Regional Program Manager

Organizational Background:

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) is a US non-profit, tax-exempt, private organization established in 1895 that saves wildlife and wild places by understanding critical issues, crafting science-based solutions, and taking conservation actions that benefit nature and humanity. With more than a century of experience, long-term commitments in dozens of landscapes, field presence in 56 nations, and experience of helping establish over 150 protected areas across the globe, WCS has amassed the biological knowledge, cultural understanding, and partnerships to ensure that vibrant, wild places and wildlife thrive alongside local communities. Working with local communities and organizations, that knowledge is applied to address species, habitat, and ecosystem management issues critical to improving the quality of life of poor rural people whose livelihoods depend on the direct utilization of natural resources.

Program Summary:

The Southeast Asia-Pacific (SEAP) Region comprises six country programs: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Fiji, reporting to a regional management and fundraising office in Singapore. This has recently been created as a new ‘super-region’, following the merger of two former regions of Southeast Asian Archipelago and Melanesia. The new region now encompasses the Coral Triangle; a global center for marine biodiversity with extraordinarily high integrity coastal reef ecosystems. The extensive Southeast Asia and Pacific Island archipelagos harbor outstanding species endemism in both their coastal and terrestrial realms, combined with vast marine jurisdictions. Across the Pacific Islands in particular, the region also encompasses a remarkable interconnectedness between people, culture, and nature that offers a uniquely participatory and inclusive approach to conservation.

Position Objectives:

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) seeks a dynamic and motivated individual with excellent communication and organizational skills to support the regional management of WCS’s SEAP program. This is a rapidly evolving and growing program with a diverse and expanding portfolio of donors, partners, and projects. The region presents a set of complex conservation challenges to biodiversity and their habitats and WCS field programs are addressing these through a number of initiatives including protected area management, community engagement, sustainable livelihoods, policy reform, and sustainable financing.

Job Summary:

The Regional Program Manager (RPM) will directly support the SEAP Regional Director and work in close coordination with the Regional Business Manager and Grants Manager, and field program leadership. The primary objective of the RPM position is to ensure central coordination support to the regional and country programs in grant proposal, management, and report development, donor compliance, knowledge management, implementation tracking, and internal communications. The RPM will fulfill a key role in program management, managing workflows, and information management for the SEAP regional team and help ensure excellent coordination with the rest of WCS Global and Corporate to facilitate and support WCS's mission in the region.

Responsibilities:

Overall responsibilities:

• Provide effective coordination and operational support to the SEAP Regional Director and team (including Regional Business and Grants Managers and country program teams) to successfully manage a growing portfolio of grants, related processes, and workflow for the region.

• Support the SEAP Regional Director and team in building collaborative relationships with central WCS Global staff (including in New York and Europe), particularly on grant management, fundraising, and partnership management, communicating the interests and priorities of the regional program with the global program and partner departments.

• Supports strategic partnership-building with government, donors, and WCS stakeholders, in coordination with the Regional Director and Country Directors, as appropriate.

• Support project teams to prepare on-time grant reports, proposals, and communications with donors; review these materials to ensure adherence to quality guidelines and assist in tracking and ensuring timely implementation and deliverables for project grants.

• Work closely with the country teams to coordinate and support implementation of cross-cutting technical support to assist and build capacity of programs and staff.

• Identify and pursue agreed fundraising opportunities to implement the objectives and activities agreed under the regional and country strategic plans.

• Assist the Regional Director with cross-regional strategic prioritization work: facilitating implementation of program priorities, strategy, and approaches: supporting project development and ensuring implementation is tracked and monitored.

Specific Tasks & Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership

• Support the SEAP Regional Director and team in building collaborative relationships as a focal point for SEAP programs with the wider WCS Global team.

• Work with the SEAP Regional Director and the central Global Resources and Grants, Management & Compliance team to review and implement funding strategies to meet agreed funding objectives and targets, and ensure sound grant management and compliance.

• Communicating regional program priorities and interests to the global program and partner departments; ensuring coordination, management, and support to the region.

• Provide effective coordination and operational support to the SEAP Director and regional team to successfully manage a growing portfolio of grants, related processes, and workflows.

• Conduct research and analysis of suitable mix of conservation donors to increase understanding of the donor environment in the SEAP Region as well as long-term perspectives and preferences.

Program Development and Management

• Support field teams, as needed, with the development of funding project workplans.

• Oversee a Monitoring, Evaluation, Adaptation and Learning (MEAL) approach to support program implementation.

• Provide support to various WCS departments (HR, Safety and Security, etc.) to ensure alignment of and communication of policies and procedures across the region.

• Assist HR teams in the development of Terms of References, contract review, and with selection and onboarding of new staff to the program where needed.

• Support Regional Business and Procurement Managers in the development and review of contracts where needed.

Proposal Development, Reporting & Grants Management

• Under the guidance of the Regional Director, and in coordination with the Regional Business and Grants Managers and Country program teams, support proposal preparation and donor reporting.

• Work closely with the Regional Grants Manager to ensure the monitoring of grants for compliance with WCS’s policies and procedures as well as donor / government / external rules and regulations.

• Liaise with the Regional Business and Grants Managers in process mapping and assist with improvement of standard procedures and control of workflows.

• Under the guidance of the Regional Director, and in coordination with the Regional Business Manager, support and coordinate high level project monitoring and host regular meetings with Program, Project, Management, Evaluation, Adaptation and Learning (MEAL), and the Regional Management teams to ensure performance on individual grants is tracked effectively, risks and issues are flagged and corrective action taken as appropriate.

• Ensure knowledge management by maintaining good project documentation and archiving.

Qualifications and Requirements:

Requirements:

• A Bachelors or Master's degree in a related field (international relations, development, social or natural sciences or similar), or equivalent work experience.

• Minimum 8+ years professional experience.

• Proven successful grants management skills, ideally with EU, US and/or other bilateral donors, including proposal and report writing, but also workflow management and compliance.

• Ability to multi-task and deliver high quality outputs sometimes within short deadlines.

• Experience working, coordinating, and collaborating with diverse stakeholders, including partner NGOs.

• Proven effective coordination skills, with excellent communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills, with demonstrated success in working with diverse partners and within a large, dynamic and complex program to achieve common objectives.

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English.

• Willingness to travel to sites across the region.

• Interest in conservation and committed to the mission of the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Preferred:

• Demonstrated experience working as an effective member of a multi-cultural team, with experience working in SEAP and across time-zones is a distinct advantage.

• Proficiency in a language, other than English, from a country within the region is an advantage.