Program Manager at North East Regional Initiative (NERI)

Job Location: Abuja, North-Central & North-West

POSITION SUMMARY

The Program Manager (PM) is responsible for the design, implementation and close-out of a portfolio of activities. The PM works in close collaboration with Senior Management (including USAID/OTI) and community stakeholders to identify, prioritize and design activities that will respond to community development priorities in order to further the objectives of the NLCB program. The PM is responsible with oversight of project activities to ensure that all tasks are completed within timeframe and budget parameters defined during project design. The PM is tasked with the programmatic and administrative closeout of all activities, including final reporting, disbursement of funding (in concert with finance staff) and disposition of any project inventory. The PM serves as the main point of contact for state-level actors and community stakeholders to ensure that all activities fit within a strategic and coherent portfolio. The PM is expected to report daily to and receive guidance from Senior Management. The PM is expected to liaise with various levels of stakeholders, including government officials, civil society organizations and community actors; the selected candidate must be able to maintain good relations with all associated parties. In addition, the Program Manager is expected to collaborate horizontally with other PMs to share lessons learned and jointly design program strategy. 

REPORTING & SUPERVISION

The Program Manager reports to the Deputy Chief of Party – Programs (DCOP-Programs) based in Abuja. The  Program Manager should expect direct interactions with the Senior Management Team and with the client, USAID/OTI. The Program Manager will supervise one or multiple Program Officers, and collaborate horizontally with other departments including procurement, logistics, security, and monitoring & evaluation to ensure successful activity implementation.

 PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

 Primary responsibilities include but are not limited to the following:

• Responsible general oversight of a portfolio of projects. The geography of targeted communities as well as type of programming is expected to change frequently over the course of the program.
• In concert with senior management, advice on programmatic design of new projects, including identification of potential local partners and beneficiaries, monitor implementation to ensure timely completion and adherence to budget and administrative and programmatic closeout throughout the portfolio of activities.
• Take a leadership role in the program’s learning process by feeding information in a timely manner on political and security developments in the PM’s target area.
• Develop activity-level Theory of Change (TOC), thinking strategy about the contribution of each activity to the overall program objective.
• Work alongside Government of Nigeria (GoN) officials, community stakeholders and civil society actors to ensure coherent and strategic programming as part of a unified project endeavor.
• Serve as the focal point of the objectives and purpose.
• In coordination with Program Officers, establish community-level project oversight committees to ensure community buy-in of activities.
• Help set up transparent management and oversight mechanisms and work to incorporate as wide a range of project beneficiaries, GoN and other important stakeholders as possible.
• Responsible for the proper use of the program database for project and program development and management, including updating information on projects and activities per week.
• Comply with all Creative and USAID procedures and policies with regards to ethics and compliance, grants management, HR, finance, operations and security. 
• Perform other tasks, as assigned.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

• University degree in a related field is required
• At least 5 years of general work experience is required.
• Experience in working with communities to implement grassroots development projects preferred.
• Prior experience (3 years or more) in grants management with international-funded projects is highly desirable.
• Proficiency at using Microsoft office: MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook etc. is required.
• Ability to work under short deadlines and efficiently handle multiple tasks.
• Attention to detail and ability to follow up on tasks to completion is required.
• Ability to work autonomously and take initiative to generate valuable findings and communicate them in a timely manner.
• Ability to efficiently create and send reports during critical times or deadlines.
• Prior work experience with USAID or US Government funded projects is desirable.
• Prior work experience with Nigeria security forces is desirable.
• Experience working in a conflict environment is a plus.
• Fluency in languages spoken in Nigeria’s North Central and/or North West regions is preferable.