Vacancy Announcement: WASH Infrastructure Maintenance and Planning Officer

Job Title: WASH Infrastructure Maintenance and Planning Officer

Location: Rwanda

Reporting to: Senior Program Manager

Supervisory Duties:

Type of Contract: Full-time   

Background

Water For People is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) that works with people and partners to develop innovative and long-lasting solutions to the water, sanitation, and hygiene problems in developing countries.  The organization strives to continually improve, experiment with promising new ideas, and leverage resources to multiply its impact. Water For People is currently operating in 9 countries including Rwanda where the organization is supporting WASH in the districts of Rulindo, Kicukiro, Gicumbi, Karongi, and Gisagara. Ten more districts are supported under the USAID-funded Isoko y’Ubuzima Project.

Job Summary

As the WASH Infrastructure Maintenance and Planning Officer, you’ll be part of a collaborative team addressing our clients’ challenges. Based in Rulindo or Gicumbi, you’ll be working on local projects in the WASH sector, providing key insights and experience in such aspects as predictive and preventive maintenance, root cause analysis, and operational efficiency. Your depth of knowledge in a wide array of WASH infrastructure and equipment, processes, and systems in WASH treatment facilities will be of true value to our partners. You’ll be able to drive real improvements in safety and lifespans of WASH infrastructure and support planning of operations and maintenance staff through your recommendations.

Water For People is committed to strengthening the capacity of private operators to ensure that they have capacity to operate and maintain WASH infrastructure. WASH Infrastructure Maintenance and Planning Officer will support the development of strategic capital maintenance approach and plans that will guide WASAC and districts in planning and budgeting capital preventive maintenance, maintenance as well as capital replacement. This will increase the sustainability of WASH services in communities, schools, and health care facilities.

WASH Infrastructure Maintenance and Planning Officer will mainly support districts and WASAC to ensure functionality of WASH systems and sustainability of WASH services.

KEY PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES:

• Highly accountable with the ability to deliver results in a fast-paced, collaborative team culture.
• Must have well-developed written, oral, interpersonal, and negotiation communication skills with a high degree of sensitivity for confidentiality.
• Must be task-oriented with an excellent sense of priority, logic, and objectivity, highly organized and capable of handling several sensitive and important issues simultaneously while responding to unanticipated developments. 

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS & DUTIES:

Strategy

• Support Country Program and WASH partners to develop a clear strategy to for WASH infrastructure maintenance plan.
• Support to develop and pilot household water supply connections to ensure safely managed water supply target is met.
• Actively participate in national and district planning activities to ensure that WASAC and districts are planning for capital maintenance and replacement respectively.

Programmatic Activities

• Responsible for reviewing WASH infrastructure operations and maintenance services for all water systems and treatment and pumping stations working with partners (WASAC and Districts) and third-party private operators.
• Recommendations for schedules of short and long-range maintenance work by evaluating status of equipment, systems, installations, and facilities.
• Support the planning for replacement, repair, and preventative maintenance of equipment and assets.
• Estimate time and materials needed to complete maintenance, repair, and/or special projects.
• Assist in formulating standards and work procedures for planning preventive and maintenance plans.
• Advise maintenance staff supervisors and communicate expected standards and methods, providing guidance and technical expertise.
• Assist with coordinating maintenance activities with Operations and Maintenance staff.
• Assist in quick resolution of equipment failures to maintain up-time.
• Advise and drive preventative, predictive, and maintenance practices geared towards reduction of down time and increase of up-time, while effectively reducing overall costs.
• Support WASAC and Districts to update ASSET registry and ensure that ASSET registry is updated on time and asset information is used for planning Capital Maintenance and replacement.
• Support Districts and WASAC to undertake assessment, concept design and cost estimates for capital maintenance and preventive maintenance.
• Develop business cases to support the implementation of a range of projects related to WASH infrastructure maintenance, extensions, and rehabilitations.
• Assist, as required, in the annual review of the Capital Works Investment Plan.
• Must have good computer skills and be able to utilize standard office software.
• Any other required support related to sustainability.

Partnership Management

• Maintain and strengthen relationships with WASAC, districts and other district WASH partner organizations, NGOs, government agencies, donors, bilateral and multilateral agencies.
• Identify synergy opportunities with other organizations operating in the districts. 

Learning and Reporting

• Participate and represent Water For People in conferences, workshops and meetings and present Water For People approaches and models through written articles and storytelling.
• Document successes, failures, and lessons learned, and share knowledge both internally and externally.
• Develop a capacity-building plan for partners on the analysis made to their performance and support its implementation for a continuous improvement of their strategies.
• Undertake any other duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the supervisor. 

Behaviors and Competencies:

• Connects to Mission – Understands and embraces the mission of Water For People; works to connect day-to-day tasks to mission; can explain Water For People’s purpose
• Manages through Ambiguity – Can recognize problems or opportunities when they arise and act to resolve them; readily formulates multiple solutions through a problem or issue analysis; is comfortable making and defending recommendations.
• Demonstrates Cultural Awareness – Demonstrates a global mindset; values cultural differences and takes into consideration in any given situation; moves easily between people from different backgrounds and cultures; can work outside the comfort zone and is ready to deliver at high expectations with minimum supervision.
• Action-oriented – Recognizes additional actions that will improve quality or facilitate achievement of outcomes; does not hesitate to do more than expected but may overextend; sees opportunities beyond the job description and recognizes those that can be seized immediately and those that require higher level input; thinks outside the box, anticipates how actions affect the team.
• Sense of Team – Builds effective working relationships at all levels of the organization; aligns own behavior with the needs or priorities of the team; promotes teamwork among groups; discourages “us versus them” thinking; knows and considers the capabilities of coworkers. 

QUALIFICATIONS, KNOWLEDGE, & SKILLS REQUIRED: 

• A bachelor’s degree in Electromechanical Engineering/ Mechanical Engineering / Civil Engineering. A master’s degree will be an added advantage.
• At least 5 years of experience combining operations and maintenance management of complex water systems and supervision of field personnel.
• Engineering software (GIS, remote sensing, AutoCAD, Water CAD, Water Germ, EPANET, etc., and Computer skills) experience is required.
• Working Knowledge of English is required, and knowledge of Kinyarwanda and any other regional language is an added advantage.
• Cultural sensitivity and ability to get on with a wide range of people.
• Proactive and self-motivated individual capable of engaging persuasively with a wide range of stakeholders.
• Ability to organize and facilitate meetings and workshops.
• Experience of giving presentations and delivering lectures to large audiences.
• Ability to work in a focused manner, on many different subjects at the same time.
• Excellent writing and verbal skills.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and management skills.
• Excellent report writing, documentation, and presentation skills.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, networking, and negotiation skills.
• Good analytical skills and the ability to extrapolate lessons to other situations. 

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS/WORKING CONDITIONS:

• This position is based in one of EF Districts: Gicumbi or Rulindo
• Trips within and outside Rwanda will be required from time to time.
• Flexibility to work outside regular business hours to meet with team members/partners located in other time zones.

Note:   This job description is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties, responsibilities, or qualifications associated with the job.

Salary Range:

Rwanda’s expected annual gross salary range is RWF 13,966,198 to RWF 25,794,552.

The actual salary will be determined based on experience and other job-related factors.

Benefits:

Benefits are one of the ways we encourage healthy living for you and your family. Our generous package includes medical and life insurance, annual leave allocation equal to one month of salary, and other benefits in accordance with the Rwanda labor law.