Senior Project Management Specialist - Indo-German Cooperation on Agrivoltaics

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a CGIAR Research Center, is on the lookout for a versatile professional to join its office in New Delhi, India, as a Senior Project Management Specialist.

The Senior Management Project Specialist is responsible for preparing and assessing project workplans and budgets, assessing operational support functions, and analyzing project workflows to recommend improvements for enhanced performance. The role involves supervising team activities, collaborating with research and stakeholders, aligning event logistics, and sharing program information to ensure seamless project implementation. The Senior Project Specialist ensures quality service delivery by assessing operational support services, maintaining project data, maintaining tools such as risk logs, and proposing mitigation strategies for identified risks.

The position is embedded within the IWMI India project implementation team and contributes to the Indo-German Cooperation on Agrivoltaics (IGCA), a multi-partner initiative implemented with GIZ and Fraunhofer ISE under the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Government. The project supports the scaling of agrivoltaics in India through business models, financing mechanisms, capacity development, field testing, and policy alignment across diverse agro-ecological regions.

DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

Main Purpose of Job:

• Prepare, assess, and monitor project workplans, milestones, and budgets on a periodic basis to ensure IWMI's IGCA commitments are delivered in line with grant agreements, operational plans, and approved timelines.
• Plan, monitor, and assess project implementation across thematic outputs to ensure compliance with standards, effective resource utilization, and alignment with agreed objectives, escalating risks and deviations as needed.
• Gather, analyze, and synthesize project data related to implementation progress, finances, risks, and outputs to inform adaptive project management and evidence-based decision-making.
• Implement and monitor project operational support functions, including finance, procurement, contracts, logistics, and partner management, to enable smooth and compliant project execution.
• Maintain and apply project management tools, including workplans, Gantt charts, risk registers, and mitigation plans, to proactively manage delivery risks and performance.
• Contribute to the preparation of strategic project documentation, including inputs to proposals, reports, and presentations, to support project continuity, learning, and future phases.

Main engagement, collaboration and communication responsibilities:

• Coordinate and maintain effective working relationships with IGCA consortium partners, sub-grantees, service providers, and internal IWMI teams to ensure coherent implementation and shared accountability.
• Act as the primary operational point of contact for day-to-day IGCA coordination with GIZ India and other partners, ensuring timely communication and issue resolution.
• Align project activities with research, communications, and operational teams to ensure integrated delivery of technical outputs, events, and dissemination products.
• Oversee planning and execution of project meetings, workshops, conferences, and stakeholder consultations, ensuring logistical, financial, and operational readiness.
• Share project information and progress updates through appropriate platforms to enhance visibility, transparency, and stakeholder engagement.
• Coordinate with the relevant internal stakeholders (e.g. Grants Specialist, and Portfolio Manager) to support the processing of partnership contracts and amendments, ensuring accuracy, compliance, and timely execution.

Main responsibilities in the delivery of timely and quality services:

• Monitor and assess the quality and timeliness of outputs delivered by partners, sub-grantees, and service providers, ensuring compliance with contractual and technical requirements.
• Compile, validate, and consolidate technical, financial, and progress information into high-quality internal and donor reports and management updates.
• Coordinate preparation of technical and financial reports in collaboration with project leadership and finance teams to ensure accuracy, completeness, and compliance.
• Identify, assess, and manage project risks, proposing and tracking mitigation actions to maintain delivery against approved plans and budgets.
• Address operational and implementation issues proactively, escalating complex matters to project leadership to safeguard project performance and donor confidence.
• Monitor and support the implementation of project activities by maintaining project portfolio data, tracking outputs and deliverables, and updating progress reports in the Project Management System; assist the Project Leader by identifying potential delays and ensuring activities are aligned with agreed timelines.

Requirements
Education, Certifications & Training:

• Bachelor's degree in Economics, Environmental Science, Business Management, Agriculture, Renewable Energy, Climate Change, Public Policy or related discipline.
• Master's degree is an added advantage.
• Recognized project management certificate is a distinct advantage.

Experience:

• Minimum 08 years of relevant work experience, including at least 04 years of demonstrated experience in large / complex project coordination and management.
• Exposure to results-based management, Theory of Change and project frameworks.
• Experience planning and coordinating projects and overseeing operational activities.
• Experience forging partnerships with stakeholders.
• Experience overseeing budgets and financial monitoring.
• Experience working in an international not-for-profit organization is an advantage.

Core competencies:

• Accountability: Takes ownership of work, showing initiative in problem-solving and decision-making. Stands firm on ethical issues, even when faced with challenges.
• Collaboration and Communication: Communicates clearly, articulating thoughts in a straightforward manner while interpreting nonverbal cues to enhance responses and foster productive interactions. Actively participates, seeks and listens to others' perspective. Demonstrates a willingness to learn from others and welcomes constructive feedback to improve personal and team performance.
• Respect and Inclusion: Promotes and advocates for respect and inclusion within team, program or organization. Actively seeks incorporates diverse ideas and experiences into decision making.
• Results and Impact Orientation: Establishes clear standards of excellence to achieve results, aligns individual and team goals with organizational objectives. Uses data and metrics to assess, monitor, and improve performance. Identifies improvement opportunities by evaluating and applying emerging technologies.

Functional and Technical competencies:

• Analytical, Critical and Systems Thinking: Synthesizes diverse information for well-informed conclusions and actionable recommendations.
• Monitoring and Reporting: Utilizes advanced monitoring methods, customizes or develops tools as needed, addresses challenges encountered during monitoring activities; develops detailed, customized reports with in-depth analysis, incorporating data and information from multiple sources tailored to stakeholder needs.
• Data Analysis, Management and Visualization: Integrates data from different sources to identify trends and patterns, proactively suggests areas for further exploration and communicates data-driven insights effectively through clear presentations and impactful visualizations.
• Planning and Organizing: Organizes, prioritizes, and schedules tasks strategically to meet deadlines and department objectives, creating detailed work plans while adapting to obstacles by reorganizing and reprioritizing tasks for timely results.
• Project / Program Management: Develops project plans, allocates resources, manages budgets, and ensures clear scope definition, alignment of deliverables, and timely completion.
• Computer Literacy: Uses spreadsheet and word processing applications at an advanced level to manage data, prepare reports, and produce accurate, well-structured documentation.

Management and Leadership Competencies:

Managing Team Dynamics

• Recognizes and identifies personal and others' emotions and the influence of personal behavior on team dynamics, showing understanding of the emotional intelligence concept.
• Builds trust and rapport with supervisees or team members by empowering and engaging them on tasks, supporting and guiding them to reach shared goals, while setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, and conducting fair assessments.
• Takes time to connect and show an interest in the well-being of team members or supervisees.

Strategic Leadership

• Recognizes relationships and partnerships as essential to achieving goals, demonstrating willingness to work in partnership, understanding and clarifying needs and mutual expectations.
• Actively participates in and supports change initiatives, adapting processes or procedures to align with evolving organization needs, showing openness to new ideas and approaches.
• Proactively identifies potential risks within their team's operations, assesses their impact, and suggests mitigation strategies to the manager.
• Seeks to understand the organization's purpose and goals and identifies opportunities for team process improvements and emerging technologies in alignment with organizational goals.

Language Proficiency:

• Essential: fluency in English is essential to communicate in writing and speaking.
• Desirable: working knowledge of a second language spoken in India.

Benefits

This is a nationally recruited position, and only Indian nationals will be considered. IWMI offers a competitive salary and benefits package, inclusive of health insurance, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D) insurance, and long-term disability coverage. The duration of the contract will initially be for a period of two years with the possibility of extension.

HOW TO APPLY: Apply for the position by following the application instructions at www.iwmi.org/jobs. We will be accepting applications through 24:00 (IST) on June 21, 2026 (applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis). Your application must include a CV, cover letter, and three (3) references, which may be contacted if you are shortlisted. Receipt of all applications will be acknowledged, but only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

IWMI believes that diversity powers our innovation, contributes to our excellence, and is critical for our mission. We offer a multi-cultural, multi-color, multi-generational and multi-disciplinary working environment. We are consciously creating an inclusive organization that reflects our global character and our commitment to gender equity. We, therefore, encourage applicants from all cultures, races, ethnicities, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientations, and gender identities.