JOB VACANCY

 [Program Manager]

About YCAB Foundation

Founded in 1999, YCAB Foundation is the founding and flagship organization of the YCAB Social Enterprise Group. With a vision to break the cycle of poverty, YCAB utilizes financial inclusion as a primary instrument to expand and strengthen education for youth from urban low-income families. To date, YCAB has positively impacted over five million young individuals and empowered more than 200,000 ultra-micro women entrepreneurs. In 2024, YCAB Foundation retained its #28 ranking on the TOP 100 SGO/NGO list by TheDotGood, a global nonprofit rating agency based in Geneva, Switzerland.

About Position

As a Program Manager at YCAB, you will go beyond executing activities to take full ownership of results, program quality, and transformational community impact. Mastering the complete project lifecycle, you will confidently lead dynamic teams, manage complex budgets, and foster strong multi-stakeholder partnerships while leveraging monitoring, evaluation, and data-driven insights to continually make better decisions. We are seeking a true builder—someone who sees operational gaps as opportunities to introduce structure, challenge the status quo, and shape robust systems rather than just operate existing ones. If you are driven to mentor high-performing teams, elevate organizational standards, and leave a lasting mark on a scaling social impact foundation, this role offers the platform to turn strategic vision into enduring legacy.

Responsibilities:

Program & Project Cycle Management

• Lead and manage multiple programs/projects simultaneously across their full life cycle
• Lead the design and planning of programs and projects based on YCAB’s strategic priorities, beneficiary needs, evidence, and available resources
• Translate program objectives into clear results frameworks, theories of change, logical frameworks, work plans, milestones, indicators, and implementation strategies.
• Develop detailed implementation plans, activity schedules, budgets, resource plans, risk registers, and project governance mechanisms.
• Ensure that program implementation remains aligned with approved objectives, scope, timeline, budget, quality standards, and donor/funder requirements.
• Coordinate project implementation across multiple functions, teams, partners, vendors, consultants, and stakeholders.
• Identify implementation bottlenecks and proactively develop corrective actions.
• Lead regular project reviews to assess progress, challenges, risks, resource requirements, and priorities.
• Manage project closure, including final reporting, documentation, evaluation, lessons learned, asset handover where relevant, and sustainability/exit planning.

Program Quality, Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning

• Develop and maintain appropriate Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL/M&E) frameworks for assigned programs.
• Translate program objectives into measurable outputs, outcomes, indicators, targets, and milestones.
• Work with the RME/MEL team to establish appropriate data collection, monitoring, evaluation, and learning mechanisms.
• Monitor program performance against agreed indicators, targets, timeline, quality standards, and budget.
• Analyse monitoring data and identify trends, gaps, risks, and areas requiring intervention.
• Ensure that monitoring findings are translated into management decisions and program improvements.
• Coordinate baseline, midline, endline, outcome assessments, evaluations, or other learning activities where relevant.
• Ensure appropriate documentation of lessons learned, good practices, case studies, and evidence of impact.
• Contribute evidence and learning to the development and improvement of YCAB’s future programs and products

People Management & Team Leadership

• Provide clear direction, objectives, priorities, and expectations to program team members.
• Manage team performance through regular planning, coaching, feedback, and performance reviews.
• Build a collaborative, accountable, and learning-oriented team culture.
• Allocate responsibilities and resources effectively across team members and projects.
• Identify team capacity gaps and support appropriate development, coaching, mentoring, or training.
• Manage performance issues constructively and fairly.
• Develop team members to progressively take greater ownership and responsibility.
• Ensure effective coordination between program teams and other YCAB functions.

Partner & Stakeholder Management

• Manage relationships with program implementation partners, consultants, vendors, government institutions, communities, donors/funders, and other stakeholders.
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities, deliverables, expectations, and accountability mechanisms with partners.
• Monitor partner performance against agreed deliverables, milestones, quality standards, and budgets.
• Facilitate regular partner review and coordination meetings.
• Address implementation issues and conflicts with partners in a timely and constructive manner.
• Ensure that partners understand and comply with relevant YCAB standards, safeguarding principles, reporting requirements, and program quality expectations.
• Build productive long-term relationships that support program sustainability and scale.

Reporting, Documentation & Knowledge Management

• Prepare high-quality program progress reports for management, donors/funders, and relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure timely reporting against program objectives, indicators, milestones, financial performance, risks, and key achievements.
• Develop concise management updates and dashboards to support decision-making.
• Ensure program documentation is complete, accurate, and properly maintained.
• Capture and disseminate program learning, innovations, challenges, and good practices.
• Contribute to organizational knowledge management and development of YCAB program/product standards.

Risk, Compliance & Safeguarding

• Identify and manage programmatic, financial, operational, reputational, and implementation risks.
• Maintain and regularly update project risk registers and mitigation plans.
• Ensure compliance with YCAB policies, donor/funder requirements, applicable regulations, and agreed
• project standards.
• Ensure safeguarding, protection, gender, inclusion, and ethical considerations are appropriately integrated into program design and implementation.
• Escalate significant risks and issues to management in a timely manner.

Program Development & Continuous Improvement

• Identify opportunities to improve program design, delivery models, efficiency, and impact.
• Contribute to proposal development and program concept development.
• Use program evidence, beneficiary feedback, monitoring results, and lessons learned to improve program models.
• Contribute to the development of standardized YCAB program products, tools, guidelines, and implementation standards.
• Support replication, adaptation, and scaling of programs that demonstrate strong results.
• Contribute to annual program planning and portfolio-level discussions.

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Public Policy, Management, Business Administration, Education, Psychology, Sociology, or related fields. Master’s degree in a relevant field is an advantage.
• Minimum 5–7 years of relevant professional experience in program/project management, preferably within the NGO, development, social impact, education, youth, livelihood, community development, or related sectors.
• Minimum 3 years of demonstrated experience managing programs/projects and teams.
• Demonstrated experience managing multiple projects/programs simultaneously, ideally with different timelines, stakeholders, budgets, and implementation models.
• Experience working with implementation partners, donors/funders, government, consultants, or other external stakeholders is highly desirable.
• Experience managing programs funded through grants or donor funding is an advantage.
• Strong understanding of the full project cycle; this includes: Needs Assessment → Design →Proposal/Concept → Planning → Budgeting → Implementation → Monitoring → Evaluation → Learning → Reporting → Closure → Sustainability/Scale.

• Strong understanding of: Theory of Change, Logical Framework / Logframe, Results Framework, Theory based program design, Workplan development, Risk assessment and management, Stakeholder mapping.
• Good understanding of the concepts of: Results-based management, KPI/indicator development, Output vs. outcome measurement, Data collection methodologies, Monitoring tools and dashboards, Baseline/midline/endline concepts, Evaluation design and interpretation, Data analysis and evidence-based decision-making, Learning and adaptive management

Report to: Head of Program Management

Location: Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta, Indonesia

Please submit your application by sending us  your latest CV to:

recruitment@ycab.org

Please put in your email subject: Program Manager  – Your Full Name

Apply now! Joining our team will provide you with the opportunity to make a difference  everyday.

All applicants will betreated in confidential and only short-listed candidates will be notified

YCAB Foundation provides equal employment to all participants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, veteran, or marital status.