Project Manager, Early Childhood Development (ECD)

Organization: Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
Department: Programming
Duty station: Mbeya
Reports to: Director of Programming, TaMoLe + Malawi
Supervisory responsibilities: Yes
Vacancy date: 1 September 2026
Application deadline: 15 September 2026

Job summary

The Project Manager will manage, coordinate and monitor project activities and relationships with partners and other stakeholders to support the achievement of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) project’s objectives.

The role will advance Catholic Relief Services’ work serving poor and vulnerable communities. The Project Manager’s knowledge of the programme area and project management expertise will help the country programme deliver high-quality programming and continuously improve the project’s impact.

Roles and key responsibilities

The Project Manager will:

• Lead technical, budget management, monitoring and reporting activities throughout most of the project cycle, including start-up, implementation and close-out.
• Ensure project activities comply with CRS programme quality principles and standards, donor requirements and good practices.
• Manage and supervise staff effectively, including overseeing team dynamics and staff well-being.
• Provide coaching, develop tailored individual development plans, contribute to recruiting project staff and complete performance management for direct reports.
• Ensure that learning properly accompanies project activities throughout the project cycle.
• Support accountability by coordinating project evaluation activities in accordance with the MEAL Policy.
• Proactively identify issues and report them to inform adjustments to project plans and implementation schedules.
• Foster and strengthen partnerships relevant to Early Childhood Development, applying appropriate partnership concepts, tools and approaches.
• Represent CRS on ECD matters before donors, international NGO working groups, the United Nations, local partners, local government authorities and community actors.
• Determine the activities required to secure the financial, material and human resources needed for quality project implementation.
• Conduct periodic budget reviews and follow up with partners to ensure the timely submission of financial reports and proper tracking of resource use.
• Identify staff capacity needs and the technical assistance needs of partner organizations.
• Contribute to capacity-strengthening initiatives and other interventions required to support quality project implementation.
• Assist in preparing trend analysis reports and disseminating the findings.
• Review project documentation to ensure that project files contain all required documents and are maintained according to agency and donor requirements.

Basic qualifications

• A bachelor’s degree is required.
• A minimum of 5-8 years of project management experience is required, ideally within an NGO and in the Early Childhood Development field.

Preferred qualifications

• A master’s degree in International Relations or Early Childhood Development would be an advantage.
• Relevant grant management experience, particularly with the United States Government or other public donors, would be an advantage.
• The ability to contribute to developing technical proposals would be an advantage.

Knowledge, skills and abilities

Candidates should have:

• Staff supervision experience.
• Experience working with stakeholders at different levels and strengthening community partnerships.
• Experience analysing data and contributing to evaluation reports.
• Experience using Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office applications, including Excel, Word and PowerPoint.
• Critical-thinking and creative problem-solving skills, with the ability to exercise sound judgement.
• Strong relationship-management skills and the ability to work effectively with local stakeholders.
• Strong representation abilities.
• The ability to contribute to written reports.
• A proactive, results-oriented and service-oriented approach.
• Strong attention to detail, accuracy and timeliness when carrying out assigned responsibilities.

Required languages

• Fluency in English and Kiswahili.

Travel requirements

• The successful candidate must be willing and able to travel up to 30% of the time.