About ESDO

Our vision is for a healthier, safer & more equal planet.

The European Sustainable Development Organisation (ESDO) was established to provide specialist evidence and behavioural change strategies to tackle the most complex development issues of our time. 

Role: Evidence Unit Manager

Deadline: 5 February 2023

Summary

This is an exciting role to help ESDO achieve impact on some of the most challenging issues in the humanitarian aid and development sector. You will be leading a team of technical and thematic experts to implement research, monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEAL) projects across ESDO’s six missions on behalf of donors and clients. Using ESDO’s systems you will develop proposals that respond to client/donor MEAL needs and then ensure those projects are delivered to high technical quality standards. You will grow and develop a small team of fundraising officers, MEAL officers, project managers and thematic experts to deliver evidence of the highest quality.

You will be working on issues such as conflict, refugees, climate change, intersectionality and equality. The role requires someone with an outstanding mix of business development, leadership, ambition and knowledge of technical MEAL approaches. You will be confident networking with partners and colleagues and have a strong orientation towards systemising your team’s work.  

The Role

This role will manage the Small Project’s Team within ESDO’s Evidence Unit. This is a role with full P&L responsibility to win projects, develop long-term client relationships and deliver research and MEAL projects to the highest technical standards across all of our six missions. The responsibilities of the role will include:

Project Implementation (35% of time)

• Overall responsibility for the implementation of all projects within the Small Project’s Team.
• Ensuring all projects in the Small Project’s Team are delivered to time, quality and budget.
• Act as the primary contact point for client relationships in the Small Project’s Team.
• Ensure all ESDO systems are used consistently.
• Onboarding personnel, orientating them and ensuring all HR and Finance processes are completed.
• Ensuring all elements of project financial management including managing invoice schedules and managing consultant payments and milestones
• Ensuring internal project reporting is completed
• Supporting and guiding project managers and team leaders
• Ensure high quality technical research and MEAL approaches are developed and deployed 
• Ensure all project marketing activity is completed, including blog posts, website updates and press releases

Fundraising (50% of time)

• Overall management of fundraising for the Small Project’s Team
• Ensuring proposal quality increases
• Ensure internal fundraising targets are achieved  
• Developing an engaged network of consultant advisers
• Developing data collection teams and partnerships in key implementation countries
• Managing all client compliance requirements from proposal to project conclusion
• Contract management for clients, partners and consultants

Leadership & Corporate Development (15% of time)

• Identifying, recruiting, developing, motivating and retaining talented personnel
• Participate in ESDO strategy development processes 
• Lead a workplan of systemisation of processes to make the ESDO Small Project’s Team more efficient at winning projects and delivering for our clients and communities
• Content writing for online properties including website and social media
• Assist with a range of administrative tasks including but not limited to recruitment processes, software selection, expenses and corporate service development
• Participating in continuous professional development processes

Requirements

This is a role for someone experienced in the consulting side of our industry who wants to take a leadership role of a business unit managing 50+ small projects per year. You need to be ambitious to grow and systemise, but humble enough to be a ‘hands-on’ in proposal writing and project management. 

A successful candidate will meet the following requirements:

• Complete native fluency in written and spoken English with very high calibre writing skills.
• Extensive experience managing research, monitoring, learning and/or evaluation projects with strong working knowledge of relevant technical approaches.
• Previous leadership experience of small teams.
• Evidence of successful business development and proposal writing.

Engagement Terms

We are looking for someone to join us on a permanent basis.

The monthly all inclusive fee is USD4,950. This position is also eligible for profit sharing (‘bonuses’) in accordance with the ESDO Policy: Profit Sharing. 

This is a remote homeworking position and you can be based anywhere in the world.

This position is vacant now.