United States of America: Director, Global Initiatives - SPRING

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. Strengthening Partnerships, Results and Innovations in Nutrition (SPRING) is a five-year cooperative agreement funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide state-of-the-art technical support and facilitate country-led, regional, and global programs to improve the nutritional status of women and children. The SPRING implementation team consists of JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (the Prime), Helen Keller International (HKI), The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Save the Children (SC), and The Manoff Group (TMG).

SPRING builds on past USAID investments and its partner expertize to deliver high impact nutrition interventions, such as infant and young child feeding, control of micronutrient deficiencies, and maternal nutrition practices focusing on the first 1,000 days. SPRING is also leading efforts to strengthen the evidence base and to build on, clarify, and strengthen understanding, application and use of the most promising nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions. In support of this, SPRING builds capacity and creates dialogue and evidence through exchange of ideas across stakeholders through a platform for Knowledge Management to share Agriculture/Nutrition related learning. SPRING, as designed, provides an opportunity for USAID bureaus and missions worldwide to invest and access its technical services and resources.

HKI is seeking a Director, Global Initiatives (formerly known as Deputy Project Director) to join the SPRING team.

Scope of the Position

The Director, Global Initiatives/ Deputy Project Director is a key personnel position within the project, responsible for managing SPRING’s core-funded activities, providing strategic direction, and managing SPRING’s four technical teams. This includes responsibility for planning, coordinating, and leading SPRING’s work on anemia, social behavior change communications, agriculture-nutrition linkages, and systems strengthening.

SPRING’s Director, Global Initiatives provides strategic guidance on evidence-based nutrition scale-up and institutionalization activities; supports SPRING’s efforts to scale up country nutrition best practices; increases global support for the use of nutrition best practices by helping to identify and advocate to key multi-lateral and bilateral partners; and is a member of the Project Management Team which is responsible for managing, monitoring, coordinating, and reporting information related to project activities to ensure objectives are achieved on time and within budget.

The Director, Global Initiatives will represent SPRING in the absence of the Project Director, and maintain regular contact with USAID. As a member of the Project Management Team, s/he will be responsible for ensuring strong links between core and mission funded activities, managing and developing global partnerships with key nutrition partners and research agencies, ensuring technical integrity, and contributing to the overall results of SPRING.

Primary Responsibilities

Strategic Direction and Planning

• Responsible for development of SPRING’s strategic direction for global initiatives as represented in the annual core work plans, ensuring alignment with USAID strategic interests, global best practice and SPRING’s technical capabilities.
• Work in close collaboration with Director, Country Initiatives, to ensure coherence between global and country initiatives, and that activities under Global Initiatives align strategically with country priorities and needs.
• Ensure SPRING’s engagement and presence in global forums and networks and ensure that SPRING is well positioned as a global leader in nutrition.

Management, Implementation and Technical Excellence

• Oversee the implementation of all global initiatives activities. Ensure the technical integrity of SPRING core-funded work including quality and timeliness of SPRING’s products and provision of technical assistance.
• Supervise SPRING’s Team leads in Ag Nut, Anemia, SBCC and Systems; linking and connecting work streams among core-funded activities.
• Manage key relationships with partners engaged in SPRING’s core-funded work, to ensure seamless delivery on established commitments.

Learning, sharing and documentation

• Establish regular brown bags and learning events, based on activities identified in the workplan.
• In collaboration with country initiatives team, establish mechanisms for periodically sharing progress in core-funded work plan activities with country staff, USAID and other teams in HQ.
• Work in close coordination with Project Director and SPRING’s Knowledge Management team to
• ensure deliverables are presented in an easily accessible manner and widely disseminated.

Requirements

• Minimum of a Master’s Degree in management, nutrition, public health, social sciences, international development communications or a related field, PhD preferred; and
• A minimum of 10 years’ experience leading, managing and implementing large international projects, specifically with experience in two or more of the following areas: nutrition, food security or agriculture, health systems strengthening, behavior change communication, community development, health policy or management; or equivalent combination of skills and experience.
• Professional experience working across sectors to ensure linkages with multi-sectoral programming and experience interacting with U.S. Government agencies, host country governments, partners and other relevant stakeholders.
• Extensive experience with nutrition program design, planning, implementation, and operations research.
• Demonstrated ability to lead teams and work with colleagues in diverse cultures.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English; fluency in additional developing country language(s) desired.
• Ability to work independently and to manage various projects on a daily basis with minimal supervision.
• Ability to undertake field travel (approximately 20%) sure deliverables are presented in an easily accessible manner and widely disseminated.

Qualified candidates should submit a cover letter and resume to hki.recruitment@hki.org noting the position title in the subject line.