About
The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) is a globally recognized think tank with more than 30 years of experience working to solve today's greatest sustainable development challenges. We combine deep expertise across critical policy areas with a collaborative approach to research, advice, and hands-on support that delivers real-world results. Headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we are a diverse team of over 300 experts working from offices in Canada and Switzerland as well as other locations around the world.
Overview
The Project Manager is responsible for leading the successful execution of assigned projects throughout the project cycle. They are the face of the project and the bridge between all stakeholders involved, accountable for defining, assembling, and driving forward the project's plan, coordinating the delivery of activities, and ensuring tangible results.
To achieve this mission, they are responsible for adaptively managing the following: (i) the project's delivery plan and strategy, including arbitration of any change requests; (ii) the team's coordination in moving deliverables forward; (iii) the timing and scheduling of activities; (iv) the acquisition and utilization of adequate resources, including contractors; (v) the project's budget, finances, and accounting; (vi) risk management and problem response; and (vii) liaising with and reporting progress to the donor.
Responsibilities:
At the Program Level:
Program Governance and Management
- Program development: Ensures compliance of supervised projects to program-level operational plans, IISD policies, strategies, and best practices and processes among supervised project teams. Builds and expands relationships with external partners and contacts in beneficiary countries of supervised projects.
- Internal relations: Supports program staff in liaising with IISD head office's corporate services on project-related matters, as well as the collection of consolidated status from projects under supervision.
Program Support
- Finance and accounting: Ensures accurate data of supervised projects is included in IISD-wide annual budget planning. Ensures projects meet expected contribution margins. Provides program staff with timely information on expense reconciliation and accounts payable for supervised projects.
- Information systems and IT: Supports the reliability of the program’s information management system by providing timely and accurate project status information in collaboration with Finance staff.
- Communications: Supports program-level communication efforts by providing impact information from supervised projects in collaboration with Project Lead.
At the Project Level:
Project Design, Planning, and Governance
- Project development and planning: Coordinates project proposal development for identified opportunities; works with Project Lead in drafting financial elements, collecting due diligence documents, and submitting final documents to the donor; evaluates change requests, organizes team calls, and supports Project Lead in updating project plans.
- Grant agreement: Liaises with funders to receive grant agreements; reviews donor agreement for compliance with IISD policies; sends received donor agreement to the program’s financial analyst for processing.
- Project reporting: Supports Project Lead in establishing communication with the donor; understands donor’s reporting requirements and ensures project activities align with donor objectives; coordinates progress reports, addresses inquiries, documents interactions, and supports Project Lead in meetings and relationship building with the donor.
Project Operations
- Project delivery management: Monitors deliverables progress and team members’ adherence to timelines; assesses project resource requirements and optimizes resource allocation; coordinates contract negotiation with contractors/vendors; advises project team on schedule changes and potential bottlenecks; supports Project Lead in establishing clear timelines and deadlines for deliverables; supports project team to deliver quality outputs on time and manage relationships with contractors/vendors.
- Project risk management: Guides Project Lead in the identification of potential risks and uncertainties that could impact project objectives, with a focus on operational, financial, and external risks; documents all risk-management activities; guides Project Lead in identifying potential risks that could impact project objectives.
- Project monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL): Sets up project structures for tracking and reporting project MEL data; tracks and documents lessons learned from projects for institutional learning purposes.
Project Support
- Project administration: Coordinates the preparation of contractor agreements and collects approval on contractor work completed; tracks contractor deliverables and ensures timely payment; acts as a liaison between IISD and contractor regarding subcontracting agreement terms and payments.
- Project finance and accounting: Oversees the allocation and approval of project expenses; sets up, tracks, and refines project finances; prepares project cost templates and manages the project budget; forecasts future budget needs and identifies potential budget risks; implements cost-control measures and maintains accurate accounting records; communicates budgetary status and financial performance to stakeholders.
- Project logistics: Plans and organizes project conferences, briefings, seminars, workshops, programs, and other initiatives; oversees the organization of travel arrangements associated with project activities.
- Project information systems and IT: Ensures proper documentation of project information in the program’s and IISD’s information systems; ensures appropriate recording of project status and MEL information in the program’s knowledge management system.
- Project human resources: Supervises assistants; sets annual objectives, conducts annual performance reviews, and supports career development paths.
Knowledge and Skills Requirements:
- Minimum years of relevant experience: 5
- Academic qualifications: Advanced degree in relevant field (e.g., project management, sustainable development, accounting). Project management certification is a plus.
- Decision making: Informs critical strategic decisions at the program level; makes high-impact, strategic decisions at the project level; makes autonomous decisions on routine tasks assigned; provides clear directions for decision making by subordinates.
- Technical experience: Managing complex, multi-year projects; experience with MEL; experience with finance, accounting, and administration; experience with procurement and contracts management.
- Problem solving: Anticipate, mitigate, identify, and coordinate solving of medium-impact, cross-functional problems; anticipate, identify, and autonomously solve medium-impact problems; escalate identified problems to supervisors where necessary.
- Stakeholder engagement: Engaging with external stakeholders (partners, beneficiaries, vendors); engaging with internal stakeholders (team members, other departments); gathering requirements and providing updates
For more details on what we are looking for in our candidates, please refer to the IISD competencies on our website.
Position Details
Location: Remote, Germany, Portugal or UK.
Candidates must hold an appropriate work authorization for locations where they expect to be based, without any sponsorship from IISD.
Salary: The target hiring range for this position in Winnipeg is EUR 50,500 - EUR 58,700 annually, with the ability to progress to a maximum of EUR 66,900 annually. Placement in the salary range will be based on factors such as market conditions, internal equity, and candidate experience, skills, and qualifications relevant to the role.
Portugal : EUR 43,000 - 49,600
UK: GBP 37,300 - 42,400
Type of employment: Full time
Job Type: Replacement Role
Application deadline: August 21, 2026 , 4PM CST
Start Date: immediate opportunity
Application Procedure
All submissions must be in English.
Applications will only be accepted through Bamboo HR.
Only those candidates we wish to interview will be contacted. Resumes will be kept on file for one year.
IISD is committed to fostering a more equitable and sustainable world and welcomes candidates who uphold our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We encourage applications from individuals from historically underrepresented and marginalized communities, including women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, people of diverse racial and ethnic identities, and people of diverse sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and/or sex characteristics (SOGIESC).
We are committed to equitable and inclusive recruitment practices and to reducing barriers to employment and advancement. Hiring decisions are based on qualifications, experience, competencies, and organizational needs, while recognizing the value that diverse perspectives and lived experiences bring to our work. We offer reasonable accommodations throughout the recruitment process and welcome applicants’ input on how best to support their participation. Candidates are invited to voluntarily self-identify and complete our employment equity questionnaire through our applicant tracking system
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Compensation: 50,500 - 58,700 EUR annually
