Operations Manager

Do you want to be part of an innovative and impactful social enterprise? Do you have a strong generalist business operations skillset? Would you thrive in a small, highly motivated team? If so, this position with Kivu International is an ideal opportunity for you.

About Us

Kivu is dedicated to improving the policy responses to social and economic challenges in low and middle-income countries. We believe that change is most effective when it is locally-led. We do not dictate to others how to solve policy problems; instead we support local institutions to develop their own effective solutions. We work with think tanks, interest groups, civil society organisations, the private sector and others to inform and influence policy, or hold governments to account. We also provide support direct to government to strengthen their strategy and policy development. Our work involves countries across Africa, Asia and the Pacific.

About You

This role will suit youif you have if you have excellent organisational skills, great attention to detail and the ability to implement effective systems in a small organisation. You and the Finance Assistant (who you will manage) will be the only ops people in our team, so it's important that you're self-motivated, reliable and flexible. Working with numbers is a large part of this job, and you need to be comfortable with that.

This jobs would suit a dynamic early career professional looking to develop operational and business management skills. It would also be appropriate for a more experienced programme or project manager, operations manager, or finance professional. You might also not fit into any of those categories – if you think you are a good fit for the role we welcome your application! You don't need to have worked in international development before.

About The Role

The position of Operations Manager is critical to the continued effectiveness and impact of Kivu. As part of an experienced team you will support the day-to-day operations of our organisation. Success in this role means that everyone else can concentrate on securing and delivering client projects, knowing that all our back-end processes are taken care of. 

Core areas of responsibility are: 

          Project management: administrative support on Kivu projects, including managing the formal part of our relationships with our clients around things like contracts, due diligence and reporting. We typically have around 10 projects running at any one time, and they each have their own particular requirements. We need to you to help us keep on top of all of this.

          Financial management: looking after the finance side of our projects. You will be managing budgets, grants, invoicing, payments and reporting in multiple currencies. There is also the day-to-day management of our organisational finances, including accounts payable and receivable and payroll, as well as some financial reporting and forecasting for our founders. You will need to figure out with the part-time Finance Assistant how to make best use of their time to help with this.

          Operational administration: support on day-to-day operations of the company to keep the company running smoothly. This includes all those things where nobody notices if they're done well, but everyone notices when they're not. That’s stuff like HR, our office and IT systems.

We would like you to grow in this role. There are organisational improvement projects that you will have the chance to lead which will help you develop towards a more senior role in the future. For instance, we would like to increase financial transparency across the organisation without damaging our impact-focused culture.

There is also the unique opportunity in this role for you to work with some of our global project partners to help them improve their operational processes. This would involve a small amount of international travel, and will allow you to use your experience and skills to have a direct impact on organisations in aid-recipient countries.

The position could be either permanent or part-time (for an experienced candidate) and can be conducted remotely from the UK or based in Kivu’s London offices near Old Street. The salary would be between £40,000 and £45,000 (pro rata if part-time) depending on experience, plus benefits.

For an informal conversation about the role please contact Will Paxton on [email removed - click apply for more details] We are happy to answer any questions you may have. 

The closing date for applications is 09:00 on Monday 12th June 2023.