DelAgua - General Manager - Technical

Loaction: Delhi based. Up to 50% travel.

Positions reporting to this post: Regional Programme Managers, Quality Assurance Manager, Water Quality Analysts

Duration: Permanent post

BACKGROUND: DelAgua (www.delagua.org) is working in collaboration with the Government of India to provide innovative water quality testing services throughout various States of India utilising mobile laboratories, smartphone data collection and coordination of fixed laboratories.

The Role: As the Country Technical Manager, you will have the overall responsibility for ensuring that all programmes in India are technically excellent. You will lead in designing product and programme solutions and developing concept notes, budgets, proposals and programme plans. You will be responsible for ensuring that all staff understand the programme plans, have the required competencies and technical ability; this will involve providing training and mentor support. You will become a leading expert in mobile water quality testing solutions and take the lead in setting up the ICT solutions in India. You will also oversee the water quality analysts and a quality assurance team, producing high quality water quality reports and analysis. You will ensure that systems are in place and being followed to ensure that both progress and quality are measured, quantified and reported. You will be mainly based in Delhi but will travel to other States to give presentations, demonstrations, trainings and start and support new programmes. You will have a background in science and experience of working with government departments. You will have established technical, management, coordination and people skills. You will be proactive, hardworking and take pride in working for DelAgua, a global leader in innovative water quality monitoring solutions.

KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

- Lead in developing concept notes, budgets and proposals in response to interest or tenders.

- Design optimum water quality testing equipment configurations based on the balance of capital cost, speed, accuracy and operating cost. Support will be provided by the General Manager and UK technical support team.

- Visit various States departments to give presentations and demonstrations, with proactive follow up; establishing good relationships and communication. Clearly identifying customer needs in order to design optimum bespoke solutions.

- Lead and coordinate the development of ICT solutions in India, including customising the water quality testing smartphone application and online website dashboards.

- Create and ensure that project plans and Gantt charts are in place, understood by all and followed such that weekly and monthly targets are understood and met or exceeded. Communicate with Regional Programme Managers on a regular basis to check progress and provide support as required.

- Work with the Senior Programme Manager to create and ensure that management systems and structures are in place and followed, including clear reporting structures and frequencies. Create and ensure that roadmaps are in place to respond to incoming reports as needed and in a structured way.

- Ensure efficient human resource management, ensuring all staff have clear workplans, objectives and are fully utilised. Provide technical trainings and mentoring where needed.

- Compile information received from the field into electronic formats that clearly show progress and achievements against targets. Be aware of project progress, strengths and weaknesses, and plan remedial actions where problems are found. Ensure that all activities, reports and feedback are recorded electronically in real-time.

- Submit weekly and monthly reports to the General Manager and Country Director.

- Coordinate and develop training materials in various Indian languages for the programme as needed.

- Coordinate and plan training programmes for the project team, including preparing presentations, training agendas, session plans and feedback systems.

- Organise and lead State level review workshops for the project team and Government.

- Ensure that the quality assurance team are reviewing completed data coming from the field, checking for errors and identifying areas where support may be required. Provide templates and formats for data collection and ensure that data is actioned.

- Conduct rotating visits to States to support Regional Programme Managers and ensure that water quality testing procedures and data collection methods are understood and being implemented correctly and accurately according to the protocol.

- Directly collect and compile feedback from the team and State level PHED's to ensure customer satisfaction and create improvement plans where issues are found.

- As required, support general office coordination and set up under the direction of the Country Director.

- Other work, coordination and support as directed by the General Manager.

SKILLS AND COMPETENCIES

Full training will be provided regarding the mobile laboratories, data collection and current management systems. You are expected to have the ability and enthusiasm to become a leading technical expert in this field, with the ability to find and implement technical and managerial solutions for your team. The following background, experience, skills and competencies are required:

- Excellent skills in verbal and written Hindi and English. Must be able to translate technical material and write excellent reports in English.

- A relevant qualification to at least Bachelors, although Masters is preferred. Relevant fields include Public Health, Environmental Engineering, Chemistry, or other science related disciplines; a Social Sciences background may be considered. Relevant experience and proven ability can substitute the need for formal qualifications.

- Significant experience of technical management and coordinating projects.

- Should have the ability to give convincing and engaging presentations and demonstrations.

- Must have excellent training and mentoring skills with proven experience.

- Familiarity with water, sanitation and health and hygiene issues is desirable. Experience with water quality testing is highly preferable.

- Familiarity with ICT systems and a programming language is highly preferred but not essential. At a minimum a strong grasp of modern ICT systems is required and the ability to learn new ICT quickly.

- Must be available at short notice to travel nationally for presentations and demonstrations to government offices.

- Ability to spend up to 50% of his/her time travelling to different States in India, often at short notice.

- Practical experience of quantitative or qualitative research is desirable.

- Field and/or NGO experience would be seen as a strength.

- Must be excellent with computers, able to produce quality documents in Word, complex data analysis in Excel and comfortable with the operation of smartphones.

- Must be willing to work flexible hours as required.

- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills is essential with the ability to communicate complex technical information to a wide range of audiences and make it understood.

Interviews will be held in Delhi.

This is a high level and calibre position. If you do not meet the above criteria please do not apply.