Position title: Project Manager
Reports to: Research Director
Location: Cape Town, South Africa (Hybrid)
Duration: Full-time contract

Overview

Research ICT Africa is seeking a highly organised and proactive Project Manager to support the planning, coordination, and delivery of projects across the organisation. Working at the intersection of research, policy, and digital governance, the Project Manager will play a central role in ensuring projects are delivered efficiently, on time, within budget, and in compliance with contractual and organisational requirements.

This role is suited to someone with strong project coordination and financial management capabilities, experience working within donor-funded or non-profit environments, and the ability to manage multiple complex projects simultaneously. The successful candidate will work closely with researchers, programme leads, finance, communications, and external partners to support impactful and accountable project delivery.

Key responsibilities

Project planning and coordination

  • Coordinate project planning and execution from inception to completion, ensuring deliverables are met.
  • Develop and maintain project plans, timelines, work breakdown structures, and tracking systems.
  • Monitor project progress against contract objectives, timelines, budgets, and performance indicators.
  • Identify and manage risks, dependencies, and implementation challenges, and proactively support mitigation strategies.

Project administration and reporting

  • Prepare and maintain project documentation, dashboards, reports, and tracking spreadsheets.
  • Ensure compliance with donor reporting cycles, contractual obligations, and organisational governance requirements.
  • Oversee accurate tracking and reporting of staff time allocations and project resource use.

Financial and donor management

  • Work closely with the Finance team to reconcile project budgets, invoices, expenditure, and timesheet data.
  • Support project budgeting, expenditure monitoring, and financial forecasting.
  • Analyse project financial variances and provide recommendations for corrective action where required.
  • Ensure compliance with donor financial regulations and internal financial policies.
  • Contribute to the preparation of grant and donor funding proposals.

Stakeholder and partner engagement

  • Serve as a key point of contact for project-related coordination with internal and external stakeholders.
  • Build and maintain strong relationships with partners, funders, consultants, and beneficiaries.

Qualifications, experience and skills required

  • A postgraduate degree in policy, economics, finance, legal studies, information studies, communication studies, technology studies, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
  • A relevant project management qualification will be advantageous.
  • 5–7 years’ experience managing projects within a non-profit, research, or donor-funded environment.
  • Experience coordinating multi-stakeholder and/or multi-country initiatives is advantageous.
  • Proven experience managing project budgets, contracts, reporting requirements, and donor compliance processes.
  • Experience contributing to grant and donor proposal development.
  • Strong organisational, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate across a diverse, hybrid, distributed team.
  • High proficiency in MS Office, particularly Excel and PowerPoint, as well as G Suite.
  • Familiarity with project management and workflow tracking tools.
  • Strong financial acumen and understanding of donor funding cycles and compliance requirements.
  • Ability to work independently and effectively in fast-paced and complex environments.

Application process
Please submit your CV and motivation letter in a single PDF to info@researchictafrica.net
Application deadline: Friday, 12 June 2026, at midnight SAST.

Disclaimer
We particularly encourage applications from women and black Africans as we support positive discrimination on the grounds of race and gender to redress historical imbalances of the past and to achieve equity in the processes of recruitment. Non-South African applicants will need valid work authorisation for employment in South Africa. RIA retains the right not to make an appointment.