Position Title:            Project Manager

Status:                        Full Time, Regular Employee

Location:                    Seattle (Must reside in the Greater Seattle area)

Classification:           Exempt (Not Eligible for Overtime Pay)

Salary:                        $79,000 – $94,000 DOE

About Landesa:  Landesa is an international nonprofit dedicated to ending global poverty by securing land rights for the people experiencing poverty around the globe. Founded in 1981, Landesa has worked in 50 countries throughout the world, with central office staff in the U.S. (Seattle, WA and Washington, DC) and regional offices in China, India, Liberia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Cambodia and Thailand. Landesa partners with governments, civil society, and companies to develop pro-poor and gender-sensitive laws, policies and programs that have helped strengthen land rights for more than 180 million families.   The organization is supported by NGOs, foundations, donor agencies (USAID, World Bank, etc.), world leaders, educational institutions, and individual supporters around the world.

Job Summary:    The Project Manager will serve on a variety of multi-year, high-visibility projects across our programs and internal to Landesa. The Project Manager will support project start-up and ongoing implementation of projects in alignment with Landesa processes as well as donor reporting, management, and compliance requirements. The Project Manager will work with technical staff to ensure project milestones are delivered on time, on budget, and with the quality expected from Landesa. The Project Manager will work directly with the program team to design project workplans, and to manage project contributors and stakeholders to ensure successful project implementation, compliance, and reporting. The Project Manager will troubleshoot and be a key decision maker in creating and executing problem solving strategies. The Project Manager will create communication strategies to ensure the executive team has a robust understanding of the project status and can act as advocates and make connections across geographies and stakeholders.

Reporting and relationships:  The Project Manager reports to a Regional Director and works closely with Project Leads, Program Directors, and other staff to address project management needs in any of Landesa’s geographies or areas of work.

Availability:  The Project Manager will be expected to work a standard workweek of 40 hours plus additional hours as necessary to get the job done. This position may require international and domestic travel of up to 40 days annually. Currently staff are WFH and/or enjoying a hybrid approach. Days in the office would be based on need and negotiated with your supervisor.

Essential Job Functions: The Project Manager will advance Landesa’s mission and strategic objectives through:

• Design and set up of systems for planning, tracking, ensuring compliance and reporting on project resources, progress, and results. These systems need to align with Landesa’s existing policies and processes, and meet contract stipulations, grant agreement requirements, and funders’ needs in a practical, timely, and cost-effective way. Project systems will align with Landesa’s project lifecycle system and result in effective assignment and management of human and financial resources to successfully complete projects, considering project goals, staffing, budgets, risks, and deliverables. Project systems will support the project’s compliance with internal policies and goals as well as with funders’ policies and regulations.

• Hold primary responsibility for populating the systems for planning, tracking, ensuring compliance and reporting on project resources, progress, and results. The Project Manager must ensure the systems are populated with relevant, accurate, and timely data.

• Support Landesa’s compliance with internal and external policies and regulations. The Project Manager will work in coordination with the Project Lead and Landesa’s Compliance Team to proactively and pre-emptively alert and inform relevant decision makers of rules, risks, and options.

• Meet project-level information needs of internal decision makers. This includes but is not limited to information related to activities, deliverables, and actual and projected staffing and expenses. Relevant decision makers include the Project and Components’ Leads, Program Directors, Regional Directors, DCPO, CPO, and the Finance, IT, Human Resources, and Resource Development teams.

• Support project information needed to steward relationships with funders, partners, and external stakeholders. The Project Manager will do this, in coordination with the Project Lead and Resource Development staff, by providing project information needed for external stakeholder communications. In addition, the Project Manager will be responsible for managing and tracking required donor approvals, and ensuring systems are in place for adequate due diligence and management of sub-award recipients. All communications must align with Landesa’s constructive, respectful, culturally sensitive, and mission-driven approach.

• Managing project consultants, partners and sub-grantees. Working in coordination with the Project Lead, the Project Manager will draft project ToRs, manage the recruitment, selection and contracting processes, oversee their invoicing, reporting and payments, and ensure they are meeting their commitments in a timely manner and with the expected quality.

• Support systems to identify and share project-level learnings. In coordination with the Project Lead, Program Director and Learnings Team, the Project Manager will manage systems to support generation of project-level lessons and contribute to thinking around disseminating and integrating them into Landesa’s knowledge base. This includes but is not limited to a better understanding of the problems being addressed, the context in which we operate, the segment of the population we are targeting, our capacity needs, the appropriateness of the intervention designed, and our successes and challenges in collaborating with specific consultants, partners, and sub-grantees.

• Develop capacity of Landesa’s staff, project consultants and partners on project management principles, tools and best practices to help them design, populate or use project management systems.

Education and Professional Experience: The Project Manager we seek should have:

• 5-7 years of Project Management experience, with Professional Certification from the Project Management Institute or equivalent accreditation preferred;
• Experience working in international development;
• Experience managing projects for NGOs;
• At least 5 years of experience managing US Government funding: their approval, decision-making and jargon as it relates to grants, cooperative agreements, and contracts;
• Experience managing European bilateral and multilateral funding agreements; and,
• Experience managing grantees.

An effective Project Manager at Landesa:

• Is passionate about systemic and rigorous work to alleviate poverty and foster social justice;
• Has the ability and is committed to applying a gender-responsive and socially inclusive approach in his/her work;
• Has the ability to collaborate with and support a range of stakeholders from different cultures and positions, including Landesa staff from all its offices, donors, government officials, civil society organizations, researchers, contractors, vendors, and services suppliers;
• Is a skilled communicator both orally and in writing, who is clear, nuanced, rigorous and compelling, who can discern the appropriate type, frequency, tenor, and level of communication required for any given objective, circumstance, and audience;
• Is a good listener;
• Is self-motivated and goal-oriented;
• Is comfortable with ambiguity, uncertainty, and change.

Work Environment and Working Conditions for Travelers to Developing Countries: While performing the duties of this job, the employee may be exposed to working conditions and hazards which are prevalent for the location and/or country of assignment. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.  Work is primarily performed indoors with some potential for exposure to safety and health hazards related to electronics work. The employee may be required to travel overseas and domestically. When traveling in a developing country, the employee may be exposed to: Physical Hazards (illnesses, noise, extreme temperatures, wet or humid climates, etc.), Road Hazards (unfinished/dirt roads, potholes, traffic-related accidents, etc.), and Atmospheric Conditions (odors, dust, fumes, smog, etc.).

Additional Comments:  The above job description is not intended as, nor should it be construed as, exhaustive of all responsibilities, skills, efforts, or working conditions associated with this job.  Reasonable accommodations may be made in appropriate circumstances to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of this job.

Equal employment opportunity has been, and will continue to be, a fundamental principle at Landesa. Landesa is committed to a work environment in which relationships are characterized by dignity, courtesy, and respect. We are committed to nondiscrimination in all of our business operations and embraces diversity as a key strategic philosophy and strength of how we do our global work.  Landesa actively seeks diverse candidates for employment.