United States of America: Program Manager, Integrated Neglected Tropical Disease Control (proficiency in English and French)

Established in 1915 with Helen Keller as a founding trustee, Helen Keller International (HKI) is dedicated to saving the sight and lives of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Headquartered in New York City, HKI currently conducts programs in 21 countries in Africa and Asia, as well as in the United States. Renowned for its reliability, efficiency and high level of technical expertise, HKI promotes the development of sustainable, large-scale programs that deliver effective preventative and curative services for nutrition, eye health and neglected tropical diseases. The hallmark of the organization’s work is its proven success in developing, testing and scaling-up health interventions, and integrating them within government and community structures to support and build local capacity and sustainable solutions.

Background

HKI has established itself as a leader in the global efforts to control and eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), namely lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil transmitted helminthes, and trachoma. Currently, HKI is the recipient of funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide technical assistance to the Ministries of Health in their management of National NTD Control Programs in six countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Sierra Leone. Additionally, HKI receives funding from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in Mali and Niger to help these countries reach their trachoma elimination goals.

We are seeking a Program Manager to provide programmatic support to an assigned portfolio within HKI’s Integrated NTD Control project team, which oversees programs across the Africa region and serves as a technical resource in NTDs to the organization.

****Functional Relationships****

Reporting to the Vice President, NTDs, the Program Manager will work closely with all members of the program team including the Technical Advisor, a fellow Program Manager, two Program Finance Managers, and a Program Associate, and will liaise frequently with other HQ, regional, and country office NTD staff, as well as with HKI’s donors and partners.

It should be noted that the Country office colleagues supported by the NTD team report directly to their Country Directors and indirectly to the headquarters program team. In this matrixed structure, everyone must develop and maintain strong relationships and communication protocols to ensure alignment of goals and mutual accountability for country level program implementation.

****Scope of the Position****

The Program Manager’s main responsibilities include programmatic and operational support to the country offices for preparation of work plans, budgets, donor reports, success stories, and day-to-day monitoring and evaluation of program progress against set objectives. The position requires travel to program sites for the purpose of monitoring & evaluation, quality assurance, planning meetings, and trainings.

****Specific Responsibilities****

Program & Technical Support

• Work with the team to develop NTD program plans and monitor progress of country-led NTD programs against stated objectives and program outputs.
• Provide direct support to country offices on the finalization of donor reports, work plans, budgets, and other key program documents.
• Maintain an ongoing dialogue with regional and country offices to assess progress and support timely and quality implementation.
• Provide in-country assistance to ensure program activities, reporting, and budgets are technically and operationally sound.
• Support country offices to apply best practices for conducting specialized evaluations to measure the impact of program activities on various indicators.
• Keep current on recent developments to be able to assist colleagues and country offices in the application of state-of-the-art protocols.
• Develop data quality assessment tools for various NTD program activities.
• Participate in the department’s analysis of experiences across NTD program countries and regional contexts in order to synthesize information and document lessons-learned.
• Work with the development and communication department to assist country offices with the development of proposals, briefs, and success stories to be shared with internal and external audiences.
• Work with individual country and regional offices to determine funding priorities and highlight successes.
• Write own documents for review by team, and act as peer editor for colleagues.
• Train in-country staff and partners on programmatic and operational management of NTD programs and monitoring and evaluation practices. Participate in review of training materials and processes.
• Collaborate with country and regional offices to identify topics and assist in the writing and editing of articles for submission to peer-reviewed publications.

Operational Support

• Collaborate with the team to develop and maintain relationships with donors, partners, internal staff, and consultants to provide quick and accurate program and financial information as needed.
• Ensure the progress of all reports for assigned portfolio is accurately tracked to ensure timely submission of high quality reports to donors.
• Notify country offices of report deadlines; establish a timeline for submission.
• Supervise Associate’s work to receive, review, edit, synthesize information, and coordinate layers of review among all parties.
• Submit reports and manage questions from donors.
• Supervise procurement of medical supplies and provide technical assistance in drug/survey diagnostic tool forecasting to the country offices including: requesting quotes, placing orders, arranging for payment and shipment, and documenting the process. Take a proactive role in establishing procurement needs and timelines with country office staff.
• Ensure that internal shared files and the Project Database is fully up-to-date at all times.
• Review budgets for consistency with work plans; prepare and/or finalize budget narratives for annual program budgets and proposals.

Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in public health plus at least 6-8 years directly relevant work experience; or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Demonstrated experience in quantitative/qualitative analysis, program monitoring and evaluation, and creating and monitoring budgets and knowledge of financial processes.
• Experience working overseas and in NTD program implementation is required; knowledge of the Africa region and of USAID rules and regulations is strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated understanding of the synergy between the programmatic, operational, and financial components of public health initiatives.
• Oral and written proficiency in English and French is required.
• Ability and willingness to work under pressure with a positive attitude, as a part of a global team.
• Ability to communicate effectively across cultures including:
• asking for information in a way that is very clear and specific
• conducting one-on-one and group trainings for field office staff and in-country partners that will be well-received
• interacting with internal and external colleagues
• Ability to prioritize workload, assume responsibility for work, and follow through to completion.
• Ability to perform duties that require very close attention to detail and synthesize large amounts of information simultaneously.
• Highly computer literate with knowledge of Microsoft software products, including strong Excel skills, required; use of data analysis software such as STATA, SAS, SPSS, and/or EpiInfo is preferred.
• Ability to undertake US domestic and international travel (approximately 10-12 weeks or more of travel per year).
• Residence in or willingness to relocate to the NY metro area.

Qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and resume to HKI.Recruitment@hki.org noting the job title in the subject line. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.