Regional School Exams Project Manager

We support peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide.

We work directly with individuals to help them gain the skills, confidence and connections to transform their lives and shape a better world in partnership with the UK. We support them to build networks and explore creative ideas, to learn English, to get a high-quality education and to gain internationally recognised qualifications.

Working with people in over 200 countries and territories, we are on the ground in more than 100 countries. In 2021–22 we reached 650 million people.

Role Purpose

Leading a successful delivery of a range of British Council Exams projects and initiatives within the MENA and South Asia (SA) Regional School Exams strategies from start to finish including projects’ planning, execution as well as monitoring and evaluation while liaising with regional and global teams on meeting delivery and compliance standards, processes and policies as well as coordinating progress frameworks across involved business units and teams.

Main Accountabilities

Project Management

• Develop a standardised project management process/tools (i.e. project proposal, status report, change request, closure report, (PPM) tool)
• Build up on needed project implementation support (i.e. activities and workflow, cost/benefit analysis, allocating resources, team operating rules and communication)
• Identify risks and put together mitigation strategies
• Manage needed procurement processes
• Manage project related data including working with colleagues to identify indicators and tools for data collection, ensuring timely data entry and quality assurance of data,
• Provide a consolidated view of happening projects (i.e. insights and reporting to inform decisions utilising reports, dashboards on KPIs, budgets, risks mitigation)
• Align projects with the programme’s objectives and governance through:
  • Monitoring progress against plan
  • Establishing reporting protocol/procedures
  • Complete project documentation
  • Complete final project report

Market and customer intelligence

• Monitors and evaluates market/customer/stakeholder trends to identify areas where business can be developed and propose plans that respond to opportunities or threats appropriately, profitably and in accordance with corporate policies/priorities
• Work with Insights to conduct research to understand, document and act on the needs of stakeholders (candidates, parents, coordinators, leaders and teachers) and implement ongoing feedback mechanisms for key external/internal stakeholders
• Undertake regular quality checks and reviews, following agreed protocols, to monitor the quality, consistency and effectiveness of service/product delivery
• Make recommendations on procedural improvements and other operational initiatives to enhance team performance, cost effectiveness, service quality and efficiency
• Ensure product/sector knowledge is up to date and forward thinking
  

Relationship and stakeholder management

• Identify and shares examples of process/procedural best practice with colleagues in the country/region to drive continuous improvement in key account management and stakeholders’ relationships management
• Develop strong relationships with stakeholders within the region and the global teams
• Hold suppliers to account for delivering against contract
  

Commercial and Financial Management

• Ensure sound financial planning, working closely with finance teams to ensure British Council financial year plan is up to date
• Ensure accurate and timely monthly (re)forecasting is in place, by running regular reports in the SAP system on actuals, monitoring outstanding purchase orders, reviewing commitments, analysing and commenting on reasons for variances to plan and recommending corrective actions
• Ensure contracts are issued in line with British Council finance policy, with sufficient supporting documentation to facilitate reconciliations
• Monitoring monthly finances, including correct expenditure, ensuring the P2P process is being followed and correcting any mis-postings or journals needed
• Lead on timely project financial reporting to high standard
• Ensure compliance to British Council financial policies and procedures