Program Manager

About the Organization

The International Institute for Primary Health Care – Ethiopia (IPHC-E) is a center of excellence and strategic thought partner dedicated to advancing Primary Health Care (PHC), with a particular focus on low- and middle-income countries. Established in 2016, IPHC-E builds on Ethiopia’s long-standing experience in community-based health delivery and innovation to support governments, institutions, and partners across Africa and beyond in achieving Universal Health Coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.

IPHC-E operates at the intersection of policy, systems design, innovation, capacity strengthening, evidence generation, and program implementation. Through its strategic pillars, the Institute provides technical advisory support, incubates scalable innovations, strengthens learning systems, generates implementation evidence, and supports the design of resilient PHC systems in partnership with ministries, professional associations, universities, and development partners.

Job Summary

The Program Manager will serve as IPHC-E’s prime national coordination lead for successful implementation of the Beginnings Fund–supported MNH program. The role will provide strategic, operational, and partner-coordination leadership across HRH, service delivery, commodities, infrastructure, and monitoring and evaluation, ensuring that implementation is aligned with national priorities, donor requirements, IPHC-E systems, and measurable program results.

Key Responsibilities

Program Leadership and Integrated Implementation Management

• Lead operational planning, implementation, and routine management of the integrated country investment across all implementation regions, woredas, facilities, and program workstreams.
• Maintain a consolidated national implementation workplan, milestone tracker, partner action matrix, and program dashboard to support timely decision-making and performance management.
• Ensure that program activities are implemented in accordance with approved workplans, budgets, donor requirements, and national policies and guidelines.
• Serve as the prime national coordination focal point for the integrated country investment, ensuring coherence across HRH, service delivery, commodities, infrastructure, and monitoring and evaluation workstreams.
• Identify implementation bottlenecks, escalate critical risks, and coordinate timely corrective actions with relevant stakeholders.

Partner, Consortium, and Stakeholder Coordination

• Coordinate program implementation with the Ministry of Health, Regional Health Bureaus, ESOG, EPS, universities, EPSS, SLL360, CHAI, donor representatives, and other relevant technical and implementation partners.
• Convene and facilitate regular national and regional coordination meetings, document decisions, track action points, and ensure follow-through across partner institutions.
• Promote alignment among technical, operational, financial, infrastructure, supply chain, and monitoring functions to ensure a coherent and integrated implementation approach.
• Represent the program in relevant technical, coordination, and review forums as delegated by IPHC-E leadership.

Technical Quality and Workstream Oversight

• Oversee timely development, review, approval, and implementation of key technical deliverables across HRH, service delivery, commodities, infrastructure, and monitoring and evaluation workstreams.
• Ensure that maternal and newborn health interventions are implemented with technical rigor and in alignment with national standards and evidence-based practice.
• Coordinate technical inputs from subject matter experts, professional associations, universities, government counterparts, EPSS, SLL360, CHAI, and other designated partners.
• Ensure that infrastructure, commodity, workforce, and service delivery inputs are sequenced and coordinated so that facilities are ready to deliver quality maternal and newborn health services.
• Support documentation and dissemination of lessons learned, implementation insights, promising practices, and program achievements.

Monitoring, Evaluation, Learning, Accountability, and Reporting

• Work closely with the MEL team and implementing partners to ensure that indicators, data collection systems, reporting tools, dashboards, and learning processes are functional and consistently used across all workstreams.
• Review implementation data and progress reports to identify performance trends, gaps, risks, and opportunities for adaptive management.
• Coordinate the preparation of high-quality donor reports, management updates, technical briefs, executive summaries, and presentations for IPHC-E leadership, government counterparts, partners, and external audiences.
• Support routine review meetings, learning sessions, and evidence-informed decision-making at national and regional levels.

Financial, Compliance, and Risk Management

• Monitor program budget execution in collaboration with finance and operations teams, ensuring appropriate use of resources and timely financial forecasting.
• Support management of sub-grant agreements, milestone-based disbursements, partner performance reviews, and compliance documentation.
• Maintain an updated program risk register and coordinate mitigation measures for operational, technical, financial, and contextual risks.
• Ensure that program implementation complies with applicable donor requirements, institutional policies, and government regulations.

Required Qualifications

• Master’s degree or higher in Public Health, Global Health, Health Systems Management, Health Policy, Project Management, or a related field.
• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience managing large-scale, multi-partner health programs, preferably in maternal and newborn health, primary health care, or health systems strengthening.
• Demonstrated experience managing donor-funded programs, including work planning, budgeting, reporting, compliance, and performance monitoring.
• Strong experience coordinating national or consortium-based programs involving government institutions, professional associations, development partners, supply chain actors, infrastructure partners, and regional implementation structures.
• Sound understanding of Ethiopia’s health system, maternal and newborn health priorities, PHC reform agenda, health workforce challenges, commodity systems, infrastructure constraints, and public sector implementation environment.
• Proven experience in monitoring, evaluation, learning, data use, and preparation of high-quality donor and management reports.
• Experience leading complex coordination platforms, resolving implementation bottlenecks, and translating partner inputs into actionable national and regional implementation plans.

Required Skills and Competencies

• Strategic leadership, sound judgment, and the ability to manage complex national implementation environments involving multiple institutions and workstreams.
• Strong project management, planning, prioritization, and organizational skills.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement, facilitation, negotiation, convening, and relationship-management skills.
• Strong analytical skills, including the ability to interpret program data and translate findings into practical management actions.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including preparation of donor reports, executive updates, presentations, policy briefs, and partner coordination records.
• Ability to build consensus, maintain accountability, and drive follow-through across diverse partners with different mandates and implementation responsibilities.
• Ability to work under pressure, manage competing priorities, and maintain attention to detail.
• High standards of integrity, accountability, professionalism, and respect for institutional and partner protocols.
• Willingness and ability to travel frequently to program regions and implementation sites.
• Communication
• Problem solving

How to Apply

Interested and qualified applicants are invited to submit their applications within 5 days from the date of announcement. Applications must be submitted only through: hr@iphce.org Applicants should include a current curriculum vitae, a cover letter outlining their suitability for the position, and any additional documents required.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. IPHC-E reserves the right to verify submitted information and to conduct reference checks as part of the selection process.

IPHC-E is an equal employment opportunity employer and is committed to a fair, transparent, inclusive, and merit-based recruitment process. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, age, disability, ethnicity, religion, nationality, marital status, political opinion, or any other status protected by applicable law. Women, persons with disabilities, and qualified candidates from underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.