Program Manager

NICF seeks an imaginative and dynamic leader to lead its incubation program, including community development, promotion, and mentor networks. This full-time Administrative and Professional Staff position will be stationed in Faisalabad and reports to the Project Director and engages a diverse group of constituents (including female entrepreneurs, mentors in a variety of fields, donors, advisors, and staff) to help develop the capacity of startups, grow mentor networks and enhance Pakistan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem

We are searching for candidates who aspire to live these traits and lead programs. NICF is looking for the following attributes from Program Manager candidates.

Self Starter: Get it done attitude with a high degree of motivation and energy. Doers with a record of productivity and impact.

Ability to Accept and Motivate Others: A keen ability to attract and inspire others including advisory board members, mentors, entrepreneurs and volunteers.

Lead with a Servant Heart: What we like to call, “Give it away to get it back.” A focus more on what you can give to others rather than what you can get from others.

Deals Well with Conflict: Handling adversity with grace is a key to success. Taking constructive criticism with a positive attitude and not personally

Ability to build and lead a team.

Think Strategically and Implement Tactically: An ability to see the big picture while being able to implement tactical plans effectively to move the NICF’s mission forward.

Fundraising Skills: Have knowledge and experience in fundraising techniques, including events and funding proposals

Excellent Listener: An ability to actively receive input and listen to many viewpoints while suspending judgment and inner thinking.

Never Ever Give Up Attitude: Do not let obstacles or challenges stand in your way and can persevere through difficult times with grace.

Knowledge:  Knowledge of local entrepreneurial ecosystem and key players and stakeholders involved is not essential but will be a bonus.

Good Planner and Organizer: Ability to organize and plan events (training, workshops, etc) and programs independently

Reaching Out: Ability to identify target group for activity and think and implement ways to reach out to the target group

Project Profile Preferences:

Experience of working in the entrepreneurial ecosystem;

Experience of working in development sector projects;

Implementation of training programs;

Event management;

Track record of leading initiatives independently and making them sustainable.

Language: Fluency in English and Urdu is must.

Specific Tasks:

• Designing & managing Incubation and Acceleration programs
• Liaison and on-boarding of the experts/ trainers/ mentors to ensure high-quality coaching and advisory support to entrepreneurs
• Managing the scouting, screening and evaluate applicants for program induction, creativity, innovation, acceleration and investment.
• Manage the day- to- day interaction with the Incubates.
• Provide support to entrepreneurs across ideation, acceleration, investment and scale-up stage
• Ensure tight management of milestones and progress of entrepreneurs and start-up
• Develop, execute, and own an operational and engagement strategy for the entire community including donors, startups, investors, corporates, mentors, advisors, and domain experts.
• Provide continued strategic guidance to entrepreneurs in areas such as business modeling, sales, and marketing, financing, fundraising, overall strategy, operations and participation at high level meetings and consultative sessions.
• Manage operations, execute the project deliverables and lead the program team.
• Lead the identification of business opportunities and designing of high-quality proposals.
• Maintain professional relationship with both; internal and external stakeholders, ensuring implementation of programs goals, objectives and activities.
• Manage and initiate partnerships with existing and potential partners to support program quality and new programs.
• Organization of thematic innovation challenges; including identification of problem areas, challenge design, recruitment campaign, onboarding innovators, onboarding partners and onboarding mentors and trainers.
• Organization of Investor Summits and Investor Roundtables.
• Setting up investment readiness track for startups, match making with investors and manage deal flow process.
• Develop and maintain relationships with investors, government bodies, donors and other relevant stakeholders in order to define a working relationship and explore potential funding and investment opportunities for the startups
• Implement a robust reporting system to track and assess the progress of startups in the program. Generate periodic reports detailing key performance indicators, milestones achieved, and challenges faced by startups.
• Use data-driven insights to evaluate and refine program strategies for continuous improvement.
• Chalk out periodic reporting as per requirements to be shared with internal and external stakeholders 
• Ensuring efficient use of resources, identify opportunities for additional funding, grants, and partnerships to support the expansion and ecosystem development.