Senior Programme Manager – British Office Sudan (25/24 ADD)

Main purpose of job:

The British Office Sudan (BOS), based in Addis Ababa, are looking to recruit capable, motivated, and experienced individuals to join the Programme Hub to lead and support delivery of our development and humanitarian programmes. This is a fantastic opportunity to ensure our programmes deliver results for Sudanese people through excellence in programme, financial, risk and commercial management. The post requires the ability to build trusted and influential relationships with suppliers and partners to deliver effectively. In all cases, the role will include managing the programme cycle, risk, finances, engaging with implementing partners, driving forward implementation, and ensuring programmatic compliance. The postholder will be working closely with a range of delivery partners including multilaterals, international and Sudanese NGOs, and private sector suppliers.

Roles and responsibilities:

As Senior Programme Manager, you will oversee the management of a team’s portfolio as well as leading the programme management of complex and/or high value programmes. You will have excellent understanding of the FCDO Programme Operating Framework, provide advice to colleagues on programmatic issues and lead on compliance and financial management for the programmes which they manage.

Key responsibilities include:

1. Programme Leadership – Lead the delivery of the development and humanitarian programmes. As a Senior Programme Manager, you will be a reliable source of leadership within the programme hub, not only responsible for the day-to-day management of specific programmes, but also providing expert advice and leadership to other members of the team, to ensure the team’s compliance to UK Government rules. You will put in place robust systems for managing this within the team and depending on the programme, lead on programme design, mobilisation and if required, act as a Programme Responsible Owner (PRO).
2. Establishing and maintaining strong relationships with our implementing partners to ensure our programmes deliver the intended results and that we maximise our impact. You will be required to have a strong understanding of the requirements of partners set out in our contracts or grant agreements and use these to manage and incentivise strong performance from partners, as well as compliance with UK rules and standards.
3. Delivering robust financial management of programmes by working alongside Programme Managers and Officers to ensure spending limits are adhered to, variances are minimised and value for money is achieved. You will play an important oversight role to ensure the team proactively manages accurate financial forecasting over the year and profiling for outer years, ensures timely payment of invoices, and robust scrutiny and follow up of financial reports and annual audited statements. You will work closely with partners to understand risks to spend, explain UK requirements and challenge poor financial performance.
4. Proactively managing risk (including fiduciary risk) of programmes. You will engage constructively with partners and the FCDO PRO to ensure we identify the key risks to programme delivery, discuss these regularly and respond promptly and effectively to mitigate risks, including escalating these to senior management when required. You will ensure the UK’s zero tolerance approach to fraud and corruption is effectively implemented for your programme.
5. Strengthening programme management capacity in your team and the wider British Office Sudan. This will involve working with the Head of the Programme Hub on capability-building, participating in cross-office forums like the Portfolio Board, sharing lesson learning across the office, and contributing ideas on how to improve programme delivery. You may also have line management responsibilities of Programme Managers and Programme Officers.

Resources managed: 

As part of this role, the postholder is expected to have line-management responsibilities of HEO Programme Managers, alongside be the quality assurer for EO Programme Officers within British Office Sudan.

• A strong and credible leader, who will able to deliver through others
• A strong understanding of Programme and Project management (PPM) processes, procedures and best practice;
• The resilience to manage multiple projects/programmes concurrently, with the ability to take the initiative and manage own workload.
• Proven financial and risk management knowledge, to support effective programme delivery.
• Ability to work with a range of stakeholders, both internal and external, and challenge implementing partners when required.
• Effective line-management and commitment to personal development of team-members to build capability within the programme delivery profession.