Senior Manager, Institutional Project Management at African Wildlife Foundation

Position Summary

• This newly established role provides strategic and operational leadership for AWF’s institutional project management function, embedding standardized project governance, lifecycle management, portfolio oversight, risk management, and delivery assurance across complex multi-country, departmental initiatives, programmes and donor-funded initiatives. The role is responsible for strengthening project governance, portfolio management, project delivery assurance, risk oversight, executive reporting, and organizational project management capability development.
• Working collaboratively across the organization, the jobholder will oversee institutional project and portfolio management to ensure projects are governed, planned, executed, monitored, evaluated, and closed in accordance with internationally recognized standards and methodologies, including PMBOK (PMI),  PRINCE2 governance and stage-gate principles, and PMD Pro/Project DPro approaches for development programming.
• The jobholder will foster a culture of accountability, risk-informed decision-making, cross-functional collaboration, and continuous improvement to maximize organizational impact and project delivery performance.

Key Responsibilities

Institutional Portfolio Management and Governance

• Manage AWF’s project and portfolio management across AWF in alignment with organizational strategy and approved governance standards.
• Provide leadership in all institutional project portfolio, including tracking project status, delivery performance, budget utilization, schedule adherence, dependencies, risks, and escalations.
• Support portfolio prioritization and resource allocation processes based on strategic alignment, delivery feasibility, organizational capacity, and risk exposure.
• Escalate critical project risks, delays, governance issues, and delivery constraints to senior leadership.
• Support development of Board-level project and portfolio reporting.
• Ensure project governance structures, reporting lines, and decision rights are clearly defined across projects and programmes.

Project Lifecycle and Delivery Management

• Ensure all projects comply with AWF’s approved project lifecycle methodology and governance framework.
• Lead the design of standard project management processes, including Project initiation, planning, and close-outs.
• Lead stage gate quality assurance reviews for high-risk and strategic projects.
• Ensure project scope, timelines, budgets, risks, assumptions, dependencies, and deliverables are properly managed and documented.
• Support project teams in the development of project charters, workplans, risk registers, change requests, and close-out reports.
• Promote structured adaptive management and evidence-based delivery adjustments.

Project Management Standards

• Maintain and continuously improve AWF’s Institutional project management framework, standards, templates, and governance tools.
•  Standardize project management practices across landscapes, programmes, and functions.
•  Establish consistent reporting, documentation, and project control practices.
• Ensure compliance with donor, organizational, and governance requirements relevant to project delivery.
• Maintain AWF’s institutional project management repository.
• Support implementation and adoption of Institutional Project Management systems and tools.

Risk, Issue, and Performance Management

• Establish and monitor Institutional Project risk management processes.
• Ensure project risks, issues, dependencies, and mitigation actions are regularly reviewed and escalated appropriately.
• Monitor project performance indicators and delivery trends across the portfolio.
• Support corrective action planning for underperforming projects.

Stakeholder and Cross-Functional Coordination

• Support coordination of strategic and AWF’s wide transformation initiatives.
• Ensure effective communication and stakeholder engagement across complex multi-country projects.
• Act as a senior advisor to project teams and leadership on project governance and delivery management.

Capability Building and Organizational Project Management Maturity

• Lead organizational Project Management capability development initiatives.
• Support implementation of Project Management competency frameworks and professional development pathways.
• Coordinate Project Management training, coaching, mentoring, and communities of practice.
• Promote adoption of standard project management methodologies and governance practices.

Key Qualifications

Education

• Master’s degree in Project Management, Business Administration, Public Administration, International Development,  or related discipline.
• Project Management Certifications, e.g., Project Management Professional (PMP) or PRINCE2 Practitioner.

Experience

• Minimum 8–10 years’ progressive experience in project, programme, or portfolio management.
• Minimum 4 years in a senior Project Management Office (PMO), programme management, or Institutional project governance role.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex multi-country donor-funded programmes.
• Experience implementing Institutional project management frameworks, governance systems, and PMO structures.
• Strong experience in project governance, lifecycle management, risk management, and delivery assurance.
• Strong experience working with multiple stakeholders in a culturally diverse environment.

Others

• Strong systems thinker.
• Ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Fluency in English. Knowledge of French is desired.
• An effective collaborator with strong interpersonal skills.