Migration Programme Manager At Seefar

Summary

• Fee: USD 7,000-9,000 monthly, full time.
• Benefits: Eligible for additional benefits after three months, subject to performance.
• Based: Wherever you like, with preference for EU/MENA timezones.
• Supervises: Project manager(s).
• Reports to: Managing Director.
• Travel: International travel likely every 1-2 months.

Solve Problems that Matter

Seefar’s migration programme tackles complex global challenges by changing lives for the better. In 2024, we helped Syrian refugees to access documentation, counselled thousands of Afghans in transit, and found jobs for rural Iraqis preparing to migrate irregularly. In 2025, our migration programme will move talented Nigerians to Europe, develop digitalised return and reintegration services, and increase the migration relevance of development programming. In parallel, we are finalising a major internal reorganisation, with a change in leadership and investments in new systems. We remain a start-up in size and spirit, driven by curiosity and a bias for action. Are you ready to build what’s next?

Who We Are

Seefar Foundation is a social enterprise with a simple mission: to transform the lives of vulnerable people. Through programmes rooted in technology, psychology and behaviour change, we help people build the skills and confidence they need to make a positive contribution to their communities. It’s how we support governments in finding solutions to challenges around irregular migration, poverty, human trafficking, violent extremism, access to justice, and more.

Our exceptional team of over 100 consultants are problem solvers and innovators, delivering programmes for Seefar Foundation and high impact research and advisory for our sister company Farsight Global. Together, our organisations solve difficult, high impact problems for governments and NGOs across communications, digital, and research, monitoring and evaluation in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

Your Responsibilities

• Project management (50%). Directly manage the Scaling up STEM Talent from Africa in Europe (SUSTAIN) project. This is a complex project that requires strong planning, problem solving, and people management – you’ll make it your business to understand every detail. You’ll make decisions on budget and personnel, hold private and public sector partner relationships (Brussels, Dublin, and Berlin), and provide clear direction to leadership in Abuja.
• Project directorship (30%). Help project managers deliver quality, timely, and donor-compliant projects through direct supervision, scrutiny of our Project Reporting Framework and grant rule books, and practical solutions to challenges in difficult operating contexts. You’ll spend 2-4 hours per week meeting project managers and 8-10 hours deepening your understanding of the portfolio, troubleshooting, and finding synergies between projects.
• External representation and business development (10%). Develop the programme through external representation at roundtables, conferences, business development meetings, proposal writing, and bilateral meetings. You won’t just turn up but bring passion and ideas to problems others see as intractable.
• Compliance and quality assurance (5%). Support the Programme Excellent Unit in developing budgeting, compliance, and other tools that make our project management more efficient and effective.
• Strategy and innovation (5%). Contribute to organisational strategy setting, including via attendance at a twice-yearly summit (previously in Colombo, Tbilisi, Nairobi, and Tunis). Influence our technology strategy.

Who You Are

You’re excited to lead a programme that spans irregular migration, legal migration, and return and reintegration. You enjoy delivering projects with social impact and satisfying clients for its own sake – and it matters to you that we exceed expectations. You’re motivated by the prospect of holding a strategically important position but you’re not above hard work. Wherever you’re based, you’re confident you can build trusting relationships with partners in Europe, South-Central Asia, MENA, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

To succeed, you’ll need to be:

• Highly productive, numerate, with attention to detail and comfort collaborating remotely.
• Driven to continually find more efficient ways of working, especially with technology.
• An executor, who gets things done, even when tedious.
• An experimenter, instinctively testing solutions to problems rather than simply analysing them.
• A leader, taking responsibility for – and inspiration from – the success of your team.
• Welcoming of change, challenge, and ambiguity.
• Credible with senior external stakeholders.
• Able to master diverse subject matter within weeks, not months. Your portfolio spans irregular migration, legal migration and talent mobility, and return and reintegration within a primarily Africa Asia-EU context.
• Champion of our values: productivity, smart risks, feedback, humility, social purpose, grit, and learning.
• Master of the core competencies described below.

1. Fluency in spoken English: You chair internal and external meetings with confidence and efficiency.
2. Fluency in written English: You write compelling emails, proposals, and reports with minimal errors.
3. Listening and reasoning: Your active listening and logical reasoning skills make you influential.
4. Digital skills: You are (or could quickly become) comfortable with Google Suite and Wrike.
5. Digital resourcefulness: You find answers to basic technology problems like formulas for Sheets.
6. Budget management: You can manipulate moderately complex Google Sheets budgets.
7. Compliance: You interpret grant and contract rules correctly and ask for help when needed.
8. Planning: You turn outcomes into logical and credible project plans.
9. People: You’re effective in helping colleagues to plan – and you care about their success.
10. Self regulation: You respond constructively to professional and emotional challenges.

What We Offer

We offer fees of USD 7,000-9,000 monthly, inclusive of all taxes and charges. After three months’ good performance and subject to review, you’ll be eligible to join our core Global Team. Global Team members receive enhanced benefits:

• Unlimited leave. In 2024, colleagues took an average of about 6 weeks’ leave.
• Long-term sickness, carer, and maternity pay.
• Access to a professional development fund with support on using it to enhance your career.
• Ethical alignment: we offset the carbon impact of our travel and AI usage and administer a social impact award.

What’s work like at Seefar?

Positives:

• Diversity and multiculturalism
• Trust, autonomy, and space
• Innovation and experimentation
• Achievements over protocols
• Travelling and discovering
• New challenges that stretch you

Challenges:

• Coordinating across time zones
• Taking on unexpected tasks
• Communicating clearly using remote tools
• Expectation that you organise your own time
• Prioritising competing demands
• Balancing intense weeks with time off

You should also know that project managers have found it challenging to meet the expectation of overseeing both implementation and administration (budget, reporting, compliance).

Your Long-term Growth

We conduct six-monthly talent reviews, offering you regular support, guidance, and consideration for promotion throughout your time with us. Your review is based on peer feedback regarding your performance, effectiveness, and adherence to our values, with the objective of identifying how we can help you reach the next level. When the time comes to leave Seefar, we’ll help you with what comes next. Former colleagues have moved to places like Amazon, Clear Global, UNDP, and Outward Bound Canada. Several have started their own businesses.

Who are your colleagues?

You’ll be joining a Global Team of nine, based in Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. We’re from a dozen nationalities and speak seven languages. At any given time, we work with around 100 consultants globally who implement our projects. You will find a mix of perspectives, backgrounds, technical expertise, and lived experience.