SOS Children’s Villages is a child focused organization and an affiliate of the SOS Children Villages International. It is non-governmental, non-political, non-denominational, and non-racial. Its overall mission is to build families for children in need, help them shape their own futures and share in the development of their communities. To realise the mission of the organisation, SOS Children’s Villages is recruiting for the under listed position.

SOS Children’s Villages holds strict child safeguarding principles and a zero-tolerance policy for conducts of sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse in the workplace and other places where the organization’s activities are rendered.  Recruitment decisions will give due emphasis to assessing candidates value congruence and thorough background checks and police clearance reference check processes

Location Program Manager (1) – Kitwe

Qualifications & Experience

• Full Grade 12 School Certificate
• Bachelors Degree in Business Administration, Project Management, Public Administration, Community Development or any equivalent qualification. An advanced qualification in Project Management or Master’s degree in either of the above will be an added advantage.
• Minimum of five years’ experience in a similar position.

Personal Attributes

• Knowledge and experience of donor funding guidelines;
  Demonstrated Project Management experience and successful implementation achievements.
• Good numeracy and attention to detail with an ability to work within tight deadlines.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to work effectively with dynamic and diverse staff and management across all levels, both internally and externally;
• Excellent organisation, communication, time management, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills.
• Ability to think creatively and independently

Reporting Lines

• The job holder will report to the National Program Manager

Role objective
This position closely works with the National Program Manager, national Program team, and other national office department Heads, the incumbent provides overall leadership and management of the program location, coordinates planning and budgeting at the location in line with the SOS Children’s Villages strategic  direction, leads monitoring and evaluation of programme activities/quality assurance, manages overall financial operations including budgets, authorization and approval of expenditures as per the given threshold, build and manage positive relations with the community and/or local authorities, develop  appropriate partnerships and networks, supports and participates in the organization’s strategies for fundraising and resource  mobilization in cash and in-kind, maintains close working relationship with the National Program Manager as well as program teams and function heads, coordinates human resource planning, Management and development.  Moreover, the position shall provide overall leadership for the location in both managerial and programme aspects, playing a key role in influencing quality and effectiveness of programmes. This role harmonizes the programmes at the location (i.e family like care, family strengthening programmes) to achieve the highest level of quality in service delivery.  The job incumbent shall lead and supervise co-workers of the various areas of work within the programmes and administrative functions.

Key Responsibilities

Programme development and management

• Leads the development and implementation of the SOS CVP in line with the SOS Children’s Villages Programme Policy and related international and national SOS policies, strategies, quality standards, and guidelines.
• Leads the implementation of the programme management cycle including the CVP planning process as part of MA annual and strategic planning to ensure that interventions are relevant to the local context, respond to the needs of the target group, and contribute to the development of sustainable social support systems.
• Coordinates and ensures cooperation between all areas of work within the CVP (specialised as well as general support work).
• Ensures efficiency through best use/sharing of resources across different programme units.
• Regularly reports on CVP activities and progress towards targets to National Program Manager and relevant National Office functions.
• Ensures that the CVP is supportive to the brand of the SOS Children’s Villages Organisation

HR management/organisational development and administration

• Establishes appropriate staffing patterns and ensures full staffing of the Location.
• Leads managing co-workers in the location, i.e. those involved in specialised work with different forms of families and in general support work.
• Ensures the effective implementation of the HR Cycle in the CVP following national legal requirements.
• Sets up and leads an effective CVP management team.
• Contributes to defining CVP related processes between the CVP and the NO
• Facilitates cooperation and information flow between National Office staff and their counterparts in the location according to the national annual plan, job descriptions and agreed procedures
• Manage all administrative processes and supervise responsible personnel in undertaking the same
• Ensures that budgeting of maintenance costs (construction, repairs, renovation) for SOS property is carried out by the leader of the programme the facility belongs. Technical work like execution, supervision and procurement are carried out by competent staff. The RPM is overall accountable for good facility maintenance in the CVP

Financial management

• Builds accountability in the programme by ensuring implementation of simple and effective financial and administrative procedures, in accordance with defined policies, guidelines and standards.
• Leads the budgeting process in the location(s).
• Monitors budget expenditures and conducts financial management (in cooperation with the responsible person for finance) and content controlling of the programme, in order to ensure that funds are properly used.
• Continually looks for ways to provide quality services in a cost-effective manner.

Quality management, monitoring and evaluation

• Is overall responsible for quality management in the CVP and ensures the implementation of national and international quality standards with guidance and monitoring from function staff in the National Office.
• Monitors the implementation of recommendations from national and international quality audits and evaluations.

Partnership building, advocacy and corporation with external stakeholders

• Negotiates and concludes agreements and contracts with state authorities and other organisations with a power of attorney given by the ND.
• Leads and coordinates cooperation, partnership building, and networking efforts of the CVP with local and national authorities and other external stakeholders.
• Represents together with managing CVP staff the organisation at relevant local networks, forums, platforms, campaigns, working groups and advocates on behalf of the organisation for the promotion of child rights, especially related to children from the target group.

Fund development and public relations

• Promotes the organisation in the public and identifies potential income sources in cooperation with the Fund Development & Communications function in the National Office and/or NPM
• Strives for the highest possible level of programme self-financing with a focus on government subsidies and public funding within the frame of targets agreed during the strategic planning process

Child safeguarding

• Responsible for organizing and driving the Child Protection Policy implementation and child safeguarding actions at programme level including sharing information about the current status of the Child Protection Policy implementation with the national CS focal person.

Gender mainstreaming

• Responsible for driving and promoting the Gender Equality Policy and ensuring that gender equality and inclusion is mainstreamed in all the programs. Provide support for gender capacity building and implementation at location level in conjunction with Gender and advocacy Officer