Job Description
Project Overview and Role:
The Director of Maternal and Child Health is a leadership position. As a member of the Integrated Health Services and Systems team the Director of Maternal and Child Health will provide strategic and technical leadership by ensuring that proposals and projects are technically appropriate and methodologically sound, adhering to the latest global standards of care and practice. The Director of Maternal and Child Health will also represent Palladium by participating in technical working groups, committees and other bodies that focus on activities, policies and innovations related to the delivery of maternal and child health services. The Director of Maternal and Child Health must have depth and breadth of technical expertise and experience in the delivery of maternal, neonatal, child, and reproductive health services. In addition, this position requires understanding of international norms and standards of MCH care, quality improvement approaches as well as current trends in service delivery, training and capacity building approaches that are based on scientific evidence.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities:
- Provide technical and programmatic direction by reviewing proposals, project workplans, reports and other documents to ensure that interventions related to the delivery of maternal and child health services are technically appropriate
- Ensure that the programs that are assisted are technically sound, evidence-based, and responsive to the needs of the countries and applicable donors
- Serve as the main technical interface between Palladium external stakeholders as it applies to Maternal and Child Health
- Stay abreast of emerging MNCH evidence, issues, activities and trends across the global MNCH community and seek opportunities to incorporate within Palladium’s programs
- Coordinate with key global partners and leaders in MNCH (e.g., WHO, USAID/GH, UNICEF, UNFPA, etc.)
- Support Palladium projects in complication, adverse incident and death investigations as a result of maternal and child health service delivery
- Serve as expert advisor on complex and precedent-setting maternal and child health programs, including complex and fragile settings
- Provide mentoring and capacity building at the individual and organizational level in specific areas of expertise related to maternal and child health (RH/FP, MNCH, etc.)
- Support other health practice staff and Palladium technical portfolios to develop interventions related to MCH service delivery
- Prepare analyses, recommendations, briefing notes, white papers, and assessments for internal and client use
- Engage in the business development/proposal process by identifying and supporting new opportunities and by contributing to the technical design, writing, and review of new proposals
- Perform other related duties as assigned by their supervisor
Key competencies and professional expertise required:
- Proven clinical and program experience working in the delivery of maternal and child health service delivery programs in Africa, and other low-resource settings
- Comprehensive understanding of the cultural issues and needs that women who are the end users of the service system face, and solutions to meet those needs
- Formal clinical training, practice and background in either maternal, newborn or child health
- Proven experience developing and implementing service delivery protocols, norms and standards
- Ability to develop productive working relationships with counterparts in other agencies and organizations worldwide
- Knowledge of broad USG policy and programmatic context
- Ability to write technical documents for both technical and non-technical audiences
- Ability to coach, train, and mentor teammates from diverse technical and cultural backgrounds in the areas of maternal and newborn health
- Ability to comfortably work with staff remotely
- Excellent analytical, writing, and presentation skills in French and English
- Proven facilitation, teambuilding, and coordination skills
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 30% internationally
- Ability to use the Microsoft Office Suite including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, and the Teams collaborative site
Competencies and professional expertise preferred:
- Published peer-reviewed articles related to maternal child health
- Demonstrated ability to interpret research findings and apply them to the service delivery context
About the Organization
Company Overview:
About Palladium - Palladium is a global leader in the design, development and delivery of Positive Impact – the intentional creation of enduring social and economic value. We work with governments, businesses, and investors to solve the world's most pressing challenges. With a team of more than 3,000 employees operating in 90 plus countries and a global network of over 35,000 experts, we help improve economies, societies and, most importantly, people's lives.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion - We welcome applications from all sections of society and actively encourage diversity to drive innovation, creativity, success and good practice. We positively welcome and seek to ensure we achieve diversity in our workforce; and that all job applicants and employees receive equal and fair treatment regardless of their background or personal characteristics. These include: (but are not limited to) socio-economic background, age, race, gender identity, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, nationality, veteran, marital or Indigenous status.
Should you require any adjustments or accommodations to be made due to a disability or you are a neurodivergent individual or any other circumstance, please email our team at accessibility@thepalladiumgroup.com
Safeguarding - We define Safeguarding as “the preventative action taken by Palladium to protect our people, clients and the communities we work with from harm”. We are committed to ensuring that all children and adults who come into contact with Palladium are treated with respect and are free from abuse. All successful candidates will be subject to an enhanced selection process including safeguarding-focused interviews and a rigorous due diligence process.