Community Program Manager - Cape Town

Reports to: Regional Program Director

Working location: Hout Bay, South Africa

Salary: R16,000 - R27,500 ZAR + Accommodation & Food

Start Date: April 2025

🌍About GVI

GVI Planet  | GVI People

At GVI, we’re passionate about making a real impact on our planet and its people. Our award-winning conservation and community development programs span 13 countries, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals and led by experts from the communities we serve.

Our new GVI hub is located in Hout Bay, a stunning coastal village near Cape Town, South Africa. If you thrive in a fast-paced, purpose-driven environment, see what it’s like to be part of our team – apply today!

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👋 Meet the Team

🌞 About the role

The Program Manager (PM) is responsible for the overall running of the GVI Cape Town program operations, which focus on community development activities.

The PM’s role is to deliver excellent volunteer and internship programs, while managing the day-to-day operations of the GVI hub. Operations include establishing and maintaining partnerships with the community, leading health & safety and risk assessment processes, effectively managing staff and participants, and achieving the financial goals of the organisation.

This role requires someone with a background in operations, an understanding of community development and education programs, and strong staff and volunteer management experience including health and safety management. You must be comfortable leading diverse groups of volunteers and participants across a wide range of projects, while managing the balance between participant expectations and company policies.

The ideal candidate for this position will speak proficient English and ideally a local dialect (Xhosa), be passionate about community development and be comfortable living in a communal setting among staff and program participants. You will have a solid understanding of South Africa’s history, culture, community, and socioeconomic attributes including the unique opportunities and challenges faced here.

🤝 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.

• Conduct site visits, design projects, lead impact reporting, and manage risk assessments for new partner locations.

• In conjunction with the People team and your line manager, recruit new staff for the base. Oversee training and onboarding of all new staff and participants.

• 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.

• Effectively manage any issues that come up in the field on a day to day basis, including participant complaints, medical issues, natural disasters etc.

• Connect and liaise with in-country partners to build and maintain relationships.

• Work with partners to develop curriculum and lesson plans for educational programs, and ensure daily activities are aligned with overall project goals.

• Responsible for financial management and 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 powerful and we are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion practices.

🌱 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 English, Xhosa also ideal

• Proven leadership experience (3-5 years experience managing staff and volunteers/interns)

• Operations experience (in the community development or education industries would be advantageous)

• Health and safety management experience

• Teaching and community development experience is advantageous

• First Aid qualification

📦 Package includes:

• Monthly salary

• Accommodation

• Food

• Visa costs (if applicable)

• Emergency medical and travel insurance

🎉Company culture

Here’s what our global team enjoys:

• Collaborative, flexible culture

• Transparency and direct communication

• Leadership development

• In-house counselling support

• Growth opportunities across our 17 locations

🎯 To apply:

Please send your CV along with a cover letter stating why you feel you would be best suited to this position at GVI.

Not quite ticking all the boxes for our current vacancies just yet? Explore our internship openings here for the perfect stepping stone toward a career in sustainable development.

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.

SDG Impact