About Landesa: Landesa is an international nonprofit dedicated to ending global poverty by securing land rights for women and men experiencing poverty around the globe. Founded in 1981, Landesa has worked in over 50 countries, with offices staff in the U.S. (Seattle, WA and Washington, DC), China, India, Kenya, Liberia, and Tanzania. Landesa’s current portfolio also includes projects in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, Ghana, Indonesia, Myanmar, Rwanda, and Thailand. Landesa partners with governments, civil society, and companies to advice, design and support pro-poor and gender-sensitive legal reforms and programmatic interventions that, in the last five years alone, have helped strengthen land rights for more than 540 million women and men. Landesa is supported by NGOs, foundations, donor agencies (USAID, US DoS, BMZ, World Bank, etc.), world leaders, educational institutions, and individual supporters around the world.
Job Summary: The Global Internal Initiatives Manager (GIIM), will partner with the ELT to guide internal intiatives to completion. This important role is critical in advancing key drivers of future success at Landesa. The GIIM will be ultimately responsible for ensuring initiatives are implemented as designed, and for obtaining guidance from ELT members when material or strategic adjustments are warranted. The GIIM will be responsible for ensuring initiatives’ milestones are delivered on time and on budget. The GIIM will develop initiative workplans and manage contributors and stakeholders to ensure its successful implementation. The GIIM will troubleshoot and be a key decision maker in creating and executing problem solving strategies. The GIIM will contribute to internal reporting and information flows to ensure internal stakeholders have relevant information about the initiative to meet oversight, communications, and fundraising needs. The GIIM is a new position at Landesa, and as such, will be expected to thoughtfully contribute to organizational change efforts and development of new systems, tools and processes.
Reporting and relationships: The Global Internal Initiatives Manager reports to the CEO and works closely with the ELT, staff and consultants, as needed, to address needs. The GIIM will be a member of the Project Managers’ Community of Practice.
Availability: The Global Internal Initiatives Manager will be expected to work a standard workweek of 40 hours plus additional hours as necessary to get the job done. As a global organization, we work across time zones, and this position may require work outside of standard business hours. Many of Landesa’s offices are taking a hybrid approach, with work performed at home and in the office, negotiated with a supervisor.
Essential Job Functions: The Global Internal Initiatives Manager will advance Landesa’s mission and strategic objectives through:
Design and actively manage systems for internal initiatives’ planning, tracking, control, and compliance. These systems need to effectively control the initiative’s scope, timelines, and resources, align with Landesa’s existing policies and processes, and meet donor requirements (if any) in a practical, timely, and cost-effective way. They will align with Landesa’s systems and result in effective assignment and management of human and financial resources to successfully complete internal initiatives, considering their goals, staffing, budgets, risks, and deliverables. They will support the initiatives’ compliance with internal policies and goals as well as with funders’ policies and regulations, as relevant.
Manage internal initiatives. The GIIM will ensure all team members and external contributors (consultants, contractors, and key vendors) understand and align their work with the initiatives’ vision and goals, that all stakeholders understand and fulfill their roles and responsibilities, and that teams are working effectively and collaboratively to execute successful initiatives.
Assess and address internal initiatives’ capacity gaps. The GIIM will assess the level of staffing required for each initiative and staff’s capacity. The GIIM will work with relevant ELT members to assess and resolve gaps in level of staffing needed or capacity gaps to ensure the initiatives’ success.
Manage contractual relationships with consultants and other contractors. The GIIM will work with relevant staff to recruit consultants and contractors as needed, and will manage contractual relationships. This includes working with the relevant staff to ensure consultant scopes of work are complete and accurate, recruit and evaluate potential consultants, conduct compliance-related due diligence, steward contract negotiations, and manage consultant payments, deliverables, and post-contract performance evaluations.
Manage initiatives’ budgets and control spending. The GIIM will be responsible for managing initiatives’ financial resources to deliver on budget. This includes regularly analyzing budget-to-actuals, managing initiatives’ forecasting/reforecasting, authorizing small budget adjustments, recommending larger/material budget adjustments, and identifying and addressing financial gaps in coordination with relevant staff and relevant ELT members.
Ensure accurate, compliant, and timely reporting on initiatives. When required, the GIIM may develop donor reporting processes and timelines with input from Finance, Grant Managers, and relevant staff. The GIIM will ensure reporting processes capture accurate and timely data and information from all contributors to the initiative.
Support internal information flows and sharing of initiatives’ learnings. The GIIM will be responsible for contributing initiatives’ information to internal reporting and oversight workflows, and for capturing and sharing initiatives’ learnings. Supports internal communications.
Contribute to an internal community of practice to enhance Landesa’s project management capacity. Spot areas for continuous improvement in project management practices, identify gaps and challenges with existing systems, tools, and processes, and engage collaboratively in efforts to improve.
Performing other duties as assigned.
Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
A deep commitment to the mission of a better, safer future for the world’s most vulnerable people through land ownership and secure land rights.
Commitment and skills to apply a gender-responsive and socially inclusive approach to projects.
Demonstrated proficiency to motivate teams, and agility to manage vertically and horizontally to ensure high performance from team contributors.
Inter-personal skills and political savvy sufficient to modify approach as needed to fit purpose and move work forward.
Demonstrated proficiency to work collaboratively with project and organizational stakeholders.
Strong communication and writing skills, with the ability to effectively communicate across cultures and with a variety of internal and external stakeholders (staff at all levels, donors, government officials, civil society organizations, researchers, contractors, and vendors).
Comfort navigating through uncertainty, dealing with change, and driving towards clarity and constructive solutions.
Demonstrated proficiency with holding teams accountable to deadlines and deliverables.
Proficiency using project management software and the Microsoft Suite of products.
Education and Experience: The GIIM we seek should have:
Bachelors in Business, Communications, International Relations or related field.
Demonstrated track record of successfully managing projects in a matrix, not-for-profit or non-governmental organizations. International development and project management certification strongly preferred;
Experience with project financial and contract management; and,
Experience assessing operational capacity.
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.
To Apply: Qualified candidates should complete an online application on Landesa’s career page. Authorization to work in the U.S. is required. International travel may be required.
Landesa: Landesa, a 501c3 nonprofit organization based in Seattle, works to strengthen land rights for people experiencing poverty around the world – those 2.47 billion chiefly rural people who live on less than two dollars a day. Landesa works with communities, NGOs, corporations, and governments on land-related programs that provide opportunity, further economic growth, and promote social justice. Landesa places special emphasis on establishing and protecting land rights for women and inheritance rights for girls.
Landesa employs a staff of more than 120 worldwide, including senior land tenure specialists with legal, economic, gender, natural resource management, measurement and evaluation, and agricultural expertise. Landesa has offices in Seattle, Dar es Salaam, Washington DC, Beijing, Delhi, and Monrovia.
