Project Manager, Higher Education at British Council

The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. We create friendly knowledge and understanding between the people of the UK and other countries. We do this by making a positive contribution to the UK and the countries we work with – changing lives by creating opportunities, building connections and engendering trust.
 
We work with over 100 countries across the world in the fields of arts and culture, English language, education and civil society. Each year we reach over 20 million people face-to-face and more than 500 million people online, via broadcasts and publications. Founded in 1934, we are a UK charity governed by Royal Charter and a UK public body.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: Project Manager, Higher Education

Job ID: 49749
Location: Lagos

Role purpose

• Leads the delivery and growth of the country Higher Education portfolio and British Council global programmes, including student mobility, alumni engagement, tertiary education partnerships, and client-funded initiatives. Ensures the successful end-to-end delivery of projects and grants by managing stakeholders, partnerships, compliance requirements, reporting obligations, and programme performance, while maintaining high standards of quality, accountability, and impact.

Role Accountabilities

• This role is responsible for managing a broad range of project, financial, stakeholder, and compliance activities to ensure the successful delivery of education programmes. It involves building and maintaining strong relationships with external stakeholders, including higher education institutions, delivery partners, and suppliers, while overseeing procurement processes, managing contracts, and holding suppliers accountable for delivering agreed outcomes. The role also requires effective collaboration across internal and external networks to support programme objectives.
• A significant aspect of the position is financial and commercial management. Responsibilities include supporting financial planning and forecasting, monitoring budgets and expenditure, ensuring compliance with procurement-to-payment processes, reviewing financial performance against plans, and contributing to accurate reporting for clients, partners, and internal stakeholders. The role works closely with finance and programme teams to maintain financial accuracy, identify variances, and implement corrective actions while ensuring adherence to British Council financial policies and procedures.
• The role contributes to programme planning and delivery by supporting project management activities, identifying and mitigating risks, managing procurement and contracting processes, ensuring compliance requirements are met, and overseeing reporting from grant recipients, consultants, and service providers. It also includes responsibility for data management, quality assurance, monitoring, analysis, and reporting to meet funding and programme requirements. Additionally, the role supports business development activities by contributing to proposal development, costing, pricing, and reporting for externally funded projects.
• A strong commitment to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) is embedded throughout the role. This includes actively promoting an inclusive and anti-racist culture, supporting employee well-being, and integrating EDI principles into programme design and delivery. The role ensures that projects contribute positively to gender equality, disability inclusion, and broader social inclusion outcomes while continuously developing knowledge and awareness of EDI best practices.

Role Specific Knowledge and Experience
Essentials:

• Bachelor’s Degree is required
• Experience of managing projects from start to finish and familiarity with project life-cycles.
• Understanding of procurement, evaluation and reporting requirements of projects.
• Proven experience of managing project finances.
• Experience of managing stakeholders 
• Project management qualification desirable.
• More than 2 years working in project or programme management. 
• Experience of using technology n project delivery.
• Good understanding and experience of supporting monitoring and evaluation

Desirables:

• Experience and understanding of tertiary education sector
• Project management qualification.

Application Closing Date
11th August, 2026 (23.59 IST).

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