Position Title: Program Lead, East Africa
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Type: Fully remote with travel to
in-person meetings and events
Reports to: Dr. Norah Obudho, East
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 gender equality in health leadership through a range
of actions at the individual, institutional, and societal levels. This includes
“Leadership Journeys,” which focus on equipping mid-career women with tools,
strategies, and peer, mentor, and coach support, to successfully use their voice,
expertise, and leadership for impact. We initiate dialogue and partnerships with
senior leaders in health institutions taking steps to prioritize gender
equality. Our work also includes convening global conversations about the
importance of women’s leadership and 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 an East Africa Program Lead to work under the direction of the East
Africa Program Director and in close collaboration with their teammates around
the globe. This position will be responsible for leading the implementation of
the East Africa Leadership Journeys and other training modalities. Through
facilitated discussions, mentoring, coaching, and hands-on exercises, the
Leadership Journey imparts contextualized tools and frameworks to address the
individual, organizational, and societal challenges that women leaders in
health face today. The inaugural East Africa Leadership Journey kicked off in
May 2022 and will scale up to 3 cohorts of 30 women each year by 2025 and up to
4 cohorts a year by 2026. The East Africa Hub will also be taking on additional
training modalities for broader audiences.
The Program Lead is
a self-starter, a self-driven learner, and relishes co-creating with a
cross-cultural team. They must possess strong written and oral communication
skills, have a keen eye for detail, organization, and multi-tasking, and enjoy
building, implementing, and refining complex processes and systems. The Program
Lead should possess a strategic mindset to proactively anticipate opportunities
and challenges for strengthening existing programs and preparing for scale. The
Program Lead should be observant, emotionally intelligent, cross-culturally
competent, possess astute judgment, and exceptional people, project, and
relationship management skills. They bring robust public and/or global health
experience, knowledge, and networks to the position. They value human
connection and are strongly aligned with WomenLift Health's Mission, Vision,
Culture, and Values.
This recruitment is
for 1 full-time (100% FTE) position and will report to the East Africa Program
Director.
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
In collaboration
with the Eastern Africa Hub Team, successfully implement the annual
East-Africa-based Leadership Journeys and other training modalities. This
includes:
·
Key Leadership Journey Operations
·
Lead the end-to-end implementation and scale-up of the year-long
East Africa-based Leadership Journeys and development of other customized
training modalities for broader audiences.
·
Finalize implementation plans including Leadership Journey (LJ)
calendars, work plans, and tracking key milestones.
·
Lead cohort selection, assembly, and onboarding process including
all activities from application launch to onboarding and co-facilitating cohort
orientation.
·
Lead the hub team to finalize the implementation plan and delivery
of 2 in-person residencies per cohort for each year-long Journey – an initial 3
to 4-day in-person “Immersion” residency and a closing 2-day in-person
“Lift-Off” residency. (These in-person residencies will be held in rotating
East African locations that may require travel.)
·
Lead end-to-end implementation of LJ virtual touchpoint’s
including learning touchpoints, mentoring, coaching, JourneyPlus, and PowerUp
Workshops – or any other engagements for broader audiences.
·
Lead the use and maintenance of contextualized tools for managing
and tracking key milestones, deliverables, and budget according to the
established program timeline for the hub.
·
Refine and manage systems to track, support, evaluate, and find
synergies between cohort members’ Leadership
Projects (LPs).
·
Bring relevant public and/or global health knowledge/experience to
leadership project support during office hours; Contribute to the thought
leadership of cohort members by staying up to date with key shifts, priorities,
and trends in the public and global health domain.
·
Moderate and/or facilitate select regional events when needed
(interview panels or events that do not require leadership skills expertise)
·
Lead program monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) efforts
for the East Africa Hub in collaboration with the MEL Lead and partner (BIXAL)
by reviewing, and refining core metrics of the Leadership Journey; Promote the value of MEL with the cohort to ensure completion of all survey instruments and
use findings to strengthen the Leadership Journey overtime.
·
Collaborate with WomenLift Health communications teammates to
develop messaging and materials for Leadership Journeys and other training
modalities.
·
Collaborate closely with communications teammates to amplify the
visibility of women leaders in cohorts by identifying impactful speakers,
stories, and Leadership Projects across cohorts; Contribute to the narrative
that investing in women’s leadership advances health impact through the
development of blogs and other thought pieces.
·
Share learnings and best practices on Leadership Journey
implementation systems with cross-regional teams.
·
Actively contribute to and/or facilitate cross-regional ideation, and brainstorming in the creation of new systems, processes, and modalities for the
LJ.
·
Create and iterate on region-specific best practices for quality
assurance, process improvements, and leveraging technology.
·
Institutional Influence
·
Contribute to the development and implementation of institutional
influence engagements based in East Africa in close partnership with the
Leadership Development Functional team.
·
Strengthen WomenLift Health’s institutional network with the aim
of amplifying visibility opportunities for cohort members and their Leadership
Projects or more.
·
Team and Relationship Management
·
Manage direct reports, support their needs, and strengthen their
contribution by actively training them to take on more ownership and
responsibility for tasks.
·
Build and maintain relationships with Leadership Journey
stakeholders (and recruit as needed) including selection committee members,
facilitators, mentors, coaches, leadership project reviewers, guest speakers,
and core delivery partners.
·
Lead and/or actively contribute to cross-functional learning and
sharing within the region and identify opportunities and challenges to surface
cross-regionally.
·
Intentionally build and maintain relationships with cohort members
from the onset of the Leadership Journey by holding 1:1 office hours and
proactively responding to their needs throughout the Leadership Journey.
·
Create a safe and trusted space for engagement with cohort members
and role model the competencies being developed in the Leadership Journey.
IDEAL CANDIDATE
Education & Experience
(Required):
·
Master’s degree in a related field
·
Minimum 12 years of work experience with at least 5+ years working
in public or global health.
·
Demonstrated track record of program and people management skills
·
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 Health’s Mission, Vision, Culture,
Values, Theory of
Change,
and unique positioning in the field
·
Proven ability to collaborate and co-create within and across
teams, clients, and external stakeholders
·
Excellent spoken and written communication skills in English
·
Depth of experience, maturity, confidence, gravitas, ability to
learn and adapt, and give and receive feedback, befitting a Program Lead
·
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
·
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 ability to manage teams
·
Strong strategic management skills, and forward-thinking ability
Education & Experience
(Preferred):
·
Women’s Leadership, Gender Equality, and/or experience,
particularly in an East African context, is a plus
·
Knowledge of digital & online learning modalities is a plus
·
Additional language preferred, but not required
HOW TO APPLY
Please press Apply Now, 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) a list of three references.
Hiring Statement
WomenLift Health is
a project of the 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, and rewarding and enables each of us
to realize our potential. NVF’s 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 via BDO Kenya, our PEO (Professional
Employer Organization) partner in Kenya. Candidate must live and be
authorized to work in Kenya.