JOB DESCRIPTION

Program Manager. Colombo. Posting Date: 01/16/2025. Deadline: 02/14/2025

Role Title: Program Manager

Contract Type: Regular

Reporting To: Associate Director, Open Society Network Grants OR Managing Director, Open Society Network Grants

Program/Department/Unit Name: Programs

Location

Colombo, Jakarta, Seoul

Team Name: Open Society Network Grants

Open Society Network Grants

The vision of Open Society Network Grants is to lead the field of philanthropy in nurturing co-creative partnerships with a range of actors across different fields. The impact we seek in the world is for people to experience greater equity, human rights, and justice as a result of stronger ecosystems that are more responsive and effective at: promoting equal humanity and dignity; imagining democracies of the future; reshaping global governance; and informing the future of humanity.

Open Society Network Grants partners are close long-term partnerships with groups around the world, key to upholding the organizations values in the spaces where they operate. These groups may be large or small, organizations or movements, urban or rural, but in their diversity, their missions and values align with our own. They form a trusted “network of networks” for promoting rights and dignity; democratic participation; advancing equity; and embracing transformative ways of envisioning the future across geographies, themes, and approaches.

Role Purpose

We are seeking a full-time Program Manager, based in Colombo, Jakarta or Seoul, who brings substantial experience working with civil society and social movements, to join the Open Society Network Grants team.

The ideal candidate will have deep firsthand experience with the dynamics of funding relationships – not limited to philanthropies – especially in the role of the party receiving funds, including advanced practical understanding of the process of grantmaking. The candidate will be deeply skilled in applying that experience and understanding to existing and future trends to shape the strategic direction of the work of Open Society Network Grants.

The role of Program Manager will emphasize support for grantees – both financial and beyond the financials – and developing and implementing programming in collaboration with other OSF teams, while seeding future facing areas of work. The successful candidate will also bring a track record of grant making marked by values of diversity, equity, and inclusion (in the how, not just the what).

This role will report to the Associate Director, Open Society Network Grants and will work as part of a globally dispersed team, alongside other Program Managers and Administrative Officers.

Key Responsibilities

As Program Manager, Open Society Network Grants, you will:

• Implement portions of the strategy for Open Society Network Grants, under the guidance of the Managing Director and Associate Director and in close collaboration with members of the Open Society Network Grants team.
• Conduct research and systems analysis and utilize trends to understand movements and organizing, current and potential actors, and leverage points for new forms of activism, and translate these into impactful future areas of work.
• Identify new and transformative networks and partnerships that foster future-thinking and future-facing actions and actively seek out partners featuring emerging voices and novel ideas that will frame desired futures anchored in open societies ideals.
• Work closely with internal programmatic and operations teams to select, engage, and sunset Network Grants partners, and to pursue areas of alignment and collaboration.
• Help create and advance a culture of learning within the Open Society Network Grants that enables the assessment of organizations and refinement of criteria guiding their inclusion in the Open Society Network grants portfolio, over time.
• Represent the organization in philanthropic and other public fora.
• Guide and inform the organizations approach to grant making.

Key internal relationships

Staff in programmatic teams, including Program Managers, Directors, and Managing Directors; staff in Operations Departments, including Grants Management and Office of General Counsel.

Key external relationships

Grantee Partners; Peer Philanthropies

The ideal candidate

• Educated to a degree-level (or equivalent)
• Significantly demonstrated relevant experience and expertise working with civil society groups, including social movements, and with the private sector in more than one area of focus and geography to advance rights-based strategies and campaigns. Lived and professional experience within government, international, private, or non-governmental organizations, in more than one focus area and geography, is an asset.
• Proven experience working to develop strategies and budgets, improve grant making processes, and learn from program implementation as well as proven experience incorporating advocacy, communications, strategic litigation and other tools into grant making processes.
• Proven experience working collaboratively in one or two regions in Asia as a skilled and respected strategist advancing activism and organizing, including through addressing systemic challenges as well as demonstrable evidence of promoting systems solutions by bringing together seemingly incompatible fields or areas of work.
• Demonstrable evidence of having supported civil society coalition building through leading partnerships of seemingly disparate actors, including germinating, and seeding new ones.
• Experience of managing a portfolio of stakeholder relationships, including core partnerships, balanced across a range of attributes
• An excellent knowledge of English.
• Knowledge of other languages, appropriate to the locations and focus of the work of Network Grants, would be an asset.
• Ideally candidates should have the right to work in the specific location/s; however, strong candidates who do not meet this requirement may also be considered.

What we offer

• Exceptional opportunities to learn, grow, and make an impact; from a generous annual professional development allowance for every employee to onsite training and learning conversations with visiting experts.
• Excellent benefits and perks to promote well-being and a healthy work-life balance, including:
  • Generous time off, as well as our standard Open Society close at year-end (where vacation days are not required) and flexible work arrangements.
  • Employer-paid health insurance and dental plans for individuals and families (no employee contribution required).
  • Exceptional retirement savings plan (non-contributory for employees) and life insurance.
  • Progressive paid parental leave, reproductive and family planning support, and much more.
  • Free, healthy, world-cuisine-style lunches or tokens (where our office does not have the scale for café facilities).
• A commitment to nurturing a diverse and inclusive workplace, so you can bring your whole self to work and make a positive impact.

Open Society Foundations is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building an inclusive workforce that reflects the communities we serve. We actively seek applications from talented individuals across all backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences—particularly those from marginalized and underrepresented groups. Each candidate is evaluated solely on their unique qualifications, without discrimination based on race, age, sex, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy and maternity, or any other legally protected characteristics. Reasonable adjustments are available for candidates with disabilities. To request adjustments or inquire about our equal opportunity policies, please contact recruitment@opensocietyfoundations.org.

Subject to local laws, regular employment contracts may be converted to fixed-term contracts to align with the intended duration of the employment for the purposes of working on that opportunity; or alternatively the current permanent contract will be kept in place, with a side letter confirming the duration of the assignment to the time-limited project.

Competitive rates of pay apply.

Open Society Foundations is committed to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion, and to building a diverse staff that reflects the movements, issues and communities that our mission serves. Candidates from all underrepresented backgrounds, identities and communities are encouraged to apply.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants and colleagues with disabilities.

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements