The Senior Programme Manager will be the strategic lead for the British Council’s Society portfolio of programmes in the Philippines, ensuring the delivery of high quality results across the sector areas we operate in. The Senior Programme Manager will monitor contractual obligation to donors. S/he will also manage programme partners ensuring they deliver on time and within budget according to their contracts and develop a strong working relationship with the partners for the benefit of the programme. As the programme primarily delivers in BARMM, some travel to the region will be required.
S/he will contribute to business development through proactive engagement with potential partners and donors, and through building in learning from delivery. The Senior Programme Manager will be responsible for assisting in the development of, and reporting on, major programming, in association with national and regional colleagues. They will play a leading role in developing concept notes and proposals for donors.
Although the role is primarily focussed on programming within the Philippines, the Senior Programme Manager will play a role in supporting the Regional Director of Society develop and expand regional programming under the British Council grant, for social enterprise and social cohesion programming in East Asia.
Main opportunities/challenges for this role:
- Demonstrating leadership. The post holder will be responsible for leading a newly appointed project management team in a restructured Society;
- Overseeing programme finances by using planning tools and techniques and analysing key information with regional colleagues;
- Rapid familiarity with British Council engagement across all sectors of its activity, including arts, education, governance and civil society; sector knowledge in one or more of these areas and a willingness to learn about others.
- Managing multiple, dynamic relationships with internal and external stakeholders;
- Deploying knowledge, skills and experience of the project life cycle to the expectation of British Council’s Centre of Excellence; monitoring of results and reporting against the Results and Evidence Framework.
- Building an adaptive, responsive learning and development culture within each programmatic area.
- Growing the British Council’s business through pursuit and management of new opportunities.
Main Accountabilities:
Programme delivery (50%)
- Develop, manage and strengthen relationships with external partners and in turn create new opportunities for UK/Philippines collaboration.
- Manage project team(s) to plan, deliver and evaluate high quality programmes and projects
- Develop and strengthen relationships with British Council colleagues to maximise project effectiveness and business success.
- Ensure successful start-up of projects, programmes and partnership contracts setting a clear framework, embedding best practice from across the business and the Centre of Excellence and ensuring programme governance is in place for monthly monitoring and reporting with clear roles and responsibilities agreed;
- Provide guidance to teams to help them embed best practice tools and methodologies throughout the lifecycle of the programme;
- Provide an internal ‘backstopping’ role to teams to support with delivery and governance through project life cycles;
- Work closely with Director Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning to ensure that Programmes are reporting effectively against the Results Evaluation Framework (REF) and that programmes have clear M&E plans and are meeting targets and reporting accordingly;
- Work closely with Finance, Planning and Analysis (FP&A) and Financial Controllership teams (FC) teams and manage and control the agreed budget, expenditure and income against plans, ensure accuracy of reports and ensure sound financial management and analysis across the portfolio through monthly finance reviews and quarterly business reviews. Ensure timely and accurate planning and forecasting, timely reporting of risks, including financial and identify opportunities and mitigation actions.
- Ensure robust communications plans are in place and that content is developed regularly for internal and external platforms;
- Ensure that effective compliance management is implemented within each programme, for example, Child Protection and Business Continuity;
- Manage information created and received in compliance with BC information management standards, policies and the UK data protection principles and local legislation.
- Ensure compliance to BC financial policies and procedures.
- Ensure issue and risk management reporting for all programmes.
- Contribute to best practice across East Asia.
Business Development and Strategy Implementation in the Philippines and Regionally (20%)
- Input on the identification of opportunities, scoping, analysis, and identification of partners for co-creation of projects
- Lead and/or support the development of concept notes and business cases for programme-based planning for all grant-funded activity
- Contribute to the proposal development for potential externally-funded opportunities;
- Work with partnerships team to support the development and implementation of partnership strategies;
- Develop and nurture key relationships to maximise project effectiveness and business success;
- Engage proactively in the development and implementation of country and regional strategy;
- Develop and nurture internal relationships across strategic business units (SBUs) and in the wider organisation to ensure strategic objectives are aligned, understood and achieved, and opportunities to influence and contribute to corporate strategies are maximised;
- Ensuring learning and best practices from project delivery are embedded in business development.
Professional Networking and Human Resource Management (15%)
- Line management of programme staff as agreed with Senior Leadership Team, managing performance, planning and achieving targets, career planning and continuous professional development;
- Acting as a leadership role model by championing ideas for performance improvement, keeping up-to-date with priorities and targets across the business and the wider organisation, supporting colleagues to understand and engage with the wider organisation.
- Manage the achievement of agreed performance targets across the responsible strands, taking remedial action where necessary, to ensure agreed client and BC objectives are achieved.Work with key stakeholders to ensure delivery plans across the responsible strand are fully integrated and appropriately prioritised, resolving any conflicts that arise, to ensure planned initiatives will deliver the required business objectives.
- Identify and manage project outcomes and benefits throughout the delivery of the project to ensure appropriate return on investment, efficiency and VFM is achieved for the British Council.
- Managing and encouraging collaboration and information sharing between programme leads;
- Develop diverse professional networks which increase the impact of the business and develop opportunity for collaboration;
- Represent the British Council externally and internally.
Continuous Professional Development (5%)
- Keep abreast of current developments in relevant programmatic sectors and external markets nationally, regionally and in the UK, and update colleagues and external stakeholders where appropriate;
- Develop own performance portfolio and manage learning and development needs.
Role Specific Knowledge & Experience
- Minimum five years of relevant work experience in project or programme management in a development field or government, including line management and external representation;
- Ability to manage and hold project managers to the highest standards through all stages of the project life cycle;
- Highly organised, with good attention to detail and developed ability to prioritise multiple tasks to meet tight deadlines and organise work;
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrable experience of the production of project reports, proposals and other technical documentation;
- Thorough grasp of financial planning, and budget development, monitoring and analysis;
- Experience in communicating with stakeholders, including government officials, and knowledge of government interaction protocols;
- Experience in managing complex stakeholder engagement, and an ability to provide clear communication around those processes;
- Sound understanding of the business / project pursuit process and knowledge of donor funding operations in Philippines.
- Sound knowledge and awareness of communications strategies
- Excellent analytical, problem-solving skills, and a sound grasp of research skills
