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Program Delivery Manager - Adelaide / Sydney

The Australian Centre For Social Innovation
  • Location: Adelaide, South Australia or Sydney, New South Wales
  • Employment status: Four to five days per week with some domestic travel

We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities and industries, and are committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences and abilities. We welcome applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, mature-age people and people with visible and non-visible disabilities, regardless of sex, sexuality or gender identity.

Who we are

The Australian Centre for Social Innovation (TACSI) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation working across Australia. We partner with communities and organisations to put people at the heart of shaping their lives and society. Together, we tackle big social challenges and build the conditions for social innovation.

The role

As our Program Delivery Manager, you'll be responsible for stewarding complex social innovation projects (research, products, services, policy and capability) that are being delivered by specific project teams across the three functional areas of our organisation (Systems Initiatives, Scaling Innovations, Social Innovation Consulting), and that span our thematic focus areas.

Your key responsibilities

  • Ensure capacity and work delegation (traffic management) is strategically utilised against both internal and external work, and have a consistent oversight of our pipeline and how this might affect our current schedule of work
  • Support teams to ensure our work is delivered effectively and efficiently, and that it maintains our quality standards and supports the documentation of our impact
  • Work closely with project team members, especially project leads and project officers, and have a global view of blockers and risks affecting workflow
  • Always be on the lookout for opportunities to make sure our insights and knowledge is managed, and shared effectively across our organisation
  • Build our programmatic tools and practices to support transparency, accountability and structures that support the growth of TACSI
  • Support our Chief Innovation Officer to implement and further develop our monitoring and evaluation processes, and report on our programmatic impact
  • Be involved in the evolution of our business systems stack as we implement and improve how these systems support our work rhythms and decisions
  • Be open to new ways of working, skill sharing and innovation to bring greater opportunities to teams.

Your experience

You will be an experienced (8+ years) and skilled leader within the scope of program management, and agile project delivery. You have experience in guiding complex programs of work, managing dependencies and feeding into larger portfolios of change work.

Your background could be in a number of diverse fields. You will have strong demonstrated experience in working with and supporting designers or researchers, and may bring experience in working in socially orientated programs or sectors.

You have a passion for recognising the strengths of those around you and a love of coaching for growth and effectiveness across a multidisciplinary team.

You’ll be passionate about helping further our mission to help people lead better lives through innovative change.

Your skills and knowledge

Program management and agile practices.

You know how to coach and support teams in these approaches, continuously reflecting and challenging the team. You can create or tailor new ways of working to organisational needs, and are skilled at implementing new processes with empathy and patience.

Communication skills

You can mediate between people, appreciate differences and communicate with stakeholders at all levels. You can manage stakeholder expectations and facilitate discussions about risk and complexity even within constrained timescales.

Collaboration skills

You know how to solve and unblock issues between teams or departments at the highest level. You can support and influence team dynamics while also building and growing authentic and trusting relationships.

Financial management

You know how to influence or create budgets that are complex (this could be across an organisation, program or product view) and ensure those budgets are used for the greatest positive impact.

Life-cycle perspective.

You know how to successfully support teams through the full design to implementation life cycle.

Maintain delivery momentum

You know how to optimise the delivery flow of teams. You actively address the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exists. You can identify innovative ways to unblock issues.

Making processes work

You can identify and challenge organisational processes of increasing complexity, as well as those processes that are unnecessarily complicated. You can add value and coach the organisation to inspect and adapt processes. You know how to guide teams through the implementation of a new process.

Planning

You know how to lead a continual planning process in complex environments. You can plan beyond project delivery. You can identify dependencies in plans and know how to coach other teams as the central point of expertise.

Working at TACSI

TACSI is a fast-paced environment where people from diverse disciplines, ages and experiences come together to tackle complex social issues and build the conditions for social innovation – all while helping each other learn and grow.

Joining TACSI means joining one of the longest standing social innovation teams in the world, which is the product of many multidisciplinary doers and thinkers who have shaped, contributed to and influenced TACSI.

As an organisation, we are our own greatest experiment.

We’re three years into our own journey of developing TACSI as a networked organisation centred around learning and impact. This means we don’t have a traditional hierarchy based on power and decisions; instead, we have multiple hierarchies built on wisdom, experience and expertise. People don’t have line managers, they are part of a peer circle. Our senior leaders are accessible parts of the connected team. One of the areas in our organisation network we’re aiming to strengthen through this appointment is to dynamically form teams around projects and initiatives according to individual strengths and expertise.

We regularly come together to connect around learning – from our own work, from our partners and from international thought leaders. Everyone in the organisation is active in shaping the next version of TACSI, from business processes to strategy. Our people are our greatest asset. We also recognise that change starts with shifting how we function as individuals, teams and an organisation.

We offer:

  • Flexible work practices
  • Dedicated time for professional development and learning.
  • A professional development allowance
  • A bright and spacious office in the central city in Adelaide
  • A cosy workspace in the city in Sydney
  • Recognition program for positive feedback
  • A welcoming team with a sense of fun!

Our ‘Words to live by’

As a member of the TACSI team, you’ll be expected to model our ‘words to live by’ and grow your insight and capability to embrace them over time.

Inspire growth through conversation

Am I?

  • Taking the time to notice my colleagues’ successes and challenges
  • Gifting thoughtful and constructive feedback to help people grow
  • Building my relationships and trust with colleagues to create the safety these conversations need to really ‘click’
  • Inviting challenge, not validation

Learn and lead together

Am I?

  • Helping those around me to be powerful
  • Making decisions as close to the work as possible
  • Giving others the opportunity, knowledge, support and tools they need to make great decisions

Back others with considered support

Am I?

  • Giving colleagues opportunities to learn through the work
  • Following through on commitments
  • Offering support that meets individuals and groups where they are
  • Helping to build people’s confidence and trust

Grow the impact of our network

Am I?

  • Focused on the quality of relationship and outcomes, not just deliverables
  • Contributing to our financial sustainability, so that our impact can be sustained
  • Continuously seeking a better way to benefit the network
  • Using effective evaluation mechanisms
  • Helping to share stories of impact

Value people and balance

Am I?

  • Working towards my own version of ‘balance’, while recognising it will change
  • Supporting others to do the same, while recognising it will be different to my own
  • Creating space to value and honour the experiences, expertise, culture and perspective of others
  • Cultivating my awareness and the awareness of others in and through my work

Seeking diversity to share and strengthen

Am I?

  • Building multi-disciplinary teams to bring diversity to our work
  • Sharing knowledge to help nurture our network
  • Learning, designing and testing with people to enrich our process
  • Open up to new ideas, different perspectives and alternative approaches

How to apply

This job ad has now expired, and applications are no longer being accepted.
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