Project Lead / Engagement Manager

Value for Women is looking for a Project Lead and/or Engagement Manager who will work with the best talent in the industry, and learn from a diverse mix of critical thinkers and problem solvers who work across a variety of fields including impact investing, sustainable energy, sustainable agriculture, financial inclusion, gender lens investing, inclusive entrepreneurship; by way of offering training, advisory, research, evaluation and technical assistance. You will sit at the forefront of generating innovative ideas and solutions related to gender inclusion that drive new and inclusive ways of doing business and investment.

Value for Women is a global social enterprise that is growing in leaps and bounds. Since forming in 2012, Value for Women has grown from a team of 3 to a team of over 32 consultants operating from 14 countries across 5 continents. Our global team’s diverse experience allows us to engage on issues of gender through a regional and/or cultural lens, collaborating on projects that deliver the highest quality standards, and move the broader market forward on gender and social inclusion. In sum, our team is golden; our secret weapon, and our proudest resource. Joining this team will offer the chance for your collaborative, innovative and team-building skills to shine. You will be able to work remotely from home, managing your own time across time zones with a results-driven mindset. This is often optimal for parents and for working toward work-life balance.

What does a Project Lead / Engagement Manager do at Value for Women?

They oversee, lead and implement a select group of projects or engagements, and a select group of client relationships across practice areas at VfW, with the oversight and support of Sr EMs. They lead project implementation with little oversight and deliver with utmost excellence, ensuring and driving high-quality and on-time deadlines and deliverables. Project Leads and/or Engagement Manager oversee project management on multiple projects at any given time and own work plans and resource management of those projects with little oversight. They are lead writers for technical guides, reports or studies with little to medium oversight. They have advanced levels of content expertise. Their client relationship management includes business development efforts and achieving repeat partnerships. They participate in and implement VfW initiatives outside of project management and delivery including general business development, internal training, productization, learning initiatives and special projects.

Where does this role fit into the organisation?

Project Lead and/or the Engagement Managers report to a Sr. Engagement Manager, who ensures efficient delivery of advisory services to our clients.

How much does this role pay?

Value for Women exclusively hires self-employed individuals, and fees are based on a daily rate. Fees are determined by a range of factors including technical skill level and expertise, years of expertise and longevity as a consultant.

More about the Project Lead and/or Engagement Manager responsibilities

They will support the work of the organisation and our partners to ultimately:

• Understand and tackle barriers women face in business and entrepreneurship

• Reach more women and women-led businesses with financial and non-financial products or services

• Implement and participate in the design of gender lens investment strategies, plans and approaches

• Mainstream gender across business strategy, decision-making, operations and value chains

• Identify ways to achieve greater women’s participation within employment, among enterprise staff and leadership

More specifically, the Project Lead / Engagement Manager will manage a select group of projects across at least one technical practice area with the oversight of a Sr. Engagement Manager. This includes leading and overseeing a group of projects towards success. They ensure quality control of project deliverables. As well as advising and guiding on practice area technical content.

The Project Lead, and/or Engagement Manager oversees a select group of client relationships and ensures the project team is surpassing client expectations and proactively raises deviations from project plans.

The Project Lead and/or Engagement Manager leads studies and knowledge projects including implementing research methods, analysing data, market studies and writing results in at least one practice area.

Key deliverables will be defined in project work plans, based on the roles described above and in tandem with Sr. Engagement Managers.

Specific responsibilities will also include:

• Leading the development and writing of proposals and insights

• Demonstrating depth of knowledge in one specific topic area and practice area

• Capturing and contributing to internal lessons learning in practice areas identified, they participate in organisational learning, sharing and practice area growth

• Providing well-written technical inputs for research reports or briefs

• Contributing toward driving the business forward and to creating an inclusive organisation

• Supporting internal initiatives related to knowledge-sharing, and team-building

• Help build and design special initiatives in one or more key technical practice areas and in one or more topic areas

The ideal candidate is an expert problem solver who is quick to adapt to changing realities, is client-oriented, works efficiently against client and deliverable deadlines, and is focused on quality and timeliness. They are able to work in a fast-paced, dynamic team and consultancy environment, working independently as part of a remote international team.

They are a solid written and spoken communicator in English, an innovative thinker and can work effectively with diverse stakeholders. They have a demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously delivering high-quality client deliverables. Our team works best with people who interact positively, who are results-based, entrepreneurial and client-centred.

Additionally, we require the following background and experience:

• 8 -10+ years of professional experience, with 2+ years ideally in gender lens advisory services within impact investing entrepreneurship, and/ or financial inclusion space

• Relevant experience working in an emerging market context

• 3+ years of providing advisory or management consulting experience with a high competency in advisory consulting services skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, project management, written and verbal communications and conceptualising and developing proposals

• Depth of knowledge in at least one specific topic area and one practice area

• Demonstrated knowledge and practical expertise in promoting gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, women’s entrepreneurship and/or working within the entrepreneurship ecosystem, financial inclusion, agriculture, sustainable energy space in emerging markets

• Ability to conceptualise, develop and write Value for Women proposals with no supervision

• Ability to conceptualise, develop and lead research studies in a specific technical area

• Higher level education in business, economics, finance, gender and women’s studies or international relations or development is desired

• Fluency in French or Arabic is highly desired

• International experience working in your own region, and across borders

We also seek these attributes:

• Experience working in the energy, agriculture and/or financial services sectors, specifically providing consulting services to businesses, investment funds, accelerators/incubators, and/or development finance institutions (DFIs) in these industries is an asset

• Research and writing experience is an asset

• Client-centric orientation and understanding of how to manage diverse client relationships in a consulting setting

• Uphold the principles of trust, equality of opportunities, transparency and collaboration

• Positive attitude and optimism about the role of small and growing businesses in generating positive social impact

• The ability to thrive in a matrix-based organisational structure; operating internationally as a distributed team across the globe

• Demonstrated alignment with Value for Women’s mission, vision and ways of working

• Learning, adapting, and demonstrating their excitement for contributing to the growth of a small and growing business with a social mission

It’s our mission to unleash potential and we know teams perform best when they are diverse and every team member feels they belong. It’s the unique contributions of all at Value for Women that drives our success and the meaningful work we do.

We are a diverse group of individuals with a wide range of backgrounds including gender, race, ethnicity, geography, cultures and beliefs, as well as experience and education, and our hiring practices aim to deepen that. Application success is based upon individual capabilities and qualifications without regard to gender, race, ethnicity, religion, pregnancy, sexual orientation/affectional preference, age, national origin, marital status, citizenship or disability.

We encourage applications from emerging market professionals that are from and live in the countries we work (primarily Africa and Asia,) as well as individuals identifying as Black, Afro-descendant, and/ or Indigenous. However, we do not ask applicants to disclose this. We aim for the composition of our team to reflect the diverse nature of both the work we carry out, and the world we live in and are striving to change.

Step 1: Submit your online application by October 13th 2023 including your CV and Cover Letter. If you encounter any problems when filling out your online application, please contact us at valueforwomen@v4w.org

Step 2: Shortlist. Our recruiting team reaches out if your profile is a match, and you will be invited to Interview #1, a video call interview with our HR Manager

Step 3: Interview#2 : Written Interview. We invite you to participate in a written interview. You are asked to upload your responses or send them back to us within 4 days. You can ask for more time if you have other commitments already scheduled.

Step 4:Interview #3. Successful candidates are asked for a 45 minute video call interview. This is a chance for you to ask us questions too.

Step 5: Final Interview! This is the really short- shortlist, and you are a finalist.

While we do our best to make this 5-step process quick, it can take up to 2 months to get to Step 5, depending on how many amazing applicants we receive. We appreciate your interest and patience. You can always reach out to ask about the status of your application at valueforwomen@v4w.org. While we do our best to offer feedback to unsuccessful candidates, this is not always possible due to the volume of applications we receive.

Check us out on www.v4w.org and @ValueforWomen