View Vacancy – Programme Officer EO (03/24 FT)

Main purpose of job:

The British High Commission (BHC) in Freetown has a  substantial Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) programme portfolio and Programme Officers are responsible for supporting delivery of clear and credible development results through excellence in programme, financial, and risk and commercial management (including working closely with a range of delivery partners including the Government of Sierra Leone, multilateral organisations, international and Sierra Leonean NGOs, academia, and private sector suppliers). 

A Programme Officer is accountable for driving the delivery of programme outcomes within agreed time, cost and quality constraints. They are responsible for day-to-day delivery within the programme in a role that combines technical, programme management and relationship management responsibilities. They are empowered to take operational decisions, within parameters agreed with the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO). This role is crucial to supporting provision of high-quality programme management of our bilateral Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) programme portfolio to achieve the UK’s development and diplomacy goals in Sierra Leone.

Programme officers at the BHC Freetown will work on a range of different programmes and thematic areas and rotate across teams (subject to experience, skills, and the needs of the BHC). These areas include but are not limited to:

• Human Development: – education, health, the empowerment of women and girls, and wider social development policy and practice.
• Good Governance: – promoting efforts to address a range of challenges covering electoral reform, democracy and good governance – including strengthening of key governance institutions, as well as a focus on national civil society, civic engagement and mutual accountability.
• Growth: – promoting sustainable economic growth, diversifying the economy, creating jobs and addressing barriers to growth; championing private sector development (including trade and investment), renewable electricity generation, water and electricity infrastructure.
• Climate:  developing and implementing effective climate and environment policies and programmes.
  
• Strategic Partnerships & Portfolio Assurance and Compliance: – providing strategic direction of the programme portfolio, assurance, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL), coherence, support for capacity building to deliver our goals; management of cross-cutting policy and practice.

Programme Officers must be confident self-starters, with excellent programme management, problem solving, leadership and interpersonal skills, be proactive, eager to build their own capability and that of others quickly, and have the ability to multi-task effectively and meet tight deadlines.

Roles and responsibilities:
     
An EO Programme Officer (PO) leads the programme management of less complex or lower spending programmes or components within programmes and supports an Higher Executive Officer Programme Manager on more complex programmes / components. They will work alongside the Programme Managers, Technical Advisers, and Senior Responsible Officers (SROs). They are expected to have a solid understanding of the Smart Rules and to be able to provide advice on programme compliance and straightforward issues, although they are likely to need support on more complex issues. POs support the management of the Team’s portfolio by providing accurate information on their own programmes and components. POs understand the distinction between programme management and advisory roles and seek inputs accordingly. 
 
The postholders will need to demonstrate a commitment to working collaboratively, transparently and accountably with colleagues in their team and across the office. We are looking for people with a pro-active attitude, the willingness to work responsively across several issues simultaneously, learn quickly and an ability to work with a range of different stakeholders. The postholders should be committed to programme delivery excellence and be willing to actively invest in lesson learning, their own L&D and that of others to support this aim. 
 
Key responsibilities include: 

• Managing aspects of the project cycle for the programmes / components they are responsible for. They may lead programme management of less complex or lower/medium spending programme / components and support the PMs on more complex programmes/ components. They will ensure compliance with the PrOF Rules for any programmes / components on which they lead and will support the PMs / SROs in ensuring broader compliance across the portfolio. Specific duties will vary depending on the stage of the programme but may include engaging with the Procurement and Commercial Department on procurement, inputting into Business Cases, developing Terms of Reference, participating in and drafting Annual Reviews or Project Completion Reports, and managing the processes and timelines for all these activities on BHC/FCDO systems (including ensuring accuracy of MI).
• Ensuring the effective financial management of programmes to ensure agreed programme and departmental spending targets are met, variances are minimised, and Value for Money is achieved. Where leading on programmes / components, they will be expected to work closely with the SRO and PM to proactively manage accurate financial forecasts over the year and profiling for outer years, ensure timely payment of invoices, and robust scrutiny and follow up of financial reports and Annual Audited Statements, liaising with the Finance team. This will also include the ability to clearly explain the programme activities behind forecasts or variances in financial performance. They will lead on financial management engagement with the programme’s partners including budgeting, forecasting and financial reporting. Where not leading on components / programmes, they will be expected to support PMs in delivering effective financial management. They will also be expected to have an understanding of how their programme contributes towards team- and office- level finances and to support team-level financial management.
• Proactively managing risk (including fraud risk) of programmes, drawing on the risk management framework, Due Diligence guidance, Delivery Chain Risk Mapping, Counter Aid Diversion Strategy and best practice, maintaining up to date records (including robust asset management procedures) and escalating risks as appropriate. They are responsible to proactively supports the recording and management of risks of a programme including utilising and updating risk tracking. They will be expected to lead on routine due diligence assessments (DDA) and DDA action plans.
• Establishing and maintaining strong supplier and partner relationships of projects to improve their performance in line with agreements / contracts / Memorandum of Understanding (MoUs), commercial best practice, and suppliers’ code of conduct. They will be responsible to challenge and help programme partners develop their understanding and capacity on risk, safeguarding, finance, reporting and general programme management.
• Implementing the effective monitoring of projects, including through spot checks and field visits, timely reviews, ensuring adherence to reporting requirements and scrutinising performance reports. They will work with the team to track the implementation of our programmes and verifying partners information, to raise confidence and assurance that the portfolio is delivering to its objectives.
• Managing and strengthening programme management capacity in their teams and across the wider BHC Freetown. This will involve regular sharing of lesson learnt across the office and helping to build the office evidence base on what works to achieve development and diplomacy goals through programmes.
• Support wider team and / or cross office priorities as required. This may include supporting the Senior Programme Manager / Team Leader on management of the team portfolio including lesson learning in programme management. They will support cross office working including assisting with communications briefings, Parliamentary Questions, VIP visits and corporate returns; taking an active interest in the strategic aims of the FCDO and BHC Freetown will be important.

Resources managed (staff and expenditure): 

• Subject to Programmes they lead on – they may be required to task manage 1 Project Officer (health, education, economic growth, portfolio compliance and assurance); they will have responsibility for day-to-day management and oversight of budgets (dependent on programme size).

• Experience of programme management.
• Excellent financial management and risk management skills.
• Good written and oral communication skills.
• Fluency in spoken and written English language.
• Strong time management, organisational and planning skills in order to manage multiple work streams and deliver to a high standard either as an individual or team effort.
• Ability to work independently with limited supervision, take the initiative and deliver at pace.
• Proven experience in engaging and managing external partners.
• Strong IT capability including MS Excel and Word. Having a very good knowledge of windows operating systems, especially Microsoft applications including Microsoft Exchange and the use of Microsoft office tools like word, excel, Power Point, Teams etc.
• Experience in capacity building.