Position Title:            Project Manager, China Program                                                      

Status:                        Full Time, Regular Employee

Duration:                    3-year contract, renewability based on funding

Location:                    Beijing, China

Job Summary:  The Project Manager will serve on a variety of multi-year, high-visibility projects across our programs and internal to Landesa. The Project Manager will support project start up and ongoing implementation of projects in alignment with Landesa processes as well as funder/donor reporting, management, and compliance requirements. The Project Manager will work with technical staff to ensure project milestones are delivered on time, on budget, and with the quality expected from Landesa. The Project Manager will work directly with the China Program technical staff and Chinese partners to design project workplans, and to manage sub-contractors including Chinese institutions and consultants to ensure successful project implementation, compliance, and reporting. The Project Manager will troubleshoot and play a key role in creating and executing problem solving strategies. The Project Manager will create communication strategies to ensure the executive team has a robust understanding of the project status and can act as advocates and make connections across geographies and stakeholders.

Reporting and relationships:  The Project Manager reports to the China Program Director and works closely with Project Leads and Program Operations team to address project management needs in Landesa’s China work.

Availability:  The Project Manager will be expected to work a standard workweek of 40 hours plus additional hours as necessary to get the job done. This position may require international and domestic travel.

Essential Job Functions:  The Project Manager will advance Landesa’s mission and strategic objectives through:

·        Plan, organize and participate in the implementation of project activities in conformance with the overall contract between Landesa and the funder as well as Landesa’s procedures, and ensure the timely completion of project activities and the quality of the project outputs.

·        Design, set up and make good use of systems for planning, tracking, ensuring compliance and reporting on project resources, progress, and results. These systems need to align with Landesa’s existing policies and processes, and meet contract stipulations, grant agreement requirements, and funders’ needs in a practical, timely, and cost-effective way. They will align with Landesa’s project lifecycle system and result in effective assignment and management of human and financial resources to successfully complete projects, considering project goals, staffing, budgets, risks, and deliverables. They will support the project’s compliance with internal policies and goals as well as with funders’ policies and regulations.  

·        Hold primary responsibility for populating the systems for planning, tracking, ensuring compliance and reporting on project resources, progress, and results. The Project Manager must ensure the systems are populated with relevant, accurate, and timely data.    

·        Support Landesa’s compliance with internal and external policies and regulations. The Project Manager will work in coordination with the Project Lead and Landesa’s Compliance Team to proactively and pre-emptively alert and inform relevant decision-makers of rules, risks, and options regarding project implementation.

·        Meet project-level information needs of internal decision-makers. This includes but is not limited to information related to activities, deliverables, and actual and projected staffing and expenses. Relevant decision-makers include the Project and Components’ Leads, Program Directors, Regional Directors, DCPO, CPO, and the Finance, IT, Human Resources, and Resource Development teams.

·        Support project information needed to steward relationships with funders, partners, and external stakeholders. The Project Manager will do this, in coordination with the Project Lead and Resource Development staff, by providing project information needed for external stakeholder communications. In addition, the Project Manager will be responsible for managing and tracking required donor approvals, and ensuring systems are in place for adequate due diligence and management of sub-award recipients. All communications must align with Landesa’s constructive, respectful, culturally sensitive, and mission-driven approach.

·        Manage project consultants, partners and sub-grantees. Working in coordination with the Project Lead, the Project Manager will help reach out to potential partners, draft project’s ToRs, manage the recruitment, selection and contracting processes, oversee their invoicing, reporting and payments, and ensure they are meeting their commitments in a timely manner and with the expected quality.

·        Support systems to identify and share project-level learnings. In coordination with the Project Lead, Program Director and Learnings Team, the Project Manager will manage systems to support generation of project-level lessons and contribute to thinking around disseminating and integrating them into Landesa’s knowledge base. This includes but is not limited to a better understanding of the problems being addressed, the context in which we operate, the segment of the population we are targeting, our capacity needs, the appropriateness of the intervention designed, and our successes and challenges in collaborating with specific consultants, partners, and sub-grantees.

·        Develop capacity of Landesa’s staff, project consultants and partners on project management principles, tools and best practices to help them design, populate or use project management systems.

·        Develop and maintain good relationships with local stakeholders and assist with Landesa’s partnership expansion in China.

·        Contribute to funding raising of China Program by participating in concept note drafting, proposal preparation.  

·        Perform other duties as assigned.

Education and Professional Experience: The Project Manager we seek should have:

·        Masters degree or above in international development related sector is preferred;

·        5-7 years of Project Management experience in development sector;

·        Proven success in managing development projects for NGOs in China;

·        At least 5 years of experience managing large-scale funding projects of bilateral and multilateral donors and foundations, and familiarity with their approval, decision making and technical terminology as it relates to grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts;

·        Experience managing sub-contractors.

An effective Project Manager at Landesa:

·        Is passionate about systemic and rigorous work to alleviate poverty and foster social justice;

·        Has the ability and is committed to applying a gender-responsive and socially inclusive approach in his/her work;

·        Has the ability to collaborate with and support a range of stakeholders from different cultures and positions, including Landesa staff from all its offices, donors, government officials, civil society organizations, researchers, contractors, vendors, and services suppliers;

·        Is a skilled communicator both orally and in writing, who is clear, nuanced, rigorous and compelling, who can discern the appropriate type, frequency, tenor, and level of communication required for any given objective, circumstance, and audience;

·        Is a good listener;

·        Is self-motivated and goal-oriented;

·        Is comfortable with ambiguity, uncertainty, and change.

Additional Comments:  The above job description is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made in appropriate circumstances to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.

Equal employment opportunity has been, and will continue to be, a fundamental principle at Landesa. Landesa is committed to a work environment in which relationships are characterized by dignity, courtesy, and respect. We are committed to nondiscrimination in all of our business operations and embraces diversity as a key strategic philosophy and strength of how we do our global work.  Landesa actively seeks diverse candidates for employment.

To Apply: Qualified candidates should complete an online application on Landesa's career page, Position Description (taleo.net). A letter of interest and your resume (both Chinese and English) are required.