Technical Support Unit Manager 

Association of Palestinian Local Authorities "APLA"

Job description – Technical Support Unit Manager 

Position: Technical Support Unit Manager – APLA

Position Purpose

The Technical Support Unit Manager (TSU Manager) shall provide technical support to ensure efficient operations of the technical support unit and its staff through a variety of tasks related to organization’s management and communication, the TSU manager will be responsible for the overall management and supervision of (APLA’s Multiannual Action Plan (MAAP) 2021-2025).

APLA Background 

Founded in 1997, APLA is an independent organization mandated to represent and lobby for the collective interests of Local Authorities (LAs) by supporting capacity building among local governments, facilitating exchange of knowledge and best practices, and serving as vehicle for dialogue between the central government and LAs. 

The Technical Support Unit (TSU) is established to provide technical support to all LAs (Municipalities and Village Councils) in the legal, planning, engineering, administrative and financial aspects. TSU unit is the technical, legal and the reform arms for APLA. The TSU will focus its efforts to help the LAs with special emphasis on the Area C Village Councils to provide better services to citizens by providing them with the needed technical assistance and support.

Project Background 

APLA signed a grant contract with the European Union (EU) on 12 December 2021 with total EU contribution of € 1.9 million. To implement the project (APLA’s Multiannual Action Plan (MAAP) 2021-2025), this project has been designed to strengthen LGUs collaborations on service delivery and local participatory development, and improve contributions to territorial integration, particularly in Area C, specific objectives of MAAP are aligned to APLA’s strategic plan and aims to support the role of APLA as LGUs representative and dialogue partner with the Palestinian Authority, in order to support the role of the LGUs in the building process of future State of Palestine. 

Accordingly, APLA is looking forward to hiring the Technical Support Unit Manager (TSU Manager) to fulfill the following tasks:

Key Responsibilities 

The TSU Manager will be responsible of:

1. Leading the implementation process of TSU three stages (institutionalization, service-delivery, and sustainability).
2. Developing action plan for each stage and follow up its implementation.
3. Managing all APLA’s projects implementation and reporting.
4. Recruiting, selecting, orienting, and training the TSU’s Staff.
5. Organizing and managing the overall project and provide effective leadership.
6. Assuming primary responsibility for the day-to-day project operations of the organization to ensure achieving goals and objectives that are in line with organization vision and strategic plan.
7. Monitoring and ensuring project plans are delivered within budget on time, and meet the objectives listed in project proposals. 
8. Accomplishes TSU’s objectives by managing staff and planning and evaluating the unit’s activities.
9. Maintains quality service by enforcing quality service standards, analyzing and resolving quality service problems, and recommending system improvements.
10. Leading the design and development of the electronic support tools and systems (web-based support services and mobile applications) for instant support for members.
11. Leading the development of the strategies and plans to increase and improve the collection of LAs membership fees.
12. In close cooperation with the executive director, participate in developing policies to define the relationships between the NGOs and civil society organizations (CSOs) and APLA and the LAs and to regulate their interventions.
13. Lead the process to identify priorities for policies and legislations and policy papers to be analysed by the Technical Hubs
14. Develop policies and procedures to recruit and motivate specialists for each specialized group
15. Participate in APLA’s strategic planning process
16. Write progress reports, work-related reports, and attend periodic meetings.
17.  Develop promotion campaigns to introduce the unit to LAs 
18. Develop  trust and build confidence with the LAs with special focus on area C LAs
19. Develop a selection criteria for LAs to nominate representatives for each hub
20. Supervise the coordination of the work of the Technical Hubs and the recruitment of their representatives
21. Lead  the process of defining priorities for technical support needed by LAs
22. Provide  support for the technical hubs and review their outputs specially the output related to policies and legislations
23. Invest in building the capacity of the Area C Village Councils Hub which is responsible for providing technical and reform support to meet the special needs of the LAs in-Area C (Administrative and Finance, Planning, Engineering, PR and communication, etc). 

Reporting requirements

The TSU Manager will work in APLA’s office in Ramallah, to provide effective and efficient management of APLAs technical support unit. 

The TSU Manager will report on a day to day basis to the Executive Director of APLA.

Jobs.ps, Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

Minimum qualifications

Qualifications and experiences:

• Bachelor's Degree in Business Management, Public Management, Engineering, or related field. 
• At least 15 years working experience in similar field. Governmental sector is preferred.

Skills:

• Excellent knowledge in Ms. Office (word, excel, power point, outlook).
• Attention to details, excellent organizational skills and staff leadership.
• Very good written and verbal skills, both Arabic and English.
• Excellent time management skills and ability to multi-task and prioritize work.
• Attention to detail and problem solving skills.
• Strong organizational, management and planning skills.
• Strong understanding of local government sector policies and advocacy.
• Ability to analyze & process information, identify problems and trends & give effective solutions.

Place of the assignment Ramallah, Palestine

Qualified candidates should send the most recent resume, including three professional references, and a cover letter detailing their interest for this position to the email address: [email protected] , indicating the position title (TSU Manager) in the email subject line.

Deadline for submitting resumes with cover letters: Saturday, 25.12.2021.

Short-listed candidates will be contacted for an interview.

“APLA is an equal opportunities employer”

Contract Period

One year, with possibility of extension.