Position: Project Manager

Organization: CEC

Location: Assam

Salary: Remuneration is subject to qualifications and years of experience.

Job Responsibilities:

The role of the Project Manager will be to plan, execute, and finalize project-related activities, as per the project objectives, while maintaining strict deadlines and within budget. This includes acquiring resources, liaising with government officials, vendors, and suppliers, and coordinating the efforts of team members and third-party consultants in order to deliver projects according to plan.

The responsibilities would involve-

1. Managing project development from beginning to end.
2. Developing full-scale project plans and associated communications documents.  Effectively communicate project expectations to team members and stakeholders in a timely and clear fashion.
3. Liaise and network with all relevant stakeholders including relevant government departments, the Tea Board of India representatives, other tea-related institutions, respective vendors and suppliers, banking institutions, policymakers, and opinion leaders.
4. Build, develop, and grow relationships vital to the success of the project. Liaise with Project Staff, Project Coordinator (MIS and reporting), important TPC members, government officials, third-party consultants, key vendors, and suppliers.
5. Estimate the resources and participants needed to achieve project goals.
6. Draft and submit budget proposals, and recommend subsequent budget changes where necessary.
7. Coordinate with the Executive Director to make the appropriate recruitments as well as evaluate and finalize consultants during the project cycle.
8. Set and continually manage project expectations with team members and other stakeholders.
9. Coach, mentor, motivate, and supervise project team members and consultants, and influence them to take positive action and accountability for their assigned work.
10. Identify and resolve issues and conflicts within the project team and TPC members.
11. Plan, revise and track project timelines and milestones schedules using appropriate tools.
12. Develop best practices and tools for project execution and management.
13. Develop and deliver progress reports, proposals, requirements documentation, and presentations.  Documenting and maintaining reports on all activities, including working with the Executive Director, to ensure that the experience and lessons learned from this initiative are documented and shared with all stakeholders and interested parties in India and with the APPI.
14. Determine the frequency and content of status reports from the project team, analyze results, and troubleshoot problem areas.
15. Proactively manage changes in project scope, identify potential crises, and devise contingency plans.
16. Review project failures and give recommendations in order to identify successful and unsuccessful project elements.
17. Help TPCs to maintain production standards, marketing systems, and long-term sustainability as envisaged in the project.
18.  Help TPCs to develop business plans,
19. Assist them to set up processing units including purchase of land, machinery, installations, and related compliances
20. Assist TPCs to streamline production at the farm level and in the manufacturing units based on sustainability standards
21. Write and submit reports to the Executive Director in all matters of importance by collecting, analysing, and summarising data and trends
22. Envision, plan and execute maintenance of standards of tea at different stages including  agriculture, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, packaging and sales
23. Ensure that all legal and financial compliances are met
24. Plan and execute scaling up activities of Equalitea project by reaching out to more tea farmers, collectivising and empowering them and setting up tea producer companies integrating them to the Equalitea project
25. Manage relationships with partners/vendors by making periodic visits; exploring specific needs; anticipating new opportunities
26. Develop and achieve operational objectives in collaboration with Operations & Compliance Officers and Supply chain Officer; prepare and complete action plans; implement production, productivity, quality, and customer-service standards; resolve problems; identify trends; determine system improvements; implement change.

Required Qualities, Competencies, and Qualifications:

• Ambitious and hard-working professional with at least five years of experience at the managerial level, in the implementation of livelihood specific programmes.
• Masters in Agri-Business/Rural Management/MBA/Livelihoods/Social Entrepreneurship/Development Studies from a reputed institute such as IRMA, XIM-B, TISS, IIM etc. Experience of working in close collaboration with government systems will be desirable.
• The candidate must have good knowledge about the tea sector, including production & marketing, and livelihood issues in general. 
• Willingness to be based in Assam and travel extensively within the state, as well as occasionally to Delhi and Kolkata.
• The candidate must have working knowledge of Assamese. Fluency in English is required.