Project Director - Consultant role

About CIR

The Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) is an independent organisation dedicated to documenting human rights violations exposing online harms against women and marginalised communities, and strengthening accountability for perpetrators. We achieve this through open source research, digital investigations, capacity-building with local partners, and collaboration with media to amplify our impact.

CIR was born out of a determination to expose those spreading harm – online and offline – around the world, particularly in areas of violent conflict, such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Myanmar and Ukraine. Our projects are at the forefront of efforts to investigate and document human rights abuses, war crimes, harms targeting women and minorities, and influence operations. We work closely with multilateral and national justice accountability bodies.

Role details:

Contract Type: Contractor

Start date: 1st November 2026

Contract length: The position is a consultancy role for 12 months subject to funding

Hours needed for this role: Full-time, 40 hours per week

Location: This role could be based in London or remotely. You need to be able to work on UK/EU time zone

Closing date: 11th October at 23:55pm.

About the Role

We are looking for a Project Director to lead a multi-country, donor-funded programme that sits at the intersection of strategic communications, OSINT-led investigation, and information environment work in complex, often fragile contexts.

You will set the strategic direction of the programme, ensure high-quality delivery against donor priorities, and get the best out of a senior, multidisciplinary team of OSINT analysts, investigators, and communications specialists. You will be the main technical and relationship lead for senior donors and government counterparts.

This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who thrives in fast-paced environments, stays ahead of emerging information risks, and is passionate about using OSINT and strategic communications to challenge harmful narratives, strengthen information integrity, and drive tangible impact.

Key responsibilities

Strategic leadership and programme direction

• Define and oversee the strategic impact of a multi-country programme, including the nature and scale of outputs and outcomes, aligned with organisational values and donor goals.
• Provide clear direction to the project management team on how resources are allocated across countries and workstreams to maximise impact, value for money, and commercial performance where relevant.

Donor and stakeholder leadership

• Build and maintain strong relationships with senior donors, ensuring they have full confidence in the quality, credibility, and responsiveness of our work across all programme countries.
• Lead discussions with existing and potential new donors to expand or extend the multi-country programme, advocating technical approaches and collaborating with leadership on resourcing and budgets.
  

Technical guidance and team leadership

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship and team leadership to a senior, multidisciplinary team of OSINT analysts, investigators, and communications specialists, reviewing key outputs, challenging assumptions, and steering analytical and communications approaches to meet donor objectives and contextual realities.
• Develop and inspire a cohesive team dynamic where specialists across countries and disciplines support each other and contribute to the overall success and impact of the programme.
  

MREL, risk, and compliance

• Oversee the design of the Monitoring and Evaluation framework with the M&E specialist, project manager, and senior technical staff, including Theory of Change, Results Framework, and mechanisms for collecting and synthesising data across countries.
• Ensure the programme’s risk management process draws on the diverse knowledge and insights of the team, generating information required by the organisation’s standard risk register and complying with donor reporting schedules.

Requirements

Qualifications and Competencies

Essential:

• Proven experience as a confident manager and leader of diverse, senior teams in  changing, high-pressure, multi-country environments.
• Experience applying adaptive management and establishing a productive working culture where team members collaborate effectively and deliverables are consistently met to a high standard.
• Strong networking, stakeholder relationship-building, and management experience, including with government departments and other senior institutional actors.
• Experience overseeing projects in complex or conflict-affected settings, with skilled use of adaptive programme risk management.
• Understanding of OSINT methods and their application within complex contexts.

Highly Desirable:

• Strong strategic communications experience, including work on narrative development, audience understanding, and challenging harmful narratives in support of policy or programme objectives.
• Familiarity with donor-funded programmes focused on information  integrity, counter-disinformation, CVE/PCVE, or related fields.
• Experience of working on conflict-affected or fragile contexts, including understanding of political, media, and cultural dynamics.
• German language is desirable

Working Arrangements:

The role will be full-time and can either be office based, hybrid or remote with the opportunity to work from CIR’s offices in London, if desired.

CIR encourages flexible working and is happy to agree a working pattern to suit the successful applicant.

Recruitment Process

To apply, please submit a CV and cover letter, and answer the application form questions.

CIR encourages applicants from under-represented communities.

CIR is an equal opportunities employer. If you require adjustments or additional support to complete this process, please let us know in your application.