CAO-O6-26-Project Manager / Team Leader – Independent Verification of Water Utility Performance

CAO-O6-26-Project Manager / Team Leader – Independent Verification of Water Utility Performance

We are seeking a Project Manager / Team Leader to join a consulting firm’s proposal for an international technical assistance assignment in the urban and peri-urban water supply sector in Lusophone Africa.

The assignment will consist of providing independent performance verification services for operators and technical assistance teams supporting public water utilities. The objective will be to verify baselines, contractual performance indicators, data quality, technical, commercial and financial results, and to issue independent reports that may serve as the basis for assessing contractual compliance and results-based payments.

Position

Project Manager / Team Leader – Independent Verification Agent

Main responsibilities

The Project Manager will be responsible for the technical, methodological and contractual leadership of the independent verification team. Responsibilities will include:

• Leading the design and implementation of a performance verification protocol.
• Coordinating the verification of baselines, targets, indicators and results of water utilities.
• Supervising the preparation of periodic verification reports, annual reports, baseline reports and ad hoc reports.
• Coordinating a multidisciplinary team composed of technical, commercial and financial experts.
• Reviewing the consistency and traceability of operational, commercial and financial data.
• Ensuring that the team’s conclusions are based on verifiable evidence, measurements, document review and field checks.
• Acting as the main point of contact with the client, operators, utilities and other stakeholders.
• Ensuring the independence, objectivity and technical quality of the opinions issued.
• Ensuring that the work is carried out in accordance with international good practice in engineering, auditing, utility management and performance verification.

Mandatory minimum requirements

Only candidates who clearly demonstrate compliance with all the following requirements will be considered:

• University degree in engineering, management, economics, public administration, finance, water/sanitation or a related discipline.
• Master’s degree or relevant postgraduate qualification, mandatory.
• At least 7 years of professional experience in similar assignments, related to management, supervision, auditing, operational improvement or verification of utilities.
• Proven experience in the management or assessment of water utilities, particularly in contexts involving operational improvement, technical assistance, operation and maintenance contracts, or institutional strengthening programmes.
• Specific experience in performance indicator verification, results auditing, benchmarking, data quality control or assessment of contracts with results-based components.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams with technical, commercial and financial components.
• Experience in projects in developing countries, preferably in Sub-Saharan Africa or comparable institutional contexts.
• Practical knowledge of water supply systems, service continuity, service quality, operational efficiency, water losses, commercial management, billing, collection, customer service and financial sustainability of utilities.
• Experience preparing technical reports for institutional clients, public authorities, regulators or international financing institutions.
• Professional Portuguese, spoken and written, is mandatory.
• Professional English, spoken and written, is mandatory.

Experience considered an asset

The following experience will be considered a strong asset:

• Projects financed by multilateral organisations or international financing institutions.
• Management, operation and maintenance contracts for water services.
• Performance-based contracts or contracts with payments linked to indicators.
• Independent verification, technical auditing, commercial auditing or financial auditing of water utilities.
• Definition of baselines, KPIs, measurement protocols, adjustment mechanisms and validation methodologies.
• Field work in utilities with incomplete information, low metering coverage, weak commercial systems or poorly structured operational data.
• Review of operators’ improvement plans, technical assistance contracts or programmes to strengthen public water utilities.
• Management of discrepancies between client, operator and contractors regarding results, indicators or levels of compliance.

Profile sought

We are looking for a senior profile with sound technical judgement, leadership capacity and real experience in water utilities. This is not a purely administrative coordination role: the selected expert must be able to lead a complex independent verification assignment with technical, commercial, financial and contractual implications.

Generic applications will be disregarded if they do not demonstrate specific experience in water utilities, performance indicators, results auditing/verification or contracts linked to operational improvement.

Location and working arrangements

The assignment will combine home-office activities with periodic field missions in a Lusophone African country. The expected duration of the contract is multi-year.

Application documents

Interested candidates must submit:

• CV in World Bank format, in English.
• Brief indication of availability.
• List of similar projects, indicating country, client, dates, role performed and specific relevance to water utilities, performance verification or operation/service improvement contracts.

CVs that are not submitted in World Bank format or that do not clearly allow verification of the mandatory minimum requirements will not be considered.