Working location: Cartago, Costa Rica

Start date: ASAP

Type of contract: Minimum 1 year

About Us

Our planet is in crisis and inequality affects people around the globe. At GVI, our teams are choosing to take action. We bring a range of specialised skills together for a common goal: supporting a more sustainable future.

GVI is an international multi-award-winning social enterprise. We offer conservation and community development programs in 13 countries, all aligned to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and led by our teams and experts from the communities we operate in.

Working at GVI is fast-paced and fun. We value passion, authenticity and innovation, and we treat our stakeholders with compassion and respect.

About the role

Our GVI hub is located in Cartago, a Costa Rican city southeast of San José. This role is responsible for the overall running of the GVI Cartago, Costa Rica program operations, which is focused on community development.

The Program Manager’s role is to deliver world-leading volunteer and internship programs and manage the GVI 'hub'. This person is responsible for ensuring effective day to day running of the program operations, building and maintaining partnerships with the community, effectively managing staff and participants, and achieving the financial and quality goals of the organisation.

The ideal candidate for this position will speak proficient Spanish, be hugely passionate about community development and thrive off living in a communal setting among staff and program participants. You will have a background in operations, have strong staff and volunteer management experience, and be comfortable being responsible for the health and safety of the participants on base.

Role and responsibilities:

• Oversee the overall day to day delivery of projects, including quality, impact and safety, and the overall effective functioning of the hub.
• In conjunction with the People function and line manager, recruit new staff for your base as well as oversee training and onboarding of all new staff and participants.
• Effectively manage any issues that come up in the field on a day to day basis, including participant complaints, medical issues, natural disasters etc.
• Oversee day to day logistics of the project including participant arrivals, departures, visits off base, day to day needs, base scheduling, ensuring all participants know what they’re doing, when, and the day to day functions smoothly.
• Connect and liaise with in-country partners to build and maintain relationships.
• Responsible for financial and overall reporting of the hub.
• Work with the Program Director to roll out defined best practice covering all key aspects of the hub’s programs and operations.
• Ensure the successful implementation and delivery of all GVI marketing and internal communication initiatives.
• Work with the central support office to ensure in-country legal compliance and maintain desired legal status through accurate and timely reporting.

About you

If you are ambitious, purpose-driven, and you have a great sense of humour,  we want to meet you. As an organisation, we know that welcoming a broad range of people with unique identities makes us a more powerful workforce and we are committed to evolving our diversity, equity and inclusion practice.

Personal attributes:

• Strong people and time management skills
• Commitment, drive and enthusiasm to develop yourself and others
• Hardworking, with the ability to lead and problem solver
• Flexible, open-minded, adaptable team player

Professional skills and experience:

• Fluent Spanish is required for this role
• Proven leadership experience (3-5 years experience managing staff and volunteers/interns)
• Operations experience (in the tourism/travel industry is advantageous)
• Health and safety management experience
• Teaching and community development experience is advantageous
• First Aid qualification

Benefits

Here’s what our global team enjoys:

• Social fund
• Training fund
• Collaborative, flexible culture
• Transparency – hear directly from the CEO consistently
• We laugh a lot, genuinely care about and support each other, and do the occasional dress-up
• Leadership development
• In-house counselling support
• Growth opportunities across our 17 locations!

Package includes:

• Monthly salary
• Accommodation
• Food
• Visa costs (if applicable)
• Emergency medical and travel insurance

You can find out more about the type of work GVI does and who we are as an organisation here.

To apply

Please send  your CV along with a cover letter stating why you feel you would be the best candidate for this role.

https://gvi.bamboohr.com/careers/98?source=aWQ9MzU%3D

Please note: We will do our utmost to respond to all applicants, however, given the large volume of applications we receive, this isn't always possible. If you do not hear back from us within three-four weeks, please take it that on this occasion your application was unsuccessful