Program Manager, Health Systems Strengthening

  • Mid-level, Full-time staff position
  • Posted on 20 February 2026
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Job Description

Position Overview

CHAI’s Health Systems Strengthening team works with governments to build stronger, more resilient, and more equitable health systems, ensuring that everyone, especially the most vulnerable, can access high-quality primary health care. We support Ministries of Health and Finance to increase and optimize health spending, strengthen national systems (e.g., workforce, digital infrastructure, supply chains), and implement cross-cutting reforms that drive long-term improvements in service delivery and health outcomes. This includes work to improve the efficiency, equity, and impact of health financing systems—from resource mobilization and budgeting to strategic purchasing and public financial management.

In response to growing financial pressures and shifting donor landscapes—including recent U.S. government (USG) funding cuts—CHAI is also leading a high-priority initiative to help countries navigate the risks of declining aid while using this moment as a catalyst for reform. This includes identifying and addressing urgent gaps, improving the efficiency and prioritization of those resources, mobilizing more and better funding, and laying the foundation for more sustainable and integrated systems.

CHAI’s team works side-by-side with government institutions—often embedded within ministries—and partners with other CHAI programs and global technical teams to deliver support that is practical, data-driven, and rooted in country priorities.

The Program Manager will play a central role in coordinating this initiative across countries, working directly with country teams and CHAI’s regional and global experts. Reporting to the Associate Director, Health Systems Efficiencies, the Program Manager will serve as a key interface to country teams, facilitating knowledge sharing, supporting project management, strategy development and fundraising efforts, coordinating among HSS support functions including grant and reporting functions, and ensuring timely monitoring and learning across workstreams.

Responsibilities

Knowledge Management & Communication

  • Synthesize cross-country insights into clear, concise briefs and updates for internal and external stakeholders.
  • Support global communication efforts by preparing program updates, success stories, impact reports, and talking points that highlight CHAI’s impact and lessons learned.
  • Lead knowledge management activities across Health Systems Strengthening cluster including collating cross-country materials, overview documents, and technical materials
  • Maintain shared repositories of tools, templates, case studies, and best practices to enable knowledge sharing and consistent approaches across countries.
  • Facilitate regular cross-country exchanges to surface lessons and best practices.

Monitoring, Evaluation & Learning

  • Lead learning agenda for comprehensive documentation of successes and impact in a subset of high-priority countries and workstreams.
  • Support monitoring and evaluation follow-up, including coordination of country-level progress tracking on a quarterly basis; identifying areas that require additional attention.
  • Support monitoring functions and coordinate with country teams rigorously quantify the impact of efficiencies reforms, including modeling the long-term costs and benefits of policy and system changes.
  • Consolidate updates into monthly progress reports for global leadership and donor communication.
  • Develop tools and templates for consistent data collection and reporting across countries and provide guidance to country teams on quantifying core reporting metrics.

Project Management

  • Track project deliverables, timelines, and milestones across multi-country and global workstreams to ensure timely execution.
  • Support grant management functions such as donor reporting, communication and compliance with funding requirements.
  • Prepare meeting agendas, materials, and follow-ups with teams, donors, and partners.
  • Work with Associate Director, HSS cluster country support team and regional focal points to align technical and operational support to country needs.

Strategic Direction

  • Contribute to the development of CHAI’s strategy on health systems efficiencies and foreign aid transitions by analysing country contexts, identifying cross-cutting priorities, and surfacing high-impact opportunities.
  • Work with Associate Director to make the case for high-impact reform or investment areas and ensure adequate resourcing of this work.
  • Provide structured input into strategic planning processes by synthesizing evidence, lessons, and insights from country teams into clear recommendations.
  • Help translate global priorities into actionable country-level plans, ensuring alignment between country needs and CHAI’s broader strategic direction.
  • Serve as a primary liaison for foreign aid cut work to CHAI country teams, working with the country support team as needed to support communication, coordination, analytical deep dives, and troubleshooting across multiple geographies.

Fundraising & Donor Engagement

  • Develop high quality donor-facing materials, including concept notes, one-pagers, presentations, talking points, and updates.
  • Work with HSS support functions to compile inputs across country and global teams for donor and partner engagements.
  • Support preparation and follow-up for donor meetings, including agendas, briefing notes, and action tracking.
  • Synthesize program updates and lessons learned into clear communications that strengthen CHAI’s positioning with partners.
Qualifications
  • At least 5–7 years of professional experience in global health, health systems strengthening, or international development.
  • Exceptional diplomatic and interpersonal skills, and an ability to humbly manage multicultural, multi-stakeholder engagement to achieve intended results
  • Demonstrated experience managing complex projects across multiple stakeholders, ideally in a multi-country or matrixed organization.
  • Prior experience working directly with country teams or government counterparts in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa or Asia.
  • Experience supporting proposal development, grant applications, or donor engagement.
  • Strong organizational and problem-solving skills; able to manage multiple priorities in fast-paced environments.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills in English, with French preferred

Advantages:

  • Master’s degree in public health, health economics, public policy, or related field.
  • Experience in monitoring, evaluation, or knowledge management.
  • Familiarity with health financing concepts, donor funding mechanisms (e.g., Global Fund, PEPFAR, USAID), or government budgeting processes.
  • Willingness to travel within Sub-Saharan Africa as required.

Disclaimer: Applications will be received until this position is filled

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