effective allocation of technical staff according to project need.
• In collaboration with the programme and fundraising departments in Nepal and at Head Office, identify opportunities for technical internships and volunteering opportunities, develop work parcels and manage these staff throughout the duration of their contracts.

3. Procurement

• Maintain and regularly update the existing technical supplier standing list in line with RW Nepal’s procurement guidelines.
• Lead on developing a standing list in Nepal of qualified service providers for RETs.
• In consultation with Project Managers, lead in the development of annual procurement plans for technical work in each project, ensuring that they align with timely output and ultimate outcome delivery, and updating these proactively as required.
• Lead the procurement of technical items for RW projects in line with procurement plans, including preparation of bid documents, bid evaluation, contract award and contract management in line with RW’s procurement policy.
• Ensure project partners have their own standard procurement policies which comply with the public procurement act and regulation as well as meet the minimum requirement set out in RW’s policy. Provide technical input to upgrade their policies if required.
• At a global level, lead on global procurement policies and procedures and oversee complex or technical procurements (currently in our Kenya programme, but with potential for expansion – roughly 10% of role currently).

4. Technical advice and oversight

• Facilitate monthly technical team meetings to share knowledge and troubleshoot challenges, to encourage cross-project learning and best practice sharing.
• Document lessons learned and share these with the Nepal and global team through reports, website updates and presentations.
• Provide technical advice and guidance to partners and communities regarding technical procurement for RW-managed projects to ensure quality and timeliness in procurement.
• Review project design documents prepared by technical team members to ensure that technical design, drawings, cost estimate and specifications are in line with RW’s technical standards, norms and guidelines.
• Roll out a ‘Project Authorization Process’ to provide formal approval to initiate the implementation of project’s technical works.
• Maintain and update the technical database of all technologies implemented by RW and its partners.

5. Methodology

• Deliver all project activities in line with Renewable World’s Community Centred Model, Sustainability Toolkit and associated toolsets, and contribute to the development of updated and new methodologies, including the application of market systems approaches and toolkits.
• In collaboration with Project Managers, conduct regular project risk assessments and health and safety audits, focusing on technical components of RW projects.
• Ensure teams follow the RW standard technical procedures, policies and documentation requirements across project phases.
• Ensure technical resources are maintained, managed and used responsibly and appropriately.
• Implement framework, policy and procedures to bring the level of service and maintenance of the installed RETs to the highest standard.

Cross-cutting duties

• Line management of staff and volunteers as agreed, ensuring RW’s HR policies and HR management processes are followed.
• Ensure all pilot and scale up projects are gender and socially inclusive.
• Adhere to Renewable World’s Code of Conduct, Enhanced Code of Conduct and follow Renewable World’s Safeguarding Policy at all times.
• Represent Renewable World, our values, vision and mission in the regions and districts where RW operates in a professional, honest, transparent and positive way to help build Renewable World’s image and brand in the regions and district as an organisation committed to poverty alleviation and collaboration in Nepal.
• Ensure resource availability and efficient usage of resources.
• From time to time undertake other reasonable tasks and responsibilities as requested by your direct line Manager.
• Keep accurate records and utilise the existing administrative forms, for food, travel and accommodation when visiting project sites, and timesheet management to enable financial administration.
• Attend regular supervision and take active steps in professional development.

Qualification, Experience and Attributes
Essential

• Minimum of 10-years relevant work experience and a master’s degree in Energy Engineering, Civil Engineering, Renewable Energy (Solar, Biogas, Water Pumping etc) or similar discipline.
• Strong technical skills and background, preferably in small-scale renewable energy and/or clearly relevant related topic.
• Strong experience in procurement and contract management.
• Experience in capacity building or mentoring, preferably at all stages of the process including design, implementation and assessment.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Able to make quick decisions and solve technical problems to provide an efficient environment for project implementation.
• Experience of using AutoCAD to produce and review necessary technical drawings
• Proven experience in the usage of computer and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) and able to write reports in English.
• Ability to interpret and convey technical information to a non-technical audience

Desirable

• Knowledge and / or experience of working with all of the following small scale renewable energy technologies: hydro, wind, solar and biogas.
• Knowledge and / or experience of working with models of sustainability in either technical and / or social contexts.
• Experience of project assessment and evaluation.

Terms and Conditions
Monthly Basic Salary: 1,680,000 basic annual salary (12 months)/ 2,187,884.00 gross annual salary
Hours of Work: Full time/37.5 hours a week
Place of work: Nepal Office: Chakupat, Lalitpur, Nepal

This job description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees within this classification. However, it is inevitable that responsibilities and tasks may be varied and unpredictable. It is expected of the staff to respond with a flexible approach when tasks arise which are not specifically covered in this job description. Should an additional responsibility or task become a regular part of an employee’s job, the job description will be amended in consultation with the employee.

Applying for the post:
Please send your CV and a covering letter (1 to 2 pages only) to [email protected].

Closing date for applications: Sunday 3rd July
Interview date: Week commencing 18th July

Interested candidates (women and disadvantaged groups are highly encouraged to apply) meeting above criteria are requested to send a complete CV with the name of two references and contact number. Only short-listed candidates will be called for further selection process. The employer reserves all the rights to accept or reject any or all the applications without any reasons thereof. Undue influence will result in automatic rejection of application.