Project Development Manager

Post Title

Project Development Manager Location

****Nairobi, Kenya****

Line Manager

Country Director

Context Build Africa Kenya adopted a new five years strategy in 2014 committing the organisation to seven key approaches contributing to the education and livelihoods goals. A new role of Project Development Manager (PDM) has been created in order to strengthen the leadership of project development and funding growth within BAK programming in Kenya.

The PDM will lead on proposal development, project planning and budgeting, monitoring and evaluation, and reporting in accordance with BAK policies and donor contracts. The PDM will ensure project quality through effective project design that is backed by research evidence for enhanced understanding of community needs and response to the same, baseline development and project monitoring and evaluation, in line with donor requirements and internal Programme Quality Standards. S/he will work closely with the Country Director, Fundraising, Deputy County Director (Programmes) and Project Manager/Coordinator in Kenya as well as relevant programme staff in Uganda and the UK to enhance project quality, pro-actively seek out new potential partners and donors, and manage existing donor partnerships in-country.

The PDM is a committed and talented individual who will be part of our Senior Management Team (SMT), and who will proactively engage in supporting leadership of the organisation. Within the SMT s/he will provide technical advice and oversight of project development and funding contract management work, in collaboration with the DCD, Project Manager/Coordinator and the Country Director. The SMT will work closely with the PDM to ensure that they and their teams meet all key performance objectives in relation to sound project development and funding objectives.

The PDM will be expected to work with the field teams and beneficiaries during development of projects, collection of evidence, baseline development, monitoring and evaluation and will therefore travel to the field on a regular basis.

****Skills and Qualifications**** ****Essential:****

· An excellent understanding of and proven experience in project and grant cycle management, including problem/objective trees, stakeholder analysis, collection of evidence, baseline development, project planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation;

· Extensive project development experience, including proven capacity to utilise project planning tools and support others to do the same;

· An excellent track record in developing project proposals and funding applications;

· A track record in developing winning bids/proposal to donors such as individual, foundations, governments, etc;

· Strong knowledge of current and future funding trends, as well as of development issues, especially in education, income generation/entrepreneurship, gender, HIV and AIDS, livelihoods;

· Educated to graduate level (preferably Masters level);

· Knowledge of the wider development environment in terms of policy issues, institutional frameworks, etc;

· Experience of working with a wide range of institutional donors;

· Ability to train, coach and mentor teams of people with varying capacities in all aspects of project management, development and grant management;

· Excellent verbal, written and communications English skills;

· Excellent networking and representation skills at high-level events, meetings and forums;

· A strong personal commitment to the values, principles and organisation strategy of Build Africa;

· Ability to work well both individually/independently as well as part of a team;

· Computer competencies in the use of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

****Desirable:****

· Experience of working in development in a rural community context;

· Experience of working in a multi-cultural environment;

· Experience of corporate, individual fundraising and government funders;

· Experience facilitating others in developing successful bids.

****Main Duties & Responsibilities**** ****Project Design and Development****

· Ensure that all projects developed are aligned and delivering towards Build Africa Kenya’s Strategy;

· Lead on coordination of project development and proposal-writing for donors including off the shelf packages and strategic pitches;

· Lead on the research design of needs analyses and community consultations in support of project development that are participatory and inclusive of a range of community members;

· Analyse data generated by needs analyses and community consultations to develop evidence-based findings and draft reports;

· Document project approaches in project concept notes, articulating the theory of change for the approach;

· Work collaboratively with other BAK staff members as well as programme and fundraising staff in Uganda and the UK in developing project proposals for a variety of funders;

· Work collaboratively with Ugandan and UK Programme Staff on strengthening Build Africa’s capability in project design and development.

****Statutory Donor Relationship Management and Reporting****

· Donor contract management;

· Development and maintenance of donor/partner management plan and keeping track of progress;

· Lead on communications with existing statutory donor partners, in collaboration with the Fundraising Manager and the Country Director

· Identification and cultivation of relationships with new potential statutory donors

· Work closely with the international fundraising team to feed into global fundraising and statutory donor management processes, as well as contributing to achievement of global objectives.

****Staff Capacity Project Management and Bid Development****

· Training and mentoring of staff in project cycle management and grant management.

· Coordination of staff during project proposal development,

· Support staff in identifying possible funding opportunities

****Active participation in the Senior Management Team****

· Production of monthly and quarterly project development and contracts management updates for review with the SMT.

· Supporting roll out and communication of key SMT level planning/ decisions

· Whenever possible, acting as cover whilst peer SMT members are on leave, on in-country visits etc.

· Serve as a role model at all times, personally embodying Build Africa’s mission and values, whilst helping to ensure that Build Africa’s code of conduct, policies and standards are understood by all and adhered to in practice.

****Partnerships and profiling of BAK Business****

· Work closely with the Country Director, Deputy Country Director, and the Communication and PR Coordinator to identify and nurture critical partnerships that profile BAK work.

· Work with both the DCD/PM and the communication Coordinator towards production of other publications and research reports for BAK

· Work with SMT to establish and maintain good profile for BAK within the local partners, beneficiaries and media.

· Work with the Fundraising Manager in identifying potential partnerships and where appropriate, establish a relationship in view of developing a joint project.

****Other Duties as Required****

· Other duties as required include: support to the CD on special assignments, annual/periodic development/review of key organization key documents such as BAK strategy; and other specially assigned occasional work on weekends for which in time off in lieu can be taken

Interested and suitably qualified candidates should forward their applications addressed to the Country Director using the email address hr@build-africakenya.org enclosing detailed CV and relevant testimonials clearly marked “APPLICATION FOR PROJECT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER POSITION” by 19th April 2015.

HOW TO APPLY:

Interested and suitably qualified candidates should forward their applications addressed to the Country Director using the email address hr@build-africakenya.org enclosing detailed CV and relevant testimonials clearly marked “APPLICATION FOR PROJECT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER POSITION” by19th April 2015.