Senior Project Officer at Management Sciences For Health - MSH

The Senior Project Officer works in close collaboration with the Global Fund Malaria Project Director, project staff, and project partners and stakeholders on all aspects of project management and implementation. S/he provides management and financial oversight and participates in the determination of partner and contractor scopes of work and is responsible for day-to-day project management and overall monitoring of project progress against benchmarks. The Senior Project Officer is responsible for ensuring that the project functions efficiently, providing oversight to the project team on all project management issues.

Additionally, s/he assures that all technical activities under the project are implemented in a timely and effective manner. S/he contributes to the design and implementation of technical activities in support of the project’s objectives, ensures timely mobilization of needed high-quality technical support to the project team. S/he liaises with the donor, the in-country Nigerian partner organizations and team members, other MSH technical units, and other partners to ensure that the project team has the required resources to achieve their goals.

Responsibilities

Project Management and Partner and Donor relations

In collaboration with the Project Director and the in-country team, the Senior Project Officer will:

• Engage partners based on an objective assessment of the partners’ ability to meet skill needs that arise during project implementation.
• Oversee, promote, and participate in the project’s quality assurance process
• Work with partners to define specific, quantifiable performance indicators and targets for country programs.
• Ensure timely implementation of workplan activities by prompting and supporting technical colleagues and operations team to develop implementation schedules and following up for implementation
• Assess activity progress to ensure that the partners and local contractors maintain close adherence to work plans and meet designated milestones, deliverables, and benchmarks; and provide technical assistance when needed.
• Coordinate with M& E colleagues, the PR and other grant implementing partners to develop knowledge repository for country learning.
• Facilitate the documentation of programmatic achievements, donor reporting requirements, communication materials, technical reports, and technical reviews.
• Ensure that all technical and operational inputs required for successful implementation of the project are in place, so that the project runs smoothly, adhere to technical quality, fulfill programmatic objectives within budgetary guidelines, and comply with contractual requirements and applicable regulations.
• Monitor program implementation and use of resources.
• Regularly review financial reports with the Director of Finance and the project management team.
• Supports the Project Director as point of contact for donor/PR relationship, including drafting terms of reference for joint trips, contributing to donor strategy documents, and maintain ongoing communications as needed.
• Ensure effective project collaboration, coordination, and partnership with MSH Nigeria Country Operations Support Team and other project teams.ilitate technical collaboration across partners and ensure the technical quality of partner work.
• Keep Senior Management and Project Director informed of project activities, challenges, strategic plans, and team dynamics through scheduled meetings.

Project Technical Support:

In collaboration with the Project Director and the in-country project team , the Senior Project Officer will:

• Identify key demand-side barriers to service and work to develop implementation plan to overcome those barriers.
• Provide technical input on best practices in malaria service delivery in supported states in Nigeria and translate those best practices for program performance improvement and/or replication in other states.
• Lead the development of a detailed implementation plan for submission and approval by the donor/principal recipient.
• Provide support to state teams to develop state specific workplans and monitor the implementation of the workplans.
• Ability to travel domestically as required to support program activities.

Qualifications

• Graduate degree in international development, health economics, or a health-related field required.
• Four years of experience in International Development and Health Systems Strengthening required; experience in implementation of Global Fund Grants is a plus.
• Experience with equity issues as they apply to health service delivery and social determinants of health and development.
• Understanding of supply and demand issues as they apply to health systems strengthening and service delivery; can demonstrate concrete methodologies for assessment
• Familiarity with regulations and administrative procedures in the implementation of donor assisted projects; experience with Global Fund funded projects preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to build and maintain relationships with senior-level colleagues, stakeholders, and donors.
• Demonstrated competence to assess priorities and manage a variety of activities in a time-sensitive environment and meet deadlines with attention to detail and quality.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills in English are essential.
• Ability to analyze and interpret program data and apply data for decision making
• Training, development and facilitation skills.