Programme & Sponsorship Team Lead Job at Future Options Consulting

Future Options Consulting

Programme & Sponsorship Team Lead Job Post

Location: Jobs in Uganda 2025 - 2026

Work Hours: Full-time, 08 hours per day

Salary: UGX

No. of vacancies: 01

Deadline: May 18 2025

Hiring Organization: Future Options Consulting

Job Details:

About the Company:

Future Options Consulting Ltd is a HR & Management consultancy firm that was started in 2006 and offers these services: recruitment, headhunting, payroll management & outsourcing, workload audit services.

Organization details

Our client is an independent development and humanitarian organization that advances children’s rights and equality for girls. We believe in the power and potential of every child. However, this is often suppressed by poverty, violence, exclusion and discrimination, and it is girls who are most affected.

Working together with children, young people, our supporters and partners in more than 70 countries across Africa, Asia and the Americas, our purpose is to strive for a just world that advances children’s rights and equality of girls. We support children’s rights from birth until they reach adulthood. We enable children to prepare for – and respond to – crises and adversity. We drive changes in practice and policy at local, national and global levels using our reach, experience and knowledge.

Job Summary: The Programme and Sponsorship Team Lead (PSTL) plays a critical role in supporting gender transformative programme planning, implementation, and monitoring within the Regional Area. He/she leads in providing oversight of the sponsorship programme, implementation of SPAD Projects, including grant funded projects. The role is responsible for managing a budget portfolio range of €500k to €750k per year. The PSTL directly supervises the Sponsorship Coordinator, Programme Officers, grant funded Project Coordinators/Officers and leads community mobilisation processes particularly sponsored children and their families to participate and benefit from our interventions.

In supporting the Sponsorship Coordinator, the PSTL has a key oversight role of ensuring commitments to sponsored children are delivered through implementation of quality and impactful programmes. In liaison with Technical Advisors, and Project Managers, S/he ensures that various projects (grant funded and SPADs) place sponsored children at the centre of our programme and influence work and involve them as representatives in our project cycle.

Further this role is expected to co-lead resource mobilisation efforts with the regional manager and country office programmes and business development teams. The role is also responsible for building better partnership approaches while ensuring that we are a go to partner organisation.

ROLE DIMENSIONS:

The PSTL is a member of the Regional Area Leadership Team (RALT) and is expected to contribute to the development of Regional Area/ Project Plans, Sponsorship Programme Area Report, and Programme Area Overview in support of our sponsorship work while optimising beneficial impact for vulnerable children and youth, especially girls. The job holder plays a critical role in liaising with district and community leadership to influence change; coordinating with project managers to leverage the impact of their programmes in sponsorship areas; and mobilising Programme Officers as needed to ensure the achievement of project targets. The PSM is a key focal point person in delivery of projects in the regional area and ensures alignment with sponsorship at community level to assure accountability and strong performance management while working in close collaboration with sponsorship coordinators

The role has influence over the development of strategies through which the organisation will achieve its purpose, in particular ensuring that sponsorship and grant projects in the Regional Area (RA) are coordinated in a manner that optimises impact for sponsorship communities.

This position is responsible for overseeing the management of a budget of around €500k to €700k annually and can approve financial transactions of up to a maximum US$ 15,000.

The major challenge of the role is to achieve project objectives and sponsorship programme KPIs on time and to standard, adaptively managing the project to optimise PIU’s beneficial impact on vulnerable children and youth, especially girls in sponsorship communities. This requires the job holder to;

Have strong programme management skills and experience in implementing projects funded by diverse donors such as the EU, MFAs, and private donors.

Poses strong knowledge of our sponsorship model, to foster integration of child sponsorship into programmes as well as facilitate the generation of related sponsorship communications in line with our sponsorship business rules.

Lead a team of Programme Officers, Project Coordinator/Officers, and drive strong accountability and performance management as informed by the values of our leadership framework

Have strong communication and negotiation skills to engage with various stakeholders at local level

Have excellent coordination skills – to work closely with Technical Advisors, Project Managers, Project Coordinators/Officers in mobilising communities especially sponsored children and their families to participate and benefit from implementation of activities within sponsorship communities to realise lasting impact.

Lead in development of project Detailed Implementation Plans (DIPs) including procurement plans, risk registers, budgets, and ensure time delivery of quality project reports

Level of contact with children

This position has been classified as “high contact”: Significant interaction with children

Key Duties and Responsibilities:

KRA 1: Programme Management

Participate in the design, planning, implementation and monitoring of projects in the Regional Area (RA), with a particular focus on ensuring that SPAD and grant projects are leveraged to create impact in sponsorship communities
Lead the transition from project design to project implementation, ensuring that detailed implementation plans, resourcing strategies, and monitoring frameworks are in place to ensure project targets are achieved on time and to standard
Participate in situational analysis, such as social mapping, wealth ranking and gender analysis to identify and include the most marginalised and vulnerable segments of communities in our programmes
Review the results of situational analysis and baseline studies and ensure full understanding of the project scope, targets and intended impact
Ensure the Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning framework is in place, along with relevant and user-friendly data collection tools. Ensure projects are uploaded into PMERL and report results as required
Promote and facilitate community leadership and active participation of stakeholders in project design implementation and monitoring, in particular the participation of women, children, Youth Advisory Panels and other marginalised groups

KRA 2: Sponsorship Programme Management

Work with the Sponsorship Coordinator to ensure Programme Officers meet sponsorship communication requirements on time and required quality standard.
Lead Programme Officers in the identification of priorities in sponsorship communities and ensure this understanding is used to inform annual planning and budgeting for SPAD and grant projects
Support the functionality and capacity building of Community Volunteer Associations (COVAs) and Family Support Groups
Onboard and build capacities of Programme Officers to effectively mobilise communities and sponsored families in realisation of our commitments
Ensure that sponsored children and their families have a voice in decisions that affect their lives, are fully informed of the full range of PIU’s activities in the community, and are encouraged to participate
Ensure that every community where Sponsored Children live benefits from our programme every year, and work closely with graduating SCs to foster alumni engagement
Support SC monitoring mechanism by tracking and understanding whether Sponsored Children are in school and healthy including implementation of beneficially tracking mechanisms to determine the number of SC/families directly benefiting from our programmes.
Ensure that the Regional Area team is fully aware of our 9 commitments; provide leadership to ensure KPIs are achieved as prescribed (@ 95% or higher)
Support sponsorship community phase-in and phase-out processes to ensure situation analyses are conducted to inform programming including engaging stakeholders and communities to understand and support our sponsorship model
Ensure adherence to quality standards by performing quality checks on a sample of 5 percent of all types of sponsorship communications
Support implementation of case management processes as per established standards to benefit SCs while leveraging existing referral mechanisms

KRA 3: Communicating for Influence

Actively participate in the development and implementation of innovative influencing & communication plans for the Regional Area and ensure effective influencing of key stakeholders
Work collaboratively with the Regional Manager (RM) and other colleagues in the programme area to develop and implement a cost-effective and impactful community engagement strategy, ensure an accurate representation of sponsorship benefits is communicated, and carefully manage expectations
Contribute to the implementation of the Influencing Strategy in the RA, by:
Support Youth Advisory Panels in planning and execution of youth activism initiatives
Building relationships with key actors (e.g. community and district leadership), and implement influencing interventions that drive change
Coordinating with local government to ensure targets and annual budgets are considered by the sub-county / district development plans
Participating in project-specific advocacy, lobbying and influencing initiatives
Representing the organization in external engagement, while adhering to values and Code of Conduct (CoC) to give a faithful representation of the organisation
Support generation of sponsorship Programme Area Overview and Sponsorship Programme Area Report
Coordinate quarterly community awareness meetings about programs and approaches across all Communities; in particular ensuring that sponsored families and communities are updated on interventions and the graduation process
Work with implementation teams to ensure internal PIU’s Principles of Communication are embraced

KRA 4: Risk & Resource Management

Support the Regional Manager in the management of programme finances, giving due care and attention before authorising payments and ensuring funds are managed in line with PIU’s policies and procedures:
Review and approve payments and fund transfers in line with authorisation limits; carefully ensuring that expenditure is in line with budget and all supporting documentation is present and correct
Undertake periodic monitoring and review effectiveness of sponsorship programme controls
Review and authorise vehicle approvals and fuel authorisations for Programme Officers; query any unexpected expenditure and ensure efficient use of resources
In coordination with RM review and authorise Project Outlines, modifications and Project Completion Reports as requested and appropriate within financial limits, in accordance with PIU procedures
Manage all SPAD and grant project funds according to established accounting policies and procedures, ensuring value for money and strong accountability; monitor all budgeted project expenditures and cash flow projections and report actual cash flow and variance to senior management on a regular basis

KRA 5: Value Based Leadership & Staff Management

Lead a team of Programme Officers, Project Coordinators/Officers, and the sponsorship team in a manner that empowers them to contribute effectively towards achievement of PIU’s strategy
Ensure that community outreach for sponsorship communications is resourced with the expertise necessary for success through a combination of recruitment and management of staff, mobilization of community volunteers, and procurement of consultants
Lead and manage teams towards high standards of performance through clear roles & responsibilities and provision of appropriate support; coordinate effectively with others to ensure high performance within PIU’s matrix operating structure
Develop and encourage talent through on-going staff development, succession planning, career management; proactively address poor performance through timely constructive feedback, coaching and appropriate corrective action
Foster an inclusive environment by implementation of policies and ways-of-working that provide for diversity and equal opportunities and utilisation of a leadership style that will drive employee engagement
Ensure that staff are managed in accordance with good HR management practice and provided with a safe and conducive working environment; includes ensuring that all legal and statutory obligations are fulfilled

KRA 6: Safeguarding, Gender Equality & Inclusion

Ensure that the organizations global policies for Safeguarding Children, Young People, and programme participants, as well as Gender Equality and Inclusion are fully embedded programme and sponsorship work in accordance with the principles and requirements of the policy. This is in addition to implementation of relevant Standards and Guidelines as applicable to their area of responsibility. This includes, but is not limited to ensuring staff and associates are aware of and understand their responsibilities under these policies and the organization’s Code of Conduct (CoC), their relevance to their area of work, and that concerns are reported and managed in accordance with the appropriate procedures.

Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

A Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies or other Humanities. A masters degree with a focus on project management or related fields is an added advantage

Details of experience

Minimum 10 years experience in development work and a minimum of 7 years in managerial and leadership role.
Strong Experience in humanitarian work

Knowledge, skills and competences

Leadership Competencies

Myself as a Leader
Leads through influence rather than position, and role models our values, accelerating gender equality inside and outside PIU; leads change by developing new ideas and strategies.
Lasting Impact
Sets and communicates ambitious but realistic work goals and priorities, explaining how these contribute to the organization’s purpose.
Open & Accountable
Ensures effective delivery by leading through others, working closely with our support functions, keeping abreast of what is going on in own business unit or function and responding quickly if problems arise.
Work Well Together
Builds positive relationships outside their own work area, communicates clearly and persuasively with large and diverse groups of people; willing to compromise own preferences to achieve our broader purpose and longer-term impact.
Inclusive & Empowering
Delegates tasks and decisions, trusting and stretching others but ensuring they have the resources and support they need; adopts a coaching approach with the people they manage or advise.

Skills & Knowledge

Creates space for reflection and uses external evidence and internal evaluation to identify what and how we need to improve; creates a safe environment for others to challenge self or raise concerns; leads the team to implement changes as a result of what has been learned.

Critical Business Management Competencies

Broad and deep understanding of project management political, social, financial and cultural drivers of inequality; with practical experience of developing and implementing strategies for change
Demonstrated expertise in designing and leading the impactful implementation of significant projects; utilising good practice in MERL to set targets and adaptively managing to ensure achievement of results
Good grasp of financial management including understanding relevant funding sources, ability to budget and accurately estimate costs, experience with reading financial reports and taking appropriate action based on the results.
Strong ability to analyse and interpret an appropriate range of data and evidence, both internal and external, using sound judgement to make balanced decisions, based on insights gained, or projection of trends.
Strong written and spoken communication skills, including in relevant local languages, with an ability to effectively adjust content and presentation to suit varied audiences internally and externally, to get key messages across.
Outstanding interpersonal skills with an ability to relate effectively to a wide range of people from diverse backgrounds; proven track record of leading collaborative working relationships and resolving conflicts between parties with differing interests.

Critical Technical Competencies

Experience in leading others with a track record of delegating work effectively, supporting good performance of others and promoting staff wellbeing and motivation.
Good understanding of development and humanitarian issues, trends, challenges and opportunities and implication to community (child) development.
Excellent practical knowledge in child rights and gender equality programming
Experience in project management cycle, especially on the participatory approach, and a track record of successful delivery of impactful projects
Desirable: Experience in networking with vulnerable and marginalised children and their families, local and international NGOs, local government partners, and local community-based organizations

Application procedure

All interested and qualified persons are strongly encouraged to apply by email: vacancy@futureoptions.org clearly indicating the Position Title in the email subject line.

Date Posted: 2025-05-05

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