Water Programs Manager

Main areas of focus: Grants management; partnership management; rural drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH); performance monitoring; international programs; cross-cultural communication.
Location: Remote - U.S. only.
Eligibility: At this time, we are only considering candidates who are eligible to work in the United States without the need of company sponsorship now or in the future.

JOB HIGHLIGHT
You'll manage grant performance and partnerships with implementing organizations who deliver excellent WASH programs around the world.

JOB SUMMARY
As Water Programs Manager, you'll own the grant lifecycle and partnership relationship for a set of global WASH partners. Your core focus is grants management and partner relationship management, building the kind of trusted relationships that make accountability productive rather than punitive. You’ll leverage your experience and technical knowledge of on-the-ground program implementation to support our partners and ensure that effective strategies are being evaluated and utilized while helping to build, adapt and apply a clear performance framework. You will work within an integrated team to coordinate strategies related to these partnerships, drawing on external technical resources and consultants when specialized expertise is needed.

You will report to the Associate Director of Program Partnerships, who is responsible for overall guidance on partnership strategy, portfolio-level budgeting, and final grant approval. You may manage at least one Water Programs Associate or coordinate closely with other Associates on your team to support administrative processes for the partnerships within your purview. You’ll also work closely with members of the Program Finance sub-team to oversee financial management for each partnership as well as representatives of a Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning cross-cutting sub-team. Within this integrated team, you will make sure that charity: water's funds are invested in effective WASH programs and you will manage great partner relationships to enable this work, and you will bring a continuous-improvement mindset to both how we work internally and how the work we fund through implementing partners gets stronger over time

YOU’LL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR…

• Managing the multi-year grant lifecycle for a portfolio of global implementation partners, including soliciting and reviewing grant proposals, approving progress reports, monitoring implementation milestones, and managing project timelines
• Managing program performance against a defined performance framework by setting expectations up front, tracking progress against agreed objectives and indicators, reviewing progress reporting, and monitoring  work through field visits to inform grant and program decisions
• Optimizing partner program implementation through the incorporation of M&E findings and by sharing effective WASH strategies and innovations with partners where relevant
• Regularly identifying opportunities for strengthening technical and operational areas relating to program implementation, which may include management of various external technical consultants as needed
• Building and maintaining strong partner relationships characterized by trust, candor, mutual accountability and a shared commitment to quality by navigating difficult conversations across cultures and languages when needed
• Aiding the execution of portfolio or department goals and special initiatives as needed
• Driving ongoing improvements both internally (our systems, processes, and ways of working) and externally (the quality, sustainability, and cost-effectiveness of the partners’ work), all with the aim of strengthening systems that increase the efficiency, transparency, and impact of our programs over time
• Supporting the team’s AI transition by piloting and adopting AI tools that increase the efficiency, consistency, and quality of partnerships with appropriate human judgement and oversight
• Supporting the identification, vetting, and onboarding of new global WASH partnerships as needed
• Working collaboratively across the organization with each charity: water department to make sure their involvement in our water programs is maximized and efficient
• Working closely with the Associate Director of Program Partnerships as well as other members of the leadership team to establish long-term partnership plans that incorporate lessons from monitoring efforts and M&E data collected for the partnerships you manage
• Managing a Water Programs Associate or coordinating closely with other Associates on your team, guiding them to be successful in their administrative roles and mentoring their growth on the team
• Managing various consultants hired for programmatic evaluations or technical initiatives and then support the interpretation and integration of findings or results into partnership strategies
• Managing requests for information and impact stories from across the organization to share with the organization and greater charity: water community
• Providing program-specific content for customized donor reports and presentations and engaging with donor audiences as needed
• Spending up to 20% of your time traveling to the field

YOU MUST HAVE…

• 5+ years of experience managing a WASH funding portfolio at a grantmaking organization or developing WASH programs in international contexts
• A bachelor degree’s in a related field
• Demonstrated ability to manage partnerships or programs against a defined performance framework, including defining objectives, tracking progress, and supporting action on the results
• Experience engaging external technical resources to compliment in-house capacity
• A desire to manage and develop a team in knowledge and capacity

IT’S AN ADDED PLUS IF YOU HAVE…

• A Master’s degree in a related field, including public health, environmental engineering, or water science
• Managed sustainable rural WASH grant portfolios or partnerships
• Experience capacity-building with international NGO partners, especially in West Africa
• Fluency in French
• Direct international experience implementing WASH programs, including experience with monitoring and evaluation, budget analysis, and data collection platforms

YOU’LL BE SUCCESSFUL IF...
You guide the team
You are skilled at accomplishing things through other people. You can run multiple work streams that extend far beyond your immediate team. You can provide sound guidance for peers, subordinates, and partners, and you know when to bring in external technical expertise rather than going it alone.

You have a proven track record, where it matters 
You have more than five years of direct experience in project management in low and middle-income countries. The water and sanitation sector is nothing new to you.

You’re a great communicator
You can demonstrate effective partner relationship management by ensuring concise communications of needs and requirements. You operate with poise, dignity, and reliability in both your personal and professional worlds.


You’re so organized, it’s embarrassing
When something doesn’t have a place, you make one for it and teach others to keep it that way. You can handle and prioritize multiple projects of various origins at once. You can turn any meeting or email thread into actionable items for multiple people.

You stay on top of it all
You have excellent communication skills, both while speaking and in writing. You have professional candor and you're great at resolving problems quickly and effectively.

You work well with people... no matter how many oceans stand between you
You have experience working across cultures. You're attuned to the inherent hurdles that exist in working across the world to build a program.

You're an avid team player
You're confident in your skills and not afraid to speak your mind, but you know how to put the team first.

TEAM OVERVIEW
The Water Programs team works closely with our local partners, vetting, managing, monitoring the programs we fund, and acquiring the information we need to report back to our donors. They manage tens of millions in donor dollars in over 20 countries (and growing) each year. They are the protectors of our transparency pillar, ensuring our partners continue to meet our sustainability and reporting requirements.

ORGANIZATIONAL OVERVIEW
At charity: water, we believe that water changes everything. We work with local implementing partners to fund sustainable solutions that provide clean and safe drinking water in developing countries. Since 2006, with a diverse team of world-changers and an unstoppable community of supporters, we’ve brought clean water to more than 11 million people worldwide. With the makings of a mid-size tech startup, we’re reinventing charity through endless innovation, contagious passion, beautifully-crafted stories, and a powerful brand that inspires a new kind of generosity.

HIRING TIMELINE
This role was posted on July 9, 2026 and will remain open for approximately 90 days. 

SALARY RANGE
This is an exempt role with a range of $74,000 - $80,000 a year.