Private Sector Manager

📝 FULL-TIME

Overview

Background:

The USAID Makanati Women Economic Empowerment and leadership Activity will use a Champions of Change approach to work with private sector firms, the government, community-based organizations (CBOs), and other high-level stakeholders to create an enabling environment for women to undertake waged employment in the private sector in Jordan. To that end, Makanati will work with partners and stakeholders to encourage women to consider career choices in high-growth, priority sectors and promote the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women in Jordan’s labor force. Using a targeted sector and regional focus, Makanati will seek to increase women’s access to the job market and demand-driven job skills and leadership training that responds to market needs. Makanati will also identify and address policy gaps, workplace inequalities and prohibitive social norms and traditions to support an equitable and inclusive workforce enabling environment.

Makanati’s goal is to establish pathways through which social change and economic opportunities lead to a systemic shift from women’s exclusion to inclusion in market systems and increase women’s economic participation in the private sector. This holistic approach will bridge the gap between women’s and men’s inclusion in the workforce and, overall, will contribute to inclusive economic growth in Jordan. Makanati is implemented by EnCompass LLC in partnership with Nathan, a Cadmus Company, Integrated International and JoWomenomics.

This position will be under Nathan**,** a Cadmus Company. Nathan is a leading provider of analytic and economic consultancy services worldwide. In the past decade, we have implemented more than 120 projects in more than 50 countries leveraging our global presence in Washington DC, London, and India. From improved transparency and deeper stakeholder engagement to more effective policies and more resilient businesses, we deliver results that impact economic growth, human development, and poverty reduction. We are passionate about applying our deep analytical expertise and advanced proprietary tools to generate economic solutions tailored to our clients’ unique challenges. Nathan focuses on a range of economic development subject matter areas including Trade & Logistics; Economic Policy & Governance; Private Sector Development; Women’s Economic Empowerment; and Financial Solutions.

Responsibilities

Position Summary_:_

The Private Sector Manager will serve as a senior manager, supporting the Senior Private Sector Lead in advancing Makanati’s key objectives. This role will oversee the establishment and maintenance of relationships with private sector, coordinate across Makanati teams including the Gender and Youth, M&E, manage staff, and ensure high-level alignment with other project components. This role requires substantial private sector technical experience in Makanati's targeted sectors, including tourism, media/creative industries, manufacturing, and transport/logistics, with digital and environmental considerations as cross-cutting themes. This role requires robust management skills and will report to the Senior Private Sector Lead.

Key Responsibilities:

Establish relationships with private sector stakeholders (e.g., business associations, chambers of commerce and industry, and unions) to strengthen coordination and support of women’s roles into the tourism, manufacturing, creative media and transport and logistics sectors, including improving supported perceptions, practices, and advocacy for women.
Support strategy design, in collaboration with the Gender & Youth team, to incentivize businesses to intentionally prioritize recruitment of young and adult women in the sector.
Using a market systems approach, identify and understand the role of women in the targeted sectors to promote job creation.
Assist the M&E team in performing periodic rapid assessments to inform design of targeted sector interventions over the life of the Activity and to report on Activity indicators.
Participate and support collaboration across Makanati components to identify implementation activities for multiple sectors while achieving a triangular approach to assist in creating and enabling environment in the private sector.
Collaborate with other Makanati components to identify and introduce ways to stimulate and reinforce more equitable, safe, and accessible working environments for women to enter the targeted sectors, especially in rural areas that may have limited social acceptability of female employment.
Working with the Gender & Youth and Community teams, explore professional development and training to promote women in leadership and decision-making roles in the targeted sectors.
Coordinate with international organizations to incorporate workplace standards for gender equality and social inclusion in tourism into private sector firms' policies and procedures and support Champion firms in the sector to seek a certification in accordance with criteria in relevant working areas that promote best practices and guarantee measurable impact in achieving women’s empowerment and gender mainstreaming.
Grow and consolidate the list of Makanati private sector gender Champion firms in the targeted sectors who will help to establish best practices and workplace codes of conduct, ethics policies, and sexual harassment and anti-discrimination policies that support safe spaces for women to work.
Work with the Communications and Gender & Youth teams to design a campaign that highlights and recognizes Champion firms in the sector that promote and invest in their female employees.
Develop concept notes, scopes of work, requests for proposals, and requests for applications for the private sector component.
Manage service providers and consultants.
Support the Senior Private Sector Lead in reporting the component achievements bi-weekly, quarterly, and annual as well as the yearly work plan.
Support the Senior Private Sector Lead in monitoring the activities implementation and ensure capturing the component indicators and impacts.
Manage long-term in-country staff, as needed.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field, Master's degree preferred
Minimum 15 years of work experience, with at least 10 years working on private sector engagement or with private sector partners and associations
Experience advancing women’s economic empowerment, gender equality, women’s employment, inclusive economic growth and/or equitable workplace policies
Experience managing at least one staff and overseeing multiple consultants simultaneously
Ability to implement a portfolio of several activities simultaneously
Ability to collate technical inputs and form ready-to-submit, high-quality technical deliverables
Ability to work with a team and collaborate well with others
Strong communications and organization skills
Experience with USAID and other donor-funded projects
Fluency in Arabic and English required
Must be based in Jordan

Additional Information:

For employees working outside of the United States, compensation and benefits will vary based on the project and the location.

We value the critical role safety and health protocols contribute to everyone’s success at Cadmus, and work together to align and comply with all federal, state, and local safety and health mandates related to COVID to ensure a safe and valuable work environment.

Candidates who will be required to travel to specific countries must be willing to meet all of the requirements of the destination country(ies) for unimpeded entry.