Amref Health Africa in Kenya is the country programme office of Amref Health Africa, Africa’s largest International Health NGO. Reporting to the RMNCAH Technical Director, the Programme Director will provide overall strategic and leadership support for effective programme delivery and sustainable impact, ensuring that the commitments made in the grant are attained and surpassed in line with the organisation’s strategy and goals. This role is designed for a strategic, innovative leader and problem solver who can inspire cross-cultural teams towards a common mission and goal.
Principal Responsibilities
Leadership
- Provide strategic leadership to the programme, articulating a clear vision, and fostering confidence and team spirit among programme staff, partners and stakeholders.
- Actively participate in and/or lead the programme’s governance structures, including the Steering Committee and the Programme Implementation Team (PIT), ensuring effective decision-making and implementation.
- Steward strategic partnerships and relationships.
Programme Management
- Oversee and manage the design, development, and timely programme execution, including setting annual budgets, goals and targets.
- Provide quality assurance and technical oversight to the implementing teams to foster continuous improvement in quality, programmatic and financial performance.
- Ensure programme operational tools such as programme charter, programme reports, M&E frameworks, budgets, and work plans are in place for effective implementation.
- Embed data-driven, adaptive implementation approaches to sustain relevance and facilitate continuous improvement and timely course correction.
- Ensure programme alignment with the funder and Amref’s corporate strategies, policies, operational guidelines, and protocols, as applicable.
Talent Management
- Foster the development of the programme team, line manage direct reports, and build a culture of high performance and resilience in line with Amref’s values of ubuntu, integrity and quality.
- Identify staff development needs and provide coaching and mentorship, as well as link to training and development opportunities, to spur performance.
- Support the building of cross-country and cross-entity effectiveness and efficiencies, making strong operational and strategic linkages for the programme in the organisation.
Evidence and Learning
- Drive the programme's learning agenda, including documentation of promising practices.
- Provide oversight for all donor reports, evaluation reports, and other reports emanating from the programme to ensure timeliness and quality.
- Effectively manage the generation and dissemination of strategic information to staff, partners and stakeholders.
- Establish a conducive environment for learning across the programme's implementing countries and entities.
- Provide thought leadership to advance the health and livelihoods agenda in the region and beyond.
Partnership Management, Advocacy and Networking
- Provide leadership in identifying relevant policy issues and supporting policy advocacy actions and processes.
- Contribute to and facilitate team participation in relevant external technical working groups and committees to inform the health agenda in the region.
- Manage internal and external relations with public and private sector players, including funding partners, implementing partners, and collaborators that are stakeholders in the programme.
Business Development
- Cultivate, maintain and deepen relationships with the funding partner, and partner entities to facilitate programme growth.
- Work closely with the corporate business development team to identify, pursue and secure funding opportunities for leverage and extension of the programme.
Qualifications and Experience
- Master's and professional qualifications in relevant areas such as business administration, public health, or international development.
- A minimum of eight (8) years implementing complex multi-country programmes in health and/or international development, including at least three (03) years in a senior leadership role.
- Demonstrable experience managing multi-layered and socially complex programmes.
- Solid track record of achievement in partnership management and programme delivery.
- Experience working in the programme’s implementation countries (Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia) is highly desirable.
Skills and Competencies
- Strategic Leadership: Ability to rally teams behind ambitious goals and create compelling programme strategies.
- Programme Management: Proven success in overseeing large-scale, multi-year, multi-country, multi-partner programmes.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Skilled in using data and evidence to drive programme performance and sustainable impact.
- Partnership Building: Strong networking skills and experience managing multi-partner governance structures.
- Team Leadership: Ability to inspire, motivate, and guide diverse, geographically dispersed teams.
- Communication: Excellent public speaking and stakeholder engagement skills.
- Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Established experience working with multicultural teams and stakeholders across Africa.
How to Apply
Interested and qualified candidates should apply online through the Amref Kenya application portal on SmartRecruiters. Go to Amref Kenya on jobs.smartrecruiters.com to submit your application by April 27, 2026.
