Project Director, CMAM ARC Project at International Rescue Committee

About the job
Requisition ID: req22616

Job Title: Project Director, CMAM ARC Project

Sector: Health

Job Description

The CMAM Access, Reach and Cost-effectiveness (ARC) Project

The CMAM ARC project is a strategic, results-based portfolio that will demonstrate how to enhance cost-effectiveness while increasing access and coverage of malnutrition treatment in humanitarian contexts. The project is currently based in five countries to start (Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, the DRC and Somalia), with potential to expand to four more locations across West and East Africa in the first year of the project. Specifically, the project objectives are to:
Increase the coverage of children admitted for malnutrition treatment every year

• Increase geographical access to high quality, simplified and sustainable malnutrition treatment through integration of the health system with a strong community base
• Demonstrate cost-effectiveness of malnutrition treatment that can be replicated and scaled up
• Strengthen the resilience of health services to plan and adequately respond to peaks of malnutrition
• Strengthen the technical expertise and leadership of health and nutrition providers across the project
• Reporting to the Senior Technical Advisor for Nutrition, the Project Director will lead project oversight and manage IRC’s multi-disciplinary project team focused on program design and implementation, research and project management, partnerships within national health systems, and support to country-based project leads.

Responsibilities Include

• Strategic Leadership and Management
• Provide strategic and technical leadership and direction, drive performance and efficiencies, define and enable activities to achieve project goals and objectives;
• Manage project financials and operations to optimize resources through sound budgets, consistent financial tracking, clear workplan priorities and results, timely analysis and response to performance data, and routine reports to internal and external partners;
• Drive overall direction and project delivery to ensure activities are in line with the performance framework and meet all standard operational policies and procedures;
• Identify and agree on course corrections with project leadership to keep long and short-term priorities on track, inclusive of country and regional senior management teams, the project Technical Lead, and the Senior Technical Advisor for Nutrition;
• Represent IRC in all relevant project meetings in close collaboration with IRC donor focal points;
• Deliver day-to-day support to IRC country teams on project implementation, including management, mentorship, operational troubleshooting, representation, and building and maintaining strategic partnerships;
• Lead all aspects of the development of risk mitigation strategies for regional and country-level programming;
• Build and maintain a work environment that promotes teamwork, trust, mutual respect and empowers staff to take responsibility.
• Collaboration with External Stakeholders
• Maintain relationships with external stakeholders, government agencies and partners, while maintaining a high project profile, strong teamwork, and effective collaboration;
• Support donor reporting through formal and informal debriefings, annual and quarterly reports;
• Represent the project and the organization externally as required, to share project achievements and lessons learned;
• Support project communications by leading all aspects of centralized information development and sharing about program achievements and lesson learned, in coordination with the Regions and countries.
• Key Working Relationships
• Position Reports to:the NutritionSenior Technical Advisor in the Health Unit
• Position supervises: the current total team size is 12, with 3 direct reports: theTechnical Lead, the Sr Grants Officer, and the Cost-Effectiveness Specialist. The Techical Lead will supervise the two MEAL Advisors, two Coverage Survey Specialists, two Regional Coverage Coordinators and the Statistician. The Grants Officer will supervise the Finance Manager. The size, structure, and composition of the team may vary over the project period.
• Working Relationships: (Internal)Country senior management teams; country health/nutrition teams; regional leadership; Technical Excellence health and grants management; Best Use of Resources; International Philanthropy & Partnerships; and Delivery at Scale teams. (External) Support cultivation of partnerships with Ministries of Health and civil society partners, and project representation with donor.

Requirements

• Advanced degree (MPH, MSc, MA) from an accredited university in public health, nutrition, international development or a related degree;
• Ten years of proven experience in managerial roles on strategic projects in African countries, including substantial supervisory experience;
• Thinks strategically, with tactical execution;
• Significant experience leading large multi-country projects, preferably related to improving scale and cost-effectiveness through health systems in fragile settings; familiarity with malnutrition treatment strongly preferred;
• Lived experience in West, Central and/or East Africa required;
• Substantial experience leading significant financial awards and subgrantees required;
• Strong ability to develop relations with local counterparts, donors, and other partners;
• Ability to build consensus, influence management decisions, excellent conflict resolution, negotiation and problem-solving skills; experience with adaptive management principles is a plus;
• Proven innovation and success in staff capacity-building and in participatory, flexible, and gender-sensitive programming and implementation;
• Strong communication skills, both oral and written;
• Experience in building and leading a diverse, equal and inclusive team;
• Fluency in English required; proficiency in French.
• Working Environment
• Standard office work environment. Must be willing to travel to IRC country offices and field sites, sometimes in very difficult conditions
• Up to 40% travel may be required
• Job available in these locations: Brussels, Dakar, Nairobi, New York or Washington, D.C.