Programme Officer - 12 month FTC

Sense International has a fantastic opportunity for someone to join our team as our Programme Officer focusing on East Africa. This is a 1 year fixed term position working 30 hours per week, home-based with occasional travel to our office in King's Cross, London.

The Programme Officer position is a complex function requiring strong prioritisation and co-ordination skills. The successful candidate will be expected to co-ordinate well with colleagues, deliver high quality work, show good judgement, and apply initiative and persistence. Attention to detail is also crucial.

You will be working closely with the Senior Programme Manager East Africa to support the Sense International teams in East Africa with grant management, programme implementation, support to monitoring and evaluation, and donor compliance. As well as working with colleagues to co-ordinate Sense International’s involvement in consortium projects across the organisation, overseeing systems and ensuring quality reporting and compliance.

Key Responsibilities include

• Ensure projects are delivered in line with work plans and budgets, and to a high standard, by reviewing (internal) reports, holding regular check-in calls with teams, developing and revising workplans, budgets, monitoring and learning plans, risk registers, and project documents (including research documents, evaluations, Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) and activity reports).
• Support grant reporting, in some cases leading the development of the report, liaising with donors and work with colleagues to ensure compliance to donor grants.
• Monitor budgets, highlight variances and lead on / contribute to budget revisions when necessary.
• Support East Africa teams with quality assurance and monitoring, evaluation, accountability and learning (MEAL) work for all teams and projects.
• Support with any other communications related work, including updates for the website with country specific content, developing impact stories and support the coordination of any campaigns.
• Support the development of new funding proposals together with the East Africa teams, the fundraising team and the Senior Programme Manager East Africa.
• Be the internal Sense International coordinator for our participation in the Inclusive Futures consortium and organise regular internal meetings (create agenda, manage papers and minutes) to ensure colleagues are up to date and information is being shared, and lead on the regular donor reporting cycles.
• Be the Sense International first-port-of-call contact person for the Inclusive Futures external Fund Management Team. Circulate requests from the Fund Management Team with the relevant Sense International staff and ensure requests are met in a timely manner (including compliance documents, case studies and website updates).
• Attend the Inclusive Futures finance working group meetings and Core Group meetings.

Key skills and experience

• Demonstrated experience of supporting programme management and the project cycle, including project planning, grant management, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Demonstrated experience of supporting budget and financial monitoring.
• Experience providing remote support to global teams working on international development projects and programmes.
• Ability to manage and coordinate complex project documentation including reports, risk registers etc.
• Strong communication and inter-personal skills including the ability to influence and negotiate.
• Ability to communicate effectively in written and spoken English and/or sign language.

For a full job description and person specification, please see the link on the left hand side of the page.

About Sense International

Sense International is the only international charity dedicated to supporting people with deafblindness and their families around the world.

We operate in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Nepal, Peru, Romania, Tanzania and Uganda.

Our vision is to ensure that no-one is left behind. Our work focuses on ensuring that people with deafblindness are able to access education, healthcare and work, so that they can thrive and live life to their full potential. We are a small charity that has a huge impact because of the way we work. We work directly with local people and local organisations so that our support is sustainable and has a life changing impact.

Our strategy is focused on removing barriers so that people with deafblindness are fully included; improving understanding of deafblindness through sharing skills and information; and ensuring the voices of people with deafblindness are heard and their rights are realised. We receive funding from government, trusts, foundations and individuals.

Working at Sense and Sense International can be incredibly rewarding; we offer the opportunity to work in a large, diverse and successful charity where people can develop their skills, knowledge and careers in a supportive and flexible environment. In addition we have excellent training and development, the opportunity for you to join our Group Personal Pension scheme and a generous annual leave entitlement.

To apply

Please use the link below to complete your application. Managers will use your application to shortlist candidates for interview; in relation to the Personal Specification. Therefore, it is very important you complete this section thoroughly. We would recommend that you read the job description and person specification before applying.

Please note to avoid disappointment, we advise you to submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close posts at any time.

No agency submissions please: any submissions without prior authorisation from the Sense Recruitment Team will be treated as our own and as such no fee will be payable.

If you require any further assistance, please contact the Recruitment Team on 0121 415 6735 or [email protected]

Sense is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable children and adults and expects all employees to share this commitment. Therefore, all offers of employment, where appropriate, are subject to a DBS check; level dependent on the nature of the role.

For this role we particularly welcome applications from candidates from underrepresented ethnic minority backgrounds and candidates with disabilities. Sense is committed to equality of opportunity, and to promoting and celebrating the diversity of staff, volunteers and the people we work with. Everyone's contribution is valued and we ensure they're given the opportunity to realise their potential. We welcome applications from talented people from all sections of the community who share our values and belief that no one, no matter how complex their disabilities, should be isolated, left out, or unable to fulfil their potential. For more information please visit: https://www.sense.org.uk/jobs/equality-diversity-and-inclusion-in-recruitment/