Liberia: Program Director

ABOUT LAST MILE HEALTH

Founded by the survivors of Liberia’s civil war, Last Mile Health (LMH) saves lives in the world’s most remote villages. The organization specializes in the development and management of professionalized Community Health Workers who bridge the gap between the health system and remote villages, bringing critical services to the doorsteps of people living in the last mile. LMH’s programs are implemented hand-in-hand with community members, local government officials, national policy makers, and global partners to ensure sustainable impact.

Last Mile Health is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization with offices in Liberia, Boston and New York. For more information, visit www.lastmilehealth.org.

GENERAL POSITION SUMMARY:

The Program Director provides leadership to and oversight of LMH’s programming in the joint effort with the Liberian Ministry of Health (MOH) to deploy primary care services to Liberia’s hardest-to-reach communities via a national network of professionalized community health workers. Reporting to the Country Director, the Program Director supervises and manages LMH’s Program team to provide a full suite of technical and implementation supports to the MOH. The Program Department has three focus areas, including a National Community Health Systems (NCHS) team that supports the Ministry of Health in Monrovia in planning and executing national programs, a Program Quality and Innovation team that leads internal design and quality assurance efforts for all LMH programs, and a Program Implementation team that jointly implements programs in the field alongside the Ministry of Health’s County Health Teams.

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

Program Management and Leadership

• Provide overall leadership and management to LMH program in Liberia, ensuring strategic program direction, managed growth and compliance LMH and donor regulations
• Supervise and coach team leaders on program strategy and vision and providing accountability for quality, impact, and execution of all program team activities.
• Working in collaboration with Director Program Quality, Director of NCHS, Medical Director, and County program managers, ensure that program implementation is managed closely through the rigorous use of structured, updated work plan, spending plan, and approved monitoring & evaluation plan.
• In coordination with the country Director, represent the program to other internal stakeholders, articulating opportunities, priorities, and needs for programmatic success.
• Actively participate in monthly and quarterly program review meeting, Grant Opening and Grant closing review meeting
• Work in close collaboration to Program Team, County Program Managers, and Grants Team to ensure the development of timely, high quality and regulation compliant activity reporting per LMH and donor guidelines.

Strategic Planning & Management

• Develop strong relationships of trust and mutual support with senior MOH leadership, working together to set priorities for remote health, build high-quality health service delivery programs for remote communities, align partners and donors around program priorities, and implement programs in the field
• Monitor program development and determine strategic opportunities, work closely with County Team
• Play an active role in the planning and execution of Liberia program strategies and advocacy strategies
• Provide strategic leadership to the individual program coordinators to identify and develop areas for improvement in program quality and foster synergies between program sectors at the provincial levels
• Work alongside the Country Director and the rest of the program team to coordinate with national- and county-level government partners, NGOs, and other bilateral and multilateral institutions to advance joint LMH-MOH program priorities
• Work with LMH’s Research and Evaluation and Program team alongside our Ministry of Health partners to identify gaps in the quality of remote health service delivery and develop and implement solutions.

Program Quality and Development

• Ensure to provision of appropriate technical assistance to portfolio sectors from within Liberia, from external consultants or partner agencies;
• Play a key role in designing project proposals in conjunction with other Department;
• Ensure program progress and ensure tracking system in place and adequate to the task;
• Provide a leadership and coordinating role on crosscutting programmatic issues and questions for inter- sector program integration and collaboration, engaging at both Monrovia and county
• Provide continuous improvement of primary health care service delivery to remote communities,
• Build the technical and operating capacity of LMH’s Program team, including the field, by setting professional development and learning objectives, and
• Work with the Research and Evaluation team to prioritize critical implementation research

Policies/ Compliance

• Coordinate with Grants Managers and provide support to the P&D,
• With individual Program sector head assume responsibility for executing program activities and achieving contractual deliverables
• Review major compliance issues on grants and contracts within the portfolio sectors.

Staff Development

• Assist in developing job descriptions and recruiting sector staff (national and international);
• Identify staff development opportunities for senior sector staff;
• Work with the other Directors to ensure the appropriate training of current staff and the comprehensive orientation of new staff;
• Ensure that regular, high quality staff performance monitoring and evaluations are conducted for all sector staff.

Liaison Representation

• Develop a sound understanding of the LMH programs to be able to professionally represent the LMH and the LMH interests to implementing partners, the government, and donors’

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

• 10 years of relevant work experience in the private or public sector, with increasing levels of responsibility and leadership
• Professional experience in community health or health workforce management in a public health, health systems strengthening, or private health sector setting
• Experience building and cultivating relationships with government officials and multilateral organizations
• Allocation of budget towards existing programs is fully at the discretion of this role. Rehiring and terminating employees (with support of HR) is a decision that the director is empowered to make.
• Programmatic goal-setting, shifting priorities within programs, and operations within the boundaries of the approved strategic plan are all decisions that this role is responsible for.
• Budget spend decisions up to $1,000 in line with LMH Budget Management Standard Operating Procedures
• Proven experience as a strong leader with an ability to mentor and manage a team for consistently high performance
• Highly motivated, independent, dynamic and entrepreneurial thinker with strong managerial experience and interpersonal skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, and a track record of consensus building and managing relationships with a range of stakeholders across sectors
• Experience with challenges related to living and working in resource-limited setting, and willingness to learn in a
• Culturally diverse work environment
• Excellent diplomacy skills, work ethic, and flexibility
• Ability to demonstrate high performance conceiving, planning, and executing on complex programs in unstructured and demanding environments
• Demonstrated strong problem solving, analytical and quantitative skills, including high level of proficiency in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and internet applications

Reports directly to: Country Director

Location: Monrovia, Liberia (with regular travel to field sites)

Compensation: Salary commensurate with experience

Instructions to apply: Please submit your resume and cover letter on our online application platform at www.lastmilehealth.org/careers