1. Activity Background

The purpose of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure in Ukraine Activity is to strengthen the resilience of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure from cyberattacks by establishing trusted collaboration between key cybersecurity stakeholders in the government, private sector, academia, and civil society. The activity aims to achieve this goal by implementing the following activity components:

Component 1: Strengthening the cybersecurity enabling environment

The legal, regulatory, and institutional framework for national cybersecurity in Ukraine needs to be strengthened and aligned with international standards and best practices. This component will strengthen the cybersecurity resilience of Ukraine’s critical infrastructure sectors by addressing legislative gaps, promoting good governance, enabling collaboration between stakeholders, and supporting cybersecurity institutions. This component will also build the technical capacity of key sectors through increased access to cybersecurity technology and equipment.

Component 2: Developing Ukraine’s cybersecurity workforce

Ukraine suffers from a severe shortage of cybersecurity professionals. This component of the USAID Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure in Ukraine Activity will address workforce gaps through activities that develop new cybersecurity talent and build the capacity of existing talent. These activities will address the entire workforce pipeline, the quality of education received by cybersecurity specialists, and industry training programs to rapidly upskill Ukraine’s workforce to respond to immediate cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Component 3: Building a resilient cybersecurity industry

A growing cybersecurity industry in Ukraine will contribute directly to national security and prosperity. This component will seek to build trust and collaboration between the public and private sector to develop innovative solutions for future cybersecurity challenges; spur investment and growth in the broader cybersecurity market in Ukraine through greater access to financing; support smaller cybersecurity companies to rapidly increase the number of local cybersecurity service providers; and offer mechanisms for Ukrainian firms to connect with industry partners to enable better access to innovations and business opportunities.

Together the above components will improve short-term cybersecurity resilience in Ukraine and establish a solid foundation for long-term cybersecurity independence and leadership. Lessons and best practices from key critical infrastructure sectors will extend to all parts of the public sector, as well as to the private sector and civil society..

2. Role’s purpose

Under the supervision of the Monitoring, Evaluation, Adaptation, and Learning (MEAL) Manager and in collaboration with the technical team and cross-functional units, the Collaboration, Learning, and Adaptation (CLA) Specialist will engage activity stakeholders in collecting and analyzing results and lessons emerging from activity implementation. The CLA Manager will utilize this knowledge to provide inputs to a comprehensive learning agenda to further enhance programming and inform activity adaptation and sequencing. The CLA Specialist will support capture of how learning has resulted in adaptation and how successful adaptations have been.  

3. Tasks/responsibilities

• Conducts joint performance reviews of the activities and partners (Grants, Subcontracts & Activities) and develops lessons learned and recommended adaptations for these activities
• Assists with compiling and documents lessons learned from the activities that are of significant/strategic value for informing USAID via activity reports and prepare success stories
• Develops draft of lessons learned for the technical team’s review
• Supports with implementing learning agenda and participates in learning and adaptation component via periodic Pause and Reflect sessions
• Assist technical leads with documenting assumptions, developing learning capture tools related to technical interventions, including toolkits, quick reference guides, flow-charts, one-pagers, etc.
• Maintains/updates a learning harvesting log to help technical leads articulate the hypotheses they would test, how they would carry out pilot tests as proof of concept, how they would learn from those tests, and with whom they would share the information/results.
• Maintains/updates an adaptive management log that houses the Activity’s response to new information and unanticipated obstacles to implementation under each component/cross-functional unit as well as cross-cutting areas of gender, communications, grants, operations, etc.
• Provides support to MEAL Manager in conducting gender related assessments, and other gender-related interventions
• Assists MEAL Manager with executing other tasks, as needed.

4. Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in the relevant field;
• Previous work experience in communications/CLA or similar learning and adaption approach preferred
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Strong analytical and active listening skills
• Solid core skills including- communication, collaboration, multitasking
• Analytical skills
• Solid writing skills
• Fluency in Ukrainian and English required

Qualified candidates should send their CV and cover letter to [email protected]. Only short-listed candidates will receive notice requesting additional information.