Senior Manager (Maternity Cover) at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change

Job Description

• TBI is looking to recruit an experienced and strong Senior Manager, Deputy Country Director to support the Nigeria Country Director with all aspects of team management and to drive the country project’s engagement to strengthen governance and delivery at the State level.
• The role reports to the Nigeria Country Director while working closely with the in-country Ops and Project Teams.
• As part of the country’s leadership team, the successful candidate will support business development and design and implement strategies to engage with the new governments in Nigeria following the recent elections at the national and sub-national levels.

This is a 6-month fixed term contract.

We encourage early application as we reserve the right, if required, to close this role ahead of the date advertised.

Key Responsibilities

The focus of this role will be to set a strategic direction for the Institute’s work in the Southern region, and support the Country Director with team management, business development, stakeholder engagement and strategic planning for the overall work of the Institute in Nigeria.

• Federal Level Strategy and Planning: As part of the Nigeria leadership team, contribute to the identification of opportunities with the new Nigerian presidential administration, and support scoping, proposal development, deployment of resources and problem solving as needed;
• Sub-national Level Strategy and Planning: Develop a business development strategy for increasing the Institute’s project footprint in the Southern Nigeria region and work with the Country Director to identify and allocate resources to implement the strategy;
• Business Development: Effectively leverage network to establish effective and trusted working relationships with senior politicians in government, such as the President, State Governors, Ministers and Commissioners at the Federal and State levels, in line with the country project growth strategy;
• Project Execution: Provide strategy, policy and delivery support to government counterparts and provide leadership on scoping engagements and on live projects that support the priorities of the government at both the national and sub-national levels;
• Monitoring: Ensure internal monthly team reporting is collated and submitted in line with the region’s guidelines and develop and implement project monitoring guidelines to ensure programme expenditure and resource utilisation is in line with an agreed budget;
• People and Team: Recruit, manage and mentor a team of Managers and Associates working on projects in Southern Nigeria, and in other sectors as needed in line with the Country Director’s vision; provide onboarding of new hires and develop tools to support their ongoing development and mentoring; work with the Country Director to ensure that a Team Nigeria is created and adopted by existing and new hires;
• Project Funding: Work with the Country Director, the central fundraising team and other team members to build relationships with government counterparts and funders in pursuit of project delivery and business development opportunities;
• Thought Leadership: Identify opportunities for thought leadership at the country, regional and global level to contribute to the development of the country project;
• Support to Leadership: Work with the Country Director on all aspects of team management, thought partnership and team strategy design and implementation as required.

Person Specification

We are looking for an experienced leader:

• With proven experience in government advisory, management consulting, project management or other organisational leadership in Nigeria
• With in-depth knowledge and experience of Nigeria’s political and government system, ideally both at Federal and State levels
• Who is a skilled communicator and influencer, is adept at speaking to senior leadership, knows how to navigate ambiguous environments and is comfortable at managing government stakeholders
• With strong presentation skills and the ability to prepare and present PowerPoint decks for clients, TBI colleagues and leadership
• With the ability to build trusted relationships with senior leaders
• With a track record of building and leading high-performing teams and a proven ability to manage and inspire teams to achieve program objectives
• With excellent project management, people management, and strategic planning skills
• With the ability to work independently, think strategically and translate strategies into concrete and implementable plans
• With undergraduate and graduate degrees from globally reputable institutions
• Who has full right to reside and work in Nigeria