Country Program Manager- Guinea

The Country Program Manager will oversee daily supervision and management and serve as the lead for Jhpiego’s program team in the country, including planning and implementing activities for Jhpiego’s office in Guinea. The Country Program Manager will ensure the quality and effectiveness of technical and programmatic implementation of current projects, work closely with finance and administration staff to maintain integrity in all financial operations, and ensure proper reporting and documentation. The Country Program Manager will also represent Jhpiego in-country, with support from international teams and in compliance with Jhpiego’s technical approaches and operational policies. When needed, the Country Program Manager will also support identifying and developing new project opportunities.

Strategic Leadership

• Implement the country strategy and ensure programmatic and financial integrity of Jhpiego’s efforts in country 
• Participate actively in senior management team
• Develop and maintain outstanding working relationships with donors and potential donors, MOH, relevant Government departments, county governments, national and international implementing partners, and others who can help in Jhpiego’s efforts to strengthen support to the country
• Ensure that all Jhpiego activities are in line with country priorities, and include substantial engagement of national partner

Strategic Growth and Partnerships

• Work with the SMT to develop and implement a country specific positioning/communication plan in line with global and country strategy, and ensure that achievements from donor projects are communicated externall
• Support application to funding opportunities for Jhpiego Guinea
• Provide strong representation of Jhpiego at public facing events – including preparing and delivering high quality presentations at national fora
• Develop and maintain outstanding working relationships with MOH, relevant Government departments, local governments, national and international implementing partners, and others who can help in Jhpiego’s efforts to strengthen support to the country

Technical and Program Quality Assurance

• Mentor/coach Project team to ensure they are delivering quality projects
• Ensure that all projects in country are adhering to technical and programmatic standards
• Ensure projects are started up and closed out successfully according to donor and Jhpiego guidelines.
• Ensure that annual workplans are high quality and meet donor and Jhpiego guidelines.
• Monitor all projects for completion of deliverables on time, scope and budget.
• Work with global GPTE technical teams to assess technical quality of programs
• Alert Country team of any technical or programmatic issues

Financial and Management Compliance

• In coordination with the Finance Team ensure that Projects are monitoring their financial expenses according to the workplan and in line with Jhpiego policies and SOPs, and donor and national requirements.
• Serve as bank signatory as needed
• Respond to all requests from compliance team and alert them as soon as possible to any potential incident

Human Resource Management

• Supervise and participate with the HR team in HR management decisions
• Provide coaching/mentoring/professional development opportunities for project staff.
• Create a team environment where staff can thrive and complete their objectives

Supervision

• Provides coaching, guidance and mentorship to direct report(s) where needed
• Sets targets and objectives for assigned area and delivers results
• Grows team expertise to align with program and organizational direction while continually looking for ways to provide / enhance the value delivered
• Tracks, monitors and effectively addresses and / or rewards performance of team members
• Manages employees in compliance with all HR policies, procedures, guidelines
• Shares knowledge, information, skills and subject matter expertise among the team and ensures the timely communication of issues while encouraging good working relationships with other functions / teams
• Recruits for all hires to ensure a highly diverse, qualified workforce with the necessary capabilities needed to achieve goals

Required Education:

Advanced degree in public health, health economics, business or a related field

Required minimum experience:

8-9 years’ experience successfully managing/having key position for large, multi-year health sector development projects that have implemented activities in RMNCH, PMTCT (control and elimination of HIV), and/or health systems strengthening in Guinea 

Fluent in French and English

Knowledge and Skills: 

• Project management:  Demonstrated ability to manage donor funded public health projects and budgets on time and scope. Experience developing/working in successful, replicable and sustainable projects in Guinea
• Risk Management: Experience implementing risk matrices and managing ongoing risk
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Strong understanding of MERL concepts, ability to work with MERL team to track indicators and identify and adapting best practices to specific project contexts
• HR: Proven track record in successfully managing recruitment, professional development, and managing HR issues.
• Coaching/mentoring skills: Technical skills to coach, mentor and develop technical capacity in program and technical staff
• Compliance: Understanding of different donor’s regulations and reporting requirements, knowledge of local laws related to HR and finance, and experience ensuring a compliant workplace and how to deal with incidents.
• Communications: Fluent in written and spoken French and English. Ability to prepare and deliver high level presentations and reports
• Technical knowledge in maternal child health and Guinea health care system

Competences 

• Strategic thinking: Ability to develop a country strategy with objectives and key results and engage the project team to implement and monitor the strategy effectively.
• Problem solving: Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Proven ability to work in a complex environment charged with multiple tasks, short deadlines and intense pressure to perform
• Partnerships: Experience working within the Guinea health system and the devolved system of government. Demonstrated ability to build capacity and collaboration between governmental and non-governmental partners and other project implementers and with donors.
• External Communications: Ability to distil main messages from projects and communicate clearly and succinctly to stakeholders.
• Team leader: Proven experience in leading highly skilled and qualified staff (evidence of leading a technical and program team of more than 20 staff),