The Project Lead, Immunization Program will be a key team member within the Health Unit's growing Primary Health Care Global Practice Area. The Project Lead will serve as the overall manager of the donor-funded immunization project, responsible for technical, strategic, and operational leadership across Niger and Chad. The Project Lead will oversee a small team and manage all aspects of the project, ensuring high-quality technical approaches, cost-effective implementation, cross-country learning, robust monitoring, and strong partnership with the donor and sector stakeholders.
Reporting to the Regional Health Lead, West & Central Africa, the Project Lead will supervise the MEAL Advisor and the Finance Officer. The Project Lead will collaborate closely with the country program DDPs, Health and Immunization Coordinators and teams, Global Practice Lead for Primary Health Care, Immunization Lead, , regional Health Technical Advisors, and external technical support partners.
The Project Lead's primary responsibilities include: ensuring timely and high-quality implementation of project activities; facilitating cross-country learning and adaptation; managing donor and partner relationships; overseeing project MEAL and financial accountability (in partnership with the MEAL Advisor and Finance Officer); and ensuring integration with IRC's broader Health portfolio and Strategy, as well as the West & Central Africa strategy.
Major Responsibilities:
Project Leadership & Management
- Provide management and strategic leadership for all aspects of the immunization project across Niger and Chad
- Ensure country teams have the tools, guidance, and support needed to effectively implement project activities and ensure donor compliance
- Oversee planning, inception phase design, and progress tracking, backstopping and troubleshooting with country teams on field implementation as required
- Provide oversight of project financial management in partnership with the Finance Officer, ensuring consistency across countries
- Support country teams to produce high-quality and timely financial and narrative reporting to meet donor requirements
- Ensure alignment of country-level implementation with global project objectives, technical standards, and donor expectations
- Ensure coordination and alignment with other strategic project at the country and regional levels
- Continuously identify, assess, and mitigate risks that could affect project implementation, working with country teams to take corrective action
- Cultivate a strong, high-performing team, continuously support their growth and performance, in line with the IRC’s people management and leadership standards.
Technical Quality & Learning
- Provide strategic guidance on immunization best practices with a focus on enhancing cost-effectiveness of interventions
- Ensure consistency of technical standards across country programs, working with Immunization experts at the global and country level and supporting adaptation to local contexts
- Oversee partnerships with any external technical assistance providers and ensure effective coordination between technical partners and country teams
- Collaborate with global implementation partners to integrate global best practices into country-level implementation
- Oversee the development of a robust learning agenda that positions the project for success and scale-up by driving impact, cost-effectiveness, and adaptability
- Support the integration of innovative approaches, including potential use of geospatial technology for targeting and route optimization
MEAL & Evidence Generation
- Oversee the MEAL Advisor to ensure rigorous monitoring of all aspects of the pilot, including coverage surveys and routine monitoring systems, and collaborating closely with country and regional MEAL teams
- Ensure that evidence generated by country programs feeds into cross-country learning and sector-wide dissemination
- Work with the MEAL Advisor to support exchange across the organization, through multi-country learning sessions, peer exchanges, and cross-sectoral collaboration (e.g., with other multi-country projects funded by the same donor).
- Support the MEAL Advisor, Best Use of Resources (BUR) team and country MEAL and Finance staff in cost-effectiveness analyses and adaptive management
Strategic Communications & Project Accountability
- Provide strategic communications and representation at high level internal and external forums
- Represent IRC in quarterly donor meetings, learning forums, and sectoral technical platforms
- Respond to and coordinate requests from donor, regional and global leadership ensuring consistency and transparency across the project
- Contribute to the Health Unit’s learning efforts on innovative approaches to increase immunization coverage in humanitarian settings
Key Working Relationships:
- Position is managed by the Regional Health Lead, West & Central Africa, with a Management in Partnership (MiP) with the Primary Health Care Global Practice Lead (PHC GPL)
- Direct Reports: MEAL Advisor, Finance Officer
Key Internal Relationships:
- Country program teams implementing the immunization project
- Senior Management Team of the hosting country, especially regarding security
- Health Technical Advisors (PHC and nutrition) in the West and Central Africa region
- Global Health Unit MEAL Team and Best Use of Resources (BUR) team
- CRRD Technical Excellence colleagues
Key External Relationships:
- Donor technical and grant management teams
- Third-party technical support providers
- Third-party vendors, including monitoring firms
- Other immunization program implementers
- Ministry of Health counterparts at national and sub-national levels
- Partner organizations implementing complementary health interventions
Desired Experience and Skills:
Education and Experience:
- Advanced degree in Public Health, Epidemiology, Global Health, or related field
- Minimum 10 years of progressively senior experience in health programming, with substantial experience in immunization programs
- Excellent project management skills, including budget management, quality and timely reporting, timeline adherence, risk mitigation, and resource optimization
- Proven leadership in managing multi-country, donor-funded health projects
- Demonstrated experience with demand-side health interventions and community engagement programs; additional experience with conditional cash transfer and/or nutrition programs strongly preferred
- Experience working in fragile and conflict-affected settings required
Skills and Competencies:
- Strong strategic thinking and planning skills, with a track record of adaptive management
- Technical expertise in immunization program design and implementation, including both supply and demand-side interventions
- Demonstrated people management skills, particularly to lead and oversee multi-country, diverse teams, including remotely
- Experience with donor engagement, reporting, and compliance; experience with private philanthropies will be considered and asset
- Strong facilitation and communication skills, with the ability to represent IRC externally
- Ability to work optimally and respectfully on diverse teams and across diverse contexts
- Familiarity with digital tools for health program monitoring (CommCare, PowerBI) desirable
- Excellent interpersonal skills with high level of English and French oral and written skills required
- Dedication to contributing to a positive work environment and commitment to upholding diversity, equality and inclusion principles
- Ability to travel globally up to 30% of the time, occasionally on short notice
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