About the Role
Shining Hope for Communities (SHOFCO) is seeking a deeply technical program strategist and operator for the role of Chief Program Officer. This execution-focused role requires someone who has built their career running complex, multi-sector delivery at scale in Kenya with a strong emphasis on financial discipline and evidence rigor. The CPO will lead program strategy, quality, impact, and monitoring across multiple geographies.
Key Responsibilities
Program Strategy and Delivery
- Lead the strategy and implementation of all programs across all geographies, ensuring consistency, quality, and alignment with SHOFCO's priorities.
- Own delivery against multi-year commitments across various program areas, ensuring accurate results and exceeded targets.
- Resolve delivery bottlenecks, risks, and operational challenges in partnership with the COO.
- Scale the SUN organizing platform into new counties while protecting depth of trust and member ownership.
- Translate community scale into influence, ensuring SUN's 2 million members drive coordinated advocacy.
- Build SHOFCO's policy and government-engagement capability so that programmatic evidence feeds directly into advocacy positions.
Program Quality and Impact
- Establish a culture of continuous improvement across program areas.
- Define and own clear performance metrics tied to multi-year funder commitments.
- Leverage SHOFCO's MEL infrastructure to improve delivery approaches.
- Drive regular performance reviews to identify gaps and implement improvements.
- Ensure that reported results meet the standards for accuracy and credibility that major funders require.
Team Leadership and Management
- Develop and lead a high-performing team of program directors across Education, Gender, WASH, Health, and SUN.
- Build strong leadership capacity and clear accountability at every level.
- Oversee recruitment, onboarding, and retention for a large, multi-site program workforce.
- Foster a culture of ownership, execution, and learning.
Financial Management and Sustainability
- Oversee program budgets across a large portfolio, including flagship programs, in partnership with Finance.
- Maintain financial discipline, identify variances early, and manage resources efficiently.
Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL)
- Own the MEL function to ensure data quality, evidence generation, and accountability.
- Translate data into actionable insights for program design and delivery.
- Strengthen systems for capturing and sharing learning across teams and geographies.
Integration and Coordination
- Deepen coordination across program areas so that the person receiving services experiences SHOFCO as one integrated offer.
- Support integrated, community-centered delivery approaches.
Government Partnership and Funder Reporting
- Maintain strong working relationships with relevant ministries and county authorities.
- Provide the Advancement team with accurate and complete program data to support funder reporting.
Requirements
- Minimum 10 years of senior experience in program management and delivery in East Africa.
- Demonstrated track record managing complex, multi-sector programs at scale across multiple geographies; previous C-suite or equivalent senior leadership experience preferred.
- BA/BSc/HND degree or equivalent.
- Proven ability to manage large program budgets (up to $60M scale).
- Highly proficient in monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL) systems.
- Deep knowledge of Kenya's national and county government structures.
- Experience working in Kenya's informal settlements or underserved rural communities is highly preferred.
- Experience in community organizing, civic mobilization, or community-led service delivery is strongly preferred.
How to Apply
Interested candidates should submit their CV and a cover letter highlighting their experience in the area of specialization to recruitment@shofco.org by June 20, 2026.
