Job advert - Project Management Specialist

Summary

Working directly with our COO the postholder will be at the forefront of leading our organisation through this exciting phase of growth. We have recently grown our team from 45 to nearly 100 FTEs. We are developing new systems and processes to ensure that our government partners are able to deliver to quality standards at scale, and our staff are enabled to provide them with high-quality technical support.

The postholder will support in the design, implementation and optimisation of a wide range of new internal systems (i.e., implementation excellence, internal financial systems, internal HR systems, etc.) In addition, as we scale the Lively Minds Programme through government, we need to ensure that our country teams in Ghana and Uganda are implementing with excellence and that risks to quality are proactively flagged and managed. The postholder will also lead on projects as a project owner. The postholder will work with global team members to develop systems and tools (automated, using IT where possible) to manage programme operations and quality. You will provide specialised support to our Ghana and Uganda implementing teams to employ these systems and tools effectively.

Main duties and responsibilities

Systems optimisation

Our goal is for our team, located across multiple locations, to be a well-oiled machine at scale and able to expand operations to new countries. As such, we need streamlined, centralised internal operating systems (I.e., finance, HR, IT) that can be customised for context and ultimately enable us to work together as a global team. This role will be responsible for supporting the COO and other Senior Management Team members to optimise our current operating systems and design, build and implement new systems.

Support evaluation and optimisation of current internal operating systems
Support design, development, testing and implementation of new internal operating systems
Manage a log of internal operating systems, uptake, risks and lessons learned and ensure evaluation is translated into actionable improvements

Strategic Goal Setting and Project Support

Each term, our organisation sets strategic objectives and key results (OKRs). We then translate these into robust project plans that enable us to achieve our desired results. We are a lean team that works cross-functionally, pulling together to execute projects to excellence. This role will be responsible for ensuring our project leads and teams are project managing effectively to achieve our ambitious goals.

Support COO to ensure the OKR system is implemented to excellence across the organisation
Provide coaching to workstream leads on OKR setting, reviewing and scoring
Support development & implementation of internal project management tools and systems
Lead on projects assigned by COO as a project owner
Support all project leads to develop and keep up-to-date project plans
Ensure project leads provide weekly project status updates and keep risk registers and lessons learned logs
Provide coordination between project teams, identifying dependencies and bottlenecks
Log, manage and analyse information flow on all projects, flagging when project progress is at risk
Provide coaching support to project leads and other team members on effective project management

Programme Operations and Quality Management

The Lively Minds Programme is mainly delivered by government partners, with Lively Minds staff performing as master trainers and providing technical support to government (capacity-building training and coaching). We must ensure that delivery by both LM staff and government staff is to quality and that the right systems and tools are in place to support implementation excellence. This role will be responsible for supporting the COO and Implementation Teams to optimise the programme execution rhythm and quality assure the programme delivery.

Support Country teams to develop termly implementation schedules
Support Country teams to schedule workforce effectively using automated IT tools
Ensure process maps for all programme activities are optimised and kept up to date
Provide technical expertise to the COO and work with Head of M&E to develop and implement programme quality assurance and reporting systems and tool
Ensure implementation action plans are kept up to date and support Country teams to maintain these, monitoring compliance and progress
Maintain the risk register: ensure effective actions are put in place to manage risks

Provide training/coaching to Country teams on quality assurance systems
Provide technical expertise to the Head of Training to develop project tools and training for government that supports quality management of the programme

For a detailed understanding of the role and person criteria, please see the Job Description.

About us

Our mission is to get preschool children in rural Africa school-ready. At present over 250 million children worldwide fail to receive the education and care they need in their early years which means they are less likely to do well in school, find gainful employment, and are at greater risk of early marriage, early parenthood and even criminality. Current approaches to solving this crisis are not proving effective or scalable in lower middle-income countries.

That’s where Lively Minds comes in. We have developed an award-winning Early Childhood Development programme that has been proven to get pre-schoolers in hard-to-reach communities school-ready, so they have a greater chance of succeeding in school and in life. The programme provides marginalised Mothers with a parenting course that empowers them to run educational Play Schemes for pre-schoolers and to provide better home-based care, using cheap local resources. The programme is delivered through government partners, is cheap and highly scalable. It genuinely has the potential to play a transformative role in ending the global ECD crisis.

How to apply

Please download an Application Form and send the completed form with your CV to jobs@livelyminds.org before the deadline.

Deadline for applications: 11:59pm GMT on Monday 28th March 2022