Program Director--Zimbabwe

Job Description

Management Sciences for Health (MSH) saves lives and improves health by helping public and private organizations throughout the world to effectively manage people, medicines, money, and information. Working from more than 35 country offices and our Arlington, Virginia and Cambridge, Massachusetts US headquarters, our staff from more than 74 nations is highly regarded for its technical expertise, integrity, and commitment to making a lasting difference in health. We live our mission to save lives and improve the health of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people by closing the gap between knowledge and action in public health.

MSH is seeking candidates for an upcoming USAID funded program in Zimbabwe to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS on Zimbabwe’s children by enhancing the sustainability of care and support services for OVC. This is to be accomplished by strengthening the capacity of: (1) communities and local service providers to support vulnerable families and children (2) vulnerable households to care for children, and (3) the public sector social service system to support vulnerable families and children, Activities will be routinely monitored and experiences documented and disseminated within Zimbabwe, then region and internationally. This position is contingent upon program award.

OVERALL RESPONSIBILITIES:

The Program Director (PD) is responsible for overseeing all programming, including ensuring the technical quality of services. The PD works with partners to decide on targets, oversees the development and execution community action plans and family case plans, monitors the implementation of plans, works with the COP to facilitate operational capacity building initiatives, directly facilitates technical capacity building, and supports efforts to coordinate with local government and private sector partners. The PD also supports the roll out of national initiatives intended to improve the technical quality of programming for children affected by HIV/AIDS. The PD directs and supervises senior program staff and short and long-term technical assistance for the project.

The Program Director collaborates with the COP and Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist (M&ES) to establish the research operations and oversee research design, implementation, and analysis and, with the M&ES, to ensure that the project maintains close adherence to work plans and meets designated milestones, deliverables, and benchmarks. S/he also provides technical guidance along with the COP to sub-grantees.

QUALIFICATIONS:

1. A Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, or other relevant professional qualification.
2. Seven (7) years’ experience in the field of primary health care with in-depth technical knowledge of implementing HIV/AIDS and/or OVC projects.
3. 3 years’ experience managing donor-funded programs with demonstrated capacity to create and/or maintain complex systems and procedures involving multiple implementation sites, multiple partners and diverse beneficiaries.
4. Demonstrated experience and knowledge in establishing systems and overseeing program start-up under limited time constraints as well as program close-out.
5. Experience working with CSO’s in advocacy training and institutional capacity building.
6. Demonstrated strong analytical, managerial, leadership of senior staff, team building, communications and interpersonal skills.
7. Fluency in written and spoken English required.
8. Strong understanding of interventions in health systems strengthening and/or quality assurance.
9. Demonstrated intermediate computer skills in Microsoft Office Suite applications, including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.

Management Sciences for Health is an equal opportunity employer offering employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, citizenship, physical or mental handicap, or status as a disabled or Vietnam Era veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces.