Back Project Manager

DAI’s Delivery Unit are seeking a Project Manager to join their busy Delivery team. The Project Manager (PM) will play a critical role in ensuring the smooth running of DAI’s projects and will be assigned to a portfolio of projects from within our delivery unit’s technical teams (Resilience, Economic Growth, and Social Development). This is a managerial role which oversees the smooth delivery and function of the project and requires problem-solving abilities, helping our project teams find solutions to challenges they encounter in delivering the project and ensuring quality technical inputs.

Our Project Managers are part of a wider Technical Portfolio and in addition to project management functions, contribute to developing new business opportunities, winning new work and providing technical inputs to projects and proposals. This contributes to the strategic development of DAI’s best practice tools and processes, enhancing our capability and our knowledge management.

The Project Management role is exciting and diverse. We are seeking candidates who excel at interpersonal relationships, commercial management, solving problems and identifying solutions, and managing a complex portfolio of diverse, high impact projects that fit within our mission.

Job Purpose and Summary: The Project Manager (PM) plays a critical role in ensuring the smooth running of DAI’s projects and will be assigned to a portfolio of projects within a technical team (Resilience, Economic Growth, and Social Development). This is a managerial role which oversees the smooth delivery and function of the project and requires problem-solving abilities, helping our project teams find solutions to challenges they encounter in delivering the project and ensuring quality technical inputs. The role provides quality assurance of project teams in-country and is central to DAI’s core value of excellence. The Project Manager is a member of the Project Management Team for each assigned project reporting to the relevant Project Director (PD). The PM works closely with the PD to retain an oversight of the project and review project progress, priorities and activities as needed. The PM provides advice and support to the PD for budget oversight, contracts, project performance and compliance and forecasts.

The PM interacts with the Client, Team Leader, project team, partner organisations, and colleagues in different DAI teams, and therefore needs to be able to adapt and to communicate appropriately depending on audience, context and the stage of the project lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Project Management: Assigned project manager for a portfolio of projects working within agreed projec t management plans to achieve specific goals; support identification and evaluation of risks, issues, dependencies, and constraints associated with the project and the design of mitigating solutions.
• Contract Management and Reporting: Support the delivery of project outcome s by coordinating activities of subcontractors and suppliers and acting as a primary point of contact for them within allocated projects. Collate information and draft project reports and presentations, including key information, commentar y, and recommendations to support the review process and enable stakeholders to evaluate progress and agree on changes.
• Resourc e and Budget Management: Manage the deployment of project resources, proactively managing project costs, providing forecasts, and presenting variances with narrative at appropriate review points to ensure e f fective utilisation;
• Clien t Management: Manage relationships with clients while also helping senior colleagues manage important client and partner relationships.
• New Business: contribute to new Business development through participation in preparation, design, research and writing for proposals within priority technical areas.
• Technical Delivery: As a member of a core Technical Team, contribute to technical learning, best practice and assignments.

Competencies

• Ensures Accountability: Holds self and others accountable to meet commitments; takes on challenges or difficult tasks and has reputation for delivering on commitments.
• Manages Complexity: Makes sense of complex, high quantity, and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems; explores issues to uncover underlying issues and root causes; able to consider consequences and implications of different options.
• Directs Work: Provides direction and removes obstacles to get work done; confirms accountabilities with others so that work can be done effectively and efficiently; informs stakeholders when there are delays or problems that will affect them.
• Action Oriented: Takes on opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, and enthusiasm; Consistently achieves results, even under tough circumstances.
• Financial Acumen : Interprets and applies key financial indicators to make better business decisions; makes generally appropriate decisions regarding expenditures. Studies financial and quantitative information; uses data to improve performance.
• Plans and Aligns: Plans and prioritises work to meet commitments aligned with organisational goals; aligns and coordinates between own work and others', provides well-sequenced activities and time frames. Foresees and resolves potential bottlenecks and delays.
• Collaborates and communicates effectively: Builds partnerships and works collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives. Develops and delivers multi-mode communications that convey clear understandings of the needs of di f ferent audiences. Keeps others well informed; conveys information clearl y, concisel y, and professionally when speaking or writing.
• Optimises Work Processes: focus on continuous improvement and takes steps to make methods productive and efficient. Promptly and effectively addresses process breakdowns. Works independently and provides guidance.

Skills and qualifications

Desirable:

• Technical knowledge, experience, or academic background in: green growth, sustainability, natural resources and the environment, climate smart innovations, climate adaption, resilience, (climate, nature and people), humanitarian, governance, education and health
• Language skills – French, Spanish, Portuguese or other languages desirable

This will be a full-time, permanent role. The role will be based from our offices in Hemel Hempstead, UK and will have good flexibility to be remote. Please note that you must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this position.

We are recruiting for these vacancies on a rolling basis, meaning there is no fixed deadline and applications will be assessed as they are received, and the vacancies will remain open until they are filled.

The salary offered will be commensurate with relevant experience. DAI offers a generous benefits package and there are several day-to-day perks of working at DAI that help keep us happy and motivated! All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.

You will be pleased to know that we strive to uphold the highest ethical standards and that we are working with our clients to reduce the opportunity for people who are known to have breached ethical standards to work in our field. Any staff and/or consultant contract with DAI, therefore, will be subject to satisfactory reference checking and vetting.

If this role sounds interesting and you would like to be part of DAI’s growing business, bidding for and managing donor-funded projects round the world, we look forward to hearing from you.