Program Management Associate - Spring 2025

The Kaizen Company (Kaizen) is an international development consulting firm and an incubator for innovative, scalable solutions that address emerging market challenges and opportunities. We aspire to transform the nature and impact of international development and work to strengthen organizations and institutions through innovative approaches to organizational development, reform, and change. Kaizen is currently seeking undergraduate and graduate students to join our dynamic team as Associates (interns) for Spring 2025. Associates are given the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to all aspects of Kaizen’s work and seamlessly integrate in our collegial culture. Kaizen Associates are important members of our teams with room to grow in an initiative-driven workspace. 
 
This internship is best suited for undergraduate or graduate students interested in entering the field of international development. The Kaizen Company will compensate the Associate based on DC minimum wage hourly rate of $17.50. It is expected that the selected Associate will work a minimum of 20 hours per week in the Spring, beginning on or about January 21st – April 25th, 2025. Associates will have the opportunity to work remotely, from any virtual location with reliable internet. 
 
The Ideal Candidate 

• Is currently enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate program (required). 

• Is an entrepreneurial self-starter and works well without excessive supervision. 

• Has previous professional experience, ideally working in consulting, management, organizational reform, research, or international development. 

• Is interested in entering the field of international development. 

• Has strong research skills. 

• Has strong attention to detail. 

• Can prioritize and manage competing deadlines in a fast-paced environment. 

• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. 

Responsibilities 

• Engage with approaches to complex international development issues. 

• Provide administrative, financial, and logistical support to Kaizen’s USAID and Department of State-funded programs. 

• Gain practical understandings of business development processes through participation in many aspects of proposal development for new projects, including recruitment, compliance management, technical project design, and budgeting. 

• Contribute to the research and development of new and innovative service offerings. 

• Learn the basic principles of donor project management through on-the-job and formal training related to Kaizen’s contracts funded by USAID, the Department of State, and other clients. 

• Apply and test strategic thinking to the development of systems and processes in a rapidly growing company. 

• Support corporate strategic objectives and participate in thematic working groups. 

Duties 

• Support monthly invoicing and documentation, adhering to FAR, AIDAR, and company standards. 

• Review and copyedit project deliverables to ensure suitability for submission to the client. 

• Support recruitment efforts, including short listing, screening, and evaluating candidates for hire. 

• Participate, and sometimes lead, meetings with project teams. 

• Support and ensure compliance of procurement, including drafting Requests for Proposal, consultant agreements, and other contracts. 

If you are interested in this position and have most or all of the desired qualifications, please submit a CV and the names and contact information for 3 references (professional and/or academic).

For candidates applying for positions based in Kaizen's office in Washington, DC, we utilize career.place to mitigate bias in the recruitment process. Upon submitting an application, candidates will receive an email from career.place, prompting them to go through the anonymous screening. In order to be considered for a role, candidates must respond to career.place and proceed with the application. We do not currently use career.place for project positions outside of the United States.

At Kaizen, A Tetra Tech Company, we find strength in our diversity. We are committed to creating and sustaining an inclusive working environment in which everyone has an equal opportunity to fulfill their potential. We know that we can only do development differently if we are open to and inclusive of new and unique perspectives. We encourage candidates of all abilities, ages, gender identities and expressions, national origins, races and ethnicities, religious beliefs, and sexual orientations to apply. Further, we urge parents and non-parents, married and unmarried, those from different or non-traditional educational backgrounds, and persons of all other diverse identities or experiences to apply. Kaizen is an equal opportunity employer.