Project Director – Ireland At Concern Worldwide

Our vision, our mission and our work are all defined by one goal – ending extreme poverty, whatever it takes. We believe that no-one should have to live in fear that they won’t have a home to sleep in or enough food to feed their children. For over 50 years we have been working with the world’s poorest people to transform their lives.

Today we are a team of over 4,400 highly skilled and dedicated professionals from 50 countries who share an exceptional depth and diversity of experience. We want committed, values driven staff to join our HQ team and are currently looking for a Project Director to lead the Finance and Supply Chain Project and to support/manage organisation wide systems as required.

Concern offers in-house management and leadership courses and tailored organisation-wide learning opportunities both in-person and online. We are committed to providing our staff with the skills needed to excel in their jobs. All employees are required to undertake training in equality, diversity and inclusion; the Code of Conduct; and safeguarding, along with any other training required for the role.

Our culture is values driven and friendly. A global engagement survey conducted in 2022, responded to by 3,577 of our staff, showed that 89% of our staff would happily recommend Concern as a great place to work and 94% are proud to tell people that they work for Concern.

Our office is located in Dublin 2 and we are currently working a hybrid model (50% remote working) and offer flexi time.

The job: Reporting to the COO, the Project Director will be responsible for overall management of the Finance and Supply Chain Project and will support/manage organisation wide systems as required. . This will include reporting to the Project Steering Committee; coordinating and engaging with the different Project Oversight Groups and other stakeholders; managing members of the project team; overseeing project implementation, financial and administrative oversight, reporting, and monitoring of the project.

The aim of both projects is ensure our systems can:

• Produce information more quickly
• Improve the quality of the information produced
• Generate it with less effort
• Reduce reporting burdens
• Improve accessibility of information

With these aims in mind, the finance and supply chain project has identified Unit4 as the ERP platform most suited to its needs and in November 2023, engaged Embridge Consulting as an implementing partner. Work commenced on the design phase of the project and is expected to be complete by the end of February 2024. The contract is a time and materials type contract. The overall project timeline is projected as follows:

If you join us, this is what you will be doing:

• Plan, direct, coordinate, and lead activities of projects to ensure that the goals, objectives and all elements of the project are accomplished within the prescribed time-frame and on budget. This includes managing the implementation partner(s) from project implementation and commercial perspectives.
• Work with implementing partner(s) to agree project work plans, to clearly assign duties and responsibilities, and establish the scope of authority within the team.
• Establish and review as needed the staffing requirements for the projects; proactively seek solutions to fill any resourcing gaps.
• Manage the Concern project teams and the implementation partner providing leadership, advice and guidance.
• Manage the budget for the projects and ensure financial accountability.
• Proactively manage scope and all issues that arise and adopt a problem-solving approach at all times.
• Ensure agreed project management tools and methodologies are implemented.
• Manage change management activities including communication and training associated with the roll-out of new processes and the new systems. This will include managing a help desk to manage project related queries, ensuring manuals are developed and ensuring all systems have a training plan for all stakeholders.
• Ensuring that key stakeholders are involved in key aspects of the projects – this includes establishing and managing operational working groups (where needed), and soliciting feedback etc.
• Establishing and managing a communications plan for the projects to ensure that all stakeholders are engaged and kept up to date on the progress of the projects – this will include ensuring they know key dates that will impact them, establishing training sessions, etc.
• Managing the coordination of all project activities, preferably using a project management tool, and ensuring that all activities are conducted in line with organisation procedures. This is particularly important when travel is planned to country offices.
• Establish and manage a risk register for the projects and for the system itself. Ensure that key internal controls and security protocols are developed and implemented throughout the project.
• Ensure that documentation relating to the projects and standard SOPs (which are to be developed) are filed in a central location.
• Manage all project governance requirements – this includes setting up and managing regular meetings with the Project Steering Group, the Project Oversight Groups and preparing reports for SMT and the Board where required.

Skills you will bring:

Essential:

• Strong Experience of ERP systems implementation and operation.
• Experience of leading large and complex system implementation projects including external vendors across all stages of the systems life cycle.
• Experience of agreeing business case and scope of IT projects
• Experience of dealing with external implementing partners/vendors, including selection, managing their performance, ensuring adherence to timelines and ensuring the timeliness and quality of their output
• Experience of roll-outing large scale systems across multiple locations/countries
• Experience in developing projectreporting frameworks so that internal and external reporting needs can be met in a timely manner
• Experience of managing staff and liaising with multiple senior stakeholders
• Strong English language written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent organisational and planning skills
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills
• Training and staff development experience
• Ability to work under pressure, often to strict deadlines
• Flexible, adaptable, and a sense of humour
• Cross cultural awareness and empathy with organisational goals

Desirable

• Experience of working in the INGO sector at a senior level.
• Experience of using UNIT 4

You will report to the Chief Operations Officer and will liaise with managers and staff across various departments in Concern.

The project team is expected to include the following roles which will report directly to the Project Director:

• Technical Project Manager
• Finance – Technical Lead
• Logs – Technical Lead
• HR – Technical Lead (once appointed)
• IT – Technical Lead
• IPD Liaison Officer
• Change Management Officer

The role is a Grade 8, €83,101 to €94,972 and this is a 2 year fixed term contract

We encourage all eligible candidates, irrespective of gender, ethnicity and origin, disability, political beliefs, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status to apply to become a part of the organisation. Concern is against all forms of discrimination and unequal power relations, and is committed to promoting equality.

If this role sounds right for you, please apply with your CV and cover letter. We will respond to every applicant. Please be aware we may offer positions before the closing date.

If you have any concerns about our recruitment process and need particular assistance – for example if you have a visual impairment or are neuro-divergent – please let us know and we will do our best to accommodate you.