Senior Program Manager, Southern Africa

Position Title: Senior Program Manager (SPM), Southern Africa

Location: Major cities in Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe

Type: Fully remote with travel to in-person meetings and events

Reports to: Akhona Tshangela, Southern Africa Director

Hours per week (average): 40 (full time)

Vision and Mission

WomenLift Health envisions a world where diverse, accomplished leaders collectively transform health outcomes. To realize that vision, we seek to expand the power and influence of talented mid-career women in health and engage with senior institutional and societal leaders to catalyze systemic change for gender equality in health leadership. We work in East Africa, India, North America, and Southern Africa and continue to explore outreach to other regions.

Work

Established in 2019, we work to advance equality in health leadership through a range of actions at the individual, institutional, and societal levels. This includes a Leadership Journey, which focuses on equipping mid-career women the tools, along with peer, mentor and coach support, to successfully use their voice, expertise and leadership for impact. It includes pushing conversations and partnerships with senior leaders in health institutions, taking steps to prioritize gender equality. It also includes supporting/convening global conversation about the importance of womens leadership, amplifying the voices of national and global health leaders including at the bi-annual WomenLift Health Conference.

Our Culture and Values

• We are building a diverse, entrepreneurial team of people who bring unique cultural and technical perspectives and experiences. We welcome results-oriented problem-solvers of any nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and disability. We are a growing organization that is committed to building a culture with our partners that values:
• Collaborative leadership that celebrates diverse perspectives and experiences and ensures everyone contributes to their full potential.
• Partnership grounded in humility, respect, empathy, and inclusion.
• Transformative change based upon bold, strategic thinking combined with adaptability and pragmatic action.
• Spirit of learning ensures we are open, forward-looking, constructive, and committed to growing collectively and individually.
• Achieving impact by improving global health and gender equality.

Position Summary

WomenLift Health is seeking a Senior Program Manager (SPM) who will work closely with the Southern Africa Director, Southern Africa Program Coordinator (PC), other members of the globally located WomenLift Health team, and external partners to design, build, and implement WomenLift Healths training modalities for mid-career women leaders in public health based in Southern Africa (Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Lesotho, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe). The Southern Africa hub plans to launch two Leadership Journeys in 2025 each with 30 women for a 12-month duration and may scale up to include additional Journeys in the following years. WomenLifts Leadership Journey, focuses on equipping mid-career women the tools, along with peer, mentor and coach support, to successfully use their voice, expertise and leadership for impact. More details can be found here.

This position will require high-level strategic thinking and strong program and people management skills to ensure effective implementation. They should enjoy building and refining implementation processes and systems and possess a keen eye for detail. The ideal candidate should be able to toggle adeptly between working independently and in a team. Keen observation, emotional intelligence, cross-cultural competence, astute judgment, and proficient management skills are critical to success in this position. They should cherish human connection and relationship building across countries and cultures. They should deeply value WomenLifts mission and vision and feel aligned with the culture and values expressed above.

This recruitment is for 1 full-time (100% FTE) position, with periodic travel, and will report to the Southern Africa Director.

Roles And Responsibilities

In collaboration with Southern Africa Hub Team, successfully implement the annual Southern-Africa based Leadership Journeys and other training modalities. This includes:

Key Journey Operations

• Manage implementation plans including Leadership Journey (LJ) calendars and tracking key milestones.
• Manage cohort selection and on-boarding process including all activities from application launch to onboarding and co-facilitating cohort orientation.
• Manage the implementation plan and manage delivery of 2 in-person residencies per cohort for each year-long Journey an initial 3 to 4 -day in-person Immersion and a closing 2-day Lift-Off. These in-person programs will be held in Southern African locations that may require travel.
• Manage coordination and implementation of LJ virtual touchpoints including learning touchpoints, mentoring, coaching, JourneyPlus, and PowerUp Workshops - or any other engagements for broader audiences.
• Refine and manage systems to track, support, evaluate, and find synergies between cohort members Leadership Projects (LPs).
• Work closely with hub alumnae team to transition cohort members to the alumnae community after completion of the Journey.
• Manage implementation of monitoring and evaluation activities for Leadership Journeys in close coordination with the MEL (Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning) Lead and MEL partner.
• Support communications and design personnel with development of collateral and plan for amplifying cohort members from application to Lift-Off.
• Document and maintain Leadership Journey systems and processes.
• Support the cross-regional operations team in tracking budget expenditures, and reviewing contracts and agreements related to the Southern Africa Leadership Journey.
• Lead and/or actively contribute to cross functional learning and sharing within region and identify topics to surface cross regionally.

Quality Assurance

• Ensure program quality by reviewing and responding to MEL feedback, clear and consistent communication with key Journey stakeholders, and core Journey partners.
• Create and iterate on region-specific best practices for quality assurance, process improvements, and leveraging technology.

Team and Relationship Management

• Actively train direct reports to take more ownership and responsibility for tasks with more independence.
• Manage relationships with key Leadership Journey stakeholders (and recruit, when needed) including selection committee members, facilitators, mentors, coaches, and leadership project reviewers.
• Intentionally build and maintain relationships with cohort members through open and active channels of communication.

Education & Experience (Required)

• Masters degree (related field preferred)
• 10+ years of global public health or gender-equality or social development or human-centric training experience.
• Minimum 5 years of experience in Senior Program Management roles in public or global public health. Training and capacity-building experience in these domains would be given preferential status.
• Demonstrated track record of independently adapting and establishing processes, systems, and tools to implement capacity building programs.

Knowledge, Skills And Abilities (Required)

• Commitment to WomenLift Healths mission, vision, theory of change, and unique positioning in the field.
• Proven ability to collaborate and co-create within teams and with clients and external stakeholders.
• Excellent spoken and written communication skills in English.
• Advanced computer skills and demonstrated experience in using MS office suite including spreadsheets, web-based applications such as email, social media, videoconferencing, program and task management applications, and ease in learning new programs.
• Depth of experience, maturity, confidence, ability to learn and adapt, and give and receive feedback, befitting a Senior Program Manager
• Demonstrated success in following through and successfully completing projects in a timely manner.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Ability to prioritize, multi-task, and assign work to others.
• Ability to take initiative and ownership of projects.
• Ability to routinely and independently exercise sound judgment with minimal supervision.
• Ability to exercise cultural competency and work respectfully with a diverse team across varied cultures, geographies, and time zones.
• Proven experience in managing and building teams.

Education & Experience (Preferred)

• Additional Southern African Languages

How To Apply

Please see career page of WomenLift Health, select the appropriate position, and fill out an application form for the role you are interested in. As part of the application packet, you will be asked to submit a) your resume, b) a cover letter detailing why you are interested and a good fit for the role, and c) list of three references.

Hiring Statement

WomenLift Health is a project of New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public-interest projects and grant-making programs. NVF is committed to attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. NVFs work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.

WomenLift Health intends to hire the selected candidate employment via a PEO (Professional Employer Organization)/host partner in South Africa or other southern African countries. Candidate must live and be authorized to work in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Lesotho, Eswatini, and/or Zimbabwe.