Senior Programme Manager

Location: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Deadline: 7 April 2026

Job Description

Main purpose of job:

With high ministerial interest and significantly increased development spend, the British Office Sudan is looking to recruit an experienced and passionate Senior Programme Manager (SPM) to lead the delivery of a portfolio of complex programmes and to help take forward an ambitious agenda for programme delivery excellence across the full team.

You will have a unique opportunity to help deliver the UK’s ambition in Sudan and lead the delivery of our development programmes. You will:

Work as part of a multidisciplinary virtual mission and team to deliver Development policy and programmes across Sudan.
Play a leading role in the BOS delivery of the development portfolio (£146m in FY25/26);
Work with the PRO and SRO to support our successor political programme, which will need to flex and adapt to an ever-changing complex context in Sudan;
Be the first point of contact in solving complex programme management challenges;
Lead and line manage a team of programme managers, working closely with the G7 Portfolio and Programme Manager to ensure the highest standards of programme management and oversight are applied.
Support the professional development of the team, including on all aspects of programme management.
Make a corporate contribution to the wider virtual BOS mission e.g. People and Welfare Group; Learning Days etc.

Roles and responsibilities:

As Senior Programme Manager, you will oversee the management of a team’s portfolio as well as leading the programme management of complex and/or high value programmes. You will have excellent understanding of the FCDO Programme Operating Framework, provide advice to colleagues on programmatic issues and lead on compliance and financial management for the programmes which they manage. Key responsibilities include:

Programme Leadership – Lead the delivery of BOS’ political and development programmes. As a Senior Programme Manager, you will be a reliable source of leadership within the programme team, not only responsible for the day-to-day management of specific programmes, but also providing expert advice and leadership to other members of the team, to ensure the team’s compliance to UK Government rules. You will put in place robust systems for managing this within the team and depending on the programme, lead on programme design, mobilisation and if required, act as a Programme Responsible Owner (PRO).
Establishing and maintaining strong relationships with our implementing partners to ensure our programmes deliver the intended results and that we maximise our impact. You will be required to have a strong understanding of the requirements of partners set out in our contracts or grant agreements and use these to manage and incentivise strong performance from partners, as well as compliance with UK rules and standards.
Delivering robust financial management of programmes by working alongside Programme Managers and Officers to ensure spending limits are adhered to, variances are minimised and value for money is achieved. You will play an important oversight role to ensure the team proactively manages accurate financial forecasting over the year and profiling for outer years, ensures timely payment of invoices, and robust scrutiny and follow up of financial reports and annual audited statements. You will work closely with partners to understand risks to spend, explain UK requirements and challenge poor financial performance.
Proactively managing risk (including fiduciary risk) of programmes. You will engage constructively with partners and the FCDO PRO to ensure we identify the key risks to programme delivery, discuss these regularly and respond promptly and effectively to mitigate risks, including escalating these to senior management when required. You will ensure the UK’s zero tolerance approach to fraud and corruption is effectively implemented for your programme.
Strengthening programme management capacity in your team and the wider British Office Sudan. This will involve working with the G7 Portfolio and Programme Manager on capability-building, participating in cross-office forums like the Monthly Portfolio Meeting, sharing lesson learning across the office, and contributing ideas on how to improve programme delivery.

Resources managed: (staff and expenditure)

You will have line management responsibilities of 1 HEO Programme Manager.

Essential qualifications, skills and experience

A strong and credible leader, who delivers through others.
A strong understanding of FCDO Programme and Project management (PPM) processes, procedures and best practice, including the PrOF.
Experience of delivering complex programmes in an access-constrained and FCAS context.
The resilience to manage multiple projects/programmes concurrently, with the ability to take the initiative and manage own workload.
Proven financial and risk management knowledge, to support effective programme delivery.
Ability to work with a range of stakeholders, both internal and external, and challenge implementing partners when required.
Effective line-management and commitment to personal development of team-members to build capability within the programme delivery profession.
Expert written & spoken English

Desirable qualifications, skills and experience

Experience working in or on Sudan
Proficiency in the Arabic language.
Completion of FCDO’s Practitioner Level Accreditation or evidence of practitioner-level project delivery qualifications (APM’s Project Management Qualification, PRINCE2 Practitioner, MSP, PMI PM Professional or others).

Required behaviours

Communicating and Influencing, Developing Self and Others, Making Effective Decisions, Working Together

Application deadline: 7 April 2026

Grade: Senior Executive Officer (SEO)

Type of Position: Fixed Term

Working hours per week: 36

Duration of Post: 12 months

Region: Africa

Country/Territory: Ethiopia

Location (City): Addis Ababa

Type of Post: British Embassy

Number of vacancies: 1

Salary Currency: USD

Salary: USD 2,198.28 (Base salary is subject to tax and other statutory deductions)

Type of Salary: monthly

Start Date: 1 May 2026

Other benefits and conditions of employment

As a SEO Senior Programme Manager, you are expected to demonstrate practitioner-level technical understanding against FCDO’s Project Capability Framework. During the application process, this will be tested through the following technical disciplines:

Programme Leadership (Practitioner – Level 3) – Ability to lead others, including the programme team, with a clear vision and direction.
Risk and Issues Management (Practitioner – Level 3) – Identify, assess, treat, monitor and report on risks in a programme, and its delivery chain.

This post will be based in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). The rest of the BOS team will be based in between London, East Kilbride and Nairobi (Kenya).
Travel requirements: There may be travel requirements envisaged for this role, however, will be reviewed, dependent on business need, on an on-going basis and dependent on where the Programme team are located.

The British Office Sudan may have further vacancies in the coming months and if there are other suitable candidates, we will use this recruitment to develop a pipeline of reserve candidates, for approximately 1 year.

Additional information

Please ensure that your application is authentically written based on your own experiences. If AI tools are used, their usage must only be limited to specific tasks such as ensuring formatting consistency and keyword relevance. The core content, personal narratives, and responses to behaviour and skill-based questions must genuinely reflect your professional journey, experiences, and achievements. We place great importance on originality and individual effort throughout the application process. Any form of plagiarism will result in immediate disqualification.

The British Embassy will never request any payment or fees to apply for a position
The base salary is subject to tax and other statutory deductions
Employees recruited locally by the British Embassy in Addis Ababa are subject to Terms and Conditions of Service according to local employment law in Ethiopia.
All candidates must be legally able to work and reside in the country of the vacancy with the correct visa/work permit status or demonstrate eligibility to obtain the relevant permit

The responsibility lies on the successful candidate to:

1.Obtain the relevant permit
2.Pay the fees for the permit
3.Make arrangements to relocate
4.Meet the costs to relocation

Employees who are not liable to pay local income tax on their Mission salary may have their salaries reduced by the equivalent local income tax amount.
Information about the Civil Service Success Profiles can be found on this link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/success-profiles
Reference checking and security clearances will be conducted on successful candidates
Please log into your profile on the application system on a regular basis to review the status of your application
Appointable candidates who were unsuccessful may be placed on a ‘reserve list’. If during the reserve period of 12 months the same or a largely similar role becomes available, that role may be offered to the second or subsequent candidate

Please be aware that you will only be able to apply to vacancies for Country Based Staff roles with the British Government through this official tal.net site (operated by Oleeo). Jobs may be advertised on third party websites, however our adverts will always link back to the official tal.net site. If you complete and send an application through any other site, we will not receive it.