Organization: EngenderHealth
Country: United States of America
Closing date: 22 Jun 2015
TITLE Program Portfolio Specialist, Agir PF countries & Ethiopia
PROGRAM Program Management
REPORTS TO Director, Programs & Country Operations Support
LOCATION New York, New York
FLSA STATUS Exempt
UNION AFFILIATION Union
EngenderHealth is a leading global women’s health organization committed to ensuring that every pregnancy is planned, every child is wanted, and every mother has the best chance at survival. In 20 countries around the world, we train health care professionals and partner with governments and communities to make high-quality family planning and sexual and reproductive health services available—today and for generations to come.
JOB SUMMARY:
Under the overall guidance of the Vice-President, Programme Management, and direct supervision of the Director, Programs & Country Support Operations, the Program Portfolio Specialist provides oversight and support to a portfolio of assigned global, regional, and country program activities in assigned countries. The Program Portfolio Specialist will be matrix managed by the Vice-President, Programme Management, for the designated countries under the VP’s purview. S/he is responsible for organizing and directing integrated, cross functional support to a portfolio of country programs, including country program strategy development, annual workplan and budget development and monthly reviews, M&E, contract management, financial management, personnel management, and field office administration.
The Program Portfolio Specialist ensures that EngenderHealth country programs within the assigned portfolio are managed by individuals that have clear performance expectations and that are provided the organizational support they need to achieve them. They ensure quality program design, implementation, and evaluation of the country program portfolio through. This also includes directly supervising interns, as needed, contributing to staff performance reviews and responding to requests for assistance in program and operational areas.
The Program Portfolio Specialist has a certain degree of autonomy and authority for supporting the assigned portfolio of program activities to achieve EngenderHealth’s mission in her/his assigned countries. The number and type of program activities in the portfolio may vary depending on funding availability and programmatic needs
Program Management
- Manage coordination of office openings/closings and project start-ups and close-outs.
- Participate in the development of annual project workplans and budgets and promote strategic communication with donors and partners through overseeing the production of quality program reports (financial and technical). Whenever possible, participate directly in the development of high quality workplans and reports from their inception and coordinate review from relevant NY or regional staff.
- Oversee the development of project sub-agreement monitoring plans and liaise with country CCU and finance staff to ensure relevant data and reports are collected regularly.
- Support regular program portfolio reviews and budget pipeline reviews to monitor actual program activities in comparison with plan and budget, identify challenges with program implementation, and support course corrections as needed.
- Address management, communication and operational challenges to improve organizational practices by coordinating and leading cross-functional team meetings to identify and resolve problems. Ensure follow-up to cross functional teams decisions and actions.
- Provide on-going support to country offices requests in coordination with HQ units;
- Monitor and support adherence to procedures and contractual obligations within the assigned program portfolio including compliance to EngenderHealth’s technical and management SOPs as well as compliance with donor regulations and requirements, including USAID family planning rules and regulations.
- Monitor project spending against allocated budgets, including sub-agreement encumbrances, and assist with coordination between field offices and HQs of the development of annual organizational budgets and reforecasts.
- In coordination with and in support of the country programs identify additional program management and technical backstopping requirements and potential resources to resolve any major programmatic, managerial, and staff development and performance issues.
- Coordinate routine country updates for the program Directors, based on bi-annual portfolio review process, budget pipeline review meetings, and cross-functional team meetings, and provide alerts about any interim opportunities or challenges faced in the portfolio.
- Liaise with other global and country teams as appropriate, in the development of long-term country program strategies, annual work-plans and budgets to ensure consistency with EngenderHealth’s mission, objectives, policies and procedures.
- Retain an overview of all communications from NY programs to the designated portfolio of country programs to promote maximum efficiency and effectiveness in these communications by coordinating and prioritizing messages. Work to minimize the number of vertical demands on country programs by coordinating communication across divisions. In doing so, reduce financial and temporal transaction costs and forge improved communication channels.
- Retain an overview of the most critical operational practices and related messages from NY to ensure they support effective and efficient program delivery – where opportunities for more efficient and effective coordination practices arise, make recommendations to relevant management. Specifically, these operational practices include ensuring support from the CCU, internal audit, finance, and HR for continual program delivery.
- Ensure two-way information flow between country programs and HQ senior management, the global technical leadership unit, the M & E team, Program Development and the Communications and Marketing team among others.
- Provide regular and on-going updates and advice to the Director, Program & Country Operations Support, on progress, constraints and challenges, and make recommendations for action.
Technical Support
- In collaboration with Knowledge Management Team ensure best practices emerging from country programs within the portfolio are shared across the organization.
- In collaboration with country teams assist in identifying technical, financial, contractual, systems and human resource needs and the development of 6 month technical assistance plans to support program activities in the portfolio to achieve objectives/results
- In consultation with the Director, Program & Country Operations Support, and Director, Technical Strategy & Innovation, identify technical assistance needs and ensure coordination of technical support for global, regional and country projects, as appropriate, and foster the exchange of lessons, tools, approaches and information through south to south model of knowledge management.
- Coordinate the review, revision, editing of high quality donor reports, study reports, publications, and workplans and ensure their timely submission.
- Coordinate ME&R support to the program portfolio including the development and implementation of performance management plans (PMP) plans, implementation of data collection processes, design/implement/coordinate evaluations, etc.).
- Coordinate internal content reviews of study proposals and tools conference abstracts, publications, and presentations based on internal M, E, &R and technical/clinical standards and practices.
External Relations and Resource Mobilization
- Coordinate internal content reviews of country communication and marketing materials based on internal communications standards and practices.
- Assist with environmental scans, developing concept papers and budgets, collecting and analysing the data and background information, providing support to the proposal manager, coordinator, technical lead and/or writer; and/or being responsible for technical proposal or specific components of it.
- Assist the Director, Program & Country Operations Support, Country Representatives and Project Directors in representing EngenderHealth on matters related to the program portfolio.
EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE & CERTIFICATIONS:
- Graduate degree in public health or related field.
- At least 5 years’ experience with reproductive health/family planning and international development issues.
- Familiarity with working in USAID- and private foundation-funded contracts or cooperative agreements.
- Experience in matrix structures and coordinating cross-functional teams.
- Experience and demonstrated success in fundraising and managing donor relations and proposal development.
- Experience in developing country and regional strategies.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:
- Knowledge of family planning and reproductive health, including maternal health, HIV, gender issues in general and particularly in region/countries related to their assignment(s).
- Strong management skills including aligning people through clear objectives, priorities and performance metrics and synchronizing activities by defining roles, planning as a team, and establishing coordination processes.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor/coach others, including developing self-management skills.
- Experience in developing PMPs for USAID-funded projects.
- Ability to develop, manage, monitor and evaluate comprehensive programs.
- Strong writing skills.
- Strong analytical skills; ability to conduct secondary analysis of DHS and other data sets.
- Excellent computer skills, with particular knowledge of Excel, PowerPoint and Word in addition to statistical applications (e.g. SPSS, Stata, EpiInfo); experience working with qualitative software packages desirable.
- Experience in managing reproductive health and other health programs in Africa.
- Experience in proposal development
- Exceptional interpersonal and teamwork skills.
- Excellent organizational skills.
- English required and fluency in French desired.
- Ability to travel at least 30% of the time.
How to apply:
Please visit www.engenderhealth.organd submit an application via our Careers page.
EngenderHealth provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment, without regard to race, creed, ancestry, citizenship, religion, color, gender, age, national origin, political belief, sexual orientation, genetic information, status as a victim of domestic violence, marital status, disability or any other protected characteristic or status under applicable federal, state and local laws.
EngenderHealth complies with applicable federal, state and local laws governing non-discrimination in employment in every location in the United States in which the company has facilities. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation, and training.
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