Job Opportunity – Project Manager – Youth Employment in Agriculture Rwanda (YEA-R) 

WHY CHOOSE SNV 

SNV the Netherlands Development Organization is an global development partner working in more than 25 countries in Asia and Africa. In Rwanda, SNV has been working for more than 30 years to improve people’s livelihoods by strengthening the capacities of public and private sector organizations and catalyzing partnerships. It does so by helping to realize the national development goals in three sectors: Agri-Food; Renewable Energy; and Water. SNV supports development in these sectors by working with the government, civil society, and private sector organizations. 

JOB DESCRIPTION 

SNV Rwanda is recruiting an experience Project Manager (PM) for an anticipated award in youth employment in agriculture value chains. The ideal candidate brings a background in youth engagement, gender transformation and private sector growth. It is expected the PM has strong coordination and management skills, and will build and maintain effective relationships within the team and partners by ensuring a high level of SNV visibility and branding. 

The project manager will manage the planning and implementation of the project, within scope, budget, timeline, and acceptable quality levels along the commitments specified in the contracts signed with the donor and partners.

JOB SPECIFICATIONS:

• Contract Type: Full time, National Employment
• Duty Station: Kigali – Rwanda
• Reports to : Country Director
• Direct Reports : Project Advisors
• Contract Type and Duration:  Two years with the possibility of extension based on performance
• Anticipated Start Date: asap

KEY TASKS 

Project set-up and design

• Initiates contract handover from the BD Team
• Set up and communicates administrative, governance, accounting, HR, M&E structures and procedures for the project
• Initiates implementation of the project plan upon approval of donor and country director, in accordance to the SNV project execution procedures, relevant SNV structures and procedures, accounting principles, donor requirements and contracted commitments
• Understands the role of the partners and makes a clear project set up

Project management

• Manages and motivates the project team, partners and relevant stakeholders
• Plans and assigns deliverables and activities, reviews their progress and address deviations in terms of timelines and quality, based on project planning, deliverables agreed and budget set
• Set up/plans regular meetings with partners and revies project update
• Sets up and follow field visits and monitoring visits with stakeholders including government
• Gives due attention to finances/budgeting/expenditures in the project
• Ensures quality of the deliverables and ensures sufficient technical input to meet the quality standards
• Manages and accounts for full compliance of administrative, finance and HR components of the project with SNV internal procedures and requirements specified in the donor and partner/LSPs contracts. 

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 8 years of project management experience
• Experience managing large budgets (over $10m)
• Preferred: experience in agriculture, youth employment and/or MSME business development
• Knowledge of evidence-based practices related to gender and social inclusion, market systems development and inclusive value chains
• Strong leadership skills, experience in partnership development & deep understanding and experience in consortia management
• Familiar with agricultural sector policies and national strategies, public-private partnerships, private sector development and farmer organizations
• Fluency in both written and spoken English
• Strong preference for candidates with experience in Rwanda and Kinyarwanda speakers. Regional candidates highly preferred.
• Strong strategic decision-making and excellent communicator to help transfer technical learnings to non-technical audiences
• Strong analytical thinking skills, ability to multi-task and supervise project staff with varying skillsets and levels of experience
• Willingness to travel to all programme/project locations, including remote, rural areas 

COMPETENCIES:

Managing Performance: Ability to plan and design practices, processes and procedures that allow for effective management of people, resources and processes to optimize overall organizational performance. Managing for performance includes the ability to delegate and encourage growth and leadership across the team(s) as part of maximizing performance and productivity.

Strategic Thinking: Applies organizational knowledge to identify and maintain focus on key success factors for SNV while recognizing, anticipating and resolving organizational challenges. Ability to develop organization- and industry-specific expertise and apply sound decision-making processes to reach productive resolutions that translates strategy into actionable business plans.

Effective Communication (Oral & Written): Understands effective communication concepts, tools and techniques; ability to effectively transmit, explain complex technical concepts in simple, clear language appropriate to the audience; and receive, and accurately interpret ideas, information, and needs through the application of appropriate communication behaviours

Risk Management: Knowledge of processes, tools and techniques for assessing and controlling the organization’s exposure to risks of various kinds; ability to apply this knowledge appropriately to diverse situations.

Innovation: Develops new, better or significantly different ideas, methods, solutions or initiatives within assigned role that result in improvement of SNV’ s performance and meeting objectives, results and global commitments.

Accountability: Holds self and others accountable for all work activities, research and personal actions and decisions; follows through on commitments and focuses on those activities that have the greatest impact on meeting measurable high-quality results for SNV’ s success. Exercises ethical practices, respectful words and behaviours, and equitable treatment of others in all activities.