Project Manager, Programme Portfolio Transitioning

The assignment

Children’s Villages Worldwide (CVW) will conclude its funding of SOS Children’s Villages Syria at the end of 2028. Seven programme units — family-like care, semi-independent living, family strengthening, youth care and a programme for children and young people with disabilities — serving a planned caseload of 901 participants must reach a safe, defined onward arrangement before that date.

We are looking for an experienced transitioning Project Manager to run that process on the ground in Damascus. This is not a start-up role and it is not a conventional country-director post. It is a closure and transition assignment, in a politically sensitive environment, where the central obligation is that no child, young person or family is worse off at the end of it. Four units are designated for handover to a receiving partner under an agreement that is currently blocked on government approvals. Three units, including the disability programme, have no pathway yet. Defining one is the first thing this role has to solve.

What you will do

• Hold the transitioning plan across all seven units and drive it to the timetable — designs, transfers, closures, and
  the gate reviews in between.
• Lead the search, due diligence and safeguarding audit for receiving partners where no pathway yet exists and
  prepare the contracting recommendations.
• Make sure every transfer is phased rather than a cut-over: joint case conferences, shadowing, transfer of
  responsibility, and follow-up visits at one and three months.
• Build one verified child-by-child baseline register from five inconsistent sources and keep it accurate.
• Work alongside Syrian ministries, receiving partners and retained legal counsel to secure the approvals the
  transitioning depends on.
• Run the degressive funding schedule with the finance specialist, so that services shrink behind the caseload and
  never ahead of it.
• Deliver a monthly dashboard and quarterly reporting that give CVW and the GSC an honest picture, including of
  what is going wrong.

What we are looking for

The Project Manager will have an appropriate balance of leadership, managerial, technical, and interpersonal skills and experience.

Essential

• Around ten years in humanitarian or development programme management, with senior delivery responsibility in a complex or conflict-affected setting.
• Real experience of closing or transferring a programme, portfolio or service to another organisation — not only of building one.
• Experience in executing large budgets and supervise budget expenditure across several projects in emergency
  context.
• Alternative care or child protection expertise, including case management and best-interests processes.
• Professional Arabic and English, strong enough to negotiate and to draft in both.
• A track record of working with government ministries on approvals, registration and closure.
• Ensure the project management and compilation of project data including progress tracking and reporting to CVW and other relevant stakeholders.
• Act as the main focal point between the CVW and the SOSCV Syria or designated local partners: ensure key
  decisions and commitments are accurately documented and turned into clear, tracked actions, agreed and
  coordinated with all relevant parties
• Lead on the portfolio transitioning risk management: assessment and mitigation plans development.
• Willingness to be based in Damascus for the duration or travel on regular basis.

Desirable

• Experience in Syria or the wider Levant; disability-inclusive service provision; familiarity with international
  federated organisations;

The kind of person this suits
Someone who can hold a plan steady while several of its assumptions are still unresolved. Someone who documents as they go, escalates early rather than absorbing problems. The role carries responsibility for outcomes it cannot always control, and reports honestly on both.

Safeguarding
This is a child-contact role. Appointment is subject to safer-recruitment checks: verified references covering all work
with children, criminal-record or equivalent checks in every country of residence over the past ten years, disclosure of
any previous safeguarding investigation or finding, and signature of our Child and Youth Safeguarding Policy and Code of Conduct before any engagement. Candidates must declare any existing relationship with SOS Children’s Villages Syria or SOS Children’s Villages Jordan,