Job Summary
PEN is an innercity NGO serving the needs of the poor and volnurable.
This person will need to drive operational momentum for the COO’s office, ensuring that PEN meets all strategic timelines (external and internal) through coordination, administrative support, and meticulous oversight of M&E and BEE compliance.
QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED, DESIRED SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
- Diploma or Degree in Business Admin, Project Management or Social Sciences.
- 2–3 years relevant in an operational or coordination role.
- Soft Skills:
- Task Completion: Proactively close loops and ensure no task or deadline is left unfinished.
- Assertive: Confidence to hold senior staff accountable to timelines while maintaining positive, professional relationships.
- Accuracy: Precise and accurate, ensuring that project data, BEE evidence and board communications are consistently error-free.
- Accountability: Ownership of project timelines and ensuring all milestones are met through proactive self-management.
- Technical Skills:
- Practical project and timeline management experience: track multiple programme milestones, donor deadlines and board action items.
- Systems thinking and integration: understand how different Organisational functions intersect and the skill to identify how a delay in one area impacts the others.
- Coordination: facilitate logistics for meetings and functions, including professional agenda setting, strategic minute-taking and systematic follow-up.
- Operational Problem-Solving: proactive approach to identifying workflow bottlenecks or data gaps and implementing logical, structured solutions to keep operations on track.
- Data & Compliance Oversight: competence in managing M&E systems (e.g., Views) and compliance frameworks (BEE/POPIA) to ensure the organisation is always "audit-ready" and reports are backed by solid evidence.
- Writing & Reporting: Written and verbal English communication skills to synthesize information into clear, professional briefings or reports for the COO, Board, and Donors.
MAIN JOB ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES (INCLUDES BUT IS NOT LIMITED TO):
Strategic Coordination & Executive Support
- Timeline Management: Maintain the Organisational calendar to ensure all strategic and key donor milestones are met on time.
- Board & Senior Liaison: Serve as a professional point of contact for Board members and Team Leaders, ensuring clear communication flow.
- Meeting Coordination: Coordinate and facilitate approximately three key meetings/functions per month, including logistics, agenda preparation and high-quality minute taking.
- Action Tracking: Follow up with Team Leaders to ensure decisions made in meetings are carried through to completion.
M&E Oversight & Data Integrity
- System Integrity: Oversee the Views M&E system configuration to ensure it accurately reflects project milestones and impact.
- Data Quality Control: Review data captured by project staff to ensure reporting accuracy.
- Capacity Building: Identify and train users within each project to ensure system continuity.
Compliance & Audit Readiness
- BEE Management: Take full ownership of the BEE verification process, ensuring all required evidence are valid and organised.
- POPIA Compliance: Serve as the Information Officer.
- Company Documents: Ensure company documents are updated, signed and filed to ensure compliance and availability thereof.
Administration
- General Support: Provide high-level assistance to the COO and CEO, including and coordinating essential office processes