Water Mission International recruits 01  Regional Solar Advisor (English Speaker)

Water Mission International recruits 01  Regional Solar Advisor (English Speaker) – West Africa

Who is Water Mission?

Water Mission is a rapidly growing Christian engineering nonprofit working to end the global water crisis by building safe water, sanitation, and hygiene solutions in developing nations and disaster areas. Guided by love, excellence, and integrity, we are driven to share clean, safe water and God’s love with all. To date, we have served more than 5 million people in 56 countries. Working at Water Mission is as much a calling as it is a career, and we are searching for people with the courage, passion, and drive to help us change the world. Read more about What We Believe, our Statement of Faith, and our Christian Mission.

What is the opportunity?

The Regional Solar Advisor is responsible for co-leading the provision of technical support on solar powered water system (SPWS) projects to government, UN, NGO, and private sector stakeholders. This is a full-time position reporting to the Director of Engineering and Innovation. This position will provide on-demand engineering support throughout the life cycle of SPWS programming, from planning to implementation to evaluation, in all relevant sub-sectors at national, sub-national, and community levels. This will require sound engineering principles, as well as excellent written and verbal communication skills. Though West Africa is predominantly French speaking, candidates for this position are not required to be fluent in French. The ideal candidate needs to be fluent in English (spoken and written), with any amount of familiarity with French being considered a plus. Successful candidates will be dynamic and innovative, adaptable to rapidly changing environments, and able to foster excellent relationships across a variety of stakeholders and cultures.

This position will initially be based in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. As travel returns to pre-COVID-19 conditions, this position will transition to Dakar, Senegal, for a minimum of two (2) years. While living in Charleston or Dakar, travel to remote locations in developing countries may still take place, and candidates need to be prepared to travel up to three to six months out of the year (i.e., multiple trips during a single calendar year totaling three to six months).

The Regional Solar Advisor will:

• Work in a posture of humble service to God and others
• Commitment to Water Mission’s values of Love, Excellence, and Integrity
• Support and actively promote a virtual and physical Francophone Technical Helpdesk facility focused on SPWS, responding to phone calls, emails, and posts requesting technical assistance or advice
• Undertake technical assessments of existing and planned SPWS programs in West Africa
• Participate in bottleneck analyses to identify critical barriers to sustainable SPWS programming in West Africa and collaborate with key stakeholders to address barriers, particularly in development of national standards for SPWS
• Collaborate with the Water Mission global team to develop and deliver targeted workshops, trainings, and other capacity building activities that address critical technical gaps in siting, design, procurement, installation, operation, and maintenance of SPWS
• Collaborate with the Water Mission global team to develop key relationships with SPWS relevant networks and initiatives in the West and Central Africa region
• Work within cross-cultural environments and overcome stereotypes and language barriers
• Work across engineering disciplines and develop a base level understanding of different disciplines as required by projects
• Develop and manage project scopes, schedules, and budgets
• Manage multiple simultaneous projects
• Maintain good communications with multiple team members across multiple countries and time zones
• Maintain good communications with outside entities
• Ensure work is done within an agreed upon scope, schedule, and budget
• Prepare and make presentations to other departments, partner organizations, country program office staff, strategic partners, donors, and volunteers

What is required?

• Personal and growing relationship with Jesus Christ
• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering – Electrical or Civil (Chemical, Environmental, Mechanical, and other Engineering degrees considered); experience with solar power preferred
• Licensed Professional Engineer (PE) preferred
• 5-10 years of engineering experience required, with a minimum of 1 year in project management
• Demonstrated experience with motorized pumping systems required; solar powered water systems preferred
• English language skills (spoken and written required; any level of French language skill is also beneficial and considered a plus
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Knowledgeable skills with office computer programs (Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook) and familiarity with engineering programs such as EPANET, Microsoft Project, AutoCAD, etc.
• Excellent relationship skills
• Excellent analytical skills
• Experience in developing county preferred
• Ability and willingness to live in Dakar, Senegal, for a minimum of 2 years
• Ability and willingness to travel up to three to six months out of the year (i.e., multiple trips during a single calendar year totaling three to six months) required. Most trips are 2 weeks to 3 months in length and require this person to ride in long car rides on rough terrain and stand for extended periods of time in hot weather.
• Ability and willingness to travel to a disaster response situation with only 72 hours of notice is required