Role Details

Role Title: Project Implementation & Delivery Manager	Department or Function: Impact
Reports to Role: Senior Programs Manager	Location: Nairobi, Kenya

About ACRE Africa

Agriculture and Climate Risk Enterprise Ltd (ACRE Africa), a subsidiary of ZEP-RE is a for-profit social enterprise and designer of risk management solutions for farmers with operations in Africa since 2009. ACRE Africa is a risk management solutions designer linking stakeholders to localized solutions such as insurance and climate change adaptation strategies to reduce agricultural and climate risks. ACRE Africa operates as a licensed insurance intermediary supporting local insurers to offer agricultural insurance across value chains with offices present in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia and projects in Uganda, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, and Somali. As a for profit social business company pursuing financial sustainability and social impact, ACRE endeavors to work sustainably through its partnerships to continuously bridge this protection gap for farmers in Africa. ACRE Africa is committed to gender equality, youth inclusion, and equitable access to climate risk solutions across all its programmes.

JOB PURPOSE

The Project Implementation & Delivery Manager will lead the effective implementation of ACRE Africa’s projects, with end-to-end accountability for translating approved proposals and contracts into well-planned, timely, compliant, and high-quality results. The role will oversee implementation planning, team coordination, partner management, financial performance, risk management, monitoring, reporting, and delivery against agreed scope, budgets, timelines, and outcomes.

The role requires a delivery-focused, accountable, and commercially aware professional who can manage complex, multi-stakeholder projects, resolve implementation bottlenecks, and maintain strong client and partner relationships. As a secondary responsibility, the role will support fundraising and business development by contributing implementation insights, technical inputs, budgets, and evidence from existing projects to proposals and follow-on opportunities.

RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES:

Project Implementation Planning & Mobilization

• Translate approved proposals, contracts, and donor requirements into detailed implementation plans, workplans, delivery schedules, budgets, procurement plans, and responsibility matrices.
• Lead project inception and mobilization, ensuring teams, partners, systems, resources, and governance arrangements are ready for delivery.
• Define clear milestones, deliverables, quality standards, dependencies, and escalation pathways for each assigned project.
• Maintain integrated implementation plans and proactively address bottlenecks, changes in scope, capacity gaps, and delivery dependencies.
• Ensure project designs and delivery approaches incorporate gender equality, youth inclusion, safeguarding, and equitable access considerations.
• Contribute to selected proposal development and donor relationship activities as required, without displacing primary accountability for project implementation and delivery.

Project Execution & Delivery Coordination

• Provide day-to-day leadership across assigned projects and ensure delivery against agreed scope, timelines, budgets, quality standards, and intended outcomes.
• Coordinate cross-functional teams, country teams, consultants, vendors, and implementing partners, with clear ownership and timely follow-through on actions.
• Run regular delivery reviews, track milestones and critical paths, and escalate decisions or constraints requiring management attention.
• Establish and apply quality assurance processes so that technical outputs, partner deliverables, and client-facing products meet agreed standards.
• Use project management systems, data, and digital tools to improve visibility, coordination, efficiency, and evidence-based decision-making.

Portfolio & Financial Management

• Manage project budgets, forecasts, burn rates, commitments, and expenditure in collaboration with Finance, ensuring resources remain aligned with implementation priorities.
• Ensure compliance with donor requirements, contractual obligations, procurement procedures, internal controls, and project governance frameworks.
• Maintain project risk, issue, assumption, and change logs, with clear mitigation actions, owners, and escalation timelines.
• Monitor portfolio performance and support timely corrective action where projects are off track financially, operationally, or technically.

Stakeholder Engagement & Client Management

• Serve as the principal delivery interface for assigned clients, donors, and implementation partners, maintaining clear communication, trust, and alignment throughout the project lifecycle.
• Lead project governance meetings, implementation reviews, partner coordination forums, and client engagements, ensuring decisions and actions are documented and followed through.
• Oversee timely, accurate, and evidence-based narrative and financial reporting, including progress updates, variance explanations, risks, results, and corrective actions.
• Manage expectations and negotiate practical delivery adjustments where operating conditions, partner performance, or client requirements change.

Performance, Learning & Continuous Improvement

• Drive results-based management by tracking project KPIs, outputs, outcomes, delivery quality, and beneficiary reach against approved targets.
• Work with monitoring, evaluation, and learning colleagues to ensure appropriate data collection, validation, analysis, and use in implementation decisions.
• Lead project close-out, including completion of deliverables, final reporting, financial reconciliation, asset disposition, documentation, and handover or transition arrangements.
• Capture lessons learned and delivery evidence, and apply them to improve project systems, future designs, scale-up decisions, and organizational learning.

Fundraising & Business Development Support

• Provide technical delivery inputs, implementation approaches, workplans, budgets, risk assumptions, and evidence for concept notes and proposals.
• Support due diligence, donor discussions, consortium design, and contract negotiations to ensure proposed commitments are realistic and deliverable.
• Identify opportunities for extensions, scale-up, replication, or follow-on funding through strong delivery performance and partner engagement.

KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS:

• Delivery Performance: Percentage of milestones and deliverables completed on time and to agreed quality standards
• Budget Performance: Projects delivered within approved budgets, with accurate forecasting and timely corrective action
• Results Achievement: Percentage of project outputs and outcomes achieved against approved targets
• Compliance & Reporting: Timeliness and quality of donor reports, audits, documentation, and contractual compliance
• Risk & Issue Resolution: Timely identification, escalation, and closure of implementation risks and bottlenecks
• Client & Partner Satisfaction: Positive client feedback, effective partner performance, and repeat engagements
• Business Development Support: Quality and timeliness of delivery inputs to proposals and contribution to extensions or follow-on opportunities

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Project Management, Agriculture, Agribusiness, Insurance, Finance, Business Administration, Development Studies, or a related field. An advanced degree is an advantage.
• 5–8+ years of relevant experience, with substantial responsibility for implementing and delivering complex, multi-stakeholder projects.
• Demonstrated experience managing the full project lifecycle, including inception, planning, execution, budgeting, risk management, reporting, and close-out.
• Proven ability to coordinate cross-functional teams and implementing partners and to deliver against contractual, donor, and client requirements.
• Strong understanding of agriculture, climate risk, insurance, or financial inclusion landscapes.
• Experience contributing to proposals, budgets, donor engagement, and business development is desirable.
• PMP, PRINCE2, Agile, or an equivalent project management certification is an added advantage.
• Strong understanding of gender and social inclusion (GESI) dynamics within agriculture, climate risk, and financial services is preferred.

COMPETENCIES AND ATTRIBUTES

• Strong implementation leadership, ownership, and accountability for results.
• Ability to plan, prioritize, and coordinate multiple workstreams, teams, and partners in complex operating environments.
• Sound financial, risk, compliance, and contract management capability.
• Strong analytical judgment and practical problem-solving, with the ability to anticipate and resolve delivery bottlenecks.
• Clear, concise, and influential communication with internal teams, clients, donors, and partners.
• Proficiency with project management methodologies, work-planning tools, performance dashboards, and reporting systems.
• Commercial awareness and the ability to connect delivery evidence with scale-up and follow-on funding opportunities.
• Resilience, adaptability, attention to detail, and a consistent focus on quality and timely execution.

Interested candidates who meet the above requirements are invited to apply by emailing an application to the HR department at recruitment@ACREAFRICA.COM, attaching a detailed cover letter and CV, by Monday, October 19, 2026.