Project Manager- Radio, Rights and Resilience in Sierra Leone (3R-SL)

Job Title: Project Manager- Radio, Rights and Resilience in Sierra Leone (3R-SL)
Department: Global Programs
Location: Freetown, Sierra Leone, with travel to project locations
Workplace designation: Country-based / hybrid, subject to organizational policy
Duration: Up to 24 months, subject to funding and successful project launch
Reporting to: Project Director
Supervisory responsibilities: Sierra Leone project team, consultants and technical personnel, as assigned

About Informed
At Informed, we strengthen independent journalism and the wider information environment so that people can get the information they need, identify the forces shaping their lives, and hold power to account.

About the Project
Radio, Rights, and Resilience in Sierra Leone (3R-SL) is a proposed 24-month initiative designed to contribute to the promotion and protection of human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law in Sierra Leone. The project will strengthen the capacity, professionalism, resilience and editorial independence of community and campus radio stations; support locally adapted and gender-responsive programming on women’s rights; increase public knowledge of women’s rights and justice mechanisms; and improve access to legal assistance and referral pathways for vulnerable women and girls. Informed will lead the consortium with Fojo Media Institute and Thomson Media, working closely with Sierra Leonean partners and participating radio stations.

About the Role
The Project Manager will provide day-to-day leadership for 3R-SL in Sierra Leone, serving as the project’s primary in-country focal point and ensuring high-quality, timely and compliant delivery across the project’s media development, women’s rights, community engagement, legal aid and learning components. The role will coordinate consortium members, local partners and financial support recipients; oversee planning, budgets, risk, safeguarding, monitoring and reporting; and maintain effective relationships with the donor, government counterparts, civil society, justice-sector actors, media networks and participating radio stations. The successful candidate will connect the project’s media and access-to-justice strands while ensuring that gender equality, inclusion, conflict sensitivity and do-no-harm principles guide implementation.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the project’s primary in-country focal point and support the Project Director in leading project start-up, inception, implementation and close-out in line with the approved proposal, grant agreement, workplan, budget and donor requirements.
• Work closely with the Project Director to translate the project design into detailed annual, quarterly and activity-level plans, ensuring effective sequencing across media strengthening, content production, community awareness, legal assistance and referral activities.
• Coordinate Informed, Fojo Media Institute, Thomson Media and Sierra Leonean partners, clarifying roles, tracking dependencies and facilitating regular consortium reviews and adaptive-management decisions.
• Oversee in-country project staff, consultants and service providers and foster a collaborative, inclusive, accountable and results-focused team culture.
• Serve as the principal in-country liaison with the donor and key stakeholders, including media associations, community and campus radio stations, civil society organisations, justice-sector institutions and relevant government authorities.
• Oversee financial support to third parties and partner agreements, working with grants, finance and compliance colleagues to support due diligence, contracting, monitoring, capacity strengthening and timely narrative and financial reporting.
• Work closely with the Project Director to manage the project budget, forecasts and budget-versus-actual reviews; ensure sound stewardship of resources and prompt action on variances.
• Lead high-quality donor reporting and maintain accurate records of progress, deliverables, decisions, risks and follow-up actions.
• Work with MERL colleagues and partners to maintain harmonised monitoring systems, track indicators, consolidate gender-, age-, disability- and geography-disaggregated data, and use audience feedback and case data for learning and adaptation.
• Ensure that project activities apply gender-responsive, human rights-based, disability-inclusive, conflict-sensitive and survivor-centred approaches.
• Embed safeguarding, informed consent, confidentiality, data protection, responsible reporting and do-no-harm measures across media, community and legal-aid activities.
• Maintain and regularly update project risk registers and mitigation plans covering political, operational, financial, security, reputational, environmental and partner risks.
• Coordinate with regional and global finance, grants, contracts, security, communications and technical teams, escalating urgent issues promptly.
• Support visibility, learning and sustainability efforts while protecting the safety, dignity and independence of project participants and partners.

Required Qualifications

• University degree in international development, media, communications, human rights, governance, law, social sciences, project management or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• At least five years of progressively responsible experience managing complex, donor-funded development or human-rights projects, including substantial experience in Sierra Leone or a comparable West African context.
• Demonstrated experience in work planning, budget management, donor compliance, partner coordination, subgrant or financial-support management, risk management and donor reporting.
• Experience managing multidisciplinary teams and coordinating consortium partners, local civil society organizations or media partners.
• Strong understanding of at least two of the following: media development; community radio; women’s rights and gender equality; access to justice; legal literacy; civil society strengthening; or governance and human rights.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate safeguarding, gender equality, inclusion, conflict sensitivity and do-no-harm principles into project delivery.
• Strong analytical, organizational, facilitation, negotiation and relationship-management skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English, including the ability to produce clear, accurate and persuasive donor reports.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and common project-management and collaboration tools.
• Willingness and ability to travel within Sierra Leone, including to rural and underserved areas, subject to security protocols.

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct experience managing European Union-funded actions and applying EU grant, procurement, visibility and reporting requirements.
• Established knowledge of Sierra Leone’s media, women’s rights, justice and civil society landscape.
• Experience working with community or campus radio stations, media networks, audience-engagement systems or content-syndication initiatives.
• Experience with legal-aid, referral-pathway, strategic-litigation or survivor-support programming.
• Knowledge of Sierra Leone’s Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Act, Prohibition of Child Marriage Act and Customary Land Rights Act.
• Ability to communicate in Krio and/or another Sierra Leonean language.

Candidate Profile
The successful candidate will be a collaborative and decisive project leader who can connect strategy with disciplined delivery. They will be comfortable coordinating diverse technical partners, supporting locally led implementation, managing sensitive work involving women and girls, and maintaining high standards of compliance, safeguarding and accountability. They will bring sound judgement, cultural humility and a practical commitment to strengthening independent media and translating legal rights into meaningful access to information and justice.

How to Apply
Interested candidates should submit a CV and a concise cover letter of no more than two pages explaining how their experience meets the requirements of the role. Please do not use AI tools like ChatGPT to produce your cover letter, we want to see authentic voice and understand your personal motivation to apply. Shortlisted candidates may be asked to provide professional references.

Application deadline: 15th Nov 2026
Anticipated start date: December 2026

Equal Opportunity Statement
Informed is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team. We encourage applications from qualified candidates of all backgrounds and are committed to providing reasonable accommodation to enable individuals with disabilities to participate fully in the recruitment process.