Lake Tanganyika Biodiversity Conservation Project Coordinator
nature · Tuungane, Tanzania ·
- Seniority
- Senior
- Category
- Project management
- Experience
- 5+ years
What We Can Achieve Together:
The Lake Tanganyika Biodiversity Conservation Project Coordinator serves as both the project coordination hub for the LaTaBioCoN consortium, ensuring that project implementation remains aligned with its strategy, annual priorities, workplans, budgets, timelines, implementation tracking, and decision-support processes remain aligned across TNC’s LTB teams, partners such as Lake Tanganyika Authority (LTA), Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), World Wide Fund for Nature-Democratic Republic of Congo (WWF-DRC), Education Outreach Tanzania (EDOTA), Environmental Management and Economic Development Organization (EMEDO), and country-level implementation structures.
Based in TABORA and reporting to the Lake Tanganyika Basin Director, this role provides disciplined project management, operational planning, strategy coordination, and follow-up support to maintain momentum across a complex, multi-country consortium and broader Basin portfolio. The coordinator keeps strategic implementation priorities visible, connects technical, finance, operations, partnership, and monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) functions, and surface bottlenecks to TNC’s Lake Tanganyika Basin management team for resolution before they slow delivery or weaken alignment with conservation and adaptation outcomes.
Additionally, working closely with the Africa Landscape Coordination Manager, Lake Tanganyika Basin Deputy Director, Forest and Land Conservation Manager, Lake Tanganyika Fisheries and Aquaculture Senior Advisor, LTB MEL Lead, Finance, Operations, Grants, and consortium partners, the Lake Tanganyika Biodiversity Conservation Project Coordinator supports practical execution and Basin strategy coordination by maintaining the integrated systems, meeting rhythms, trackers, and escalation pathways needed to keep activities, resources, timelines, strategic priorities timelines, and deliverables moving in a coordinated and accountable manner.
The commencement and full onboarding of the successful candidate is contingent to donor budget availability and confirmation of the relevant project funding arrangements.
We’re Looking for You:
Main roles and responsibilities include:
- Serve as the central coordination hub for LaTaBioCoN implementation and Lake Tanganyika Basin strategy coordination, translating consortium priorities into annual, quarterly, and monthly workplans with clear activities, milestones, timelines, owners, deliverables, and follow-up actions.
- Keep project workplans, budgets, spending plans, timelines, procurement actions, reporting requirements, and implementation trackers, and Basin strategy priorities aligned across TNC teams, country-level activities, and consortium partners.
- Maintain live implementation dashboards, Basin strategy trackers, and delivery trackers that provide regular analysis of progress against milestones, deadlines, dependencies, budgets, deliverables, and donor commitments, and strategic outcomes, highlighting gaps and actions requiring management attention
- Coordinate practical execution and Lake Tanganyika Basin strategy follow-through across conservation, finance, operations, grants, MEL, partnership, and consortium teams by convening planning processes, documenting decisions, monitoring follow-up, and ensuring that responsibilities, dependencies and timelines are clear.
- Work with Finance, Grants, and technical leads to align workplan delivery with approved budgets, spending forecasts, procurement schedules, and donor requirements, and prepare reforecasting or rephasing recommendations when implementation or expenditure variances emerge.
- Prepare implementation, planning, strategy, and expenditure reports for Basin and program leadership, including dashboards, portfolio reviews, and briefing materials that summarize delivery status, budget performance, strategic alignment, risks, opportunities, and decisions required.
- Drive adaptive management by identifying implementation bottlenecks, dependency risks, resource constraints, and coordination gaps, and by working with relevant teams and partners to agree practical mitigation actions and escalation pathways.
- Maintain a live risk, issue, and decision register for LaTaBioCoN implementation, documenting bottlenecks, assumptions, mitigation actions, owners, timelines, and unresolved decisions, and escalate critical risks to the Lake Tanganyika Basin Director in a timely manner.
- Prepare and maintain core coordination and decision-support tools, including integrated planning calendars, implementation dashboards, budget-tracking summaries, presentations, briefing notes, meeting summaries, action logs, and consortium decision records.
- Maintain complete and current project records and coordination systems linking implementation plans to grant deliverables, reporting deadlines, procurement actions, logistics requirements, partner commitments, and other operational milestones, and coordinate LaTaBioCoN project meetings and follow-up actions.
- Undertake any other duties, responsibilities, or assignments as directed by the Supervisor or Program Leadership to support effective LaTaBioCoN implementation, Lake Tanganyika Basin strategy coordination, and achievement of organizational objectives.
What You’ll Bring
- BA/BS degree in project management, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management, international development, public administration, or a related field and at least 5 years of relevant project coordination or programme implementation experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience. A master’s degree will be an added advantage.
- Experience managing freshwater or terrestrial complex or multiple projects, including inter-departmental coordination
- Experience coordinating cross-functional teams, partners, or consortium members without direct line authority, including setting clear follow-up actions and maintaining accountability for delivery.
- Experience in partnership development with non-profit partners, community groups and/or government agencies
- Experience negotiating complex agreements.
- English language fluency for both spoken and written is a requirement.
- Strong project administration skills, including workplanning, budget and expenditure tracking, procurement coordination, logistics follow-up, reporting schedules, donor indicator alignment, and implementation documentation.
- Proven ability to maintain trackers, dashboards, action logs, calendars, and coordination systems that improve visibility, follow-up, accountability, and timely decision-making.
- Demonstrated experience in building and managing consortia of partners across institutions (e.g., communities, NGOs, private and government) and varying sectors.
- Strong organizational, analytical, written, and verbal communication skills, with the ability to synthesize implementation issues and present clear options for management action.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Master’s degree in project management, wildlife management, biodiversity conservation or any relevant natural resources management discipline.
- Multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience required.
- 5-7 years’ experience coordinating donor-funded, multi-partner, or multi-country conservation or development programmes, including workplan, budget, timeline, risk, and implementation tracking.
- Direct experience in landscape or transboundary strategy development and implementation.
- Senior-level stakeholder engagement (government, donors, transboundary partners).
- Fundraising/grant-writing and budget management for large programmes.
- Experience leading multi-site/regional teams and cross-border coordination.
- Knowledge and experience in fundraising, linking and collaborating with international organizations, and fostering Public–Private–Community – Partnership (PPCP).
- Knowledge of methods and standards of biodiversity information systems and initiatives
- Communicating clearly via written, spoken, and graphical means in English. Additional languages relevant to the LTB geography are a plus.
- Demonstrated experience in fundraising and donor-related reporting experience.
- Politically savvy.
This position requires a valid driver's license and compliance with TNC’s Auto Safety Program. Employees may not drive Conservancy-owned/leased vehicles, rental cars, or personal vehicles on behalf of the Conservancy if considered "high risk drivers." To learn more about the Auto Safety Program, visit the Auto Safety information page. Employment in this position will be contingent upon completion of a Vehicle Use Agreement, which may include a review of the prospective employee's motor vehicle record.
Who We Are:
The Nature Conservancy’s mission is to protect the lands and waters upon which all life depends. As a science-based organization, we create innovative, on-the-ground solutions to our world’s toughest challenges so that we can create a world in which people and nature thrive. We’re rooted in our mission and guided by our values, which include respect for all people, communities, and cultures. Whether it’s career development, flexible schedules, or a rewarding mission, there’s many reasons to love life inside TNC. Want a better insight to TNC? Check out our TNC Talent playlist on YouTube to hear stories from staff or visit Glassdoor.
One goal is to cultivate an inclusive work environment so that all our colleagues around the globe feel a sense of belonging and that their unique contributions to our mission are valued. In addition to the requirements in our job postings, we recognize that people come with talent and experiences outside of a job and consider each applicant’s unique experience. Please apply – we’d love to hear from you. To quote a popular saying at TNC, “you’ll join for the mission, and stay for the people.”
What We Bring:
Since 1951, TNC has been doing work you can believe in. Through grassroots action, we have grown from a small non-profit into one of the most effective and wide-reaching environmental organizations in the world. Thanks to more than 1 million members, over 400 scientists, and the dedicated efforts of our diverse staff and partners, we impact conservation around the world!
TNC offers competitive and comprehensive benefits packages tailored to the individual countries where we work. These may include health care benefits, retirement benefits, parental leave, paid time off, life insurance, and disability coverage as well as an employee assistance program and other life and well-being benefits. Learn more about our Benefits and Perks here.
We’re proud to offer a flexible work environment that supports the health and well-being of the people we employ.
Our recruiting process includes a rolling interview process to ensure we engage applicants in a timely manner. This means we may review applications in the order in which they are received. Once a strong candidate pool is identified, the role will be unposted. The timeline may vary depending on the expressed interest in the role, so we highly encourage candidates to apply as soon as possible.
The Nature Conservancy is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Our commitment to equal employment opportunity includes the recognition that our conservation mission is best advanced by the leadership and contributions of people of all backgrounds, beliefs, and culture. Recruiting and mentoring staff to create an inclusive organization is a priority, and we encourage applicants from all cultures, races, colors, religions, sexes, national or regional origins, ages, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, military, protected veteran status or other status protected by law.
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