Country: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Closing date: 19 Feb 2017
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE
Project Manager – Social Protection / Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium
Fixed-term contract until 31 December 2018
Salary: £32,926 - £39,306 per annum
Location: London
REF: SLRC/01/17
The UK’s leading independent think tank on international development and humanitarian issues.
About us
ODI (www.odi.org.uk) aims to inspire and inform policy and practice to reduce poverty by locking together high-quality applied research and practical policy advice.
We are looking for an experienced and highly organised Project Manager to join the Social Protection Programme and the Secure Livelihoods Research Consortium (SLRC).
SLRC is a multi-donor, multi-country research programme consortia, led by ODI and running from 2011 to 2018. SLRC is exploring how people make a living, how they educate their children and how they stay healthy in a range of fragile and conflict-affected countries. It provides decision makers with an evidence base to make informed policy and programming decisions that can improve development outcomes for all in conflict-affected countries. Further information about the project can be found on the SLRC Project Site.
The Project Manager will be responsible for the day-to-day management of the project, and will play a key role in delivering arrangements for project implementation. They will ensure the smooth management of work plans, budgets, reporting and external partnerships. This will include maintaining and developing management tools for tracking project objectives and supporting the Project Research Director and associated team in the delivery of project outputs and outcomes.
Other key responsibilities include:
Financial management and reporting: tracking and coordinating financial information flows; managing quarterly expenditure tracking and invoicing to tight donor deadlines, and ensuring compliance with the donor’s Financial Principles, value for money and key performance indicators.
Governance: designing and managing the reporting process; responsibility for ensuring regular reporting on performance and compliance to the funder is delivered according to an agreed timetable.
Planning and performance support: providing guidance and support to project teams within ODI for planning, delivery and reporting; co-ordinating with key internal support teams; maintaining an overview of output delivery and flagging any risks to the Head of Programme.
Strategic communications and knowledge management: coordinating the development and functioning of internal and external communications systems, networks, intranet, website, etc. to ensure strong internal and external relationships for the project; managing activities and supporting teams to promote project output dissemination and uptake, with input from colleagues in the Communications team.
Partnerships and external relations: working with the team on formalising key partnerships and relationships for project implementation; facilitating external relations with relevant stakeholders; convening high-level project and stakeholder meetings as required.
As necessary, manage all business development processes: identification of new opportunities/donors; securing additional funding; leading the process of the preparation of bids and proposals; developing budgets and tailoring technical documentation.
About you
- Masters’ degree in a relevant discipline.
· Significant programme management experience and proven ability to manage multiple project-level inputs within a high-level programme framework.
· A strong track record of reporting on complex donor-funded (e.g. multi-sector or multi-country) projects or programmes, monitoring performance standards through task-management structures, and delivering convincing and quality reports.
· Extensive budget administration and reporting experience, ideally including devolved budgets.
· Proven track record of effective co-ordination with key internal support functions, in support of project/programme output planning, delivery, reporting and dissemination.
· Excellent time management skills and proven ability to organise inputs from other individuals and teams in order to meet key project or programme deadlines.
- Substantial experience of managing staff to tight deadlines in a team environment.
· Demonstrable ability to form strong and productive working relationships with external stakeholders and partners for learning and knowledge sharing.
· Proven ability to influence and negotiate with staff and stakeholders in relation to project and programme management and delivery, often without direct authority.
· Ability to anticipate and manage risk and take active steps to mitigate them, and act quickly to deal with emerging challenges.
· Ability to manage and develop financial information systems to support timely donor reporting and business planning.
· Ability to work on own initiative with minimum supervision.
· Ability to maintain a high-level overview of programme performance and progress, and provide more hands-on support to project teams if necessary.
· Excellent attention to detail, especially in ensuring consistency across multiple reports and project documents.
- Advanced IT skills including Excel, Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and databases.
· Knowledge and understanding of development issues and a personal commitment to international development and poverty reduction would be desirable.
- Experience working in a developing country or with developing country partner organisations is desirable.
Closing date: 19th February 2017
Interview Date: w/c 27th February 2017
ODI is an equal opportunities employer Charity Reg. No.228248
How to apply:
For more information, please download an application pack from our website at [www.odi.org.uk/jobs](http://www.odi.org.uk/jobs](http://www.odi.org.uk/jobs)**). If you are experiencing difficulties downloading, please telephone (0)20 3327 7290 or email recruitment@odi.org.uk.**