Senior Project Manager – Process and System Transformation at Save the Children

Role Purpose:

Save the Children is evolving its organisational structure in order to stay true to its mission, vision and values, whilst being able to withstand external pressures – be those geo-political demands; increasing stakeholder expectations; challenging funding environments; reduced access to funding due to localisation; or declining trust in large INGOs.

The Senior Project Manager is a critical role that will report to the Director of Project and Change Delivery and will be accountable for ensuring effective development, ongoing maintenance and delivery of the Project Plan including aligning with key stakeholders and SME from across the movement to ensure they understand their responsibilities and are held accountable for delivery. In addition to managing the plan, the Senior Project Manager will be accountable for coordinating the preparation and setup of key governance groups including senior level stakeholders, identifying and managing project risks and issues, engaging with the PMO and ensuring all reporting requirements are effectively managed including dependencies and status updates as well as leading the effort to progress the project through the required stage gates in line with the processes and templates defined. It will be critical to ensure that the Senior Project Manager can effectively manage relationships across the team and with external stakeholders aligning with the Project Lifecycle and ensuring a focus on Continuous Improvement. In this role the successful candidate will need to have experience leading projects that involve making changes to processes and systems in order to adapt to changing external factors.

The first challenge of the successful candidate will be to complete a feasibility to determine the scale of change required and the team needed to deliver the change identified.

To be successful, the Senior Project Manager should be open to rolling up their sleeves to really understand the complexities of our organisation and the project itself and be willing to step in to manage issues through to resolution, diving into the content to identify options and ensure the required interventions are completed. Prior experience in delivery of global transformation initiatives is therefore essential for candidates applying for this role, in either the INGO sector or the private sector.

On occasions if the situation requires it, the role holder will be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS

Essential

• An extensive track record of successfully managing large and complex projects and programmes that include system and process change
• Strong interpersonal skills, including the ability to negotiate/mediate; to facilitate the resolution of conflicting business requirements
• Excellent understanding of business complexity and project interdependencies
• Ability to agree on Functional Workstream and Change Management priorities, in line with the plan
• Cultural awareness and experience of delivering solutions internationally
• Highly developed organisational awareness and ability to understand any sensitivities within a complex multi-stakeholder structure; and think creatively and strategically to overcome obstacles to cooperation and progress
• Demonstrable experience and in-depth knowledge of programme and project practices and standards
• Experience in solving complex issues through analysis, definition of a clear way forward and ensuring buy in
• A proven ability to deliver projects on time / on budget, using project management processes and tools including risk management, benefits management, financial management and quality assurance
• Strong team leadership abilities with the ability to motivate and mobilise individuals outside their reporting line
• Able to demonstrate instances of initiative that have delivered organisational benefits
• Team player, with a full appreciation of the value of collaboration

Desirable

• Ability to speak one of the additional Save the Children core languages including French, Spanish and Arabic