Senior Manager, Institutional Project Management

About the role

This newly established senior position provides strategic and operational leadership for AWF’s institutional project management function. The role embeds standardized governance, lifecycle management, portfolio oversight, risk management and delivery assurance across multi‑country, donor‑funded initiatives.

Key responsibilities

• Lead institutional portfolio management, tracking project status, budget utilization, schedule adherence, dependencies, risks and escalations.
• Support portfolio prioritisation and resource allocation based on strategic alignment, feasibility and risk exposure.
• Escalate critical risks, delays and governance issues to senior leadership and contribute to Board‑level reporting.
• Ensure all projects follow AWF’s approved lifecycle methodology and governance framework, including initiation, planning, stage‑gate reviews and close‑out.
• Design and maintain standard project management processes, templates and quality‑assurance reviews for high‑risk and strategic projects.
• Guide project teams in developing charters, workplans, risk registers, change requests and close‑out reports.
• Promote a culture of accountability, risk‑informed decision‑making and continuous improvement.

Required profile

• Proven senior leadership experience in managing complex, multi‑country programmes or donor‑funded projects.
• Strong collaborative skills with the ability to work across departments and senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to embed governance structures, drive portfolio oversight and ensure delivery performance.
• Excellent analytical and executive reporting capabilities.

Required skills

• Project management methodologies: PMBOK (PMI), PRINCE2, stage‑gate principles.
• PMD Pro / Project DPro approaches for development programming.
• Portfolio and risk management techniques.
• Project governance and lifecycle management.