Roving Senior Civil Engineer

Location: Kigali, Rwanda
Reports to: Regional Operations Manager
Start Date: January 2024
Position Type: Full time

Organization Background
The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, presence in more than 60 nations, and experience helping to establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of poor rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilization of natural resources.

Central Africa & Gulf of Guinea Program Overview

The Central Africa and Gulf of Guinea program is one of the largest of WCS’s Global Regional Programs, spanning Nigeria, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of Congo and Gabon. This is a rapidly growing program with a diverse and expanding portfolio of donors, partners and projects. The region presents a set of complex conservation challenges to biodiversity and their habitats and WCS field programs are addressing these through a number of initiatives including protected area management, community engagement, sustainable livelihoods, policy reform and sustainable financing. WCS recently formally established its regional hub in Kigali, Rwanda which hosts a growing team of technical specialists and regional management to support our country programs and field offices.

About the role
With a solid funding base, WCS is working to deliver an ambitious program of conservation interventions across Central Africa and the Gulf of Guinea region where quality infrastructures are required in large numbers to host the staff, partners, and tourists. Currently, there are infrastructure managers and civil engineers on the key sites. Under the leadership of the regional operations manager, the roving senior engineer will play a vital role in streamlining standards, ways of working and quality control systems and boost our efficiency to construct and maintain sound infrastructures.

Job Summary
The Wildlife Conservation Society’s Central Africa & Gulf of Guinea program is seeking a highly qualified and motivated Roving Senior Civil Engineer to support our construction projects across the region of Central Africa and the Gulf of Guinea. We are seeking a highly qualified civil engineer, a professional with experience in the design and implementation of construction infrastructures in savannah and forest contexts. The candidate must have experience in conservation, be organized and have excellent communication skills. He/she must demonstrate the capacity to work in a multi-contextual environment. The Roving senior civil engineer will join a dynamic regional team and report to the Central Africa Regional Operations Manager.

• Responsibilities
  Prepare and keep up to date a catalogue of WCS standards for infrastructure.
  Work together with site infrastructure managers to ensure the infrastructure designs meet WCS standards as well as donors’ and host country’s standards and integrate conservation requirements.
  Prepare and deploy toolkits for construction projects’ quality control and construction project monitoring across the region.
  Prepare and deploy toolkits for construction bidding as assessment across the region and review tender packages whenever needed.
  Take an active leadership role in the design and construction of high-level projects upon request. This includes moving to sites for days or weeks.
  Participate in the recruitment, induction and training of site infrastructure managers and engineers.
  Facilitate sharing of experience and successful models across the region.
  Fill in gaps for site infrastructure managers during their absence (leave or vacancies).
  Be the focal point for the region’s green energy strategy.
  Develop construction safety and security standards and ensure they are included in project designs and implementation.
  Carry out infrastructure assessments and audits either during the construction process or after completion and propose corrective measures if applicable.
  Identify required working tools (software, licenses, and hardware) for the site engineers and follow up on the purchasing with the purchasing team.
  Conduct any other duties as requested.

  Qualifications and requirements

• Be a registered civil engineer.
  At least 8+ years of experience in the field of architecture and/or construction, including in a complex logistics environment in rural Africa.
  Experience in developing infrastructures for conservation and related field
  Excellent knowledge of construction standards
  Knowledge of architectural design
  Knowledge of green energy
  Experience working with and managing other engineers.
  Excellent knowledge of minimum 2 construction design software
  Good knowledge of Excel
  Successful training skills and experience
  Ability to work in a multicultural context and in a remote field site with basic amenities.
  Fluency in French and English. Kiswahili is a plus.