About the job
Project Manager – Water Stewardship, Watershed Health & WASH Programs
EMPLOYER: Global Water Challenge (GWC)
LOCATION: South Africa, with travel to project locations as required
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE: Consultancy will last one year with the potential for extension.
ABOUT GWC: Global Water Challenge (GWC) is a sector leader in mobilizing clean water access and advancing water security and community empowerment in high-need regions around the world. Since 2006, GWC has positively impacted millions of people across Africa, the Americas, and Asia with improved WASH delivery and water security. With over 600+ multi-sector partners, we engage for action – catalyzing financial resources and driving innovative programming for sustainable, local solutions. For more information, please visit www.globalwaterchallenge.org.
ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
Global Water Challenge seeks an experienced water sector project management professional to serve as a Local Project Manager and liaison in South Africa (approximately 15-20 hours/week). The Local Project Manager will lead and coordinate the implementation of a diverse portfolio of water stewardship, watershed health, water conservation, water access, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), and water infrastructure projects, ensuring alignment with program objectives, local priorities, and community needs.
The ideal candidate will combine strong project management capabilities with broad water sector experience spanning water stewardship, watershed health, WASH, and water infrastructure. They will understand the interconnected challenges affecting water resources, ecosystems, communities, and climate resilience in South Africa and will oversee project planning, partner coordination, implementation, monitoring, risk management, and reporting. The Local Project Manager will also serve as a key liaison for GWC between implementing partners, government and community stakeholders, technical service providers, and funders to ensure effective and sustainable project delivery.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Project Implementation & Management
- Oversee implementation of water stewardship, watershed health, WASH, and water infrastructure projects, ensuring alignment with program objectives, budgets, timelines, technical standards, and grant requirements.
- Coordinate implementing partners, contractors, technical specialists, and other service providers, providing project management and technical guidance as needed.
- Support a diverse portfolio of interventions, including watershed and wetland restoration, water conservation, source water protection, water supply and sanitation infrastructure, treatment, storage, and distribution systems, rainwater harvesting, reuse, and other water-security solutions.
- Monitor project performance, budgets, deliverables, risks, and implementation quality, and support appropriate corrective actions when needed.
- Promote long-term project sustainability by integrating operations and maintenance, local ownership, climate resilience, environmental sustainability, and community needs into project implementation.
Stakeholder Engagement & Relationship Management
- Act as a liaison between local stakeholders and the broader program team to ensure alignment, visibility into implementation, and effective communication.
- Build and maintain strong relationships with local and regional stakeholders, including government agencies, community organizations, NGOs, and private sector partners.
- Collaborate with GWC’s regional and global teams to share lessons, strengthen program approaches, and identify opportunities to scale successful interventions.
- Identify project priorities, risks, challenges, and partnership opportunities and recommend practical solutions to strengthen program delivery and impact.
- Organize and participate in stakeholder meetings, workshops, field visits, and donor visits, and represent GWC at relevant external events as needed.
- Assume additional responsibilities as required to support GWC’s water security and community resilience objectives.
Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning
- Establish and maintain systems to monitor project progress, implementation quality, outputs, outcomes, and long-term sustainability.
- Work with implementing partners and GWC teams to collect, validate, and document project data and supporting evidence.
- Monitor indicators related to water access, sanitation, water availability, water quality, water-use efficiency, watershed health, ecosystem restoration, climate resilience, and community benefits, as appropriate to individual projects.
- Conduct regular project reviews, field visits, and implementation assessments to identify challenges, corrective actions, lessons learned, and opportunities for improvement.
- Support measurement and documentation of volumetric water benefits (VWBs) and other relevant water stewardship and WASH impact metrics.
- Prepare high-quality reports, case studies, presentations, project summaries, and success stories for GWC, donors, partners, and other stakeholders.
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
The ideal candidate will possess the following abilities:
- Four-year degree Water Resources Management, Civil or Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, Natural Resource Management, Development Studies, Public Health, or a related field; advanced degree a plus.
- 5+ years of relevant experience managing water sector projects, preferably in South Africa or Southern Africa, with demonstrated experience in WASH, water infrastructure, water stewardship, watershed management, conservation, or related fields.
- Strong understanding of water sector issues, including water supply and sanitation, watershed health, water conservation, climate resilience, and sustainable water resource management.
- Demonstrated experience managing projects, grants, implementing partners, contractors, and/or technical service providers, including planning, budgeting, monitoring, and reporting.
- Proven ability to build and manage partnerships with communities, government agencies, NGOs, private-sector partners, and other water sector stakeholders.
- Familiarity with South African water and environmental policies, institutions, regulations, and governance structures.
- Strong project management, analytical, problem-solving, organizational, and communication skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and work both independently and collaboratively.
- Experience with project monitoring and impact measurement; familiarity with VWBs or other water stewardship metrics is an advantage.
- Fluency in English required; proficiency in one or more South African languages is an advantage.
- Commitment to GWC’s mission and willingness to travel regularly to project sites.
Global Water Challenge (GWC) is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate based on race, creed, color, religion, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or marital status.
Interested candidates to submit an application no later than September 28, 2026.
