Senior Project Director

Overview

The AFGHS-Jhpiego project is funded by the U.S. Department of State (DoS) to support the delivery of lifesaving, comprehensive maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) and malaria services across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. The project aims to improve service and data quality, strengthen health-system integration and resilience, facilitate effective transition, and promote local ownership and accountability for sustained health outcomes.

Jhpiego works closely with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, the Reproductive and Child Health Section (RCHS), the National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP), the Zanzibar Malaria Elimination Programme (ZAMEP), and Regional Administration and Local Government (RALG) structures to align implementation with national priorities, strengthen government leadership and locally led implementation, and support sustainable transition and oversight.

Position Summary

The Senior Project Director – AFGHS-Jhpiego Tanzania provides overall strategic leadership, direction, and management for the AFGHS-Jhpiego project in Tanzania and is accountable for achievement of the project’s programmatic, technical, financial, operational, and contractual results across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar. The Senior Project Director ensures that project resources and implementation are aligned across scope, quality, cost, timelines, and approved milestones and payment-linked deliverables, and that interventions are technically sound, evidence-based, responsive to national priorities, and informed by routine performance data and adaptive management. The role has overall accountability for project quality and integrity, compliance with U.S. Department of State (DoS) requirements, Jhpiego policies, and applicable national regulations, and proactive identification and mitigation of programmatic, operational, financial, fiduciary, and compliance risks.

The Senior Project Director serves as the project’s primary senior-level point of contact with DoS and provides leadership for engagement with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, PMO-RALG, NMCP, ZAMEP, and other government, implementing, research, private-sector, civil society, and development partners. The role leads the project’s Senior Management Team to ensure coordinated implementation of comprehensive MNCH and malaria interventions and effective integration across technical, field implementation, monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL), finance, operations, grants, and partnership functions.

The Senior Project Director brings demonstrated technical expertise in either malaria or MNCH and provides senior technical leadership in their area of expertise. The Senior Project Director works in close partnership with the Sustainability and Transition Director, who provides complementary senior technical leadership in the other program area, ensuring strong senior-level technical leadership across both malaria and MNCH while integrating sustainability and transition throughout implementation.

The Senior Project Director provides overall leadership and accountability for the project’s sustainability and transition strategy, ensuring that government leadership, ownership, institutional capacity, and sustainable financing are embedded throughout implementation. The role oversees progressive institutionalization of project-supported interventions within government policies, plans, budgets, workforce, service delivery, data and accountability, and community systems; monitors agreed transition milestones and readiness; and ensures that transition decisions maintain continuity and quality of lifesaving MNCH and malaria services. The Senior Project Director works closely with government counterparts and DoS to progressively shift leadership, implementation, oversight, and accountability to government structures while sustaining project results.

This position will be closed on October 15, 2026.

Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership and Program Direction

• Provide overall strategic, programmatic, technical, operational, and financial leadership to ensure achievement of project goals, objectives, results, milestones, and contractual requirements.
• Lead the project Senior Management Team in establishing priorities, implementation strategies, resource allocations, and management actions required for effective and timely delivery.
• Ensure implementation of technically sound, evidence-based, integrated MNCH and malaria interventions aligned with national policies, strategies, guidelines, and government priorities.
• Ensure project resources are appropriately aligned across scope, quality, cost, timelines, approved work plans, and payment-linked milestones.
• Promote data-driven planning, adaptive management, innovation, and timely course correction across project functions and implementation geographies.
• Make timely strategic and management decisions and resolve implementation bottlenecks that could affect project performance, milestone achievement, service continuity, or sustainability.
• Maintain close coordination with the Country Director and Jhpiego global and home office teams to ensure alignment with country, project, and organizational priorities.

Milestone Achievement, Tracking, Verification, and Payments

• Provide overall accountability for achievement of approved project milestones and payment-linked deliverables, ensuring project activities, technical assistance, resources, budgets, and implementation timelines are deliberately aligned with milestone requirements.
• Establish and oversee an integrated milestone management process that tracks milestone requirements, responsible teams, implementation progress, evidence and documentation, verification, submission, approval, invoicing, and payment.
• Hold technical, field implementation, MERL, finance, and operations leads accountable for their respective contributions to milestone achievement and proactively manage dependencies across teams.
• Lead routine reviews of progress against milestones, identify milestones at risk, and direct timely corrective actions, technical support, management attention, or resource adjustments required to maintain achievement and payment schedules.
• Ensure milestone results are supported by complete, accurate, timely, and verifiable programmatic and financial documentation that meets DoS requirements.
• Oversee coordination among technical, MERL, finance, and program teams to ensure timely preparation and submission of milestone verification packages and associated payment documentation.
• Monitor milestone submissions, verification status, approvals, invoices, payments received, outstanding payments, and implications for project cash flow and implementation.
• Ensure performance, expenditure, timelines, milestone achievement, and payment status are routinely reviewed through project management and performance monitoring mechanisms.

Technical Leadership and Integrated Implementation

• Provide senior technical leadership and strategic guidance in either malaria or MNCH, based on the incumbent’s area of expertise, including engagement with government counterparts, project technical teams, and relevant national technical forums.
• Work in close partnership with the Sustainability and Transition Director to provide complementary senior technical leadership across malaria and MNCH, ensuring both technical areas have strong senior-level oversight.
• Provide overall oversight of technical quality across MNCH, malaria, community health, health systems strengthening, and related project interventions.
• Work closely with Technical Directors and other senior technical leads to ensuring technical approaches are coordinated, integrated, evidence-based, and aligned with national policies, standards, and priorities.
• Ensure technical assistance is responsive to national, regional, council, facility, and community priorities and addresses identified service delivery and health-system performance gaps.
• Ensure technical and field teams receive the technical, operational, financial, and management support required to achieve approved results and milestones.
• Maintain current knowledge of national and global evidence, policies, standards, and emerging practices within the Senior Project Director’s area of technical expertise and ensure relevant evidence is translated into project strategy and implementation.
• Promote integration of project-supported interventions within routine government service delivery, supervision, workforce development, data, planning, budgeting, and accountability systems.
• Ensure scale-up approaches consider government capacity, affordability, institutionalization, transition, and sustainability from the outset.

Government, Donor, and Partner Engagement

• Serve as the primary senior-level project point of contact with DoS on strategic, programmatic, contractual, performance, and routine matters.
• Establish and maintain strong working relationships with the Ministries of Health in Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar, RALG, NMCP, ZAMEP, regional and council authorities, and other relevant government institutions.
• Facilitate effective collaboration with designated government counterparts to ensure project technical assistance and implementation respond to national and subnational priorities.
• Maintain productive relationships with implementing partners, research institutions, civil society organizations, private-sector partners, professional bodies, and other key stakeholders.
• Represent project progress, achievements, challenges, lessons learned, milestone performance, and strategic priorities in high-level government, donor, technical, and partner forums.
• Promote coordination and complementarity among DoS implementing partners and other stakeholders to reduce duplication, leverage resources, address implementation gaps, and support coordinated transition.
• Ensure government counterparts are meaningfully engaged in project planning, implementation, performance review, decision-making, and transition.
• Promote strong partnership principles, mutual accountability, and timely resolution of issues with project partners, sub-recipients, and other collaborating organizations.

Sustainability and Transition

• Provide overall leadership and accountability for development, implementation, and monitoring of the project’s sustainability and transition strategy and associated national and subnational transition plans.
• Work closely with the Sustainability and Transition Director to ensure sustainability and transition are integrated across all technical and operational areas of the project.
• Ensure sustainability and transition are embedded in project planning, budgeting, technical assistance, milestone management, performance monitoring, partnership management, and implementation from the outset.
• Work with government counterparts to assess and address sustainability priorities and barriers across governance, workforce, financing, service delivery, data and accountability, and community ownership.
• Establish and monitor agreed transition milestones, benchmarks, and readiness criteria for progressively shifting project-supported leadership, implementation, technical assistance, supervision, monitoring, and other functions to government structures.
• Ensure project-supported approaches are progressively institutionalized within government policies, plans, budgets, workforce structures, technical guidance, service delivery systems, supervision, data systems, and accountability mechanisms.
• Promote use and strengthening of existing government structures, systems, tools, and processes and minimize creation or continuation of parallel project systems.
• Work with government, finance, and technical teams to identify costs, financing gaps, and opportunities to incorporate priority MNCH and malaria interventions and associated resource requirements into government planning and budgeting.
• Strengthen government and local partner leadership and capacity to increasingly plan, finance, implement, supervise, monitor, and sustain priority interventions.
• Regularly assess transition readiness, progress, and risks and direct corrective actions where institutional, workforce, financing, service delivery, data, or other gaps threaten sustainability.
• Ensure the pace and sequencing of transition are evidence-based and protect continuity, quality, and equitable access to essential MNCH and malaria services.
• Hold project technical and operational leaders accountable for achievement of sustainability and transition milestones within their respective areas.

Performance Management, MERL, Learning, and Reporting

• Ensure robust systems are in place to monitor project performance, service quality, milestone achievement, sustainability, transition, and implementation progress.
• Work closely with MERL leadership to ensure timely availability, quality, analysis, and use of program data for management decision-making and accountability.
• Ensure programmatic and financial data are routinely analyzed and translated into actionable insights for adaptive management and course correction.
• Lead regular project performance and milestone reviews with the Senior Management Team and ensure agreed actions are assigned, tracked, and completed.
• Oversee preparation, quality review, and timely submission of donor reports, milestone documentation, work plans, performance reports, and other required project deliverables.
• Ensure timely, clear, accurate, and evidence-based responses to DoS requests for information.
• Promote documentation and dissemination of achievements, implementation experiences, lessons learned, promising practices, and evidence through reports, presentations, technical products, abstracts, and publications.
• Ensure project learning is used to improve implementation, inform scale-up, strengthen sustainability, and guide transition decisions.

Financial, Operational, and Contractual Management

• Provide overall accountability for programmatic and financial integrity and ensure project resources are appropriately directed toward approved priorities, milestones, and results.
• Work closely with finance and operations leadership to develop, monitor, and adjust project budgets, forecasts, expenditure plans, and resource allocations.
• Ensure budgets and expenditures are aligned with approved work plans, milestone requirements, implementation timelines, and payment-linked deliverables.
• Monitor financial performance, burn rates, pipeline, milestone-linked payments, operational performance, and other key management indicators and direct corrective actions where required.
• Ensure effective management and oversight of sub-awards, subcontracts, partners, consultants, vendors, and other project resources.
• Ensure compliance with DoS contractual requirements, Jhpiego and Johns Hopkins University policies and procedures, and applicable Tanzanian laws and regulations.
• Maintain effective coordination with Jhpiego home office teams on contractual management, funding obligations, approvals, financial management, technical support, and other award requirements.
• Proactively identify, assess, mitigate, and escalate programmatic, operational, financial, fiduciary, compliance, and reputational risks.
• Ensure project systems maintain readiness for donor review, milestone verification, financial review, audit, and other accountability requirements.

Team Leadership and Capacity Strengthening

• Lead, supervise, mentor, and support a high-performing multidisciplinary senior project team and establish clear accountability for performance and results.
• Align technical, field implementation, MERL, finance, operations, grants, and partnership teams around common project priorities, milestones, and transition objectives.
• Establish clear performance expectations and provide regular feedback, coaching, mentorship, and support to direct reports.
• Ensure project leadership and management structures promote effective communication, collaboration, timely decision-making, problem-solving, and accountability.
• Promote a culture of integrity, accountability, inclusion, learning, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Strengthen project, government, and partner leadership and management capacity to support sustained implementation and progressive transition.
• Promote transfer of knowledge, competencies, systems, and responsibilities required for government ownership and sustainability.

Knowledge Sharing, Strategic Growth, and Representation

• Promote effective partnerships and collaboration with government, implementing partners, civil society, research institutions, private sector, and other stakeholders to advance project objectives and sustainability.
• Identify opportunities to leverage complementary resources, partnerships, government investments, and other financing to strengthen MNCH and malaria outcomes and support sustainable transition.
• Represent Jhpiego and the project at relevant national, regional, and international technical, donor, and scientific forums as appropriate.
• Oversee documentation and dissemination of project achievements, success stories, best practices, study findings, abstracts, and publications.
• Contribute to strategic growth, resource mobilization, and business development opportunities aligned with Jhpiego Tanzania priorities.
• Promote knowledge sharing across AFGHS, Jhpiego global technical teams, government counterparts, and other relevant platforms.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree in public health, medicine, nursing, health systems management, public administration, project management, or another relevant advanced degree.
• At least 10–15 years of progressively responsible experience leading and managing large, complex health programs, including substantial experience with U.S. Government-funded programs.
• Demonstrated senior-level technical expertise and substantial programming experience in either malaria or maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) is required, with the ability to provide senior technical leadership and strategic guidance in that area.
• Demonstrated experience designing, implementing, monitoring, and improving large-scale malaria or MNCH programs and translating national and global technical guidance into effective implementation approaches.
• Strong understanding of integrated health programming and demonstrated ability to provide overall leadership across a multidisciplinary portfolio encompassing both malaria and MNCH.
• Demonstrated senior leadership experience in health systems strengthening and large-scale public health programming.
• Demonstrated experience managing complex projects across multiple geographies, including strategic planning, technical oversight, budgeting, financial management, field implementation, MERL, risk management, and reporting.
• Proven experience working with the Government of Tanzania at national and subnational levels, including Ministries of Health, national programs, regional and council authorities, and other government institutions.
• Demonstrated credibility and experience engaging government technical leadership, national programs, technical working groups, senior donor representatives, implementing partners, research institutions, civil society, and private-sector stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience with sustainability, institutionalization, localization, health systems strengthening, and/or transition of donor-supported programs to government leadership.
• Strong understanding of performance-based project management, including management of milestones, payment-linked deliverables, verification requirements, budgets, and implementation timelines.
• Demonstrated ability to analyze programmatic and financial performance, identify risks and implementation bottlenecks, and lead timely corrective action.
• Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary teams and coordinate complex technical, operational, financial, and implementation functions.
• Ability and willingness to travel regularly across Mainland Tanzania and Zanzibar.

Preferred Qualifications

• Fluency in English required; proficiency in Kiswahili strongly preferred.
• Strong leadership, strategic thinking, negotiation, communication, relationship management, and problem-solving skills.
• Professional certification in project management (e.g., PMP or PMD Pro) is desirable.

Jhpiego offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive employee benefits package.

Please apply at www.jhpiego.org/careers

Applicants must submit a single document for upload to include cover letters, resume, and references.

For further information about Jhpiego, visit our website at www.jhpiego.org

Note: The successful candidate selected for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background investigation.

Jhpiego is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer

Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins University affiliate, is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, other legally protected characteristics or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria. Jhpiego promotes Affirmative Action for minorities, women, individuals who are disabled, and veterans.

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