Careers at The Beginnings Fund

We’re looking for a Program Officer with sharp analytical skills, a passion for public health, and a commitment to impact. You’ll help shape and manage country-level investments that aim to transform maternal and newborn health outcomes by working hand-in-hand with governments, funders, and implementing partners. The Program Manager will work both independently and collaboratively with internal and external partners when needed and have a strong commitment to excellence.

What You’ll Do:

• Co-create and manage transformative health programs with a talented investment team.
• Design, monitor, and evaluate grant investments with rigor and creativity.
• Collaborate across teams to ensure our investments are data-driven and high-impact.
• Conduct due diligence, analyze budgets, and structure grants that deliver real change.
• Conduct data analyses and preparate presentations and reports including input on the Beginnings Fund annual report
• Travel to the field to monitor progress, assess challenges, and adapt strategies.

What You Bring:

• 5–7 years of experience in program design, grantmaking, or global health implementation.
• A business background with strong budgeting experience.
• Advanced degree in Public Health, Global Health, International Relations, or related field. Deep understanding of maternal and newborn health and African health systems.
• Stellar data analysis, Excel, communication, and cross-cultural collaboration skills.
• Comfortable in fast-paced, startup-like environments
• Flexible to travel 30–50% of the time, both locally and internationally; sometimes requires a quick turnaround time.
• Fluency in English with excellent oral and written communication skills

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We’re seeking a Senior Program Officer to lead game-changing investments that strengthen maternal and newborn health systems. You’ll collaborate with the Ministry of Health, NGOs, universities, and global experts to design, launch, and monitor high-impact programs in our focus countries.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and lead country-specific investment plans to scale critical interventions (e.g., point-of-care ultrasound, postpartum hemorrhage bundles, Level 2 newborn care).
• Guide due diligence for grantee partners — NGOs, academic institutions, and associations — ensuring investments are sound and scalable.
• Build coalitions with government, donors, and implementing partners to maximize impact.
• Monitor program performance, guide strategic course corrections, and surface lessons learned.
• Offer expert input on maternal and newborn health innovations, supply chains, data systems, and health workforce capacity.
• Ability to travel up to 50% of the time to partner countries to drive impact from the ground up and sometimes work non-traditional hours.

What You Bring:

• 8–10 years in program design, grantmaking, or implementation — ideally in maternal and newborn health.
• Advanced degree in Public Health, Global Health, International Relations, or related field.
• Experiencing managing grant budget portfolios of $1 million or more.
• Strong understanding of African health systems and multilateral global health architecture.
• Financial acumen and analytical skills, including Excel mastery and M&E knowledge.
• Comfortable in fast-paced, startup-like environments
• Flexible to travel 30–50% of the time, both locally and internationally; sometimes requires a quick turnaround time.
• A collaborative spirit, startup-ready mindset, and eagerness to tackle complexity.
• Fluency in English with exceptional communication skills across cultures.

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As our new Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) Program Officer, you’ll be the numbers-and-insights powerhouse behind our mission. From designing investments to crunching data to evaluating impact, you’ll help us figure out what’s working, what’s not, and how we get even better. You’ll collaborate with grantees, government partners, and internal teams to turn data into action—and action into lives saved.

What You’ll Do:

• Co-designing impactful country investment plans
• Working with evaluation partners to refine our impact model
• Ensuring top-tier data collection and quality with in-country partners
• Writing compelling investment recommendations and frameworks
• Monitoring program effectiveness (yes, including site visits!)
• Analyzing data and producing clear, actionable reports
• Helping evolve grantmaking processes based on real-world insights
• Sharing your wisdom to help shape strategy and organizational learning

What You’ll Bring

• 5–7 years of experience in program design or management, M&E, budgeting and/or grantmaking
• A Master’s degree in Medical Statistics, Epidemiology, Public Health, or a related field
• A sharp eye for data and a passion for storytelling through numbers
• Demonstrated understanding of global health issues related to maternal and newborn health interventions
• Familiarity with global health systems and partnerships, especially in Africa
• A collaborative mindset and excellent communication skills
• Willingness to travel up to 50%, sometimes short notice
• Startup energy, self-drive, and a no-job-too-small attitude
• Fluency in English with excellent oral and written communication skills

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Job Description

What You’ll Do 

• Support development and execution of country specific plans with clear objectives, activities and budgets, including developing, recommending and managing investments as assigned in key partners in line with the overall strategy led by the Program Director. 
• Be the lead representative for Beginnings Fund in one to two countries, leading the consortium of partners alongside the MOH and coordinating partner, supporting governance structures for Beginnings Fund investment plan, and supporting ongoing adaptation to country context and priorities over the four-five-year grant period. 
• Manage and maintain strong relationships with government and provide technical support as needed to advance MOH maternal and newborn health priorities, working with key technical leads and grantee partners.  Support country engagement with EWENE and updates to acceleration plans. 
• Support the MOH to pursue complementary investments, advance donor coordination and alignment on maternal and newborn health participating in TWGs, and liaising with UN agencies, bilateral agencies and other funding and implementing partners to increase funding and scale-up of key interventions. 
• Manage all grant investments in the country investment plan, including identifying issues for the other investment team members leading strategy, finance, and M&E. In partnership with the MOH, program contingency funds to address key challenges which arise during the grant period. 
• Manage processes for grantee reporting and conduct internal reporting reviews including expenditure analysis and budget approval, analysis of interim results, and drive the necessary design change and/or adaptation to quickly course correct and improve programmatic effectiveness and sustainability. 
• Refine and ensure high quality grantmaking processes that strengthen the work and learnings from national, and sub-national implementing partners. Embrace trust-based modes of grantmaking alongside a commitment to building up partner and grantee capacity while generating rigorous data and real-time learning. 
• Serve as a thought partner to the Program Director and Measurement and Evaluation team in driving the impact of the Beginnings Fund, and implement program measurement and evaluation. 
• Explore opportunities for collaboration and partnership to enhance program reach and sustainability. 
• Provide regular updates to the Technical Advisory Group and reports to the Investment Committee on country plan progress. 
• In collaboration with the Program Director, represent the Beginnings Fund with government, donors and grantees, including updating governance structures with key results and organizing site visits for Beginnings Fund donors and staff as needed. 

Qualifications

What You’ll Bring  

• Minimum 8-12 years of experience working in program management, design, grant making, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation 
• Advanced degree in public health, Global Health, International Relations, or related field.  
• Demonstrated understanding of priority maternal and newborn health interventions 
• Experience working with African governments, nongovernmental organizations, multilateral organizations, and other implementing organizations, preferably in maternal and newborn health  
• Familiarity with the Global Health architecture and its operational frameworks including key regional, multilateral and bilateral institutions and financing mechanisms  
• Knowledge of health systems and key players in Beginnings Fund focus countries and maternal and newborn health programming 
• Proven ability to effectively manage complex partnerships, projects, and budgets 
• Exceptional interpersonal and cross-cultural skills and ability to collaborate with external and internal teams of diverse backgrounds 
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. 
• Excited to work in a startup environment and travel locally and internationally as needed (30-50% of the time) 
• Collaborative and team-driven mindset with a strong work ethic and ability to prioritize and multi-task 
• Fluency in English with excellent oral and written communication skills