Regional Project Director at NewGlobe

About The Role

The Regional Project Director is responsible for operational excellence through the tracking and evaluation of relevant activities, project performance and operational KPIs in multiple programmes. This is done via the co-management and support of Project Directors and the Regional School Inspection Director.

• The Regional Project Director is 100% responsible for directing the workflow of Project Directors in support of the program’s deliverables. This includes ensuring that the project director in each programme has an up-to-date Operational Calendar for each academic year, provides thought leadership and support to the MD and fellow directors across multiple departments, is delivering on strategic projects, fosters a culture of accountability and provides leadership to the school inspection director and team - essentially the regional project director holds Project Directors accountable for achieving their goals.
• The Regional Project Director is the line manager to the Regional School Inspection Director and in this capacity is tasked with ensuring that the school inspection function is delivering valuable, actionable data to each programme.
• Additionally, the Regional Project Director ensures that there is strong coordination and clear communication between each programme and Shared Services regarding operational excellence. The Regional Director leads projects, designs and facilitates processes, and champions conversations necessary for the successful execution of each programme’s operations within a large matrix organisation.

This role reports to the Vice President, Operations and Group Managing Director.

The Project Director Function

• Project Directors are multifaceted individuals who work closely with the Managing Director to ensure that “the trains run on time” and that there are no delays. They are project managers, and implementers who drive operational excellence by ensuring key milestones and activities across multiple departments are delivered on time and at a high quality. Project Directors are also tasked with improving programme execution by leading strategic initiatives for the Managing Director and leadership team. This is a highly hands-on and analytical role, involving intense program management. In addition to ensuring delivery and coordination through the Operational Calendar, there may be additional projects assigned by the Regional PD, or by the MD, time allowing.
• Project Directors report to the Managing Director as their line manager, and the Regional Project Director as their functional lead.
• School Inspection Department: Project Directors are the line managers of the School Inspection directors/managers. School Inspection is the auditing function of our school operations (facilities, materials & supplies, personnel and processes) against our set of standards and policies to ensure all schools maintain an environment where teaching and learning thrive. School Inspection ensures compliance with procedural requirements through frequent school observation visits and audits of school operations.
• School Inspection Directors report to the Project Director as their line manager, and to the Regional School Inspection Director as their functional lead. Regional School Inspection Directors report to the Regional Project Director.

What You Will Do

• Functional lead for Project Directors
• Hire, onboard, and provide technical support, coaching and performance management of project directors in partnership with the Managing Directors
• Ensure that Project Directors have a clear and focused work plan oriented around the Operational Calendar. The operational calendar must be created, reviewed, and approved before the start of each academic year in collaboration with all other directors. The Project Director then makes certain that fellow directors and managers are delivering on milestones and activities on schedule
• Manage the Project Director to ensure that the activities in their operational calendars and the strategic initiatives they’re leading are delivered to a high quality throughout the course of the year. This entails training and coaching Project Directors to become extreme owners of the operational delivery of their programmes by ensuring that they deeply understand the responsibilities of various functions, our core principles and systems so that they can be effective thought partners to various leaders and effective troubleshooters of when processes and management systems fail
• Facilitate strong coordination and communication between each programme’s Project Director and Shared Services
• Ensure that Project Directors are using (and adapting where needed) standardised templates, tools, and processes that have been developed using the decades-long experience and expertise of leaders within the organisation so that programmes do not lose time or fail to meet an acceptable standard of delivery when they attempt to reinvent the wheel.
• Identify knowledge gaps among project directors and provide training or partner with other leaders within the organisation to provide the required training
• Line manager of regional school inspection director
• Support the Regional School Inspection Director to oversee that the School Inspection Function (our audit team) is driving compliance to school policies and processes at the school level, uncovering challenges to implementation of the programme at school level, and providing high quality actionable audit data to the project director and managing director to inform improvements to progamme implementation so that teaching and learning thrives.
• Own operational & management tools and processes that drive programme success (Continuous improvement)
• Contribute to the design, then own and maintain a suite of tools and playbooks around how we operate NewGlobe programmes including but not limited to operational calendars, department work plans, meeting templates, project Gantt charts and more, which are implemented on a day-to-day basis in-programme by the project directors
• During engagements with project directors, identify issues and risks related to programme implementation in a timely manner, and suggest appropriate process improvements to the MDs and Vice President Operations.
• Play a leadership role within group operations
• Lead strategic company-wide initiatives within Shared services, or play a role as an executive sponsor including providing the vision, day-to-day coordination, resource management, and supervision required to accomplish project objectives
• Ensure appropriate follow-through on actions, decisions, and commitments made by the Vice President Operations by working with the parties responsible for implementation
• Act as one of the leaders within group operations which interfaces with numerous other functions by supporting the initiatives of fellow leaders within shared services and territories to ensure successful strategic and operational delivery
• GMD Support
• Act as point of contact and liaison across NG Shared Services and Programme Executive leadership for all matters escalating to the GMD for support.
• Oversee a broad variety of operational tasks and strategic initiatives for the GMD including facilitating and tracking Group NG leadership meetings and action items; arranging complex collaborative syncs between Global Shared Services, Regional Shared Services and Programmes to deep-dive on specific agenda items; following through to ensure achievement of objectives
• Demonstrating leadership to maintain credibility, trust and support across the leadership teams
• Manages special projects assigned by the GMD
• Maintains confidentiality on all Executive work issues as required.
• Other responsibilities as determined by the Vice President, Operations.

What You Should Have

• A bachelor’s degree from a top-tier university with an excellent academic record. Quantitative undergraduate degrees and advanced degrees such as an MBA are preferred
• 8+ years of experience including 5 years of management experience in reputable companies from which you have outstanding records of professional achievement. You should have experiences that required highly independent work in an exceedingly challenging metric-driven organisation such as in management consulting, finance or a high-growth start-up
• Demonstrated leadership ability in a team environment. You should have a proven track record of working strategically and collaboratively with senior leaders across different functional areas. This experience should include directly supervising professional staff.
• A proven track record of excelling in the leadership of operational teams, as well as in design-thinking, process and system design and application, managing complex and inter-related functions
• Excellent project management skills including keen attention to detail, being incredibly organised with calendars, Gantt charts, trackers, and having the ability to systematically follow up on a broad set of decisions, projects and strategic initiatives
• Solid functional knowledge, including but not limited to strategy, operations, HR, supply chain, customer experience management, finance, project management
• Exceptional analytical and quantitative problem-solving skills. You need to be able to see patterns, be a fast thinker and a good decision-maker
• Advanced MS Excel/spreadsheets skills, and mastery of presentation/reporting tools such as MS Word/Google Docs & MS Powerpoint/Google slides
• Excellent communication skills (writing and speaking), which enable you to communicate complex ideas effectively to people at all levels in the organisation
• Strong-willed, a fast learner and able to effect changes fast. You should be able to flourish in dynamic, ambiguous environments, produce high-quality work with very short deadlines, effectively prioritise work among multiple competing demands, and adapt to unexpected work demands