Senior WASH Expert

Job Description

Senior Expert: Water and Sanitation 

Aguaconsult is an Employee-Owned company with an excellent brand and international profile delivering high-quality consulting services for a range of strategic clients in the water and sanitation sector. Building on over 20 years of experience, we are going through a planned growth phase and looking for a highly experienced Senior WASH Expert to help manage and deliver a pipeline of technically interesting and strategically important assignments.    

Your primary role will be working as part of a team across a range of water and sanitation projects more generally, as well as continued development of a portfolio of work relating to your own thematic areas of interest and expertise; illustrative themes could include financing (preferred), sector reform, regulation, sanitation or Public-Private Partnerships. We would also be interested in a senior expert who has experience in related fields such as urban planning, water resource management or environmental health as we seek to broaden our content offering.

In addition to your content related work, you will play a strategic leadership role in the company, including in acquisition, client engagement, managing large-scale projects, mentoring more junior staff and providing high level inputs and quality assurance at key points in the project cycle. As a senior staff member, you would also input and influence the long-term vision and strategic direction of our Employee-Owned business.

Water and Sanitation Expert Role 

Within your area of expertise and across a range of projects, you will provide consultancy services (acquiring, leading and contributing to assignments) for projects relating to the provision of sustainable water and/or sanitation services in developing and middle-income countries. Projects are expected to span research and learning into policy, monitoring and evaluation activities, institutional reform, training and facilitation, strategic support, programme design, and sector reviews, amongst others. You will be expected to provide the following inputs as part of your role as a senior staff member:

• Actively maintaining and expanding your professional networks and links with clients, partners and sector institutions and platforms.
• Proactive project acquisition through direct contact with clients and partners and developing proposal documents and bids relating to specific calls for tender.
• Providing thought leadership within and outside of the company on specific topics through a combination of activities including support to strategic platforms / networks and participation in conferences, panels and learning events globally (in person and virtually).
• Review and quality control of project outputs produced by other staff members.
• Participation in evaluations, design and research and other project-related implementation activities globally.

Leadership and Management Role

As a small company with a dynamic team of hard-working and committed staff, we encourage independence in developing new work, the delegation of responsibilities and always seek to support and promote the learning and profiles of our staff. As a senior staff member at  Aguaconsult, you will have a key role in supporting, mentoring and encouraging staff and take responsibility for the overall quality of project outputs and managing client relationships. The focus of your management role in Aguaconsult will include, but not be limited to the following:

• Leadership, both internally among staff and externally in representing Aguaconsult to clients and partners.
• Acting as Project Director for assignments involving additional staff and/or associate consultants.
• A significant role in contributing to the development of company, decision-making regarding content focus, growth and hiring of new staff.
• Line management of technical staff and mentoring of more junior staff members or interns, both on content and facilitation/client relationship management.
• Financial management at project level, including review and approval of budgets.
• As this role develops, we would expect increased responsibility for financial management at a company level including review and analysis of quarterly, semi-annual and annual financial reporting for Aguaconsult and contribution to decisions about major investments.
• New business development, networking with potential clients and partners and developing – and managing the development of – proposals and acquisition work.
• Recruitment and contributing to HR policy and conditions, as well as taking a substantive role in interviewing new staff (and disciplinary actions for staff if necessary).
• Contributing to strategic communications, including developing company publications, newsletters, and decisions on branding, amongst others.
• Support to general administrative duties and tasks relating to the running of the Aguaconsult office, website and communications outputs.

Candidate Profile

To fulfil the above role, we are looking for a sector expert with a minimum of 10-12 years of directly relevant experience (across any different dimension of water and sanitation) and extensive experience of working overseas and delivering as a consultant, including at a strategic level. We also place great value on the ability to work effectively in a small, friendly and hard-working team. Other requirements include:

• Master’s degree or PhD in a related discipline (e.g., environmental engineering, urban planning, international development studies).
• Track record of strong analytical capacity with the ability to understand conceptual frameworks and practical operating environments related to water and sanitation.
• Excellent standards of written work in English, including a track record of high-quality reports and/or published articles.
• Willingness to travel to low- and middle-income countries (up to 12 weeks per year).
• Significant time spent in countries and experience of working in one or more of the following regions: Sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, South Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Middle East and North Africa.
• Strong verbal communication skills and ability to build and maintain client and professional relationships.
• Ability to communicate with a wide range of stakeholders, for example: national and district government representatives, community representatives, institutional partners, donors, partner organisations/ NGO’s, contractors, and consultants.
• Flexibility, self-motivation, and excellent organisational skills.
• Ability to work successfully as part of a physically dispersed team.
• Alignment with the principles of working in a company that is collectively owned and managed for the benefit of all its staff.

We have a strong preference for fluency (both speaking and writing) in a second language (French, Spanish or Portuguese preferred). Aguaconsult is based in the UK and we will prioritise applicants with a pre-existing right to both live and work in the UK but, for exceptional candidates, we will consider visa sponsorship.

Summary

Closing date 9am (UK time) 15th July 2024 

For further information regarding the company, position and application process please see our website: https://www.aguaconsult.co.uk/post/are-you-interested-in-working-for-aguaconsult