Main purpose of job:

The British Office Sudan (BOS) is looking to recruit capable, motivated, and experienced Programme Officer to join the Operational Excellence Team to 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:

In this role, the Programme Officer will support the management of a team’s portfolio, lead the management of less complex interventions and/or support a Programme Manager on more complex programme. 

Key responsibilities include:

1. Support the management for the programmes/projects you are responsible for. As a Programme Officer, you will be responsible for the day-to-day management of a particular project, proactively driving delivery whilst ensuring compliance with UK Government rules (including the Programme Operating Framework). You will put in place robust systems for managing this within the team, including maintaining a clear and comprehensive delivery plan, keeping information on the Aid Management Platform up to date, and organising regular programme meetings. Depending on the stage of the programme, you may be involved in programme design and mobilisation including procurement processes to secure implementing partners.
2. Delivering robust financial management of programmes to ensure spending limits are adhered to, variances are minimised and value for money is achieved. You will proactively manage accurate financial forecasting over the year and profiling for outer years, ensure 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.
3. Proactively managing risk (including fiduciary risk) of programmes. You will engage constructively with partners and the FCDO’s Programme Responsible Owner 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 conduct due diligence assessments when required to review partners’ systems, identify areas for improvement and then ensure these are addressed. By maintaining an up to date delivery chain map you will ensure we have clarity on exactly where UK aid funds are going, and the key risks in the delivery chain. You will ensure the UK’s zero tolerance approach to fraud and corruption is effectively implemented for your programme.
4. 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.
5. Support wider team and / or cross office priorities as required. This may include supporting the Senior Programme Manager / Team Leader on management of the team portfolio. You will have the opportunity to  support cross office working including participating in policy discussions, assisting with communications briefings, Parliamentary Questions, Ministerial visits and corporate returns. You will be encouraged to participate in cross-office forums like the Learning & Development Committee or the Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
   

• Excellent verbal and written English.
• Experience of managing projects / programmes with a focus on delivering results.
• Proven financial management capabilities.
• Proven experience of challenging stakeholders on a range of issues and holding them to account.
• Ability to take initiative and manage own workload.
• Experience of working at pace under the pressure of tight deadlines.
• Strong organisational skills, flexibility and capability to work on a broad range of topics simultaneously.
• Strong IT capability including MS Excel and Word.