Join Us:

The Role

The program manager is a key operations role. The program has strong strategic leadership and a network of engaged contributors, but it runs on logistics, documentation, and the thousand small coordination decisions that hold a complex program together. This is the person who makes sure nothing falls through the cracks and takes pride in meticulously tracking timelines and documenting project outcomes. This is not a purely administrative role. The PM will be genuinely embedded in the work, have real relationships with participants and contributors across the program, and care about what the program is trying to do. We're also looking for someone who understands that this role isn't about executing a fixed plan — a lot of what makes this program work depends on someone who can track and make sense of what's happening across a complex, fast-moving set of activities and feed that back into how decisions get made. Rigor and adaptability are both requirements. There is room to grow as things develop.

Responsibilities

Program delivery support

Coordinating outreach and recruitment for programs, curriculum logistics, mentor scheduling, project milestone tracking through the incubation phase, and support for a multi-day in-person convening bringing together 50+ participants from across target regions.

Logistics and coordination

Managing scheduling, platform setup, and participant communications across multiple time zones and languages. This includes scheduling group calls across timezones, sharing agendas and relevant information, coordinating with guest speakers,  arranging for translation when necessary, recording and documenting meeting outcomes, and making sure sessions happen without friction.

Participant tracking and compliance

Maintaining recruitment pipelines, participant records, and the documentation required for grants compliance and sanctions vetting.

Financial administration

Supporting fund disbursement to program participants and consultants, collecting payment information, working closely with the Finance Officer on payments, and tracking expenditures against budget. Experience navigating international transfers or working with organizations in multiple countries is useful.

Communications, reporting and documentation

Systematically collecting program information across activities including participant data, session outputs, project updates, emerging case studies and coordinating with the communications lead and research lead to make sure that material flows into newsletters, grant reports, and the program's flagship research.

What We're Looking For

• 5-7 years of experience managing complex global programs and communities

• Strong communication skills and comfort working across time zones, cultures, and in multilingual environments; You need to be good at communicating clearly when things are complicated.

• Strong organizational instincts without rigidity as this program requires flexibility and judgment, not just process-following.

• Familiarity with the kinds of contexts we work in: activists operating under surveillance, movements in countries with internet shutdowns, creatives facing censorship and repression.

• Experience with grants administration or financial tracking, including familiarity with international disbursement and compliance requirements

• Solid project management fundamentals such as timeline-building and workstream tracking and a genuine interest in the tools that make that easier. If you have opinions about project management software, we want to hear them.

• Comfort with technology and curiosity about how it shapes the contexts we work in is useful. Experience with digital security tools, civic tech, or creative skills are a genuine bonus; we're a small team that values people who make things.

• Professional-level English proficiency; Additional language skills relevant to our target regions (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Swahili, Amharic, Burmese) a plus

• Ability to overlap working hours with both Eastern Africa Time (EAT) and Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), Availability for occasional calls outside standard hours to accommodate participants in Asia (SGT/UTC+8) is expected.

• We're a team of curious, unconventional people and we value that in others. We’re looking for someone who brings genuine curiosity, a sense of humor, and interesting perspectives/skills/experience to the work.

Working With Us

Curious Shapes is a small, values-driven team. We work hard on things we think matter, and we try to build an environment where people can do their best work without burning out and while having fun.

This role is currently structured at 70% time with the possibility of expanding to full-time as the program grows. In addition to standard time off, everyone gets three weeks of floating holidays and as well as an extra week each year designated for a personal project, creative pursuit, or learning goal of your choosing.

We invest in our team's development. That includes access to workshops, training, and professional development opportunities relevant to the democracy, digital rights, and civil society space, as well as learning that happens through the program itself such as exposure to the amazing creatives, social entrepreneurs and activists involved in our networks.

Compensation is determined based on prior relevant experience and cost of living. We welcome applications from candidates in all countries; please note that legal constraints may apply in certain jurisdictions.

About Curious Shapes:

Curious Shapes is a strategy, research, and communications consultancy working at the intersection of democracy, digital rights, and international civil society. We work with activists, movements, and organizations that are doing serious work in difficult political environments, helping them think strategically, communicate effectively, and connect with others doing similar work across borders.

We are an all-women team with deep experience in restrictive contexts across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and beyond. Our work spans commissioned research and strategy, communications, and program design and management. We believe the most durable democratic change comes from movements and communities, and that our job is to support and amplify that work.

Curious Shapes operates as:

• A consultancy doing commissioned research, strategy, and communications for organizations working on democracy, digital rights, and civic space

• A program incubator that designs and runs initiatives connecting civil society across regions

• A research and documentation hub producing accessible analysis for practitioners and funders

• A convener, building communities of practice around shared challenges in the democracy and internet freedom space

Our Approach

Curious Shapes approaches this work empirically and without a predetermined playbook. We are interested in what actually strengthens democratic resilience and what builds durable organizations, sustains movements through repression, and connects people across borders in ways that produce real solidarity rather than performative exchange. We bring that same orientation to program design: we test things, document what works and what doesn't, and try to build programming that learns from itself.

How to Apply

Fill out our application form here. We have copied the full application here for review and offline editing, but please ultimately submit using the form above. The application deadline is Aug 9, but we're recruiting on a rolling basis so we encourage applicants to apply before the deadline.

Please submit all application materials in English. We will try to accommodate extension requests made before the deadline and up to seven days beyond it. We are generally not able to accommodate requests made on or after the deadline, or requests for more than seven days, in order to be fair to all applicants.