At Rainforest Alliance we are looking for a motivated and impact driven Senior Project Manager to join our team in Côte d’Ivoire. The Senior Project Manager will ensure day-to-day management and technical support for a new five-year project with a large cocoa company.

Working with the cocoa company’s producers and traders, the project will implement conditional cash payments for 5,000 farming households and livelihood strategies for 10 cooperatives in Côte d’Ivoire, while promoting sustainable farming practices. Specifically, the postholder will ensure projects outcomes, outputs and activities are delivered on time, to a high standard, in line with internal protocols and donor requirements, and builds upon learning and best practices.

The postholder will be accountable for maintaining partnership relationships with implementing partners to ensure donors’ needs and expectations remain aligned with project delivery and field realities. The postholder will supervise approximately 8 staff, including 6 field technicians, one finance / administration manager, and one livelihoods specialist. In addition to this project team, the senior project manager will coordinate with the farm intelligence specialist who will manage the monitoring and evaluation system of the project, the markets and project design team who will liaise with the donor company and other cocoa sector actors, the public affairs specialist, who will liaise with Ivorian government officials, and other Rainforest Alliance support teams. Finally, the senior project manager will facilitate documentation and dissemination of lessons learned and promote best practices for continuous improvement within the project.

The incumbent will report to the Director of Côte d’Ivoire.

Responsibilities:

• The Rainforest Alliance’s Core Values are Impact, Change, Collaboration, Openness and Trust and as such they form the basis of the behaviours we demonstrate:

A.  Project Design and partnerships

• Design and oversee project work plans, deliverables, and timelines;
• Lead coordination activities with project donor, Rainforest Alliance project design and Markets team, and other relevant project partners.

B.   Leadership and Project Management

• Supervise the implementation of all project activities;
• Direct and supervise project team, including 6 field technicians, one finance/administration manager, and one livelihoods specialist;
• Prepare internal communication with donors (emails, reports, etc.) while coordinating with other team members;
• Manage relationships with implementing partners; complying with partners’ agreements, donor rules, and Rainforest Alliance internal procedures;
• Fosters a process for effective collaboration and sharing of knowledge and capacity within project partners and with other project stakeholders; and
• Assess progress and risks of project implementation and takes appropriate risk mitigation measures to address them.

C.  Communication and Dissemination

• Represent the project at key events, presentations, policy forums and roundtables;
• Advise and support Communications and Markets team to create communications materials.

D.   Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL)

• Monitor progress of project activities and report as needed to the donor;
• Support the Farm Intelligence specialist to collect, interpret, and report project data on farmer adoption and farmer income.

E.   Grant Compliance and other Responsibilities

• Supervise the finance/administration manager to ensure that best practices are adhered to with regards to invoicing, payment of consultants/sub-grants; and other practices as needed;
• Other duties as assigned.