Senior Partnerships Manager (Climate) at BBC Media Action

BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international development organisation, and we believe in the power of media and communication for good. We work in more than 20 countries around the world, supporting the independent media essential to democracy and development. Last year, our projects and programmes reached 130 million people facing poverty, inequality and insecurity with information they could trust, helping to improve health, bridge divides, challenge prejudice, and save and change lives. We follow the editorial standards and values of the BBC, but we rely on funding from donors and partners to carry out our work.

BBC Media Action delivers a portfolio of projects in Nigeria. It seeks to expand this portfolio of work, but also to ensure that existing projects are delivered on time, on budget, to the highest standards and in accordance with BBC editorial values and methodologies.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Senior Partnerships Manager (Climate)

Jib Reference: BBC/TP/788768/57766
Location: Nigeria
Division: Strategy and Partnerships
Reports to: Head of Partnerships
Contract type: 2.5 year FTC

Job Purpose

• To deliver one or more projects and expected outcomes, to stakeholder expectations, within the agreed brief and constraints of time, cost, scope and quality, using the most appropriate approach for the project and domain.
• Project management is applied in different domains, including IT, digital, construction, business process and broadcast engineering. Projects may stand alone, be part of a programme and/or a product lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities

• The Senior Project Manager shares the core capabilities of the Project Manager but requires more experience. The role commands more responsibility working on larger, more complex, projects or leading on multiple projects, workstreams or iterative improvements concurrently.
• Manages one or more projects, leads a workstream within a programme or works on ongoing improvements as part of a product lifecycle. Responsible for the delivery of its outcome using an appropriate approach (e.g. iterative and incremental, sequential) suitable to the characteristics of the change. Typical indicators at this level are:
  • A repeatable project framework, delivering a known outcome or target;
  • A duration of approx. 18+ months or delivery on own initiative of a series of outcomes within a product environment;
  • Multiple stakeholders and financial or allocated staff responsibility equivalent to a budget of up to c£10m and a staffing level of 8+ (including third parties).
• Core project manager responsibilities follow.

Approach and Planning:

• Work with business or product owner and stakeholders to understand the strategic objectives and establish the project objectives and outputs or high-level benefits to be delivered.
• Establish the project’s level of complexity and agree with the owner the options and appropriate approach for delivery.
• Contribute to the development of the business or financial investment case.
• Foster the conditions for the project team to perform and lead on a day-to-day basis to ensure clarity of scope, good estimating, solution development and manage the risks.
• Produce a project management plan (PMP) to get agreement with stakeholders for the purpose, nature and scope of the project and secure the mandate to proceed with shaping the project.
• Draw on own experience and actively seek out and apply relevant lessons from other projects and share with the project team.

Delivery:

• Manage and deliver the project within the agreed time, cost and quality constraints to enable delivery of the agreed outputs and/or benefits.
• Maintain effective relationships with stakeholders, address issues and deliver effective communication strategies.
• Put in place handover plans and ensure business ownership is established for the ongoing ownership of outputs and/or realisation of benefits.
• Apply oversight and evaluate, monitor and manage risks, issues, assumptions, dependencies, interdependencies and changes, escalating those outside tolerance if appropriate.
• Maintain suitable plans, manage the delivery of minimum requirements and/or critical success factors and effectively manage people (including third parties) and other resources.
• Monitor progress, regularly report on status and initiate corrective actions. Ensure all expenditure (or activity) is tracked and reconciled to budget/plan with forecast to complete or value returned to inform decision making.
• Ensure adherence to BBC policies and standards for project management, health and safety, financial, legal and technology, and any other compliance requirements. Approvals, Governance and Benefits
• Support the business (customer), deliver key project documentation and ensure change management activities are executed (e.g. relevant training) to enable business adoption of changes.
• Complete and review the benefits realisation plan and facilitate formal handover of the plan and any ongoing activities to the relevant business area.
• Ensure controlled phase/project closure with appropriate review of performance, sharing of lessons, handover specifics, ongoing ownership and a planned post implementation review.

Stakeholders, Change and Communication:

• Create, update and manage plans to address stakeholder expectations and secure buy-in.
• Work with stakeholders on defining scope, establishing critical success factors, identifying deliverables,benefits and understanding trade-offs.
• Identify and address dependencies and interdependencies with other projects.
• Form the project team with appropriate specialist skills (e.g. procurement, HR, change, legal, business continuity, etc.) and advise the sponsor on governance issues.
• Develop options and gain approval for plans, for example the PMP and business case/financial investment case.
• Create, update and manage a detailed project plan along with a high-level project plan to support stakeholder engagement, reporting and communication.

Knowledge, Skills, Training and Experience
Essential:

• Extensive relevant experience working on projects/programmes and a substantial period(s) of managing projects to successful outcomes, leading teams, planning, problem solving, progress monitoring, managing risk, and budget or resource responsibility.
• Working knowledge of the project lifecycle, products, techniques, methodologies, approaches and the understanding of how to best apply to the situation.
• Excellent and well-practiced communication (spoken, written, listening), interpersonal and influencing skills with the ability to bridge specialism and business through user-friendly language.
• Ability to effectively deal with difficult stakeholders, navigate ambiguous, changeable, complex environments and achieve desired outcomes.
• Knowledge of relevant legislation and procedures for the domain e.g., procurement, contract management, environment, health and safety.
• Demonstrable professional development with a recognised project management qualification or equivalent experience.
• Strong Microsoft Office skills, including Project and PowerPoint, and experience in manipulating data to make it meaningful for different audiences.

Desirable:

• Managed a minimum of four projects with budgets of £10k-£2m or significant business area impact.
• Excels at delivery in a fast-changing, political and complicated environment; understands organisational transformation challenges and how to operate effectively in this context.
• Knowledge of the media sector and broad understanding of traditional and new technologies in a broadcast and or digital media environment.

Job Impact:
Decision Making:

• Defining and agreeing with the business or product owner the project approach, scope, budget, schedule and resource allocation.
• Decisions on changes to the project in response to change requests, risks, issues and any deviations from the project plan within the tolerance set by the business case or programme.

Scope:

• Financial control of budgets up to c£10m.
• Managing all project staff including the design, development, testing specialists, project
• assistants and other staff as assigned and indirectly business resources supporting the project.

Application Closing Date
10th January, 2022.

How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should:
Click here to apply online

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