Job Description
JOB DESCRIPTION
Position
Senior Project Manager, Programmes and Delivery
Location
FCT-Abuja, Nigeria (Hybrid)
Employment Type
Full-time
Reports to
Director of Programs
ABOUT ACE GROUP
ACE Group is a mission-driven consulting and non-profit organization committed to eliminating health and social inequities across Africa. We combine systems thinking, research implementation, and impact measurement to design contextually relevant solutions that scale and endure. Our core capabilities include strategy and systems design, program implementation, monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL), digital innovation, and knowledge translation.
Through these capabilities, ACE Group partners with organizations, donors, governments, and communities to strengthen systems, drive innovation, and advance equitable outcomes across the continent.
POSITION OVERVIEW The Senior Project Manager, Programmes and Delivery leads day-to-day project management, programme delivery and stakeholder engagement for ACE's complex, multi-partner engagements, combining rigorous coordination and governance with genuine hands-on delivery. The role reports to the Director of Programs and works closely with technical leads, business development, and partner organisations across the project lifecycle.
This role is built for someone who thrives on coordination across many institutional counterparts at once, corporates, philanthropic funders, government agencies and delivery partners, while also rolling up their sleeves to support actual programme implementation: organising activities, engaging stakeholders directly, troubleshooting delivery bottlenecks and working shoulder-to-shoulder with programme teams rather than only monitoring their progress from a governance layer.
Strong stakeholder management, sound judgement under ambiguity, and meticulous documentation are as important as workplan discipline. The role is based in Abuja on a hybrid working arrangement and requires regular travel across ACE's programme and partner locations, including field sites.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Programme Delivery & Hands-On Implementation
• Work directly alongside ACE's programme and technical teams to plan, coordinate and execute programme activities, going beyond tracking to actively help move delivery forward.
• Support field-level and site-level coordination where required, including facility, state or partner-level engagement, logistics and activity planning.
• Identify and resolve delivery bottlenecks in real time, working with programme teams to unblock activities rather than simply escalating and waiting.
• Contribute project management input into technical workstreams (for example digital health, MNCH or institutional development activities), ensuring plans are realistic and resourced.
Partner & Stakeholder Engagement
• Convene and align multiple institutional partners (corporates, foundations, government agencies and delivery partners) around shared workplans, deliverables and dependencies.
• Serve as a primary, trusted point of engagement between ACE and partner organisation counterparts, building relationships that keep collaboration constructive under time pressure.
• Represent ACE in partner and stakeholder meetings, including with government agencies, funders and delivery partners, ensuring ACE's interests and commitments are clearly and credibly represented.
• Track roles, responsibilities and accountabilities across partner organisations, escalating blockers or role ambiguity promptly to the relevant decision-makers.
Governance & Reporting
• Own end-to-end project management for assigned engagements, including workplans, governance calendars, risk and issue logs, and status reporting.
• Design and maintain project governance structures, including steering committees, working groups, reporting cadences and decision logs.
• Produce timely, accurate progress reports for funders, partners and ACE leadership.
• Track budgets and resource allocation against approved workplans, flagging variances early.
Risk & Issue Management
• Maintain a live risk register, proactively identifying delivery, contractual and relationship risks across partner organisations and programme sites.
• Follow up on open items and pending decisions with named owners until resolution, rather than passively tracking status.
Documentation & Knowledge Management
• Maintain organised, accessible documentation, including concept notes, meeting minutes, action trackers and decision records.
• Ensure institutional knowledge from each engagement is captured and reusable for future programmes.
DELIVERABLES
• A maintained master workplan and risk/issue log across assigned engagements, reflecting both governance status and actual delivery progress.
• Evidence of hands-on programme support, such as activity plans, field engagement records or delivery troubleshooting notes.
• Regular progress reports for funders, partners and ACE leadership.
• A documented governance structure, including meeting cadences, decision logs and escalation paths.
• An organised repository of MOUs, concept notes and partner correspondence.
SUCCESS MEASURES
Performance in this role will be assessed against, among other measures:
• On-time, on-budget delivery against agreed workplans, including tangible progress on ground-level programme activities.
• Timeliness and completeness of governance reporting.
• Speed of resolution on flagged risks, open decisions and delivery bottlenecks.
• Quality of stakeholder relationships, as reflected in partner and funder feedback.
• Demonstrated hands-on contribution to programme teams, not only oversight.
• Effectiveness of team leadership, including the ability to guide, support and get the best out of the programme team members and partner counterparts working under this role's coordination.
QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS
• A minimum of seven to ten years' experience in project or programme management, ideally within donor-funded, multi-stakeholder or public-private partnership environments, with meaningful hands-on delivery experience.
• Demonstrated experience coordinating across multiple institutional partners (corporates, government, NGOs or donors) simultaneously, including direct stakeholder engagement and representation.
• A track record of working closely with technical and field teams to move programme activities forward, including troubleshooting delivery challenges directly.
• Strong organisational and documentation discipline, with comfort owning risk logs, trackers and governance calendars.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to synthesise complex, multi-partner information into clear updates and to engage confidently with senior stakeholders.
• Working knowledge of project management tools and methodologies (for example MS Project, Asana, or PMI/PRINCE2 frameworks).
• Comfortable working under time pressure across concurrent, interdependent workstreams, including willingness to travel to field and programme sites.
DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE
• Experience in health, digital health, or telecom-adjacent sector programmes.
• Exposure to large-scale corporate or philanthropic partnership structures.
• A recognised project or programme management certification, such as PMP, PRINCE2, or PMD Pro.
• Familiarity with Nigeria's public health or regulatory landscape (for example NPHCDA, NCC, BHCPF).
HOW TO APPLY
Interested candidates should submit a CV, cover letter, and a short portfolio summarising key projects or programmes led, including scale, sector and outcomes, to careers@acestrategy.org. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
ACE Group is an equal opportunity employer. All applications will be treated with strict confidentiality.
