Job Description
Who We Are
SOS Children’s Villages Jordan is a national non-profit organization established in 1983 to provide alternative care for children and young people who have lost parental care or are at risk of losing it.
What distinguishes our care model is the provision of holistic care that addresses the needs of children and young people across areas including care, accommodation, education, skills development, protection, social integration, health, livelihoods, and social and emotional well-being.
The Association is guided by the United Nations Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Its efforts are also aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Working location: Amman, with travel as required
Direct supervisor: IPD Director
Project Background
SOS Children’s Villages Jordan is implementing a national pilot to strengthen and operationalize foster care in Jordan, in partnership with the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD), the National Council for Family Affairs (NCFA), UNICEF, and Lumos Foundation. The project combines system strengthening with direct implementation in Amman. It supports the review and institutionalization of foster care procedures and quality-assurance tools, strengthens the capacity of the child-protection workforce and prospective foster families, and supports children to transition safely from residential care into family-based care. The pilot is governed through a multi-stakeholder Steering Committee and is designed to inform sustainable national scale-up.
Mission of the position:
The Project Manager provides overall leadership and accountability for the effective delivery of the foster care pilot. The position leads project planning, team management, partner coordination, budget oversight, quality assurance, risk management, monitoring, and reporting. The Project Manager ensures that system-strengthening and service-delivery components are implemented as one coherent model, in line with national legislation, approved foster care procedures, child safeguarding standards, donor requirements, and SOS Children’s Villages policies.
Main responsibilities:
- Lead the overall planning, implementation, review, and closure of the project in line with the approved proposal, results framework, budget, partnership arrangements, and organizational policies.
- Translate project outcomes and outputs into integrated annual and periodic work plans, implementation schedules, resource plans, and clear team responsibilities.
- Provide day-to-day leadership to the project team and ensure effective coordination among social work, psychological support, outreach, activities, and monitoring functions.
- Oversee the establishment and operation of the foster care implementation model, ensuring coherence between family outreach and recruitment, assessment and training, child matching, placement preparation, transition, supervision, and follow-up.
- Ensure that all placement-related work is child-centred, rights-based, trauma-informed, and guided by the best interests of the child, applicable national legislation, approved procedures, and safeguarding standards.
- Lead project coordination with MoSD, NCFA, UNICEF, Lumos Foundation, Al-Hussein Social Institution, relevant judicial and child-protection actors, and implementing partners.
- Support the effective functioning of the project Steering Committee and other technical or coordination mechanisms by preparing updates, documenting decisions, and following up agreed actions.
- Oversee the review, development, validation, and operational use of foster care SOPs, monitoring tools, quality-assurance instruments, guidance materials, and related project systems in coordination with technical partners.
- Ensure that the capacity-building programme for professionals and foster families is delivered to the required quality and contributes to a sustainable national training and supervision function.
- Guide the development and responsible transfer of project systems and resources, including the foster family roster, tools, records, and institutional knowledge, to the designated national authorities.
- Manage the project budget and expenditures in close coordination with Finance and Procurement, ensuring efficient use of resources, accurate forecasting, timely procurement, and compliance with approved controls.
- Supervise project staff, consultants, sub-grantees, and service providers; set performance expectations, provide regular guidance, and address performance or implementation gaps.
- Maintain an active project risk register and ensure timely mitigation of operational, partnership, financial, safeguarding, reputational, and placement-related risks.
- Represent SOS Children’s Villages Jordan in project meetings, technical forums, policy discussions, reviews, and relevant external events, as delegated.
- Promote learning, adaptation, and documentation of evidence from the pilot to support sustainability, government adoption, and potential scale-up.
Monitoring, Reporting and Documentation
- Oversee the project monitoring, evaluation, accountability, and learning arrangements in coordination with the M&E Officer and relevant technical staff.
- Monitor progress against approved indicators, targets, deliverables, work plans, and expenditure, and use findings to guide management decisions.
- Ensure timely preparation, quality review, and submission of internal, donor, governance, and partner reports, together with complete supporting evidence.
- Ensure that project and case-related documentation is complete, accurate, securely maintained, and handled in accordance with confidentiality, data-protection, and records-management requirements.
- Ensure that feedback, complaints, safeguarding concerns, incidents, and implementation challenges are documented, escalated, and addressed through the appropriate organizational procedures.
- Coordinate and support audits, reviews, assessments, evaluations, learning activities, and quality-assurance processes, and ensure follow-up of agreed recommendations.
- Document lessons learned, good practices, implementation challenges, and evidence relevant to institutionalization and future scale-up of the foster care model.
Child Safeguarding:
- Uphold and promote SOS Children’s Villages’ Child Safeguarding Standards and Code of Conduct, ensuring a zero-tolerance approach to all forms of abuse, neglect, exploitation, and misconduct.
- Ensure that all project activities, communications, and interactions prioritize the safety, dignity, and well-being of children and vulnerable individuals.
- Promote safeguarding awareness among project staff and partners and ensure timely reporting of any safeguarding concerns in accordance with organizational procedures.
General:
- Carry out all duties and responsibilities in a professional, ethical, and accountable manner, in line with SOS Children’s Villages policies and values.
- Perform any other reasonable duties related to the position as assigned by the immediate supervisor.
Position Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Social Work, Psychology, Sociology, Child Protection, International Development, Public Administration, Management, or a related field; a relevant master’s degree is an asset.
- Minimum seven years of progressively responsible experience in project or programme management within NGOs, INGOs, UN agencies, government-supported programmes, or the development sector.
- Demonstrated experience managing complex donor-funded projects, including work planning, budgeting, team supervision, procurement coordination, risk management, monitoring, and reporting.
- Strong practical experience in child protection, alternative care, foster care, deinstitutionalization, family strengthening, case management, or related social-service programming.
- Proven ability to coordinate effectively with government institutions, national bodies, international partners, technical experts, and multi-stakeholder governance structures.
- Sound knowledge of child-rights and safeguarding principles, the best-interests approach, confidentiality, and quality standards for services involving children and families.
- Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, manage partnerships, resolve complex implementation issues, and maintain accountability for results.
- Strong understanding of project cycle management, results-based management, donor compliance, monitoring frameworks, and evidence-based adaptive management.
- Excellent analytical, negotiation, facilitation, report-writing, and presentation skills in Arabic and English.
- Strong computer skills, including Microsoft Office applications and project information and documentation systems.
- Willingness and ability to travel to project and partner locations as required.
How to Apply
- If you are interested in this position and believe you have the qualifications and experience required, we invite you to apply through our official website.
- SOS Children’s Villages Jordan is firmly committed to child safeguarding and maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment, exploitation, and abuse in all forms, whether in the workplace or in the communities where the organization operates.
- The recruitment and selection process is based on technical competence and alignment with organizational values. Comprehensive background checks, including a criminal record clearance certificate and reference checks, will be conducted for the selected candidate.
- SOS Children’s Villages Jordan is an equal opportunity employer. Recruitment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or marital status.