Associate Program Director

Job Description

Practice area description

R4D’s Market Shaping Practice (MSP) works with change agents to shape global and country-level markets and dramatically expand access to affordable, high-quality essential health products and services that help people lead healthier, more productive lives. We work to ensure that markets are transformed sustainably to drive increased access to (and improve appropriate use of) essential products like reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) products, nutrition supplements, safe blood, and assistive technologies. R4D’s MSP achieves this by aligning the priorities and incentives of key market actors, including policymakers, procurers, manufacturers and financiers at the global and country levels, to develop and execute solutions for underserved markets at scale.  Please visit our website and project page summaries to learn more about this life-saving work.

Opportunity

• Position title: Associate Program Director
• Practice/department/team:  Market Shaping Practice
• Reports to: Tanzania Country Director
• Term: 2 years
• Location: Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. This role is a hybrid position, with a mix of remote work and in-office days and some domestic and/or international travel, when required.

This position is contingent upon award.

Position summary: The Associate Program Director provides strategic leadership to large, complex programs, working closely with senior leadership to design and implement current and anticipated projects to expand access to health products in Tanzania. This role involves leading a team, overseeing program performance, managing budgets, and ensuring the alignment of program objectives with organizational goals. The Associate Program Director also engages with key stakeholders and donors to ensure long-term program sustainability and support business development.

Key Responsibilities:

Lead internal and external partner engagement

• Participates fully as a member of R4D by contributing, assisting, and participating in projects, activities, and initiatives as requested by management.
• Actively cultivate new relationships and effectively manage key existing relationships with donors, partners, and external stakeholders globally/regionally and local partners in Tanzania including and not limited to: the Ministry of Health (MoH), Medical Stores Department (MSD), Pharmacy Council, Tanzania Medicine and Medical Device Authority (TMDA), and other actors.   
• Successful foster relationships and engage with stakeholders at the most senior levels – both internally and externally.
• Represent Tanzania aspects of the MSP portfolio, particularly RMNCH related projects, within R4D and actively collaborate with others in the organization.
• Represent the organization at virtual and in person events and forums, acting as an R4D and MSP spokesperson with stakeholders.
• Oversee development of insightful and engaging thought pieces (e.g., articles, blogs, conference presentations) that can bring attention to R4D and MSP’s work globally from key stakeholders such as key funders and audiences we aim to influence with our work.

Provide day to day thought and technical leadership

• Provide leadership in the design and execution of current and anticipated programs and initiatives, particularly related to RMNCH.
• For Tanzania MSP portfolio, lead the structuring of analytical problems and the development of technical qualitative and quantitative analytical methodologies and products, including through coaching team members on analytics, presentation, and influencing our audience.
• Identify new technical work that could be undertaken in market shaping projects and identifies synergies across projects, geographies, and practice areas within R4D.
• Draw insights from analyses and lead development of high quality and actionable government, donor and partner-facing documents.
• Identify creative ways to expand current work in Tanzania and MSP and other areas and effectively lead development of relevant outputs and deliverables.

Effectively manage high-impact teams and projects

• Provide day-to-day management of current projects, ensuring effective execution of all programmatic workstreams, including developing market shaping strategies and catalytic implementation approaches in Tanzania to achieve maximum impact in a sustainable way.
• Develop project work plans and ensure timely execution of activities, including proactively and creatively managing problems that arise and anticipating ways to avoid them.
• Manages and monitors project budgets, routinely updates forecasts, and works with the appropriate team members to prepare budge sections of annual reports or proposals.
• Supervise a small team of MSP staff and ensure professional development within the team by providing direction, input and coaching to direct reports and team members in Tanzania. When necessary, leads recruiting for new roles.
• Contribute to the continued evolution of a positive and collaborative team culture.
• Serve as a member of the MSP Leadership Team.

Thought leadership and Entrepreneurship

• Lead the development of thought leadership products—including insights, briefs, and external presentations—to strengthen visibility and credibility in the sector and in Tanzania
• Develops and maintains relationships with potential funders and partners, including country government counterparts to elicit and effectively articulate priority government needs that can then be translated to future opportunities.
• Identifies opportunities to work across different R4D practice areas to support program creation efforts and position R4D’s capes in response to country needs.
• Ensure strategic alignment of programs with the R4D and MSP’s respective strategies.
• Apply an entrepreneurial mindset to expand R4D’s impact, particularly in Tanzania—surfacing new opportunities, designing innovative approaches, and fostering partnerships that strengthen our work and enhance the team’s impact.

You’re a great fit if you are:

• Genuinely passionate about market-based approaches to drive sustainable health impact
• A strong communicator with excellent interpersonal skills, able to vary one’s style based on the audience and distill complex concepts into clear messaging
• Energized by managing and executing on complex projects in global contexts, specifically in low- and middle-income countries
• Highly analytical, and a structured and creative problem solver
• Entrepreneurial and proactive, with a track record of leading initiatives, cultivating relationships, and advancing business development efforts
• A culturally sensitive relationship manager who is enthusiastic about supporting team members’ professional growth
• Collaborative, approachable, and invested in enabling a positive working environment
• Willing to travel domestically and internationally, per project need

Qualifications: The ideal candidate will have excellent interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills, possess a strong work ethic and a ‘can-do’ attitude. They will be expected to successfully manage competing priorities and deadlines in a fast-paced environment while still overseeing technical project work and coaching and mentoring colleagues.

• Minimum 9 years of relevant experience, including 5+ years in a leadership role. Master’s or advanced degree in international development, public health, or a related field is preferred.
• Preference is given to candidates with experience conducting market analysis, developing product introduction/scale-up strategies, and/or expanding access to healthcare, specifically in low- and middle-income countries.
• Prior experience working in the RMNCH space is strongly preferred.
• Exceptionally detail-oriented, excellent judgment, and ability to deliver high-quality results within tight timeframes
• Proven experience in partnership development and business development
• Demonstrated success in managing complex, multi-stakeholder projects over + $1M. Strong financial management skills, including budgeting and donor reporting, is an advantage.
• Demonstrated experience leading the development of high-quality analysis from conceptualization to completion and leveraging that analysis to drive action by decision-makers for ultimate impact
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including demonstrated ability to develop and deliver compelling presentations
• Experience managing teams across multiple workstreams and enthusiastic about supporting direct reports’ professional growth
• Ability to think strategically, handle ambiguity and work in a fast-paced, open-structure, multicultural environment
• Track record of building trust, forging partnerships, and conducting advocacy across a variety of actors in multicultural environments.
• Significant experience working in Tanzania strongly preferred.
• Fluency in Kiswahili is a plus.

About the Organization

Results for Development (R4D) is a leading non-profit global development partner. We collaborate with change agents around the world — government officials, civil society leaders and social innovators — to create strong systems that support healthy, educated people. We help our partners move from knowing their goal to knowing how to reach it. We combine global expertise in health, education and nutrition with analytic rigor, practical support for decision-making and implementation and access to peer problem-solving networks. Together with our partners, we build self-sustaining systems that serve everyone and deliver lasting results. Then we share what we learn so others can achieve results for development, too. 

We have a unique and vibrant culture at R4D, and we want to keep it that way. Diversity, equity and inclusion are at the heart of our work environment and help advance our mission. Diversity—of ideas, identities, perspectives and backgrounds—is vital to who we are and what we do. We seek people who embrace these values and will help reinforce them. Our work culture is collaborative, creative, and entrepreneurial. We operate based on trust and respect. Teams across the organization frequently collaborate on programmatic work and support each other in continuously building a better R4D.