State Team Lead at Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

Job Summary:

You will manage programming in Bauchi State for CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP), designing and implementing projects advancing Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) work in serving the poor and vulnerable. Your management skills and knowledge will ensure that the CP delivers high-quality programming and continuously works towards improving the impact of its programming.

The State Team Lead will provide overall leadership, coordination, and management of the CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP) malaria program in Bauchi State. The position will oversee the implementation of malaria prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and surveillance interventions across the 20 LGAs, ensuring alignment with National Malaria Strategic Plan (NMSP) and CGPP program objectives. The State Team Lead will coordinate with the State Ministry of Health, State Malaria Elimination Program, State Primary Health Care Development Agency and Partners to strengthen health systems, improve quality malaria service delivery, and enhance data-driven decision-making.

Roles and Key Responsibilities:

• You will lead technical, budget management, monitoring and reporting activities through most of the project cycle - start-up, implementation and close-out of project activities across the 20 LGAs and supported health facilities to ensure achievement of project targets, in line with CRS program quality principles and standards, donor requirements, and good practices. 
• Provide overall leadership and coordination for the implementation of the CGPP malaria project in Bauchi State.
• Effectively manage talent and supervise. Manage team dynamics and staff well-being. Provide coaching, strategically tailor individual development plans, contribute to the recruitment process of project staff, and complete performance management for direct reports.
• Ensure learning properly accompanies project activities throughout the project cycle. Support accountability through coordinating project evaluation activities following MEAL Policy. Proactively identify issues, report them to inform adjustments to plans and implementation schedules. 
• Foster and strengthen partnerships relevant to the CORE Group Partners Project (CGPP) malaria program in Bauchi State, apply appropriate application of partnership concepts, tools and approaches.
• Determine activities required for ensuring the financial, material and human resources for the quality implementation of the project. Conduct periodic budget reviews and follow-up with partners on timely submission of financial reports to facilitate proper tracking of resource use.
• Coordinate with the State Ministry of Health, State Malaria Elimination Program (SMEP), State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA), and other partners to ensure alignment with state malaria priorities.
• Represent the project in relevant state-level technical working groups, coordination meetings, and stakeholder engagements.
• Identify staff capacity needs and technical assistance needs of partner organizations and contribute to capacity strengthening and required interventions to support quality project implementation. 
• Assist with preparation of trends analysis reports and disseminate results. Review project documentation to ensure project file is complete with all required documentation and is filed per donor requirements.
• Identify implementation challenges and coordinate timely corrective actions to maintain program quality and continuity.
• Oversee implementation of malaria interventions including malaria in pregnancy (IPTp), malaria diagnosis and treatment within IMNCI, and malaria vaccine readiness and introduction.
• Ensure effective implementation of integrated supportive supervision, mentoring, and quality improvement activities in supported health facilities.
• Promote adherence to national malaria guidelines and standards for quality service delivery.
• Oversee project budget implementation and monitor expenditures to ensure efficient use of project resources.
• Ensure compliance with donor and organizational financial policies and procedures.
• Oversee program performance monitoring and ensure timely preparation and submission of programmatic reports.
• Promote the use of routine program data for decision-making in collaboration with the MEAL team and government stakeholders to strengthen data quality and program improvement.
• Support staff capacity development and ensure effective coordination among project team members to achieve project objectives

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Staff supervision experience.
• Experience working with stakeholders at various levels and strengthening community partnerships.
• Experience analyzing data and contributing to evaluation reports.
• Experience using MS Windows and MS Office packages (Excel, Word, PowerPoint).
• Critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills with the ability to make sound judgment.
• Strong relationship management skills and the ability to work effectively with local stakeholders. Representation of abilities.
• Ability to contribute to written reports
• Proactive, results-oriented, and service-oriented
• Attention to details, accuracy and timeliness in executing assigned responsibilities
   

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working with USG-funded malaria programs (PMI, USAID, Global Fund).
• Relevant grant management experience, especially for USG or other public donors, a plus.
• Ability to contribute to the development of technical proposals, a plus.
• Experience supporting malaria in pregnancy, IMNCI, malaria vaccine rollout, or case management programs.
• Experience managing health programs at state or sub-national levels.
• Prior experience working in Bauchi State or similar terrain

Required Languages - English is required. 

Travel - Must be willing and able to travel up to 75 %.

Supervisory Responsibilities: Yes

Key Working Relationships:

Internal: Program Manager, GF Malaria team, Senior Project Officer, Head of Programming, Deputy Country Representative, and Country program operations and finance team.

External: CGPP Secretariat, WHO, UNICEF, SPHCDA, NCDC, SOLINA Health, SMOH, EOC, LGA PHC Team, CGPP CRS CBO Partners, PMI, Malaria, Consortium, NMEP and other IPs.

Basic Qualifications

• Master's degree in public health or related disciplines.
• Minimum of 7–10 years of work experience in project management, ideally in the field of public health program implementation and for an NGO.
• At least 5 years of experience managing donor-funded health programs, preferably malaria programs.
• Demonstrated experience working with government health systems in Nigeria.
• Experience coordinating with national and sub-national Ministry of Health, Development Partners, and Implementing organizations.