Assistant Project Operations Manager, Digital Utilities and Climate Tech

Assistant Project Operations Manager, Digital Utilities and Climate Tech page is loaded Assistant Project Operations Manager, Digital Utilities and Climate Tech Apply locations London time type Full time posted on Posted 2 Days Ago job requisition id R-01663

About the Team

The Mobile for Development team drives innovation in digital technology to reduce inequalities in our world. Singularly positioned at the intersection of the mobile ecosystem and the development sector, we stimulate digital innovation to deliver both sustainable business and large-scale socio-economic impact for the underserved. 

The Digital Utilities programme supports urban resilience in low- and middle-income countries by enabling access to essential utility services through digital solutions and innovative partnerships.  Inclusive utility services, such as energy, water, sanitation, waste management and transport support urban resilience, which allows cities in low-and-middle-income countries to better withstand challenges related to population growth, climate change, and inequality.

The ClimateTech programme unlocks the power of digital technology in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), to enable their transition towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient future. The programme advances the use of mobile and digital technologies to support climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience strategies in LMICs. It achieves this through research, market engagement, and advocacy activities. For more information, read our report on the role of digital and mobile enabled solutions in addressing climate change .

About the Role

This role is a chance to work at the exciting intersection between digital innovation and essential services / climate beneficial initiatives, like energy, water, sanitation, climate finance, plastic and waste management and forest management. It’s a fantastic opportunity for someone who is energised by supporting a variety of social good projects, and tracking the actual impact they deliver.

You will support the Senior Operations Manager as well as various workstream Leads and Directors, working with the wider M4D team, subject matter experts, compliance/finance, legal, HR and marketing. As an Assistant Operations Manager you will be responsible for the following:

• Supporting the Digital Utilities and ClimateTech teams to develop and maintain programme and project work plans
• Assist the Senior Operations Manager with tracking and reporting on deliverables and KPIs to input to monthly reporting to senior management, and quarterly and annual programme reporting to donors 
• Maintain programme risk, issue and lessons learned logs
• Assist with programme business planning (briefs / quality plans)
• Support team members to develop and update execution plans, and help facilitate coordination between team members on projects
• Raise new suppliers and process purchase orders, manage invoices and work with the Finance team to resolve any supplier / payments issues 
• Manage the contract approvals process, ensuring all contracts are uploaded into the system and signed by both parties
• Maintain the team flight tracker, manage weekly flight reporting, and responding to travel related issues as they arise (although limited travel is anticipated in the near-term)
• Track team expenses against available budget and ensure team members submit expenses on time
• Maintain shared folder filling system
• Support the team with planning and logistics for events

About You

The ideal candidate will display the following skills and qualifications:

Hard skills

• Demonstrable operations and project management experience with donor-funded projects, innovation funds or an interest in socio-economic development.
• Demonstrable experience in managing programmes within a complex compliance environment
• Proven experience in managing procurement processes
• Proven experience of managing project level activities focused on achieving results

• Strong escalation management skills, to ensure that issues receive attention and mitigation support from senior stakeholders
• Ability to absorb complex information and communicate effectively at all levels to both expert and non-expert audiences
• Proficiency using Office (i.e. Excel and PowerPoint) and MS teams is required, experience setting up and managing project management platforms is a bonus

Soft skills

• Demonstrable emotional intelligence skills and influencing skills
• Demonstrable experience in various stakeholder management, strong presentation and speaking skills desirable
• Strong ability to drive collaboration between various departments to drive a common objective
• Ability to manage overlapping activities and prioritise
• Experience of working internationally and cross-cultural environments
• Demonstrable structured and methodical thinking

Contract type

Worker type

Working at the GSMA offers you unparalleled access to the mobile industry. We offer a chance to truly shape the direction of mobile, whatever your role. By joining the GSMA, you will be exposed to a fast-paced rapidly evolving environment, working on global solutions, genuinely fascinating and industry-changing projects and a stimulating and dynamic environment designed to enable you to flourish.

In addition to architect-designed offices and competitive compensation, our benefits include fantastic learning & development opportunities, generous holiday allowances, four additional days off for professional development and many others.

To learn more about the GSMA, visit our career site , our LinkedIn page and our Twitter page.

Being You at the GSMA

We are one of the most diverse companies you will ever come across, we care deeply about equality and inclusivity and aspire to be the best at it. Your well-being and work/life balance is important so if you prefer to work flexi-time or a day from home, just ask. We’re keen to ensure everyone is equal, represented and connected so we particularly encourage applications from all demographics. The success of the GSMA year on year will continue to be contributed by people from all walks of life.

GSMA Values

Our values not only drive our culture – they shape how we work and interact inside and outside our global organisation.

Passionately driven

We approach everything we do with unparalleled capability, tenacity and commitment, knowing that the challenging scale, pace and complexity of our work is what leads to its world-changing impact.

Insightful leaders

We continually develop and engage our expertise, insight and creativity so that we’re always ready to respond to the changing landscape with authority, agility and nuance.

Stronger together

We lean on each other so the industry can lean on us, embracing our diversity by actively seeking out perspectives and skill sets beyond our own, fuelling each other’s successes and constantly asking how we can help.

Underpinning our values is our collective mindset to show up purposefully as good human beings every day, in every situation. When we’re at our best – we are collaborative, considerate and compassionate to others, and we create a safe space for one another to thrive, assuming positive intent in our colleagues. And if we aren’t at our best and the pressure is on – we feel free to be ourselves but still remain curious, lean into the tough stuff and we are always respectful to others and accountable for the part we play.

The GSMA is a global organisation unifying the mobile ecosystem to discover, develop and deliver innovation foundational to positive business environments and societal change. Our vision is to unlock the full power of connectivity so that people, industry, and society thrive. Representing mobile operators and organisations across the mobile ecosystem and adjacent industries, the GSMA delivers for its members across three broad pillars: Industry Services and Solutions, Connectivity for Good, and Outreach.

Connectivity for Good engages members, governments and civil society, to advance positive policy and spectrum outcomes, facilitate digital innovation to reduce inequalities in our world, and tackle todays’ biggest societal challenges such as digital inclusion, climate change and sustainability.

Industry Services and Solutions underpins the technology and interoperability that make mobile work. Via our projects, working groups and promotional activities we facilitate the industry’s focus on areas such as 5G, Mobile IoT, fraud and security. And our technical services offer tools, data and resources to enable even more efficient and robust mobile experiences for users.

Outreach provides the world’s largest platform, convening and informing the mobile ecosystem, at MWC Barcelona, Shanghai, Los Angeles and the M360 series, and through Mobile World Live and GSMA Intelligence with breaking news, insights and expert analysis.

We invite you to find out more at gsma.com .