Senior Country Engagement Manager - West & Central Africa (11-months maternity cover)

Join Save the Children Denmark as Senior Country Engagement Manager for West and Central Africa and play a key role in strengthening high-quality programmes for children. You will work closely with Country Offices and colleagues across the Save the Children movement to support programme design, donor compliance, implementation and strategic funding opportunities.

Are you an experienced programme and grant management professional with strong EU donor expertise and excellent French and English writing skills? Then you might be the right candidate for our maternity cover for the Senior Country Engagement Manager role at the world’s largest independent organisation for children’s rights. 

THE ROLE

The Senior Country Engagement Manager serves as the key focal point on day-to-day programmatic and donor contract management between Save the Children Denmark (SCD) and the Awards and Project Teams in Country Offices in West Africa. Fluent command of French is therefore a prerequisite.

As the Senior Country Engagement Manager, you will take on a challenging role where you can put your extensive experience with international Project Cycle Management, Aid Programming and good proposal writing skills to work. In this role you will ensure close coordination and monitoring of new project design processes, programme implementation, compliance and reporting. You may be involved in proposal development processes and must possess solid grant management skills.

You are self-driven, a strong communicator and thrive on managing projects and donor contracts. You are in your element when juggling multiple activities, ensuring quality control, and building strong, collaborative relationships – all while maintaining a clear oversight of it all. 

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

Management of assigned, large scale and in some cases multi-country programs:

• Collaborating with COs on all aspects of project cycle management.
• Coordinating multiple SC members’ interests and inputs to programmes and projects.
• Monitoring progress towards achieving results.
• Capturing and sharing key lessons from country and regional programming in relation to assigned programmes.
• Ensuring contract compliance for the grant throughout reporting cycles and closeout.
• Performing Quality Assurance/Quality Control on COs’ funding proposals, reports, modification requests, and other significant correspondence with donors.
• Keeping track of in-house co-financing and cost-sharing decisions.
• Informing and advising COs on relevant developments at SCD’s Copenhagen Office.

As a part of this, you will also support the Head of Region, Africa, and the Senior Institutional Partnership Advisors in ensuring the coherence and continued relevance of SCD in the region, while flagging programmatic risks, identifying gaps in Country Office grant performance, and requesting relevant surge capacity where needed.

Management of donor relations for SCD-funded grants in COs, including:

• Writing high-quality funding proposals (following best practices in PCM and intervention logic formulations).
• Submitting high-quality funding proposals to institutional donors, especially ECHO and EU/INTPA, but also private corporations and foundations for co-financing.
• Coordinate and develop a combined Communications and Visibility Plan.

YOUR PROFILE

We are looking for a candidate matching the following criteria: 

• Extensive international Project Cycle Management experience, with documented successes writing proposals and managing projects and donor contracts. Concrete, first-hand and significant experience with the EU, both ECHO and INTPA, is desirable.
• Extensive experience working with aid programming in at least one (preferably more) of the following areas: Education (including Education in Emergencies), Child Protection, Local Partnerships and regarding contextual analysis of the conditions for children and youth.
• Superior English and French writing skills: Ability to independently present different thematic theories of change.
• Strong analytical skills: Ability to develop intervention logics on the basis of context analysis and to design projects and write convincing funding proposals.
• Communicates clearly and confidently with others to engage and influence; promotes dialogue and ensures timely and appropriate messages, building confidence and trust with others.
• Delivers work that reflects initiative (i.e. being proactive), and a good knowledge and application of technical and professional standards in portfolio management and growth.

A PART OF SAVE THE CHILDREN DENMARK

You will be part of an organisation that is dedicated to creating positive change for children in need. As an employee at Save the Children Denmark, you will join a global community with a clear mission: to protect and help children in the most vulnerable situations.  

With the purpose of making significant contributions to Save the Children’s vision and SCD’s strategic goals, SCD’s Africa Unit collaborate with SCI Country Offices (and our partners and target groups) to design high quality projects that improve the life conditions of children, support the project cycle management of the SCD supported projects and to raise income from select institutional donors and corporate foundations to fund those projects.

About the team

The Africa team comprises a Head of Region, Africa, (also the team leader), three Senior Country Engagement Managers, one Country Engagement Manager and one Project Engagement Manager.

TERMS, CONDITIONS AND WORKPLACE

Salary and employment terms in accordance with the applicable collective agreement between Save the Children Denmark and AC organisations and the Trade and Office Workers Union. The position is a HK/AC position with a weekly working time of 37 hours.

Start date: 15th of January 2027, unless otherwise agreed.

Save the Children Denmark promotes a high degree of flexibility in how work is performed and scheduled, including the possibility of working from home where the nature of the work allows it. This commitment to flexibility is reflected in the collective agreement and an Individual Option Plan.

Through the Individual Option Plan, you can allocate a percentage of your salary to paid time off (Individual Option days), additional pension above the 15% paid by us, or salary payment. Everyone is entitled to the first and second sick days for children.

Up to four (4) weeks of travel should be expected within the period.

Strong preference for the candidate to be working from the SCD Copenhagen Office.

The office

• A lunch scheme during your paid lunch break.
• Modern office facilities with a café-style environment, a free fitness centre and social events.
• A central location in Frederiksberg, close to the Copenhagen Lakes.

RECRUITMENT PROCESS

If you have any questions about the position, please don’t hesitate to contact Head of Region, Africa, Jakob Eilsøe Mikkelsen at Se e-mailadresse på candidate.hr-manager.net .

If you are motivated by the opportunity to support high-quality programmes for children across West and Central Africa, we encourage you to apply. Please click the Apply for position button and submit your application and CV no later than 6 November 2026 at 23:59.

Interviews are expected to take place in week 47 (mid-November).

Prior to employment, criminal record and child record checks will be obtained.

We look forward to receiving your application!