Senior Manager

Organization	Emkan Education
Department	Advisory / Mergers & Acquisitions
Position	Senior Manager
Location	Jeddah (Headquarters) - Riyadh - Dubai - Remote Work Online
Reporting To	Head of Department

About Emkan

Emkan is a leading human capital consultancy and education development company headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. We provide exceptional and specialized consultancy services to public, private, and third sector entities across KSA and the Gulf Cooperation Country (GCC) region; and work on a range of projects across our diverse range of consultancy services. Please visit our website to learn more about our services, projects, and Clients at www.emkaneducation.com

Job description & summary

Emkan Senior Managers oversee, direct, and lead high-performing teams, and continually model and display exceptional project and people management skills to deliver the results we intend.

Senior Managers play a key role on client engagement fronts; working closely with leadership and working teams to manage projects, to identify, define and address Client needs and requirements. By supervising the working team’s research activities, conducting comprehensive analysis, and formulating recommendations, our Senior Managers ensure that our clients are presented with transformative, bespoke strategies and plans that are effective, implementable, deliver value and create positive, long-lasting impact.

In conjunction with the Head of Department, Emkan Senior Managers contribute to shaping the strategic direction of the Department and Emkan overall and work towards achieving its long-term strategic goals and aspirations. They work collaboratively with the Head of Department & Managers to further enhance the Advisory Department’s resources, operational processes and practices applied, and build the team’s capacity. Our Senior Managers play a significant role in directing, overseeing, and accomplishing Departmental objectives by mentoring our managers, managing staff, planning, monitoring, and evaluating departmental activities and operations, and enhancing systems and processes in place.

Senior Manager’s key roles and responsibilities

Manages projects takes initiative & delivers results by taking full ownership & accountability

Independently manages several projects to meet agreed forecast
Lead project management activities, including e.g., setting, and following up on project timeline, deliverable content development and quality, and budgets
Builds, transfers & delegates ownership & accountability in team members for tasks and modules
Demonstrate a high level of initiative and takes end-to-end ownership & accountability

Cultivates & sustains business development & productive working relationship with Clients, Partners & external Stakeholders

Lead communication with Client & their relevant senior organizational Leaders & strategic Partners
Engage network of Stakeholders, beyond active projects
Led business development efforts on new projects to meet Emkan’s financial targets, including proposal writing & pricing
Led large scale financial negotiations with Clients, Partners, Vendors, and third parties
Identify, establish & foster new strategic partnerships to work on shared agendas
Lead Client & Stakeholder management, fostering client confidence & trust in Emkan
Anticipate and resolve Client conflicts and issues
Establish relationships and connections with Senior Leaders of key organizations, beyond active projects

Build team members’ capacity, and department resources and processes

Forecast for recruitment and staffing and do manpower planning
Contribute to enacting and improvement of department Professional Development (PD) activities
Prepare the team for promotions and closely contribute to and monitor their capacity development
Provide PD feedback to designated team members & Managers, providing advice to Head of Department on staff performance, strengths & areas for development
Plan, set, lead and successfully achieve Departmental Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) & duties, and support designated team members in the completion of their OKRs
Provide strategic advice and recommendations for improving department resources & processes, and lead improvement agenda

Contributes to enhancing Emkan’s IP, brand & offerings

Constantly innovate and upgrade Emkan modules to be in line with market needs
Independently generate at least 1 Emkan thought piece per year
Actively generate positive word-of-mouth for Emkan, through external training, thought pieces, etc.
Actively participate in & contribute to Emkan’s committees

Skills required

– Strong track record of building strong client relationships with large organizations, and able to identify opportunities to deepen those relationships and further grow the business
– Demonstrated ability to manage client engagements, client relationships, and provide “thought leadership” to teams
– Possess high capacity for conceptual thinking and able to develop complex business models, analysis frameworks, and long-term business strategies and roadmaps
– Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
– Excellent verbal and written communication skills in Arabic and English; with the ability to professionally interact with all levels of management, team members and leadership both internally and externally
– Demonstrated leadership skills to manage medium and large-scaled project teams, both internally at Emkan team and externally with Clients
– Highly proficient in Microsoft Office (especially PowerPoint, Excel, and Word)
– High ability to work individually and collaboratively with others
– High ability to work effectively under pressure in a fast-paced environment, across multiple tasks and projects, and able to meet tight deadlines
– Possesses strong strategic thinking and business acumen
– Working with Business Leaders on organization improvement and transformation efforts, workforce planning, competency modeling, performance and rewards management

Qualifications and experience sought

– 8+ years’ experience in management consulting, education, and/or relevant experience; with at least 5 years minimum in senior leadership, client-facing role
– Masters / postgraduate degree in relevant specialism (e.g. education, business); outstanding track record and scholastic achievement and awards from a top tier university (preferred)
– Passion for education and human capital development
– Knowledge of Saudi educational & human capacity development landscape and ecosystem (preferred)