Team Leader, Australia Awards South-Asia & Mongolia

Team Leader, Australia Awards South-Asia & Mongolia

We are searching for an experienced Team Leader, Australia Awards South-Asia & Mongolia at our Colombo facility.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

Purpose of Position

The
Team Leader at AASAM leads the delivery of all aspects of the AASAM program,
including strategic oversight of program objectives, team activities, program
delivery, and engagement with program partners. This role involves ensuring the
program remains innovative, adaptable, and capable of delivering high-quality,
cost-effective development outcomes in accordance with the client Head Contract.
The Team Leader is responsible for developing close relationships with donors, developing
and implementing program strategies, maintaining technical rigor, and enabling
a high-performance, collaborative culture. Additionally, the Team Leader
oversees budgeting, monitoring, and risk management, while translating client
objectives into effective actions. The role also includes overseeing Palladium's
intelligence gathering, learning, and communications to enhance the program's
reputation among stakeholders.

Australia Awards - South Asia and
Mongolia is managed by the Australian Government's Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and is administered by Scope Global Pty Ltd (a wholly
owned entity of Palladium International Pty Ltd). It is a multi-country program
with service delivery offices in Colombo, Dhaka, Islamabad, Kathmandu,Thimphu
and Ulaanbaatar. Leadership, coordination, and support are provided by a
regional team based in a range of locations in the South Asia region as well as
in Scope Global's Offices in Adelaide and Brisbane.

Australia Awards are provided to
build the skills and knowledge of individuals so that they can contribute to
their country's development, and to support the ongoing development of links
between Australia and the countries to which it provides development
assistance. The Australia Awards are an important part of the Australian
Government's focus on public and economic diplomacy, and provide long term
Scholarships, Short Courses and other training opportunities. The Team Leader
manages the entirety of Australia Awards South Asia and Mongolia, working
closely with DFAT Canberra and the DFAT posts in program countries.

The Team Leader oversees all Program
Country Offices and has overall management responsibility for all Program
staff. This position is based at the Regional Hub in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Frequent travel to other program locations will be an essential part of the
role.

Primary Responsibilities

The primary responsibilities of the Team Leader can be
broadly described as follows:

Effective strategic leadership and relationship
management

• Provide strategic and operational management of all aspects of the program
• Provide strategic and technical direction to staff, and strategic and technical advice to DFAT as required, including on the selection, design and implementation of all program modalities
• Participate in, or lead (when directed to do so) strategic engagement with partners
• Participate in all key discussions with DFAT and respond to all requests for information in a timely fashion
• Develop and maintain productive working relationships with DFAT, program stakeholders, and within the contractor team

Effective Program
Management

• Ensure successful delivery of services, and ensure those services are consistently of high quality
• Oversee the ongoing development and implementation of program planning and management systems, monitoring and evaluation, alumni engagement and communication and stakeholder relationships
• Ensure on-time delivery of all required program outputs to a high quality standard
• Oversee the establishment and operation of all program offices with all necessary staff and operational resources

Effective team
leadership and development

• Lead all program staff in the active pursuit of social inclusion, equity and ethical standards including attention to gender, disability, child protection, anti-corruption and participation
• Take responsibility for the performance and management of all program staff, providing particular mentoring and support to Country Program Managers to enhance and develop their skills by implementing, development, coaching and mentoring practices and by assigning each Country Program Manager senior responsibility as program-wide practice leader in a designated area

Effective team
performance

• Promote of a positive program and AASAM team culture
• Contribute to continuous improvement in service delivery and program performance
• Maintain a general understanding of other Programs and Projects at Palladium and identify areas for networking and collaboration
• Work with a collaborative and team based approach

Quality and Legislative
Compliance

• Comply with DFAT and Palladium policies, procedures, practices and quality systems
• Comply with role specific policies and procedures
• Ensure role specific procedures and all relevant documentation are kept current and available on SharePoint

Other

• Travel locally and internationally, as required.
• Advocate for Palladium and Australian development priorities
• Comply with, and advocate for, DFAT's policies in all aspects of implementation, including gender, disability, fraud and anti-corruption, PSEAH, child protection and environmental and social safeguards. This includes incorporating policy principles into planning and everyday work, promoting process improvements, and reporting concerns to your Line Manager or Palladium's Integrity Hotline (details on Palladium website).
• Operate with high levels of integrity, consistent with the intent of DFAT's Ethics, Integrity and Professional Standards Policy Manual.

Minimum Education and Experience Required

• 10 years or more experience in strategic leadership and senior management of international development programs, ideally relating to scholarships, capacity building or training;
• Demonstrated skills in effective communication and collaboration with stakeholders from many different perspectives, including DFAT and partner governments.
• Demonstrated capacity to manage staff and build teams across multiple locations, cultures and language groups, working respectfully and in a way that builds staff capacity, commitment, ownership and performance;
• Proven capacity to develop, manage and oversee significant budgets;
• Ability to adapt and respond to changing circumstances;
• Demonstrated understanding of development and developing country contexts;
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to negotiate with a variety of different people and to communicate complex issues in plain language;
• Proven ability to live and work effectively in cross-cultural contexts;
• High ethical standards and a commitment to demonstrating integrity and professionalism;
• Relevant tertiary qualifications.

Desired
1. Experience living and working in South Asia
2. Relevant language skill

Closing date: Saturday 24 January 2026, 11.59pm AEDT

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion - Palladium is committed to embedding equity, diversity, and inclusion into everything we do. We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity and expression, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.

Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or for any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com and we will be in touch to discuss.

Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as "the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm". We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.