Senior Manager (Bihar)

Our partner organization is working towards reaching vulnerable children and strengthening state or community protection systems around them as well as building the child's own resilience and coping strategies.

What does the work involve?

Sr. Managers are active listeners, observers, collaborators, and solution creators. This is an exciting opportunity with the potential to achieve a multi-faceted role which includes - 

• Lead and manage the programs across 3 districts by developing, implementing, and evaluating them to fulfill the objectives established for the state.
• Work closely with the state team member to provide operational support to ensure operational excellence.
• Project Management: Working closely with the Programme Head on project management including creating project plans, overseeing and organizing execution and implementation of the programme, dashboard, and progress trackers, scheduling/structuring meetings, and following through on communication.
• Oversee the daily workflow within the assigned districts.
• Manage timelines and assist with meeting target deliverables on schedule.
• Serve as the liaison for all stakeholders (program participants, facilitators, coaches, advisors, etc.) and provide ongoing support to the state team.
• Sustain and manage relationships with district-level officials.
• Lead and support the execution of evaluation for ongoing assessment of programmes within the state.
• Oversee and monitor trainings being undertaken by the training team to ensure quality and adherence to the training needs identified.
• Knowledge management: Processing, consolidating, and sharing learning from program implementation to be fed into State-level strategy.

In addition, you will play a critical role in leveraging the power of data to:

• Advocate for broader impact with district/state officials.
• Ensure a balance of progress against quantitative targets as well as high-quality and deep work for sustainable impact.
• TRAVEL: This role requires regular travel to the operational sites, to attend government and other stakeholder meetings, and to Mumbai/ New Delhi for head office meetings, and other locations as maybe necessary.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

Training and Development:

• Building ownership, investment, and accountability to the overall vision to be achieved for Bihar among team members, community women, key stakeholders, and Government officials.
• Helping the trainers with developing training and coaching plans, and preparation with the trainers to ensure effective delivery of the organization's curriculum and content.
• Ongoing and hands-on training with the trainers who are responsible for training and coaching community child protection workers and stakeholders.
• Plan and conduct meetings/orientation with block and district-level officials and ensure that the objectives of the program are being achieved.
• Monitor the trainings facilitated by the trainers to ensure that the training objectives are met.
• Assist in preparing team members for meetings by conducting relevant background research, planning meetings, drafting talking points, etc.

Program implementation:

• Leading the state team to implement the project and meet outcomes across the 3 districts of Bihar. This includes managing the implementation as per the plans developed and monitoring the progress against the district milestones.
• Support the program team with relevant insights and feedback to ensure that the goals of the program are met.
• Look at hyper-local data to strategize and provide directions and recommendations to the team for strengthening the intervention.
• Review qualitative data collected from the program to understand the challenges and learnings of the program and develop an insight.

Advocacy and Networking

• Building and maintaining relationships with key government officials of the Police Department at the district and local level.
• Working in collaboration with government officials, taking action data reports from the community to demonstrate sustainable outcomes and results.

Others

• Track key policy developments and trends relevant to child protection and their work in Bihar.
• Support the state Data Associate in developing and maintaining monthly MIS, collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data.
• Preparing reports to share with Govt. Authorities, and funders with the aim of communicating key protection issues, actions planned, and outcomes of the program.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to lead and manage a team.
• Strong project planning and project management skills.
• Communication skills so as to deliver a compelling message through oral and written mediums to diverse stakeholders.
• Relationship-building so as to connect individuals, and groups, with shared goals.
• Critical thinking and problem-solving attitude.
• Ability to multi-task and be resourceful in the face of uncertainty.
• Willingness to travel frequently.
• Understanding of the local context and socio-political environment of the state.

Education and Experience

• A Masters degree in a relevant field.
• 8+ years of work experience.
• Experience in managing a team.
• Agility in responding to changing demands, balancing multiple priorities, responsiveness to communication, and being available to be on call/on the field on short notice.
• Ability to work independently and efficiently in a fast-paced and evolving environment.
• Working knowledge of the thematic areas of child safety and protection will be an added advantage.