Programme Manager (Partner-A-District)

Full description

Job Grade 00 Job Type Classification Permanent Location - Town / City Midrand Job Profile (Downloadable) Programme Manager PAD_Job Profile September 2026 Final.pdf (309.11 kb) - 9/29/2026 3:46:44 PM Job Description The Partner-A-District (PAD) Programme operationalises the Bank’s municipal strategy, focusing on transforming the M2/M3 municipal segment through an integrated, programmatic, and partnership-driven approach. It positions districts as strategic entry points for the DBSA to elevate the development impact in alignment with government policies and the District Development Model (DDM). The Programme Manager leads and coordinates the implementation of multiple projects in the PAD programme to advance the Bank’s strategic objectives. The role collaborates with municipalities, government departments, the public and private sector, manages resources, partnerships, and cross-functional teams, to deliver sustainable development outcomes in local government. Key Responsibilities KEY PERFORMANCE AREAS 1. Programme Management - Develop sector-specific programmes for financing, including scope definition and success criteria. - Prepare programme execution plans aligned to partnership frameworks and strategic objectives. - Compile technically sound reports that establish the basis for projects to inform investment decisions. - Oversee programme implementation, track milestones, deliverables, costs, dependencies, risks and issues. - Maintain strong data-capture and reporting capability to support analysis and decision making. - Manage programme inter-dependencies and interfaces to ensure coherent and on-time delivery. - Provide technical status reports for milestone payments, assess service-provider claims, prepare payment instructions and oversee disbursements. - Collaborate with municipal finance team and provide relevant module information to support due diligence. - Manage procurement and contract activities, including dispute resolution, in line with contract policies. - Prepare programme management reports and presentations for EXCO, Board, internal and external stakeholders for progress reporting and decision making. - Provide leadership, mentorship, and technical guidance to junior team members. - Implement appropriate project management methodologies to strengthen organisational maturity and ensure consistent delivery outcomes. - Transfer completed projects to clients and partners and conduct post-implementation and transfer reviews to ensure sustainability and lessons-learned integration. 2. Deal Origination - Lead the execution of origination strategies and municipal sector initiatives to drive infrastructure investment. - Identify market opportunities through comprehensive sector analysis, including demand and supply dynamics and gap assessments, to inform strategic decision-making and maintain competitive advantage. - Navigate political, sectoral, and institutional insights to shape origination strategies and broaden business opportunities. - Build and maintain a robust pipeline of high-quality, bankable investment opportunities through proactive business development and in-depth municipal sector expertise. - Originate financing and non-financing initiatives that strengthen municipal institutions and enhance development impact. - Lead the identification, preparation, and development of viable infrastructure projects by coordinating scoping exercises, feasibility studies, business cases, and other pre-investment activities to ensure project bankability and enable successful deal closure. - Drive consistent deal flow and ensure bankability across all originated opportunities. - Collaborate with planning, project preparation and municipal finance teams to ensure successful deal structuring and closure. - Present transactions at deal and investment committees, providing strategic and technical insights. - Foster strong networks with internal and external stakeholders to position the bank as a leader in infrastructure finance. - Strengthen relationships across municipalities, sector departments, and strategic partners to support origination success. 3. Business Development - Drive business development to position DBSA as the preferred lender, investor, and development partner. - Lead the creation and execution of strategies to build a strong pipeline of development impact projects. - Develop approaches with municipal finance teams to secure concessional funding for infrastructure projects. - Expand municipal client base and secure sustainable revenue streams through relationship building. - Design and implement targeted marketing strategies to capture growth opportunities for DBSA’s services. 4. Stakeholder Management - Collaborate with internal and external stakeholder on integration relating to project prioritisation, resources, scope, cost, commissioning, operational readiness and handover. - Build and maintain strong relations at local, provincial and national IGR structures, including sector and transferring departments. - Foster good working relations with heads of functionaries at municipalities to support programme delivery. - Establish and maintain strategic partnerships, networks, and alliances that enhance the Bank’s development support role in strengthening municipal institutions. Key Measurements of Outputs - Successful execution of the programme and assigned strategic projects, in line with the key performance targets of the programme. - Value and number of new business deals originated (financing and non-financing). - Value and number of project approvals, commitments, and disbursements achieved. - Value of projects prepared and committed for DBSA approval. - Effective management and oversight of programme management units and deliverables across provinces, districts and municipalities. - High levels of stakeholder and partner satisfaction with programme outputs. - Clean audits across district and municipal partnership environments. Expertise & Technical Competencies Minimum Qualifications - A Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical or Civil Engineering. - Postgraduate qualification in Engineering, Project Management, Business Management, or Economics. - Registration as a Project Management Professional (PMP) with the Project Management Institute (PMI). Minimum Experience - A minimum of 10 years demonstrated work experience in infrastructure programme development and programme management managing mega or multidisciplinary projects concurrently. - In-depth understanding of the end-to-end infrastructure programme development process including feasibility studies and deal structuring. - Extensive experience in business development/ deal origination and client relationship skills, and ability to focus on client's needs effectively. - Proven ability to lead complex strategic initiatives and projects successfully. - Comprehensive knowledge of regulatory environments across municipalities/ metros, SOEs, and government entities in South Africa. - Strong understanding of government planning cycle and demonstrated experience engaging high-level government stakeholders. - Advanced technical proficiency with Project Management tools such as Microsoft Project and Planner. - Solid understanding of SCM processes and relevant legislation, including PFMA, MFMA, and PPPFA. Desirable Requirements - A relevant master’s degree. - Registered with ECSA as a Professional Engineer or Professional Engineering Technologist. TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES a) Digital Acumen - The ability to understand, contribute to, and drive the adoption of digital technologies and processes within an organisational context to improve efficiency, create new value, and transform operations. b) Data Management - Studies the organisational data management requirements and plans accordingly. - Recommends policies, procedures, and standards relating to the organisation’s data management. - Defines an overall file management policy with file storage procedure and policy. - Defines a backup strategy and related policies. - Ensures compliance by users with file storage procedures. - Ensures regular data backup and storage. - Tests the backed-up data and assures backup quality. c) Reporting - Designs / customises reports to meet user needs. - Prepares complex or tailored reports, gathers information from a variety of sources, analyses, and includes in a report. - Keeps standard reports under review and proposes improvements to meet user needs. d) Project Management - Initiates project plans and secures resources for projects that span area or department boundaries. - Uses estimating techniques and develops project risk management approaches. - Has an in-depth and practical understanding of how to maximise the effectiveness of project teams. e) Planning and Organising - Is relied on to help others plan and organise their workload. - Uses effective advanced time management processes to deal with high workload and tight deadlines. - Organises, prioritises and schedules tasks so they can be performed within budget and with the efficient use of time and resources. - Achieves goals in a timely manner, despite obstacles encountered, by organising, reprioritising, and re-planning. f) Quality Management - Ability to develop quality management plans and inspection protocols. Implements systems and processes to ensure quality is built into the design and planning stages and conducts audits and reviews to verify compliance with standards. g) Continuous Improvement in Technical Processes - The capability to identify, implement, and monitor process and technology enhancements that improve design quality, efficiency, and value for money in infrastructure delivery. h) Innovation - The skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to foster, develop, and implement new ideas, processes, products, or services that create value and drive organisational growth. This is critical for adapting to market changes, improving competitiveness, and responding to evolving customer needs. Required Personal Attributes BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES a) Teamwork & Cooperation - Acts to promote a friendly climate and good morale and resolves conflicts. - Facilitate collaborative cross-functional team working. - Encourages others to network outside of their own team/department and learn from their experience. b) Leading and empowering others - Creates the conditions that enables the team to perform at its best (e.g., setting clear directions, providing appropriate structure, getting the right people, obtain needed resources). - Monitors performance against clear standards, addresses performance issues promptly, and takes action to get performance back to desired levels. - Proactively asks feedback of own performance from team members, aiming to become more effective. c) Driving delivery of results - Identifies and implements a business opportunity that will have a long-term impact on the business (which may include the organisation’s reputation or brand image). Monitors progress and adapts the plan, if necessary, to ensure optimal benefit to the business. - Makes decisions, sets priorities, or chooses goals based on inputs and outputs: makes explicit considerations of potential profit, return on investment, or cost benefit analysis. - Based on the cost-benefit analysis, make decisions of an entrepreneurial risk nature. d) Achievement orientation - Undertakes challenging assignment and strives to complete them. - Sets priorities and chooses goals on the basis of calculated costs, anticipated benefits, and improvement of performance. - Aims at exceptional performance, setting out to achieve a unique standard. - Constantly analyse outcomes to ensure the achievements of business goal. - Identifies short-term opportunity or potential problems aiming to achieve better outcomes. e) Customer Orientation - Tries to understand the underlying needs of customers and matc