Project Manager, Forced Labor Slavery, Philippines

Who We Are

International Justice Mission (IJM) is the global leader in protecting vulnerable people from violence around the world. Our team of over 1,200 professionals are at work worldwide in over 30 offices. Together we are on a mission to rescue millions, protect half a billion, and make justice unstoppable.

We are a global community that cares for one another. We believe that the way we work is as important as the results we achieve. We provide professional excellence with joy and celebration to all those we serve.

The Need

For over 25 years, IJM has pioneered the work to protect vulnerable people from violence. 9 out of 9 times in the last decade, IJM's Justice System Strengthening Projects have reduced slavery and violence between 50% and 85% for very large populations of people in poverty.

As we grow to expand our impact to protect 500 million people from violence, we are seeking a seeking a senior-level Project Manager to lead the start-up, strategy development, stakeholder engagement, and program delivery of IJM's Forced Labor Slavery (FLS) project in the Philippines. The role will provide day-to-day program leadership for project design, implementation planning, budget coordination, partner management, review and learning, and operational support to baseline studies and measurement. The Project Manager will develop and manage implementing partnerships to achieve project goals and impact, while ensuring close coordination with OSEC Program leadership team, the APAC Regional Program Impact Team, and relevant global technical teams.

This position is based in the Philippines and reports to the Country Director, Philippines. Thiswill require travel within the country and APAC region. It is only open to candidates who reside in the Philippines and have the right to work in the country.

Responsibilities

Strategy and Program Development:

• Build on the in-country assessment and baseline studies to develop clear context and problem analyses of the situation and response to FLS in the Philippines.
• In collaboration with the regional and country teams, facilitate the development of a strategy for the Philippines FLS project and draft the Project Concept Note to document the strategy.
• Facilitate the development, documentation, and scaling of program interventions to accelerate the achievement of the intended impact.
• Lead regular strategy reviews and contribute analysis, recommendations, and lessons learned to strengthen program effectiveness.
• Lead or contribute to project design, concept development, and proposal development for grants and donor funding opportunities.
• Support the development of intervention-level theories of change, implementation plans, learning agendas, and performance indicators in collaboration with Program Measurement and technical teams.
  
  

Project Management And Implementation

• Coordinate the development and implementation of a project start-up plan with Philippines and regional teams, including staffing, procurement, partner onboarding, baseline coordination, governance meetings, and key implementation milestones.
• Coordinate the development and finalization of multi-year and annual project implementation plans and budgets that are aligned with organizational priorities.
• Support and oversee project implementation to ensure achievement of objectives, deliverables, timelines, and budgets.
• Facilitate project reviews, learning, and adaptive management.
• Collaborate with operations and finance teams to support planning, budget monitoring, forecasting, and resource allocation.
• Coordinate preparation and finalization of management reports, donor reports, grant reports, and project updates.
• Maintain organized systems for program records, decisions, lessons learned, and implementation documentation.
• Ensure high-quality documentation of meetings, field visits, reviews, and partnership engagements.
• Develop and maintain a project start-up tracker covering staffing, procurement, partnership onboarding, baseline coordination, governance meetings, risk management, and implementation milestones.
• Coordinate the preparation of start-up decision documents, including workplans, budget scenarios, staffing plans, stakeholder maps, risk registers, and implementation readiness updates.
• Lead coordination of project governance mechanisms, including start-up meetings, leadership updates, technical working groups, partner coordination meetings, and decision-tracking processes.
• Maintain and regularly update project risk registers, including risks related to survivor safety, government engagement, political sensitivity, implementing partners, data protection, safeguarding, and operational delivery.
  
  

Partnerships And Stakeholder Engagement

• Establish and/or strengthen engagement and liaison with key government stakeholders, particularly at national level and in selected sub-national areas. Coordinate engagement with these agencies for key project interventions, beginning with baseline studies.
• Establish engagement with relevant non-government stakeholders including international organizations, civil society, academia, private sector, labor and migrant worker associations, and service providers. Map potential implementing partners with programming in focus areas for IJM.
• Identify potential implementing partners and develop, manage, and strengthen partnerships. This includes leading partner assessment, due diligence, co-design, onboarding, monitoring, safeguarding coordination, and performance review processes.
• Oversee partner workplans, budgets, deliverables, reporting, and performance reviews in coordination with operations, finance, legal, safeguarding, and technical teams.
• Represent the organization and FLS project in relevant meetings, forums, and stakeholder engagements.
• Represent the Philippines FLS project internally among IJM's country, regional, and global teams.
  
  

Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, And Learning

• Support the Research Manager/RSC Chair and Program Measurement Specialist by ensuring operational coordination, stakeholder access, government engagement, and programmatic use of baseline findings, while technical research design, ethics, data quality protocols, and analysis remain under the leadership of designated research/MERL leads.
• Support the Program Measurement Specialist to develop, implement, and strengthen the monitoring and evaluation framework, including alignment of project plans, partner reporting, and learning processes.
• Support evaluations, assessments, operational research, and evidence-generation initiatives, including field coordination, stakeholder engagement, and follow-through on learning recommendations.
• Ensure that findings from baseline studies, assessments, program reviews, and partner monitoring are translated into actionable program decisions, adaptive management, and intervention design improvements.
• In coordination with Program Measurement specialists, support data quality, accessibility, documentation, confidentiality, and reporting standards across project monitoring, partner reporting, and learning processes.
• Contribute to learning products, best-practice documentation, after-action reviews, knowledge-sharing initiatives, and internal/external learning events.
  
  

General Tasks

• Maintain detailed familiarity with the overall project and context and its implementation by participating in team meetings as necessary and a variety of internal and external program activities
• Participate in external meetings and events and provide critical analysis and feedback.
• Ensure accuracy in handling office resources and finances and follow the finance policies and guidelines in settling expenses and making payments.
• Travel from time to time for assessments, partnership development or monitoring, meetings and workshops, and cases or conferences.
• Maintain confidentiality of privileged and sensitive information.
  
  

Supervisory

This position reports to the Country Director, Philippines, and will have matrix reporting to the Vice President, Asia Pacific Programs.

The Project Manager will coordinate closely with the APAC Regional Team, Research Manager/RSC Chair, Program Measurement Specialist, and relevant global technical teams, while ensuring country-level ownership and decision-making through the Country Director.

The position will have supervisory responsibilities, with supervision of one Program Measurement Specialist initially.

Education & Experience

• Graduate-level degree or equivalent professional qualification in international development or related field.
• Minimum of seven to ten years of progressively responsible experience in program management, project start-up, stakeholder engagement, and partnership management, preferably in justice, protection, labor rights, migration, anti-trafficking, governance, or development programming.
• Knowledge of standards relating to design, planning, monitoring/measurement, and program evaluation.
• Demonstrated experience of establishing and developing strong government and stakeholder engagement.
• Demonstrated experience of developing impactful partnerships with implementing partners including managing partner grants/sub-grants.
• Demonstrated experience overseeing partner workplans, budgets, deliverables, reporting, performance reviews, and compliance requirements.
• Experience leading a team and managing short-term consultancies.
• Experience in humanitarian, protection, justice, labor rights, migration, anti-trafficking, or other high-risk programming contexts, with demonstrated commitment to survivor protection, trauma-informed practice, and do-no-harm principles.
• Experience with utilizing Human Centered Design or similar approaches preferred.
• Knowledge of forced labor issues, anti-forced labor or anti-trafficking in persons programming, and government engagement in the Philippines preferred; familiarity with Philippine labor, migration, anti-trafficking, justice, social protection, and local governance systems is strongly preferred.
• Excellent writing, facilitation, presentation, and communication skills in English.
• Excellent verbal communication skills in Filipino/Tagalog.
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams, deadlines, and stakeholders simultaneously.
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work effectively with government, civil society, technical experts, and internal program teams.
• High level of proficiency with Microsoft Office applications.
• Fluency in English and Filipino required; other Philippine languages are an advantage.
• Familiarity with ethical research practices, informed consent, confidentiality, data protection, and survivor-centered evidence generation.
  
  

Critical Qualities

• Strong ownership, accountability, and follow-through.
• High attention to detail and commitment to quality.
• Sound judgment, discretion, and ability to manage sensitive information.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with proven ability to take initiative and produce results.
• Self-motivated and able to work independently, as well as under supervision and as part of a team.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities.
• Flexible, collaborative, and open to feedback.
• Strong commitment to ethical, survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and do-no-harm programming.
• High level of honesty and integrity.
• Demonstrated commitment to IJM's mission, values, and theory of change.
  
  

Other Duties

This job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive list of all activities, duties, or responsibilities required for the position. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change at any time with or without notice. The position may be required to perform additional tasks assigned by the supervisor.

Application Process

Please submit your Resume/CV and Cover Letter to [Confidential Information] not later than 6 September 2026.

Remarks: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

IJM holds strict safeguarding principles and a zero tolerance to violations of the Safeguarding Policy, Protection against Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Harassment Policy, and Code of Ethics. Candidate selection is based on technical competence, recruitment, selection and hiring criteria subject to assessing the candidates value congruence and thorough background, police clearance, and reference check processes. IJM requires a background check, police clearance and thorough review of references with an employment offer and/or employment contract.