Programme Design Advisor
Contract type: Fixed Term Contract (18 months), Full Time
Location: The role can be based in the UK, Kenya, Senegal or another location where WaterAid has a Country Programme, subject to right-to-work eligibility in the respective countries
For the UK Location, we offer hybrid working: A minimum of 40% of working time is spent face-to-face, in a WaterAid office. For UK-based staff, WaterAid is located at Canary Wharf, London and this will be your location and contract base.
Salary & Benefits: Salaries and benefits for different countries will vary in line with the location of the successful candidate and depending on experience. See further details below Role-based in
- UK, Grade 3: £48,314 - 50,729 GBP with benefits
- Senegal: Grade F: 24,011,317 - 35,054,179 XOF per annum with benefits
- Kenya: competitive salary package with benefits
About WaterAid:
Want to use your skills in programme design to play a vital role in making clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene normal for everyone everywhere?
We need passionate, creative and dedicated people. In return, you will be encouraged and empowered to be yourself at your very best. Together, we will make a bigger difference.
Join WaterAid as a Programme Development Advisor to change normal for millions of people so they can unlock their potential, break free from poverty and change their lives for good.
About the Team:
This position will be based in the WaterAid UK Programme Operations Team within the International Programmes Department (IPD). IPD operates in over 17 countries with approximately 600 staff in total. The Programme Operations Team enables the effective management of the International Programmes Directorate (IPD) through the provision of robust high quality programme management policies, processes, tools, management information and systems.
About the Role:
The primary focus of the role is to support Country Programmes and Regional Teams in both project and programme design. This is primarily by (1) directly supporting the design and set up of specific projects, programmes and proposals, and (2) strengthening capacity of specific staff in project and programme design.
In this role, you will:
Support project (and programme) design and set-up processes
- Lead, facilitate, support and advise on quality project design and project set-up processes, focusing particularly on larger, complex or higher risk projects. These may be individual Country Programme or multi-country/region projects designed at the regional or global level.
- Review and provide feedback on project design outputs to help strengthen their quality. This could include situational analyses, theories of change, results frameworks, monitoring and evaluation plans, risk analyses, narrative proposals and budgets.
- Liaise closely with identified technical and policy specialists during project design and set-up processes to ensure projects are designed to deliver sustainable outcomes and align with Global and Country Programme Strategies, Quality Programme Standards and thematic approaches.
- In specific cases, support Country Programmes in the development/adaptation of their long-term programme plans and linked project portfolios
Strengthen organisational capacity in project design and project set-up
- Build and strengthen capacity in project design across WaterAid (globally), targeting particular staff categories, through training, mentoring, coaching and the development/refreshing of tools and guidance
- Develop engaging training materials and examples.
Strengthen project design and set-up guidance
- Maintain and strengthen the project and programme planning component of WaterAid's Planning, Monitoring, Evaluation and Reporting (PMER) core procedures (often referred in our sector as MEL or MEAL) based on internal learning and sector good practice
About You:
- Significant proven experience in designing complex projects under rigorous deadlines and involving multiple stakeholders
- Excellent understanding of project design theories and approaches and their practical application
- Proven ability to work collaboratively with technical programme advisors, fundraisers and finance staff in order to develop sustainable, high quality, suitably resourced projects with clearly defined monitoring and evaluation processes
- Demonstrated ability to effectively coach and train others in project design and implementation
- Excellent understanding of the project design requirements and approaches of different donors (e.g. GAC, FCDO, USAID)
- Strong written and verbal communication skills in English
- Strong interpersonal skills and networking skills with the ability to collaborate, influence and build alliances internally and externally
- Strong problem identification and problem solving skills
- Excellent computer literacy, including Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Power Point etc.)
- Ability to travel up to 12 weeks per year
- Proven ability to work effectively with diverse cultures and adapt personal style to get the best out of others.
- Graduate degree or equivalent professional qualification/experience in international development
- Highly organised and proactive with the proven ability to prioritise and manage multiple tasks and a complex work programme within deadlines
- Excellent attention to detail
- Working style that reflects WaterAid's values of Respect, Accountability, Courage, Collaboration, Integrity and Innovation.
Closing date: Applications will close at 23:59 GMT on 1st May 2024. Availability for interviews is required in the week commencing 20th May 2024.
How to Apply: To see the full job pack, please click apply. Please apply by submitting your CV and a cover letter in one document in either MS Word or PDF format. Your cover letter should include your location, your right-to-work eligibility, and outline as a minimum:
- Your experience leading, facilitating and supporting the design of complex projects.
- Your experience supporting the set-up/inception of complex projects
- Your experience supporting capacity strengthening in project design, including developing and delivering training, tools and guidance.
Pre-employment screening: To apply for this post, you must be able to demonstrate your eligibility to work in the respective country. All pre-employment checks will be carried out according to the applicable laws in the respective country. All our UK-based vacancies require a basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check to comply with our Safer Recruitment policy.
Our Commitment
Our People Promise:
We will work with passion and focus to ensure safe and sustainable water, toilets and hygiene are available to everyone, everywhere. WaterAid is a place of purpose - where people have a real commitment and shared responsibility for the impact we have. We are a global community with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, motivated by inspiring, stimulating work. We are determined to put the wellbeing of our people first, to be a place where people feel safe and able to contribute their voice and truly live our values.
Equal opportunities:
We are an equal opportunity, disability-confident employer and are dedicated to achieving the highest standards of diversity, equity and inclusion. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, beliefs, customs, traditions and ways of life. This includes, but is not limited to, race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, national or social origin, health status, and economic or social situation.
Safeguarding:
We are also committed to protecting everyone we come into contact with. We have a zero-tolerance approach to abuse of power, privilege or trust across our global work, and any form of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination, abuse, bullying, harassment, or exploitation. Safeguarding the people and communities we work with, our staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously.
Actively Interviewing
This organisation is scheduling interviews as the applications come in. Don’t miss your opportunity, apply now!
Our award winning fundraising division is currently looking for an Engagement and Stewardship Executive to join our Partnership and Philanthropy team in this newly created role for the charity.
With ambitious plans to grow our fundraising income above £60m in the next 5 years we are expanding our fundraising team. The role sits within the newly created Operations Team ensuring Age UK's donor facing Partnerships and Philanthropy Team are provided with the highest quality donor research, engagement and stewardship materials required to create transformative partnerships with businesses, high net worth individuals, trusts and foundations.
In this newly created position we require a collaborative individual who can support our Senior Operations Manager deliver our stewardship strategy focused on inspiring, thanking and retaining our major donors, corporate partners and grant funders by creating engaging communications and activities.
This role offers hybrid working between home and London (EC3N 2LB). Our fundraising division attend the London office once a week on Thursday's.
Age UK internal grade - 7L
Must haves:
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with experience of producing high quality written materials that are tailored to the needs of specific internal or external audiences.
* Ability to prioritise, manage conflicting deadlines, work well under pressure and manage multiple tasks to deadline.
* Good interpersonal skills with the ability to interact with stakeholders at all levels.
* Proven experience of good collaboration with internal and external stakeholders.
* Ability to problem solve and proactively troubleshoot.
* High level of planning and organisation skills, with an ability to manage competing deadlines from different sources.
* Working knowledge of MS Office products and databases.
* A passion to join Age UK in supporting older people across the UK.
Great to haves
* Experience working in fundraising, preferably with corporate partners, grant funders or major donors.
* Experience of managing relationships with volunteers and/or Trustees.
* Some experience of supporting delivery of events.
* Ability to produce visuals and infographics using digital tools such as Canva.
What we offer in return
- Competitive salary, 26 days annual leave + bank holidays + annual leave purchase scheme
- Excellent pension scheme, life assurance, health cashback plan and EAP
- Car Benefit Scheme, Cycle to Work Scheme and Season Ticket Loan
- Techscheme - buy any tech from Apple or Currys, up to £1000, and spread the cost over 12 months, interest free
- Blue Light Card Scheme
- You Did It Awards - recognition awards from £100-250.
Additional Information
* This role is not a donor-facing role but sits within the newly created Partnerships and Philanthropy Operations team that provides the back-of-house systems, processes, content and support to enable donor-facing colleagues to operate efficiently and effectively.
* We ask all members of Age UK's Partnerships and Philanthropy department to work from our London hub near Tower Hill at least once a week to enable collaboration, skills development and team dynamics (currently Thursdays). From time to time, we may also require the successful candidate to come into our London hub for face-to-face meetings at other times in the week: as per the terms of our hybrid contracts we aim to give seven days' notice when this happens.
* This role may on occasions require travel outside of London and working outside of normal office hours e.g. for funder events and cultivation activities.
All CVs will be anonymised by our recruitment system when you apply for a role at Age UK. Please note that our system is unable to anonymise cover letters, and we would therefore ask that to support the work we are doing on making our recruitment selection process fairer and more unbiased, that you remove any personal information from your cover letter/supporting statement, including your name before uploading this. All equalities monitoring information is also anonymised and not shared with the hiring panel. Your name and address will only be known to us once you are invited for an interview.
Age UK is an Equal Opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates, regardless of age, sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, religion or belief, marital/civil partnership status, or pregnancy and maternity. We guarantee an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria under the Disability Confident Scheme. Please note that on occasion, due to high numbers of applications, Age UK reserves the right to limit the overall number of interviews offered, and therefore, it may not always be practicable or appropriate to interview all disabled people that meet the minimum criteria for the job.
Age UK is committed to safeguarding adults at risk, and children, from abuse and neglect. We expect everyone who works with us to share this commitment.
Early application is encouraged as we will review applications throughout the advertising period and reserve the right to close the advert at any time.
Age UK politely requests no contact from recruitment agencies or media sales. We do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies nor accept the fees associated with them.