Deputy Programme Director

The Poverty and Social Protection team at Oxford Policy Management is currently seeking a Deputy Programme Director to support the FCDO funded Thrive and DEEP project on a 2 year part-time (0.5 FTE) contract.

We are an international development consultancy working to improve lives through sustainable policy change in low- and middle-income countries. Our vision is for fair public policy that benefits both people and the planet.  

THRIVE is a large-scale, multi-country research programme which aims to build understanding of early childhood development (ECD) service delivery models, at scale, and how they can transform to significantly improve childhood health, nutrition, education and well-being in low- and middle-income countries. THRIVE is managed by Oxford Policy Management in collaboration with the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), and Yale University. Our partners also include Boston College and their Research Programme on Children and Adversity (RPCA), the Centre for Experimental Research on Fairness, Inequality, and Rationality (FAIR) at the Norwegian School of Economics, and the Institute for International Economic Studies Stockholm University (IIES), and Sightsavers. The programme covers five countries - Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Ghana, Bangladesh and Kiribati.

DEEP’s mission is to build evidence, insights, and solutions that help end extreme poverty globally. DEEP aims to contribute to new global and national data and evidence that governments, decision makers, citizens and researchers can use to improve people’s lives and support the world’s poorest people in their efforts to escape extreme poverty. DEEP is a 7-year FCDO funded research programme, with three key consortium partners – Cornell University, the University of Southampton and Copenhagen University.

The Deputy Programme Director will work with the Programme Director and Programme Manager to ensure efficient and effective programme leadership, management, and coordination of the Thrive and DEEP programmes.

This is home-based with occasional travel. It is intended as a 0.5 FTE and may rise to 0.8 FTE as project work increases over the two years. 

The Deputy Programme Director will report to the Thrive/DEEP Programme Director for day-to-day line management, personal objective setting, mid-year and annual performance reviews. The DPD will oversee the programme management and administration team – directly managing the Programme Manager; and indirectly overseeing the Finance Manager, Deputy Programme Manager and Programme Administrator.

Key responsibilities

Programme leadership, management, direction and growth

• In line with Thrive and DEEPs vision and strategic objectives, develop annual workplans for Thrive at a global and country level and update these, as necessary.
• Lead on delivery of annual workplans and budget such that actual performance does not deviate by more than 5% per month.
• Ensure timely and appropriate staffing of key technical and management roles for smooth delivery of Thrive.
• Support programme manager with contract and corporate compliance, risk management.
• Support with supply chain management especially global and in-country research partners, external and associates.
• Support with project close-down and knowledge capture plans including overseeing knowledge management activities (i.e., documentation, archiving).
• Contributing to the development of the Programme’s strategy, growth and change narrative.
• Contribute to appropriate contract management of partners and ensuring local-level delivery chain management adheres to Thrive requirements and FCDO Supply Partner Code of Conduct.
• Support effective implementation of Ethical Approval Processes.
• Support effective implementation of Safeguarding Processes.
• Support effective implementation of Duty of Care Protocols.
• Internal communications
• Attend and, if needed, chair weekly country team meetings and Programme Leadership Team meetings
• With support from PD and PM, lead on ensuring clear and timely internal communication and coordination within Thrive country research teams, programme management team, and RDs in accordance with the Thrive Ways of Working document.
• Deputise for the Programme Director as needed.

External communication and knowledge sharing:

• With support from PD, develop and update Thrive and DEEPs external communications plan.
• With support from PM, oversee delivery of this communications plan including supplier management of external comms firm (Sonder)
• In consultation with Research Directors, develop and deliver strategy and plan for Thrive’s communities of practice in ECD; create virtual platforms to convene stakeholders and report on impact and lessons learned.

Client engagement and impact reporting

• Support PD and RDs in high level representation with FCDO
• Lead day-to-day relationship with FCDO through weekly meetings with the PRO and monthly meetings with SRO.
• Develop plan for identifying and recording examples of programme impact and lessons learned.
• Coordinate with OPM MEL team for logframe reporting and updating programme TOC.
• Contribute to the delivery of timely Quarterly Reports and Annual Reviews to FCDO
• Contribute to internal progress reports (e.g. OPM RAG)

Key qualifications/experience/skills/behaviours: 

• Masters or Ph.D. in social sciences, management, finance, economics, or other relevant discipline.
• At least 10 years of experience managing large and complex donor-funded international programmes, especially research programmes, including having budget responsibility and managing academic consortia and delivery teams.
• Experience in managing FCDO-funded programmes, especially research programmes will be considered an asset.
• Substantial experience in managing in-country research, technical support, and policy advisory teams.
• Experience in leading/managing internal and external communications is essential.
• Familiarity with FCDO’s mission and strategy in the education, gender and inclusion sector is considered a strong asset but is not essential.
• Strong record of operational oversight of mandatory programme areas such as safeguarding, duty of care, security, annual costed workplans, risk identification and mitigation, KPI reporting, and client and supplier contracting requirements.
• Strong record of successful supplier management including managing supplier delivery challenges.
• Experience in coordinating and supervising large teams (including academic teams), monitoring performance, and managing budgets is crucial.
• Experience managing relationships between donor clients, academic, and programme management.
• Effective communication skills, including the ability to engage with a range of different audiences within and beyond academia, including government and policymakers.
• Excellent client relationship skills and ability to professionally interact with a wide array of external and internal stakeholders. 

Our offer: 

We enable colleagues’ capacity to grow professionally through enhanced learning resources, opportunities to work cross functionally, and space to engage with a range of internal and external industry events. 

Our non-hierarchical culture values support, collaboration, intellectual curiosity, and a rich diversity of perspectives. 

We provide an exceptionally generous annual leave entitlement and a hybrid working model to encourage and enable healthy work/life balance. 

Wellbeing resources including a global Employee Assistance Programme and access to the UnMind app. 

We are strengthened by the diversity of colleagues across our global business and are committed to being an equal opportunities employer, promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace for all.  Our recruitment practices reflect our ambition to make the international development sector more inclusive and firm belief that our work delivers the best outcomes when we actively include a diversity of perspectives and experiences.  

Application:

If you share our vision for fair public policy that benefits both people and planet, we would love to hear from you.  Please submit your application through our careers’ site by the closing date OR We review and interview applicants on a rolling basis and encourage you to apply by way of CV via our careers site at the earliest.  We may close this advertisement before the published closing date, should a suitable candidate be identified. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role and you must have a pre-existing right to work in the UK for your application to be considered. 

Oxford Policy Management is committed to promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion at every level of the business.  Should you require adjustments to make the application process more accessible please contact us via: recruitment@opml.co.uk