Project Director

Role Overview

The Project Director sets the strategic direction for a complex, donor-funded, multi-country health project and is accountable for turning its commitments into measurable results. Working with country teams, government counterparts, consortium partners and internal specialists, the Director oversees implementation, budgets, performance, risk and learning, with a focus on improving access to selected maternal and newborn health products.

Key Responsibilities

• Set project priorities and implementation approaches, establish clear governance and decision-making processes, and ensure activities reflect each country’s context while advancing equity, sustainability, local ownership and value for money.
• Guide project start-up, country planning and delivery; align implementation plans with agreed outcomes, timelines, resources and quality expectations, and lead corrective action when progress falls off track.
• Represent inSupply Health with donors, government bodies, consortium partners and other senior stakeholders; build productive relationships and clarify partner roles, responsibilities and delivery expectations.
• Oversee project financial and resource management, including budgets, forecasts, expenditure reviews and variance response, in collaboration with Finance and Operations teams.
• Lead and develop geographically dispersed, multidisciplinary teams; set expectations and accountabilities, coach project leaders, and support staff engagement, inclusion, wellbeing and safeguarding.
• Oversee compliance with donor commitments, contracts, applicable laws and organisational policies. Ensure significant risks, audit findings and compliance issues have owners, mitigation plans and timely follow-up.
• Guide monitoring, evaluation, learning and reporting so that dependable evidence informs decisions and adaptation. Track progress in access to selected tracer products, including their on-shelf availability, and promote learning across countries.
• Lead sustainability, scale-up, transition and close-out planning; support government ownership and local capacity, pursue complementary partnerships and financing, and ensure reports, evaluations, handovers and knowledge products are completed to standard.

Requirements & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Project Management, Business Administration, Public Health, Development Studies, International Development, Supply Chain, Economics or a related discipline.
• Master’s degree in a relevant field is mandatory.
• At least 12 years of progressively responsible experience in global health, international development, health systems strengthening, health supply chains or a related area, including substantial senior project or programme leadership.
• Demonstrated accountability for complex, donor-funded, multi-country projects spanning strategy, implementation, budgets, teams, partnerships, compliance and results.
• Experience working with government institutions and public-sector health systems, leading consortium or multi-partner projects, and engaging donors and senior stakeholders.
• Experience managing dispersed, multidisciplinary teams and overseeing workplans, forecasts, budgets, contractual deliverables, risk and performance frameworks.
• Strong understanding of health systems and supply-chain challenges, including issues involving access, financing, procurement, policy, regulation, data and service delivery.
• Experience in monitoring, evaluation, learning, evidence generation and adaptive management. Maternal and newborn health, health products, pharmaceutical or medical supply chains, procurement, or market shaping experience is highly desirable.
• Membership in a relevant professional body, such as PMI or an equivalent association. PMP, PRINCE2 or comparable project or programme management certification is highly desirable; training in monitoring and evaluation, results-based management, risk management or Agile methods is an advantage.
• Demonstrated strengths in strategic and systems thinking, multi-country leadership, government engagement, results management, people leadership, resource stewardship, risk oversight and accountability.