Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH is an international cooperation enterprise for sustainable development with worldwide operations. GIZ promotes complex reforms and change processes, often working under difficult conditions. Its corporate objective is to improve people’s living conditions on a sustainable basis. GIZ International Services (InS) is the company’s business department offering services to international clients such as the European Commission.  

We are currently looking for a Project Manager (m/f/d) for strengthening our TrEECCA unit.
The Project Manager will be actively involved in developing the acquisition strategy and successful implementation of ongoing EU-funded projects.
   
The position is available for starting as soon as possible.
The workplace will be Belgium (Brussels), GIZ offers a Belgian employment contract (full time). Business travel to Germany and partner countries might be required.
 

Your tasks:  

Project acquisition:  
  • Screening and assessment of business opportunities published by the European Union and other donors.  
  • Support in development of market strategies for new clients  
  • Early intelligence and fact-finding missions to recipient countries.  
  • Early identification and establishment of contacts with potential consortium partners as well as leading negotiations, facilitating high-impact stakeholder coordination, and ensuring partner availability for technical interventions.  
  • Developing and maintaining relationships with clients and potential customers within the European Institutions and other donors.  
  • Preparation of letters of interest, conceptional and methodological coordination of technical offers in line with tender specifications.   
  • Calculating competitive financial proposals in cooperation with the Financial Manager.  
  • Identification of and negotiation with experts, in cooperation with the HR recruitment team.  
Project implementation:  
  • Overall operational responsibility for project implementation, spanning complex administrative and contractual compliance, technical backstopping, and multi-stakeholder facilitation across diverse infrastructure and green portfolios.  
  • Rigorous monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of project advancement, driving technical reporting frameworks, financial monitoring, and additional multi-sectoral networking accompanying state-of-the-art project implementation.  
  • Continuous consultation with clients, project partners and consortium partners. 
  • Contact clients, partners and experts, dealing with their questions and problems (troubleshooting) as well as working out solutions.  
  • In collaboration with the responsible Financial Manager, monitoring of invoicing deadlines and follow-up on invoices issued.  
  • Undertaking coordination visits to partner countries, communication with the contracting authorities and supporting the project team on site.  
  • Monitoring and evaluation of ongoing projects, including the oversight of project reports to the client.  
  • Supervising Key Experts and project office staff; leading the structural identification, ToR formulation, recruitment, and monitoring of national and international short-term experts.  
All tasks shall be carried out under supervision of the Portfolio Manager and in close collaboration with the wider team of Project Managers.  
 
Your profile:  
  • At least a master’s degree in European Studies, Social Sciences, Cultural Studies, International Relations, or similar disciplines.  
  • At least 5 years of professional work experience in a related field and in a comparable position/with a similar scope of work.  
  • At least 5 years proven experience in EU projects management and backstopping.  
  • At least 3 years of proven experience coordinating multi-stakeholder networks, steering institutional capacity development, or facilitating public-private partnerships
  • Proven experience in contract negotiations with international cooperation partners.  
  • Demonstrated professional experience managing complex project portfolios in the areas of Green Energy, or Sustainable Agricultural Value Chains is a strong asset. 
  • Good understanding of the socio-economic, legislative, and political landscape of the European Enlargement and Neighbourhood regions, with on-the-ground experience steering projects in Turkey.
  • Experience in working directly with Donors on relevant sectors will be considered as an asset.  
  • Previous experience working with GIZ, either directly or indirectly, and knowledge of GIZ's internal procedures and processes are considered a strong asset
Other knowledge, additional skills: 
  • Full IT proficiency (current MS Office, including 365 cloud applications);  
  • Advanced, professional knowledge (speaking and writing) of English;
  • Native proficiency in Turkish is mandatory for regional portfolio oversight.
  • Knowledge of German is considered an asset.
  • Flexible profile, able to work autonomously under high time pressure and workload.  
  • Intercultural skills, problem-solving minded and with a service-oriented attitude. 
  • Excellent communication and negotiation skills, and keen on working in a team.