Senior Project Manager at Ona

Purpose

We are seeking a Senior Project Manager to help build and implement technology solutions with and for our partners. You will work with high-profile partners around the world to solve complex problems in challenging environments. 

You must be able to understand and prioritize between the needs of project stakeholders ranging from implementing partners to donors to ministry officials to frontline workers and communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical teams. The job is exciting, fast-paced, and ideal for someone who loves solving problems. 

This position is open to both those based in Nairobi, Kenya and will report to the Director of Delivery. 

Key role and responsibilities

• Manage and coordinate delivery of projects end-to-end to ensure deliverables are met on time and on budget. Create implementation plans, break down high-level deliverables into concrete tasks, and oversee timely execution of the plan by the project team. 
• Manage relationships and expectations with partners, funders, and clients. Proactively and clearly communicate expectations and requests with both external and internal teams. Hold kick-off calls with clients as well as internal project teams. 
• Gather and document high-level client requirements. Coordinate internal team members to design and deliver a solution to meet client needs and project objectives. Collaborate with partners to develop logical workflows and data dictionaries, define monitoring indicators, and identify edge cases. 
• Create and maintain project plans with clear timelines and a breakdown of deliverables into concrete tasks with assigned owners. Proactively anticipate, document, mitigate, and escalate project risks.  
• Secure internal resources to form project teams and approve team members’ timesheet allocations to your assigned projects. Lead all coordination, communication, documentation, and follow-up throughout the inception/planning, development, and support/maintenance phases of projects.
• Review project budgets to ensure accuracy and monitor project costs throughout the project lifecycle. Coordinate with the finance team to send invoices according to payment schedules. Escalate variances between budget and actuals to the Director of Delivery. 
• Support the QA process internally and work with clients to conduct User Acceptability Testing (UAT) and gather feedback. Share feedback with product teams and create detailed issues/tickets on GitHub as appropriate. 
• Facilitate training sessions to build the capacity of partners on how to use Ona’s digital health solutions. 
• Write narrative progress reports for funders and assist in preparing expense report narratives. 
• Support on various business development initiatives as needed, such as providing input on proposals, demonstrating our products and solutions to prospective clients, and participating in the growing community of OpenSRP implementers, developers, and researchers. 
• Potential for travel 10-20%, depending on client need. 

Key requirements 

Essential 

• Experienced technology project manager. Minimum of 6 years of experience in project management, with at least 3 years of experience in a technology company. University degree in project management, computer science, public health, international development, health informatics, or related field. Ability to translate high-level goals into detailed implementation plans and lead execution with a team to deliver impact. 
• Strategic problem solver. Strong analytical thinking skills and initiative to anticipate, mitigate, and escalate risks. Enjoys tackling challenges and sees problems as opportunities for growth and learning. Ability to manage competing priorities and balance key project constraints of scope, budget, and timeline. 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Skilled in stakeholder management and communication, both internally and externally. Tailors communication to the perspectives of different stakeholders and presents information at the appropriate level of detail for the intended audience. Strong negotiation skills and ability to mediate conflicts between parties. 
• Team player and team leader. Mission-driven and impact-focused leader with great interpersonal skills. Able to motivate teams, provide context, and build a sense of collective ownership for achieving shared goals. Understands that the collective success of the company can, at times, be more important than the success of a simple project. Recognizes and showcases team members’ achievements to elevate morale, e.g. through brown bags and retrospective meetings. Has a growth mindset; receives and requests feedback to promote learning and continuous improvement. 
• Exceptional attention to detail and organizational skills. Systematic and efficient documentation of project-related information. Excellent preparation and agenda setting before meetings to maintain continuous progress towards deliverables and ensure issues are closed. Organizes task assignments based on priority and dependencies. Proactively keeps stakeholders updated on progress and flags risks early on. Willingness to follow established project management processes and procedures as well as offer suggestions for improvement. 

Desirable 

• Degree in computer science and knowledge of software architecture and API development. Prior experience working in the global development sector with multinational teams. Knowledge of or experience implementing digital health tools such as OpenSRP, DHIS2, OpenMRS, etc. Familiarity with health standards (e.g. FHIR, HL7).
• Fluency in French. Experience giving presentations and conducting training sessions for diverse audiences, from high-level government officials to frontline health workers. 
• Experience with technical project management, documentation, and communication tools such as GitHub, Slack, Google Suite, and Avaza.