Country Project Director, WAN-IFRA Eastern Europe

Position: Country Project Director, WAN-IFRA Eastern Europe

Engagement length: January 2025 to December 2027

Engagement type: Milestone-based Contract: 100% input

Location: Ukraine

WAN-IFRA is seeking a country project director to lead a major media development project in Eastern Europe. This is a 3-year, 6M Euro capacity building programme that is in its final stages of due diligence with a major European funder. Candidates must have a minimum 10 years experience leading media development projects with a major gender-equality, financial viability, or editorial quality lens and strong professional networks with independent local and regional media throughout Ukraine. This position reports into the Executive Director, Media Development. Ukrainian language essential, direct leadership experience within a membership or trade association within the industry is an asset given the need to build and maintain direct relationships within local and regional media throughout the country. Candidates should ideally be based inside Ukraine, or willing to relocate.

Duties and responsibilities include oversight of all aspects of project implementation, including programmatic, managerial, operational and financial. Specific duties include:

• Ensuring the delivery of project activities supported by the Executive Director and in coordination with other WAN-IFRA staff and key partners;
• Delivering against targets outlined in annual workplans, whilst meeting the results as described in the project logframe;
• Ensuring project implementation and spending is on target, managing the budget in coordination with finance department in Frankfurt and Executive Director;
• End-to-end design and implementation of capacity building activities for independent media with a focus on identifying means to build toward greater economic independence and producing strong investigative content;
• Overall accountability for organisation and implementation of trainings and other activities inside Ukraine;
• Attendance of partner and management meetings as required;
• Producing narrative project reports on a quarterly basis which capture key outcomes and provide recommendations on programme adjustments for future activities; regular briefings with the Executive Director and partners on situational and contextual changes that might impact the integrity of the overall programme delivery and WAN-IFRA partners;
• Support in all Monitoring and Evaluation and reporting (MREL) activities ensuring project calendars are up to date, good news stories supplied, contact lists and other important MREL documents are updated; including contributing to (semi) annual reports as per donor requirements;
• Management of 1-2 supporting managers;
• Some travel required;
• Other duties as requested.

Key Qualifications of the Successful Candidate

• Relevant university degree at the MA level. Strong work experience could be equivalent;
• Exceptional project management skills: At least 10 years of project management experience, including experience in the field, experience managing project staff and partners, and meeting project deliverables and timelines;
• Experience directly managing budgets, spending and administration, including budget analysis and planning;
• Direct experience managing and administering small and mid-sized grants programmes;
• Demonstrated experience managing and administering sub-grants with a record of success and in compliance with donor expectations;
• Experience running trade/industry/membership associations;
• Experience in conceptualising and overseeing capacity building projects aimed at building toward greater financial independence of media, and/or safety and investigative content;
• Association, or membership-based organisational experience is a strong asset;
• Experience in the planning, managing and successfully delivering on training, advocacy or other events-based or content-driven projects involving numerous stakeholders.
• Proven ability to operate effectively in a multicultural environment and collaborate with a diverse range of organisations and partners;
• Willingness and ability to work remotely with colleagues around the world, including commitment to occasionally communicate and work during non-standard business hours;
• Good knowledge and experience on Google Workspace (Spreadsheets, Docs, etc.);
• Proven experience and superior analytical and writing ability for developing high quality narrative reports and proposals;
• Strong interpersonal skills including diplomacy, tact, and the ability to negotiate;
• Exceptional project management and leadership skills; this individual must be able to think strategically and execute effectively, while managing and motivating a remote team in a fast paced setting to deliver against multiple competing deadlines and priorities;
• Experience managing remote teams in a not-for-profit or civil society environment; comfortable with the reporting requirements and procurement standards of internationally funded programmes an asset;
• Proven ability to set priorities, meet tight deadlines, manage multiple assignments and time effectively;
• Ability to adapt to changing needs and priorities;
• Ukrainian language is essential;
• Fluency in English and strong oral communication and presentation skills;
• Ability and willingness to travel internationally, sometimes to challenging environments.

Interested applicants should send their CVs to job@wan-ifra.org by 10 January, 2025. Please include the title of the position in the subject line of your email. Please note, only successful candidates will be contacted.

WAN-IFRA is committed to diversity and inclusion, and creating an environment which embraces collaboration and equality. Women, non-binary, LGBTQI+, disabled and visible minority candidates are especially encouraged to apply.

About WAN-IFRA

WAN-IFRA is the global organisation of the world’s newspapers and news publishers, representing more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. WAN-IFRA is unique in its position as a global industry association with a human rights mandate to defend and promote media freedom, and the economic independence of news media as an essential condition of that freedom.