Programme Officer, Operations

Fixed term for up to 18 months (June 2028)

Hybrid / London (Flexible Working)

Who we are

ARTICLE 19 is an international "think-do" organisation that propels the freedom of expression movement locally and globally to ensure all people realise the power of their voices. Together with our partners, we:

• THINK: We develop cutting-edge research and legal and policy analysis to drive change worldwide.
• DO: We lead work on the frontlines of expression through our 9 regional hubs across the globe.
• PROPEL: We propel change by sparking innovation in the global freedom of expression movement.

We carry out our mission by working on many themes such as promoting media independence; increasing access to information; protecting journalists; expanding civic space; and placing human rights at the heart of developing digital spaces.

For over 35 years, ARTICLE 19 has worked for a world where all people everywhere can freely express themselves and actively engage in public life without fear of discrimination. We do this by combining research, campaigning, and cutting-edge legal analysis.

Since 2015, ARTICLE 19's Global Digital Programme has built and strengthened human rights considerations in the design, development, and deployment of infrastructure technologies, including AI and cloud computing. Despite being largely under-scrutinised by civil society, these technologies exert disproportionate, unilateral control over other digital systems. We hold powerful actors to account at each stage of the technology life cycle, aiming to intervene before technologies are deployed, since once deployed their harms can never be fully mitigated. We carry out our work under three permanent projects at the intersection of human rights and infrastructure: Datafication, Censorship, and Connectivity.

Your contribution to the team

Team Digital is a large and diverse team within ARTICLE 19, delivering work across multiple contexts and regions. The team manages a broad portfolio of projects, alongside an active programme of fundraising and new project development. The team operates within a complex and fast-paced environment, managing multiple grants, budgets, contracts, reporting requirements and stakeholders simultaneously.

As Programme Officer, Operations, you will provide Team Digital with the operational foundations it needs to deliver its work effectively. Working closely with the Head of Team Digital and also colleagues across the Global Digital Programme, you will oversee key aspects of financial management, contracting, compliance and administration. You will play a central role in ensuring that the team's projects and grants are well managed from an operational and financial perspective. This will include overseeing budgets, financial reporting, supporting proposal development and fundraising, and managing the full cycle of contracting and ensuring that relevant organisational and funder requirements are met. You will also act as a key operational point of contact for the team, coordinating with Finance, Operations, Procurement, HR and other functions as needed. You will maintain an overview of the team's grants, deadlines, contracts and operational requirements, helping to identify and address issues early and ensuring that processes run smoothly.

What you can expect in a typical day

Financial Management (40%)

You will serve as the team's focal point for all operational matters, ensuring that the team's financial, administrative, contractual, procurement and logistical processes are managed and aligned with both organisational policies and donor requirements. You will also:

• Manage the team's finances. This work includes: reviewing and ensuring accurate transaction lists, preparing periodic burn rates and variance analyses for all grants, carrying out cost assessment, cost alignment, and budget reconciliation exercises on an as-needed basis, working closely with the Finance Team as required on organisational budget processes and audits.
• Lead financial reporting. This includes preparing and reviewing financial reports for donors, ensuring that expenditure is accurately reported against approved budgets, coordinating financial inputs and supporting documentation and ensuring that reports are complete, accurate and submitted within the required deadlines.
• Support financial planning and forecasting. This work includes monitoring expenditure against approved budgets, identifying underspends or overspends, maintaining up-to-date financial forecasts and flagging risks and issues relevant to team members in a timely manner.
• Ensure financial compliance. This includes supporting the team to comply with organisational financial procedures, donor requirements, grant agreements and relevant internal controls and maintaining financial documentation and records.
• Support grant financial management. This includes reviewing grant budgets, monitoring expenditure, supporting budget revisions and cost-extensions and ensuring that financial information is accurate and available for reporting and decision-making.
• Liaise with the Finance Team. As well as with other relevant functions to resolve financial queries, support audits, and ensure timely processing of payments, invoices, transfers and other financial transactions.

Project Management (40%)

• Maintain an overview. Including of the team's grant portfolio including budgets, expenditure, reporting deadlines, contractual obligations, key milestones and grant end dates, ensuring actions and issues are identified and followed up.
• Support in grant management. This work includes coordinating meetings for grant start-up, monitoring and updating team calendars, preparing financial reports, supporting grant proposals, revisions, renewals, and cost extensions.
• Support in fundraising. This work includes supporting the development of monitoring and evaluation models, designing budgets, preparing administrative documentation.
• Manage compliance: overseeing contracting from developing contracts to receiving invoices and sending out payment requests for consultants and third-party service providers, managing agreements, logistics, and relationships with partner organisations, overseeing procurement in accordance with A19 policies and funder requirements.

Administrative Management (20%)

• Oversee logistics. This work includes: work with the Head of Team Digital to carry out logistics for Team Digital retreats and external events, as needed, coordinating induction and onboarding of new staff members.
• Coordinate day-to-day administration including maintaining relevant records, supporting meetings and team scheduling.
• Ensure key operational resources and systems (such as NextCloud, subscriptions) are up-to-date and fit for purpose. This work includes identifying and implementing improvements to team systems and administrative processes to support effective ways of working.

What you will bring to the role

Knowledge and Skills

• Experience managing budgets and monitoring expenditure across multiple grants or funding streams, with a sound understanding of donor compliance and financial reporting requirements.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills, able to manage competing deadlines and multiple workstreams across a distributed, multi-country team.
• Experience designing, streamlining or troubleshooting internal systems and processes (including workflows, tracking tools, reporting templates, agreements and MoUs).
• Comfortable working across time zones and cultures with a geographically dispersed team, with the ability to build effective working relationships.
• Sound judgement and discretion when handling sensitive or confidential information, including in higher risk operating contexts.
• Familiarity with the digital rights, human rights, freedom of expression or wider civil society sector is desirable.
• Confident user of standard office, collaboration and project management tools, including Microsoft 365, in all its beauty.
• Ability to stay calm and flexible in a fast-paced environment with shifting priorities and ambiguity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
• Excellent written and spoken English and one other ARTICLE 19 language is desirable (Arabic, French, Spanish and Portuguese).

Experience

• Significant experience in an operations, programme or business support management role, ideally within an NGO, human rights organisation or other grant-funded environment, or willingness to learn.
• Demonstrated experience managing budgets and financial administration across multiple grants or donors, including tracking spend against restricted and unrestricted funding.
• Experience supporting or coordinating cross-organisational teams or projects, ideally in a remote or internationally distributed setting.
• Experience developing or improving internal operational systems, processes or policies.
• Experience working with a range of stakeholders, including donors, partners and senior management, in a professional and diplomatic manner.
• Experience working in or with organisations operating in challenging, restrictive or higher risk contexts is desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively within multicultural, diverse teams, bringing cultural sensitivity, curiosity, humour, and patience to cross-cultural collaboration and communication.

Other

• This role may require occasional travel to regions where we operate.
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