Senior Project Manager At BBC Media Action

Job purpose

The Senior Project Manager (SPM), Indonesia, BBC Media Action – based in the capital Jakarta – will be responsible for the overall management and delivery of current and future projects in Indonesia, and play a leading role in developing new projects for submission to potential donors.

BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development organisation, working in Indonesia since 2018, which uses media and communications to help reduce poverty, address development goals, and support people to understand their rights.

BBC Media Action in Indonesia is currently implementing a project funded by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD), which uses broadcast and social media platforms to increase public understanding about forests, green growth and sustainability issues particularly among young people and within indigenous communities.

Key responsibilities and accountabilities

The SPM, reporting to the Country Director (CD) will be responsible for ensuring all BBC Media Action projects in Indonesia are delivered on time, on budget and to high quality. The SPM will play a leading role in project design, ensuring that appropriate communication frameworks are developed at the outset, that outputs respond to audience needs as identified through formative research and user-testing, and that the outputs meet the development objectives of each project in a way that ensures lasting impact.

The SPM will manage all project management staff, and oversee coordination with the research, finance and production teams. The postholder will also be responsible for overseeing financial and narrative reporting internally and to donors.

She or he will play, alongside the CD, a leading role in developing new business for the Indonesia office, both extensions of existing projects and new projects in governance, health or resilience, through developing ideas and partnerships, writing proposals and developing budgets. The role involves building and maintaining relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, including donors, INGOs and civil society partners, broadcast and other media partners.

This position will be a part of the Senior Management Team in Indonesia and the position holder may need to deputise for the CD when required.

Main Duties:

Strategy and Business Planning

• Contribute to the vision and strategy of the Indonesia Office and support the Country Director in strategic planning and problem solving. Play a leading role in identifying and developing strategic partnerships in Indonesia and regionally.
• Support the Head of Production in ensuring that broadcast and social media outputs are produced in an integrated and coherent manner, ensuring high editorial and production standards and the most efficient use of resources.
• Ensure that the specific development objectives of the projects, as defined in project design and theory of change and informed by research findings, are fully reflected in the outputs.
• Play a leading role in developing new business for BBC Media Action in Indonesia through building relationships with donors and other stakeholders, as well as developing and writing proposals.

Project and Personnel Management

• Ensure that all BBC Media Action projects in Indonesia are delivered on time, on budget, to the highest standards (including editorial standards; compliance with BBC & BBC Media Action policies & processes; and compliance with Indonesian financial and legal standards) and according to donor commitments – in close consultation with the production team, the research team and finance.
• Ensure high quality of management of all project team members (i.e. recruitment process; induction; performance review; learning & development, etc)
• Ensure that all local employment, contractual, fiscal and immigration requirements are met across projects, in coordination with HR and Finance & Admin department.
• Ensure project budgets are well managed by project managers (including developing and forecasting budgets; the timely submission of financial and narrative reports for internal and donor use)
• Ensure project partners are well managed, including project partner recruitment, professional development, contractual and financial relationships as well as ensuring all activities and reporting requirements are met on deadline.
• Ensure central coordination between Jakarta-based teams and London-based projects staff and other departments in BBC Media Action (Research team, Advisory and Policy team, Communications team, Finance team, Programme Development team; Central Business Development team, wider-BBC HR and legal team) to ensure high quality of support to all existing projects.

Safeguarding

• Ensure that relevant safeguarding due diligence is conducted with any local partners working with vulnerable adults or children as part of the project. Where any risks are identified, ensure that projects are designed to mitigate these risks.
• Factor safeguarding issues into project design and include costs within budgets.
• Understand and comply with the Safeguarding policy and the staff Code of Conduct.

Networking and Relationship Building

• Develop and manage effective relationships with donors, stakeholders and partners, as well as with staff in BBC Media Action headquarters and the wider BBC.
• Represent BBC Media Action internally and externally to donors and other interested parties.

Capacity Building and Learning Management

• Support the CD and other SMT members in the delivery of relevant training to all staff and freelancers contracted directly by the office.
• Contribute to organisation-wide learning and policy development.

Key requirement

• Indonesian citizen or willing and eligible to apply for a work visa in Indonesia.

Essential skills, knowledge and experience:

• Extensive relevant experience designing and working on large and complex projects/programmes (ideally with budgets of at least $5,000,000), and substantial periods of managing projects (ideally in the development sector) to successful outcomes, leading teams, planning, problem solving, progress monitoring, managing risk, and having budget or resource responsibility.
• Experience of developing detailed budgets for new and revised projects, with strong financial management skills, including experience of managing large budgets and knowledge of the reporting requirements of funders.
• Experience of leading a project management team in a fast-changing, political and complicated environment, and responding flexibility to the need for organisation change.
• Experience in the effective management of diverse international teams, including personnel development and capability management.
• Proven ability to develop and secure new business, including the ability to develop new business ideas and present these persuasively to potential partners and funders, and write successful proposals.
• Confident public speaker with experience of presentations to colleagues, donors and stakeholders – along with excellent skills in written English.
• Excellent interpersonal, negotiating and diplomatic skills, including experience working with colleagues whose first language is not English.
• Demonstrable potential to acquire strong media editorial skills to make sensitive editorial judgements at a senior level.

Desirable skills and experience

• Experience of designing complex media-related development projects – and an understanding of the key methodologies of development communications.
• Experience of the media sector and a broad understanding of the traditional and new technologies in a broadcast and or digital media environment.
• Experience working with research aimed at informing project development by building a rigorous high-quality evidence base.