OPERATIONS SUPPORT MANAGER At Practical Action

About us

We are an international development organisation putting ingenious ideas to work so people in poverty can change their world.

We help people find solutions to some of the world’s toughest problems. Challenges made worse by catastrophic climate change and persistent gender inequality.

We work with communities to develop ingenious, lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, water and waste management, climate resilience and clean energy. And we share what works with others, so answers that start small can grow big.

We’re a global change-making group. The group consists of a UK-registered charity with community projects in Africa, Asia and Latin America, an independent development publishing company and a technical consulting service. We combine these specialisms to multiply our impact and help shape a world that works better for everyone.

About the Role:

The Operations Support Manager will closely with, and support, the Africa Director on the operational aspects of the five programmes in Africa. The role will focus on building capacity and collaboration across country offices and teams.

This role will build key relationships within regional/country offices in order strengthen and build robust operational and financial capacity, and engage informal teams and networks, internally and globally, to support the programmes capability and effectiveness. This varied role will support country offices in anticipating issues, mitigating risks and finding solutions within the scope of the operational aspects of the programme work.

Accountabilities:

Strategic Alignment

Supports RCOs to align their programmes to the strategy in order to achieve the Change Ambitions.

• Monitor financial and fundraising performance of all Africa offices, including participating in quarterly reviews. Summarise key issues for the Director.
• Track internal audit recommendations in collaboration with Internal Audit and alert Africa Director to outstanding issues.

People & Culture

• Ensure new policies and procedures are robust and properly rolled out, working with the UK Operations Team and relevant people in each CO.
• Supports RCOs to build capacity on programme management, including in-country and remote training on aspects of proposal development, sub-award management, planning, budgeting and budget management, procurement policy and process and risk management.
• Identify high risk or organizationally significant proposals and awards and ensure that all relevant parties are aware of these and of any issues that arise.
• Identify opportunities for regional programmes and synergies across countries
• Design and deliver training and capacity building sessions for Regional/Country Office teams.

Financial management and compliance

• Understand budget management in order to support managing budgets, reviewing financial targets or KPIs and identifying issues for the Regional Directorate.
• Provide support, coaching and training as needed to country programmes and operational staff, to ensure there is compliance with global policies and procedures, including compliance with donor requirements, using the relevant systems.

Internal and External Relationships:

• Key staff in all five Africa countries, especially Heads of Programmes and Finance

• Operations Team in UK, in particular the Operations Manager (UK)

• International Finance Team

• Fundraisers in UK

Person Specification:

• Professional experience in the field of international development, preferably with a good portion of that gained in overseas contexts.
• Strong understanding and experience of new business development, including facilitation of consortia and partnerships, opportunity identification, quality proposal development and donor rules.
• Experience of project and award management, including planning, budgeting, resource management, controls, problem solving, monitoring, and delivering on time, to quality and within budget.
• Experience in designing and delivering training, in-person, remotely and through coaching or mentoring approaches.
• Knowledge, experience and/or interest in safety & security management and wider risk management.
• A sound understanding of and commitment to gender equality.
• Empathy with Practical Action’s vision, mission, and values.
• Ability to travel 14-16 weeks per year.
• Undergraduate or post-graduate degree in relevant subject is desirable.

Skills, Abilities and Competencies:

• Proven ability to work with others to build capacities in a cooperative way. Positive persuasion skills and rapport and demonstrate working in a way that builds trust and respect.
• Ability to work in differing cultural contexts, using the most appropriate methodologies for adoption of change in each context.
• Excellent written and oral communications skills in English, with a second language (French, Spanish, Arabic) desirable.
• Excellent facilitation skills with the ability to listen, and to lead or build teams.

Application Information:

Location: This role is being advertised across our Africa Entities and therefore the candidate could be appointed from any of these locations. – Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Senegal. The post holder will be required to have the relevant Right to Work for the country which they are applying.

Remote working / home working is possible with this role.

Salary: The salary and benefits will be in applied in according to the salary scale in the country where the candidate is appointed. As the location is not yet determined we cannot specify the salary range.