English & School Education Senior Project Manager at British Council

Role Purpose

• This role provides project management expertise to the English and School Education portfolio of contracts and programmes. The postholder contributes to business development and quality, compliant delivery of programmes and contracts across the portfolio. They also actively share knowledge, expertise and best practice from their country’s operation with the global English and School Education team and externally.

Role Accountabilities

Strategy and Planning

• Drive business planning and performance discussions through insightful analysis, progress tracking, and continuous improvement. Contribute to compelling impact narratives that showcase outcomes and align programme delivery with organisational priorities and strategic goals.

Leadership and Management

• Provide direction for the effective delivery of projects and programmes, fostering collaboration, accountability, and high performance. Champion the integration of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles, ensuring inclusive approaches are embedded throughout programme design and delivery.

Relationship and Stakeholder Management

• Develop and maintain strong relationships with partners, clients, stakeholders, and delivery organisations to support successful collaboration and programme outcomes. Strengthen networks across local and global communities, encouraging knowledge sharing, innovation, and collective impact.

Commercial and Financial Management

• Oversee budgets, expenditure, forecasting, and reporting to ensure effective use of resources and strong financial performance. Support informed decision-making through robust financial analysis, risk management, and continuous monitoring of opportunities and challenges.

Programme Management

• Lead the planning, implementation, and oversight of programmes, ensuring compliance, quality, and effective risk management. Strengthen programme performance through data-driven decision-making, monitoring and evaluation, learning, reporting, procurement, and stakeholder engagement. Foster continuous improvement by capturing lessons learned and applying insights to future programme design and delivery.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

• Promote equity, inclusion, and anti-racism in every aspect of programme delivery and team engagement. Create environments where individuals feel valued, respected, and supported, while actively advancing wellbeing, belonging, and continuous learning across the organisation.

Qualifications and Work Experience

Qualifications

Essential:

• First degree in related field

Professional qualification and certification

Essential:

• Foundational level Project Management qualification (in-house training or evidence of CPD in this area could be considered)

Desirable

• Qualification in monitoring, evaluation and learning

Work Experience

Essentials:

• Experience of managing multi country or large in-country programmes that have met project closure and audit standards.
• Knowledge and/or experience of working with at least two types of funding sources within a structured compliance regime.
• Experience of client management, partner management and/or contract management.
• Experience of managing a wide range of stakeholders. 
• Experience in spotting risk in a project or programme and putting together successful risk mitigation with SRO.
• Understanding of MEL principles.
• Experience of conducting lessons learned reviews/After action reviews to inform future programme design and management.

Desirable:

• Experience of managing dispersed teams