Construction Coordinator

International Rescue Committee (IRC)
Closing date: 25 Dec 2009
Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo (the) - Tanganyika

IRC is implementing a large Community-Driven Reconstruction program in DRC, working in partnership with 1,250 villages across four districts and benefiting more than 1.7 million Congolese citizens as they work to rebuild their country. The Construction Coordinator oversees IRC’s construction and rehabilitation activities in Tanganyika District area of the Katanga Province. These activities primarily entail infrastructures related to primary health care programs (health centers, hospitals, administrative buildings, and community treatment centers), school facilities, and ground-water systems. The activities and projects that the Construction Coordinator oversees involve both direct implementation and implementation through consulting engineers and contractors. The post therefore involves ensuring that design, construction and field supervision are conducted to a high professional standard by IRC employees and the private contractors.

The position reports to the Community-Driven Reconstruction Coordinator in Tanganyika.

RESPONSIBILITIES
Program management:
- Supervise the design (directly or contracted) of infrastructures that are adapted to population needs and context and match international and national norms and standards.
- Establish and oversee implementation of systems for controlling the quality of supplied construction materials; closely monitoring market prices; tracking works progress against work plans, and controlling the quality of the final construction outputs.
- Manage, in a strategic manner, construction/rehabilitation budgets and/or budget components to ensure an appropriate and efficient use of resources in the area of operation.
- Ensure that bidding process are done in a in a consistent and transparent manner
Contractors management:
- Ensure proper provisional and final handover of infrastructure from IRC or the contractors to both the communities and the local authorities.
- Write and issue tenders (legal and technical components), obtain non-objection approvals from donors, analyze bids and organize awarding committees, write and negotiate major contracts, and ensure that field supervision of construction works is adequate and that contracts are enforced.
HR management:
- Manage the construction team; provide leadership and supervision.
- Actively promote staff development and conduct mainly on-the-job trainings so that high performing national staff may be promoted to managerial positions.
- Write job descriptions; establish hiring criteria for project staff, interview and select staff as needed.
- Limit, identify, document and dismiss staff involved in fraud and corruption.
Reporting:
- Review and consolidate monthly internal reports.
- Contribute to the production of required reports for donors, in collaboration with the Program Department in Kinshasa.

REQUIREMENTS:
- Degree or equivalent experience in construction or engineering.
- 2+ years of construction site management and/or engineering experience, preferably in an international setting and/or in Africa.
- Water and sanitation engineering/construction experience.
- Ability to work independently while being a strong team player.
- Ability to work well under unstable security, administrative, and programmatic pressures.
- Ability to manage a team and to show flexibility (balance between quality of the construction and respect of community decision making process)
- Advanced knowledge of usual desktop software such as Word, Excel, and Outlook.
- Knowledge of engineering / drafting related software is preferable

IRC leading the way from harm to home.
How to apply
Please apply at http://www.ircjobs.org