Programme Advisor – Farringdon, London/ Homebased United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Farringdon, London/ Homebased

Fixed term contract until end of February 2025 (with opportunity for extension)

Save the Children UK has an exciting opportunity for a collaborative and organised individual with project/programme management skills within the humanitarian sector to join us as our Programme Adviser in our Humanitarian Leadership Academy (HLA) to take responsibility for the smooth running of the project management unit by helping to ensure that projects within the Ukraine response programme (Engine 2) are executed effectively.

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. When crisis strikes, and children are most vulnerable, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave. We ensure children’s unique needs are met and their voices are heard. We deliver lasting results for millions of children, including those hardest to reach.

About the role

This role will be part of the programme management unit (PMU) whose function is to support the HLA to deliver on their strategic programme Engine 2 (click for Engine 2 Ukraine). This role will take responsibility for the smooth running of the project management unit by helping to ensure that projects are executed effectively and efficiently and deliver the intended benefits to stakeholders.

You will also focus on uplifting strategic projects such as our eco-systemic leadership programme or direct funding initiative, so that we are driving forward our goals of shifting the power for sustained impact and systemic change.

The Programme Advisor will work closely with colleagues in Save the Children International (SCI); SC Ukraine and SC Poland in particular (but also SCI teams in Türkiye and Syria), SCUK, HLA and other relevant supporting services teams like Finance, HR, Procurement etc. to ensure effective ways of working, systems and processes are established both in the short term and longer term between SCUK, SCI as well as local and international partners.

In this role, you will:

• Review project plans, reports, and deliverables to ensure they align with the project’s goals and objectives.
• Provide guidance and advice to team members on project planning, execution, monitoring, and evaluation.
• Offer expertise and insights on project management methodologies, tools, and best practices to enhance project performance and outcomes.
• Identify potential risks and issues that could impact the project’s success and advise on strategies to mitigate them.
• Facilitate communication and collaboration among project stakeholders to promote shared understanding and effective decision-making.
• Assess the project’s progress and performance against key performance indicators (KPIs) and recommend adjustments as needed.
• Ensure that the project complies with relevant policies, regulations, and ethical standards.
• Report to the programme lead, senior management and other stakeholders on the project’s status, outcomes, and impact.
• Provide financial management support in managing and tracking budgets under the projects.
• Ensuring the lessons learned are captured on regular basis to improve further delivery and provide general learning on the project’s outcomes.

About you

The ideal candidate will be a process oriented, multi-tasking individual with a proven track record in delivering project management services. You will combine creativity and a solution orientated mindset, with highly effective relationship building skills.

To be successful, it is important that you have:

• Experience and expertise in project management including a deep understanding of project management principles, methodologies, tools, and best practices.
• Experience in leading and managing projects from initiation to completion and be able to apply this knowledge to provide guidance and support to project teams.
• Strategic thinking and problem-solving skills and are able to anticipate potential risks, issues, and challenges that could impact project success.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to help project teams identify and address these challenges effectively.
• Communication and collaboration skills with the ability to communicate complex information and ideas clearly and concisely, both verbally and in writing.
• Excellent attention to detail and strong organisational skills.
• Numerate with the ability to monitor and manage financial information.
• Familiarity with funding budgets, financial reporting including construction and monitoring of budgets.

To learn more about the position, please review the Job Description in the attached Documents.

What we offer you:

Working for a charity provides one of the best benefits there is – a sense of purpose and reward for helping others. However, we understand the importance of giving back to our employees to ensure a happy and healthy working environment and work/life balance.

• We focus on flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, health and wellbeing both in and outside of work.
• We provide a wide range of benefits which will reward your hard work, motivate you, and inspire you to work to improve the lives of children every day. You can read more about our benefits here.

Closing date: 07/01/2024

Please note:

To avoid disappointment, you are advised to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close the vacancy early if a high volume of applications are received. This is to ensure that we can manage application levels whilst maintaining a positive candidate experience. Unfortunately once a vacancy has closed, we are unable to consider further applications.

Ways of Working:

Remote First – The majority of our roles can be performed remotely, however you may work from the office as often as you wish. Whilst you will be predominantly working from home, we may at times require you to come to your contracted office (up to 2-4 days per month or 6-8 days per quarter). Note: This will be agreed with your Line Manager and team. This is intended to be time spent on collaborating with colleagues and relationship building.

On-site – There are certain roles that cannot be performed remotely and so your role will be based in an office location and you may occasionally be able to work from home.

Flexible Working – We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview**.**

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion:

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can be “Free to Be Me”. We are not looking for just one type of person – we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think.

We are especially interested in people whose childhood experiences – of life on a low income, of migration, of being in a racialised community, of the care system, of being LGBT+ or in an LGBT+ family or living with (or with someone with) a disability – help us to see things we might otherwise miss. Whatever your story is we want to hear it because we know that different voices, ideas, perspectives and knowledge, working together will enable us to better the lives of children around the world. This is the reason why we are all here.