Senior Program Manager - DRC

About this role

ABOUT VILLAGEREACH
VillageReach transforms health care delivery to reach everyone. We are driven by a vision of a world where each person has the health care needed to thrive. VillageReach’s goal is to reduce inequities in access to quality primary health care for 350 million people by 2030. We work with governments, the private sector, partners and communities to build responsive primary health care systems that deliver health products, information and services to the most under-reached. As a locally driven and globally connected organization, VillageReach has offices in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique and the United States.

This position is being advertised contingent upon award; while the recruitment process will proceed as part of the organizational preparedness, no formal offer will be extended until funding is confirmed.

Summary
The Senior Program Manager will serve as the project manager and award manager to a new potential large grant with a focus on improving immunization coverage in Lomami province in DRC, with components of supply chain, service delivery, data systems, and M&E. The Senior Program Manager will work closely with the Immunization Lead at VillageReach who will serve as the main Program Lead for donor relationship management and technical leadership. They will also work closely with the VillageReach DRC team, along with Global Technical Team, the Research, Evidence & Learning teams, as well as with global, regional, and country partners and donors.

Description
Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties, responsibilities, and activities may change or be assigned at any time.
Project Management and Coordination (50%)

• Coordinate development, regular updating and oversee implementation of an integrated workplan, including deliverables, milestones, responsibilities, dependencies, risks, and decision points across technical workstreams.

• Establish and maintain clear project governance, including terms of reference, meeting cadence, decision-making processes, and action tracking for internal and external coordination bodies.

• Work closely and coordinate with the Immunization Lead who will serve as the Program Lead for donor relationship management, technical leadership, budget management, and decision-making.

• Coordinate with Research, Evaluation and Learning (REL) colleagues to ensure performance data, learning questions, and adaptive-management decisions are regularly reviewed and used to improve implementation.

• Support effective coordination with government counterparts and implementing partners to align activities with provincial and national immunization priorities and avoid duplication with other investments.

• Select, configure, and maintain appropriate project management software and tools; and ensure teams are trained and using these tools consistently.

• Develop, implement and maintain practical knowledge management processes to capture, organize, and share project documentation, technical resources, implementation decisions, lessons learned, and evidence across VillageReach teams and partners. This should include a centralized, accessible project repository with clear file-management standards, version control, templates, and defined responsibilities for updating key materials.

• Coordinate program implementation with DRC country teams.

• Manage grant milestones, ensuring timely and quality execution of all deliverables

• Plan and facilitate a routine cadence of program meetings.

• Ensure synergies and dependencies are being managed across teams

Grant Administration, Budget Management and Compliance (20%)

• Provide strategic technical oversight for the grant and contracts.

• Manage financials (budget and expenditure tracking) and provide technical oversight to the grant and contracts team, including budget management, regular reviews, and reforecasting.

• Prepare donor communications, including reports and preparing for donor meetings.

• Manage grant budget including expense approvals, forecasting as needed, consultant and/or subaward management, and conducting a final review of expenses.

• Ensure timely, accurate, and compliant donor reporting, coordinating inputs across technical, finance, M&E, and country teams and conducting quality assurance before submission.

• Maintain complete and organized grant documentation, including approvals, reports, deliverables, budget revisions, agreements, and key donor correspondence.

• Coordinate with finance and grants & contracts teams to support accurate forecasting, timely invoicing or financial reporting, and proactive resolution of budget variances.

Global Dissemination (20%)

• Coordinate with Communications team for development of briefs, presentations, case studies, webinars, learning events, and other communications products.

• Identify opportunities to share project learning through relevant global, regional, and national immunization and primary health care forums, positioning VillageReach as a thought leader on equitable immunization delivery.

• Liaise with VillageReach communications team to produce communications materials including white papers, blogs, social media, collateral, and talking points.

Support to Immunization Lead and Technical Leadership (10%)

• Serve as a core operational partner to the Immunization Lead, helping to manage incoming requests, priorities, deadlines, and follow-up actions across and in addition to the project.

• Prepare briefing materials, meeting agendas, decision notes, presentations, and other materials to support the Immunization Lead’s engagement with donors, government counterparts, partners, and internal teams.

Competencies:
VillageReach has ten (10) Organizational Competencies that describe how we work together and get things done that are grouped into three strategic areas of Achieving Great Results, Setting Direction and, Bringing Others With you. For a full description, please…