Senior Program Management Officer Job in Karen, Nairobi, Kenya

World VisionWorld Vision is an International Christian Relief and Development organization, whose goal is to achieve long - lasting benefits in the quality of life for vulnerable children and their families, displaced persons and communities.
The Somalia program wishes to invite applications from highly competent dynamic, self-driven and results oriented candidate to fill the below mentioned position.
Senior Program Management Officer
Reference: 1598 - 15N09052
Location: Karen, Nairobi, Kenya
This is a position within Program Development and Quality Assistance department, focused primarily on providing program management support to multiple key grants.
The job holder will ensure program reporting and compliance oversight as well as donor relations for high-value, complex, multi-sector, multi partner and multi donor funded grants, in line with WVS strategy.
He/she will have a high capacity for managing multiple deadlines and project details, to supervise the completion of monthly, quarterly and annual reports of the highest quality and donor satisfaction and compliance.
This will be done in an exceptionally efficient manner which empowers and capacitates the field project team to complete the bulk of the required report details the first time.
On occasion he/she will support in proposal planning and development processes in collaboration with the Program Development (acquisition) team, ensuring lessons learnt and experiences from the ongoing grants are inbuilt into new grants acquisition processes.
The position will support the development and promotion of strategic alliances with donors, multilateral agencies, and other NGOs for purposes of increasing resources for children and families WV serves.
Major Responsibilities:
Programme Development:

Spearhead the sub- grant agreement application process and preparation ensuring all the donor requirements and project deliverables are included as per the grants checklist and when changes are made the process is updated.

Support WV Somalia partners in the development of detailed implementation plans, quarterly cash flows, indicator tracking tables, and other project management tools.

Prepare and execute the Consortium funded program grant tracker and regularly update this sharing with the PD Manager for overall update on monthly basis.

Regularly review project evaluations, lessons learned workshop documents, field visit reports, and project reports across the program and from other NGOs and donors to apply emerging innovations and best practices in future proposals.

Assist the PM Manager in documenting and updating WVS technical program approaches based on emerging practices.Relationship building and competitive intelligence gathering:

Represent WV Somalia in various donor and coordination forums at National level and providing programmatic information as required to promote WV visibility, servant leadership, and good will with donors including, UN Agencies, bilateral, multilaterals, Support Offices, and NGO peers.

Maintain relationships with donor and key partner agencies/stakeholders for current grants being managed and keep up to date in terms of any changes in the same and regularly update PM Team Lead on this.

Participate in briefing and providing updates (as well as in preparation of documents/ material in advance of such briefings) to current and prospective donor representatives, both in formal and informally to build and strengthen relationships.

Help plan and execute donor forums and presentations, key meetings such as learning events to share learning, promote best practices, coordinate programming, and foster alliances and consortia opportunities. Support in preparation of effective donor marketing materials for events and meetings.

Actively research, monitor and plan for new funding and marketing opportunities, including advanced intelligence on competitive calls, staff changes among key donors, new funding available for resilience and related issues, and other new opportunities for the SomReP consortium, in line with SomRePs fundraising strategy.Program reporting & donor compliance:

Review final drafts of project reports from field Project Managers for completeness of narrative information, accuracy of quantitative data, sufficiency of lessons learned documentation, inclusion of project or security challenges, and other donor requirements or preferences.

Track continuous improvement of report quality from the field by tracking on behalf of the Programs team the hours spent by all Program Officers reviewing project reports, along with quality rating of each draft report. Assist Program Management Team Lead in consolidating findings for Operations to act upon.

Ensure delivery of timely reports and other contractually obligated donor deliverables (e.g. baseline reports, learning reports) by documenting and sharing internal deadlines on all deliverables with full project team and SO stakeholders on each assigned project. Support other Program Officers to do the same by sharing internal timeline templates and other effective tools.

Provide timely, detailed and quality program reports to Support Offices and donors on consortium, emergency and rehabilitative grant funded programs.

Spearhead final review of narrative reports for all assigned projects, providing appropriate feedback to implementing teams (Ops Manager, Project Managers) and/or implementing partners.

Streamline report review process to incorporate feedback from M&E, Finance, and any Technical Advisors for each project report.

Coach as appropriate implementing teams or partners on satisfactory reports writing.

Proactively raise reporting, implementation or donor compliance challenges with QA, Ops Managers, Program Management Team Lead, and SOs to seek efficient resolution.

Support consortium funded grants to ensure compliance and adherence to WVS policies and procedures, donor regulations and monitoring mechanisms which allow transparent and accountable implementation of projects;Field project events, monitoring visits and support:

Partnering with the Acquisition PO for each new grant won and assigned, utilize the startup process as an avenue to build capacity/coach the implementing teams and or partners on donor compliance and expectations from each grant to be managed.

Participate as appropriate in midterm reviews, mid-year and final lessons learnt events with the purpose of acquiring insight on the progress of implementation, addressing challenges related to under expenditure, slow pace of implementation, capturing best practices across partners with a view of highlighting those in subsequent grant acquisition phases.

Coach and follow-up with project teams on specific reporting gaps to ensure continuous improvement. Support Program Management Team Lead in providing guidance and training curriculum on high quality reporting standards and practices.

Participate in field-level Quarterly Review Meetings, visit field project sites, and meet with operations staff to gather emerging challenges, lessons learned, and innovations to apply to future proposals.

Escort donors and partners to the field on monitoring visits as may be required.Qualifications: Education / Knowledge / Technical Skills and Experience
Educational level required: First degree in Development studies or related field
Technical Training qualifications desired: Professional technical skill desired: Humanitarian standards (SPHERE, HAP), specific trainings on donor requirements e.g. OFDA, DFID, EuropeAid training, personal security awareness training.
Experience: 3+ years working in humanitarian or development field, preferably with one or more previous assignments in developing contexts. Previous professional performance ratings should indicate consistently high performance and potential for future growth.
Other: Demonstrated, exceptional writing skills: the ability to develop quality reports under tight deadlines. Must be able to succinctly express key points in technically accurate fashion, efficiently summarize and compile large amounts of information, and ensure accuracy and logical flow of reported information.
Proven programming and project management experience: Must be highly organized, detailed oriented, able to detect gaps or missing information others may not, efficient in analyzing information, and succinct in producing verbal and written summaries of key points.
Experience working with both bilateral and multilateral donors, particularly USAID, Danida, Sida, EU/ECHO, and DFID. Experience working with development banks, such as World Bank, African Development Bank a plus.
Excellent English languages skills; written and verbal.
Networking/external engagement skills: proven experience in networking with donors and partners to bring about funding opportunities and/or negotiate favorable terms in existing agreements. Able to speak persuasively in front of groups a plus.
Team player; the ability to mobilize and work as part of a diverse team to achieve the overall goal
How to Apply
Click here to apply online Senior Program Management Officer
Application Deadline Date: 31-Aug-15