Senior Project Manager

Division

BBC Media Action

Reports to (title)

Deputy Country Director – Somaliland/Somalia

Location base

Hargeisa, Somaliland

Organisation structure

The BBC Media Action office in Somalia is looking for a Senior Project Manager to provide overall leadership of the management and delivery of our donor funded projects. Reporting to the Deputy Country Director, Somaliland/Somalia, the Senior Project Manager will be responsible for ensuring that our projects are delivered on time, on budget and to high quality. The role will be based in our Hargeisa office.

The role requires a high degree of personal resilience and a flexible approach to implementing development projects in a highly challenging, resource-poor context. It requires excellent people management skills and the successful candidate will be responsible for developing, and mentoring more junior team members**.**

This role is open to candidates with existing right to work in Somaliland as well as East African nationals, and will be on local salary terms and conditions.

Additional job specific responsibilities and accountabilities

Context

BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development charity, which uses media and communications to help reduce poverty, address development goals, and support people to understand their rights. We do this through partnering with media, civil society and others to produce creative programmes and other outputs which inform and engage audiences on key development issues. We also strengthen the media sector through building professional capacity and infrastructure of local media organisations in the countries in which we work.

BBC Media Action delivers a portfolio of projects in Somalia. It seeks to expand this portfolio of work, but also to ensure that existing projects are delivered on time, on budget, to the highest standards and in accordance with BBC editorial values as well as Media Action methodologies.

Overall Purpose of Job

This exciting and influential role will be responsible for the overall management and delivery of a range of development projects which use the power of media to tackle issues of humanitarian accountability, resilience and media development. The Senior Project Manager will oversee a diverse, multidisciplinary team to ensure the agreed targets and objectives are met; and will ensure the quality and cohesion of project outputs. Maintaining relationships with donors and ensuring accurate and timely financial and narrative donor reporting will be a key part of the role, as will identifying further funding opportunities related to meeting development priorities in Somalia and taking the lead on writing successful proposals.

The Senior Project Manager will be responsible for overseeing the overall delivery and budget management of projects, and for reporting on progress to the Deputy Country Director, partners and donors. Upon request of the Deputy Country Director, the Senior Project Manager will represent Media Action in country to key stakeholders and will ensure effective relationships and partnerships with a wide range of partners including broadcasters, NGOs, international development agencies and others.

BBC Media Action works to ensure that everyone we work with remains safe during their time with us. The Senior Project Manager will support the Deputy Country Director in ensuring that safeguarding is factored into project design and budgeting, staff and freelancers receive relevant safeguarding training, and relevant safeguarding due diligence is conducted with any local partner organisations that may be working with vulnerable adults or children as part of our projects.

The role reports to the Deputy Country Director Somalia and will work closely with the Country Director Kenya/Somalia (based in Nairobi).

Main duties and responsibilities

• Reporting to the Deputy Country Director, take responsibility for overseeing the planning and implementation of country projects and activities.
• Manage project budgets and ensure the delivery of the outputs is in accordance with that budget and in line with Media Action’s financial procedures and the funder’s operating guidelines.
• Manage a diverse team, of project managers, researchers and project officers, supporting them to build their capacity and develop their skills so they can make an effective contribution to planned activities.
• Ensure the design and implementation of project activities adhere to workplan and log frame commitments and remain in line with BBC editorial standards and values and BBC Media Action’s best practice. The Senior Project Manager will be involved in the development of media content insofar as ensuring it links to the project ‘theory of change’ and intended development outcomes.
• Foster a collaborative environment with other senior staff members. Demonstrate conflict resolution skills where necessary. Be able to disagree constructively and work through differences to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
• Safeguarding responsibility for staff, volunteers, partners, and contributors. The role has responsibility for ensuring that all project activities comply with BBC Media Action and donor standards around safeguarding of children and vulnerable adults. The role requires detailed knowledge and expertise of safeguarding policy and best practice.
• Support the Deputy Country Director and other team members in the delivery of relevant safeguarding training to all staff and freelancers contracted directly by the office.
• Ensure that relevant safeguarding due diligence is conducted with any local partner organisations that may be working with vulnerable adults or children as part of the project. Where any risks are identified, ensure that projects are designed to mitigate these risks.
• Lead the reporting process, both internally to BBC Media Action and externally to partners, the donor(s), and other interested parties.
• Work closely with the Research team in the design and coordination of monitoring and evaluation activities and regular review and feedback sessions, and, adjust project delivery as necessary based on research and feedback findings.
• Develop good working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders including donors, local broadcasters, and relevant NGOs and CSOs.
• Play an active role in the development of specific new business development activities, such as seeking opportunities through networking, leading the development of new proposals or working as part of a global team responding to international and sub-regional funding opportunities.
• Work with the other BBC Media Action staff in Somalia and elsewhere to identify training priorities linked to the needs of staff, including greater development of in-house capacity, and to ensure that training meets Media Action’s high standards.
• Serve as a senior member of the team in Somalia, with the ability to support the Deputy Country Director and deputise as Acting Deputy Country Director as needed.

Essential skills and experience

• Considerable experience developing and managing large-scale, donor-funded projects in a developing-country context, preferably in Africa.
• Proven ability to develop and secure new donor-funded international development projects, including ability to develop new business ideas and present these persuasively to potential partners and funders. Proven experience writing successful donor-funded proposals that incorporate project research and development, log frames, budgets, etc.
• Strong financial management skills, with proven experience managing complex medium to large budgets for donor-funded international development projects and knowledge of the reporting requirements of donors.
• Excellent interpersonal skills – the ability to develop and maintain professional relationships with a range of colleagues and partners. Navigate interpersonal challenges and disagreements constructively, building trust and ensuring team cohesion.
• Experience managing teams, preferably within a developing-country context, and developing and improving internal management systems and processes. Experience mentoring and coaching staff to foster the growth and development of team members, empowering them to reach their full potential and take on greater responsibilities.
• Proven ability to forge strong working relations quickly and gain the trust of local partners and counterparts (such as other NGOs, local media, donors and other stakeholders).
• Demonstrable editorial judgement skills and understanding of BBC editorial values, or demonstrable potential to acquire strong editorial skills in order to help make sensitive editorial judgements at a senior level.
• Risk Management: Ability to proactively identify potential threats and implement robust mitigation strategies, minimizing impact on project outcomes.
• Confident public speaker with experience of presentations to colleagues, donors and stakeholders.
• Good judgment and decision-making skills, including the ability to adapt, react and respond to crises, and to evaluate risk.
• Experience working on own initiative and organising time effectively within a range of often conflicting deadlines and demands.
• Excellent written and spoken English and Somali (preferred).
• Ability to embrace change and ambiguity, adjust plans and strategies in response to unforeseen circumstances.
• Ability to leverage data-driven insights to track progress, optimize performance, and make informed decisions about resource allocation, budget adjustments, and risk mitigation.

Desirable skills and experiences

• Experience working in one of BBC Media Action’s key thematic areas in Somalia: humanitarian, peace and resilience, climate change, human rights or governance (particularly social/political inclusion and accountability).
• Experience of working in both the media/communications and development sectors.
• Experience in managing a portfolio of multiple, simultaneous complex projects.
• Experience of living and working in a post-conflict or fragile developing country.

Key competencies

• Managing relationships and team work: able to build and maintain effective working relationships with a range of people. Works co-operatively with others to be part of a team, as opposed to working separately or competitively. Values individual’s differences and demonstrates a commitment to knowledge sharing and informal learning, for the benefit of the team.
• Strategic thinking: Able to identify a vision and create plans for implementation of that vision to meet the end goal. Evaluates situations, decisions, and issues in the short, medium and long-term.
• Leadership: Ability to inspire others to realize an identified vision.
• Analytical Thinking: Able to simplify complex problems, processes or projects into component parts, explore and evaluate them systematically. Able to identify causal relationships, and construct frameworks for problem solving and/or development.
• Change Management: Able to understand and anticipate the need for change and to build frameworks for planning and managing the continuous process of change.
• Planning and Organization: Able to think ahead in order to establish an efficient and appropriate course of action for self and others; planning of activities taking into account all the relevant issues and factors such as deadlines, staffing and resources requirements.
• Resilience: Can maintain personal effectiveness by managing own emotions in the face of pressure, setbacks or when dealing with provocative situations. Can demonstrate an approach to work that is characterized by commitment, motivation and energy.
• Decision Making: Able to take the initiative, originate action and be responsible for the consequences of the decision made.
• Program Management: Manage complex portfolios of interrelated projects, efficiently allocating resources and ensuring coordinated execution.