Deputy Director, Adolescents 360 (Deputy Project Director, Multi-Country I) at Population Services International (PSI)

Job ID: 2021-3453
Category: Technical Health Areas
Department: Sexual and Reproductive Health
Reports to: Director, Adolescents 360
Timing: December 2021 / January 2022 start
Travel: Up to 25% travel when COVID restrictions ease (Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, USA, UK)

Overview

• With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, A360, PSI’s flagship adolescent program, has partnered with young people and government health systems to design, pilot and scale adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) interventions which position contraception as a tool to achieving girls’ self-defined goals. In 3½ years of implementation it has supported over half a million adolescent girls adopt modern contraception.
• A360 has now embarked on an ambitious new phase which will focus on making adaptations to support contraceptive continuation, strengthening the enabling environment for ASRH, providing more substantive economic empowerment opportunities for adolescent girls, and embedding A360’s approaches in the government health systems in which we work. Cutting across this will be a comprehensive research and learning agenda designed to advance ASRH evidence and practices.

Job Description

• A360 is seeking a Deputy Director to assume responsibility for the day-to-day operations of A360, including the line management of the two Senior Program Managers, who oversee the global project’s program management and technical units respectively. Global team members are based in Kenya and in the US.
• The Global team coordinates the program, manages the donor relationship, and provides technical assistance to country teams. This individual can be based in Ethiopia, Kenya or Nigeria but must have the right to work in that location; PSI cannot support work visas and is not offering an international package of benefits.

The Deputy Director will:

• Support the Project Director to lead the overall delivery of the project, providing oversight for project implementation and ensuring project deliverables are delivered on time, within budget, and with high technical quality.
• Supervise personnel.
• Ensure the project is aligned with PSI strategic priorities and contributes to PSI's thought leadership objectives.
• Ensures the project operates with minimal financial, contractual, and reputational risk.  Interested? Read on.

Your Contribution
Manage project staffing, roles and responsibilities, and professional development of staff:

• Serve as a member of the A360 leadership team.
• Help foster a high performing and positive team culture.
• Deputize for the A360 Director when required.
• Oversee a team of 10 people and directly line manage the Senior Program Manager (Program Management) and Senior Program Manager (Technical Services).
• Work to ‘connect the dots’ between the program management and technical units so they are not siloed.

Manage project finances, including oversight of the development of budgets, tracking of spending, financial projections, and financial reporting:

• Oversee the work of the program management unit which is responsible for the day-to-day management of the budget and financial reporting.
• Ensure the country teams are being supported by both their country offices and A360’s global support team to manage their budgets effectively.
• Work with country leads and the Senior Program Manager (Program Management) to identify financial, compliance and governance issues and risks and bring recommendations to the Director.

Manage project results, including support and/or oversight to senior country program staff in programmatic, technical, and financial execution of project activities:

• Work to ‘connect the dots’ between individual countries. Help leverage the benefits of being a global program rather than individual country-specific projects.
• Work with country leads and the Senior Program Managers to identify programmatic issues and risks and bring recommendations to the Director.

Oversee project compliance with donor and PSI policies, including for subaward management:

• Oversee the work of the program management unit which is responsible for producing donor deliverables, complying with donor deliverable deadlines, and day-to-day management of sub awards.
• Work with country leads and the Senior Program Managers to identify compliance, governance, and sub-award relationship management issues and risks and bring recommendations to the Director.

Develop strategic approaches and workplans to achieve project deliverables:

• Work with the project’s leadership and the technical unit to develop, evaluate and refine the program strategy.
• Oversee the work planning processes of the Senior Program Managers.

Oversee programmatic reporting and technical deliverables:

• Be responsive to the requests from donors and exercise good judgement when deciding if and how to push back.
• Oversee the Senior Program Manager (Program Management) to produce donor deliverables.
• Review all donor deliverables and ensure they are responsive to the donors’ interests, high quality, technically sound, clear, concise, and timely.
• Oversee the Senior Program Manager (Technical Services) on the development of the technical strategy, knowledge translation strategy, and knowledge products.
• Review all knowledge/learning products and ensure they are tailored to the intended audience, technically sound, clear, and concise.

Relationship building and engagement with donors and internal and external partners. Represent the project at internal and external:

• Support the Director manage the donor relationship, including attending monthly donor calls, quarterly leadership calls and the annual program review and hosting site visits.
• Oversee the management of internal and external partners by the Senior Program Managers.
• Support the Director represent A360 in external fora, including technical working groups and regional / global conferences.
• Oversee the Senior Program Managers relationships with internal partners, including the Quality of Care, Evidence and Insights, and Digital teams.

Contribute to and oversee of communications, thought leadership, and knowledge management:

• Support the Director to identify opportunities for A360 to provide thought leadership, aligned with the program’s purpose and PSI’s global strategy.
• Support the Director to optimize A360’s use of its global advisory panel.
• Keep abreast of the latest literature on ASRH and ensure key learning is shared across the global and country teams.
• Support new business development as appropriate.

What Are We Looking For?
Our ideal candidate will possess:

• Master’s Degree in a related field such as a MPH, MBA, MSc, MHA, MPA, or equivalent.
• At least 8 years of related experience.
• At least 3 years supervisory experience, including remote management of dispersed teams.
• At least 5 years program management for global health projects in low or middle-income countries (LMICs) preferred.
• At least 3 years’ operational experience in the relevant technical field of the project (ASRH, HCD, public sector strengthening).
• At least 2 years’ experience living/working in 2+ LMICs preferred, including in one or more A360 geographies.
• Ability to effectively lead, manage, mentor, and coach teams.
• Strong leadership abilities and skills.
• Authentic, resilient, and emotionally intelligent individual who is calm under pressure.
• Innovative thinking, analytical and problem-solving skills that lead to practical, effective delivery strategies to accomplish project activities, outputs, outcomes, and project impact.
• High levels of organization and personal effectiveness.
• High degree of attention to detail and understanding of what good looks like.
• Strong financial literacy and budget management experience and skills.
• Knowledge of CIFF and BMGF’s strategic interests, ways of working, funding mechanisms, and regulations.
• Excellent skills in English oral and written communications, including proven ability to write and edit donor reports and technical publications.
• Excellent diplomatic skills and proven ability to work effectively with government officials, partners, donors, and stakeholders at high levels.
• A commitment to PSI’s mission and all aspects of its sexual and reproductive health strategy.
• References will be required.
• The successful candidate will be required to pass a background check.

The candidate we hire will embody PSI’s corporate values:

• Measurement:You use hard evidence to make decisions and guide your work. You set clear goalposts in advance and explain clearly if you need to move them.
• Pragmatism: You’ll strive to deliver the best possible result with the resources available. You won’t be paralyzed by a need to make things perfect.
• Honesty:You own your mistakes and are open about your shortcomings – it’s the only way you’ll learn and improve.
• Collaboration:You’ll quickly establish a mental map of whom you can rely on for what, on your team, at headquarters, and in our country offices – if you try to do it all yourself, you won’t succeed.
• Trust:You accept limits to your sphere of control and give colleagues the benefit of the doubt.
• Commitment:You are in it for the long-haul and want to grow with the organization, just like PSI serves its consumers and partners with host-country governments through thick and thin.