CHAI is seeking a Regional Manager to work with a set of focus program countries in East Africa and/or Southeast Asia Pacific. There might be other countries in the region that could be added to the Regional Manager’s portfolio. The Regional Manager will work as a member of the CHAI’s global vaccines team and work alongside CHAI’s country teams to help government partners improve national improve immunization programs. The role will be part of a country support team consisting of 2-3 regional managers or country support staff, supporting ~21 CHAI countries.

This role may experience some shifts in the global vaccines team, so the Regional Manager will also need to contribute to making this role successful by providing feedback and adapting the role as needed. 

S/he will be expected to manage strong internal and external relationships at mid-management and higher levels, develop and coach team members on engaging productively and effectively across a global-country matrixed team organization to reach impactful results, work with CHAI’s country and technical teams to implement innovative ideas in sustainable ways to address entrenched issues in the vaccines space, and support the team on developing impactful strategy and fundraising ideas. The Regional Manager will have substantial opportunity to shape CHAI’s approach in developing these programs across focus countries. 

We are seeking a highly motivated individual with outstanding leadership and management skills. The candidate must be able to drive development and implementation of the program with significant autonomy, have deep personal commitment to producing results, and can lead in a dynamic and multi-cultural professional environment.

Overview of in-country responsibilities

Strategy and fundraising of the vaccines program

• Work with relevant countries and global technical staff to develop or update evidence-based and technically sound strategies to improve immunization outcomes in-country and to contribute to advancing the immunization agenda globally
• Inform CHAI’s global vaccines strategy with priority country needs and insights
• Support country teams to shape their vaccines-specific strategies toward areas of ambitious and high impact, comparative advantage, and contribute to pushing the envelope on critical issues in the vaccines space
• Support country teams to identify areas of alignment and to adapt appropriate and powerful global strategies to local contexts
• Support country fundraising and grant development in line with CHAI’s vaccine strategy, model, competing priorities and capabilities, both at country and global level
• Support donor development and fundraising efforts to fund CHAI’s vaccine strategy, donor engagement and diversification, notably with an eye for regional or in-country donors (e.g., BMGF local country office, Gavi Country Program)
• Support country teams to deepen their relationships with relevant donors

In-country planning of effective immunization programs, building on local and cross-country insights, needs, and capabilities

• Support country teams in developing and revising effective priorities, milestones and costed work-plans (at the level of grant, the upcoming year and quarters), and ensure those plans reflect program objectives, funding parameters, CHAI’s programmatic know-how, and synergies across CHAI focus countries
• Plan with country management and global technical managers priorities for and high-level allocation of global team support
• Support the development and revision of multi-year income allocation across all vaccines work and in alignment with program priorities and funding, including working with country teams to determine annual allocations and identify under- or over-spends

 In-country implementation and progress review across entire vaccines program in-country

• Ensure global support to country implementation is effective
  • Work with country program manager, and in conjunction with other relevant global staff, to ensure critical decisions and deliverables reflect the best of CHAI, are taking into account lessons learned from other geographies, global strategies and policies, and are made in the spirit of joint accountability
  • Work with country management to foster effective and collegial collaboration between global and country team members (e.g., regularly monitoring communication and collaboration; promoting good practices and mutual understanding; troubleshooting issues as they arise
• Provide management support for in-country implementation as needed
  • Support country teams to manage implementation of all ongoing immunization programs, including hiring, staffing, or other general management issues
  • Work with country management to strengthen management capacity and programmatic expertise as needed
• Monitor progress against target results and provide troubleshooting support and redirect efforts as needed
  • Organize regular joint reviews of program performance with countries and global leadership
  • Regularly assess progress against targets, identify operational bottlenecks or risks, and work with country and global leadership to strengthen programs as necessary
• Work with country teams to develop strong and timely programmatic and financial updates for donor reporting and engage donors effectively.
• Contribute to sharing insights and lessons learned with other CHAI countries and with global partners

 Overview of transversal responsibilities

 Engagement between global vaccines team, country teams, and other stakeholders

• Streamline communications between global leadership and global staff and country teams, and provide regular updates on opportunities and progress to each
• Engage with relevant partners for the countries in the region (notably WHO and UNICEF regional offices, Gavi regional manager) to foster better collaboration and results in-country

Design and implement the Regional Manager model, in collaboration with global vaccines team

• Provide on-going clarity and gain support for the global vaccine’s country support model, within global team and country teams
• Drive the appropriate allocation and funding of global support to country work on local grants
• Identify improvement opportunities on the role as it is designed and implemented
• Develop and regularly update key processes and tools to support regional managers’ effectiveness

 Leadership role in the vaccines program, as a key member of the global vaccines management team

• Contribute as a member of the global vaccine management team to the effectiveness and collegiality of the team, help identify opportunities and improve CHAI’s vaccines program and team
• Represent CHAI and scope of work externally
• Role model CHAI values and mission

Shape, update, and lead the global vaccines team on implementation of the cross-cutting geographical strategy

• Support and develop the vaccines program geographic strategy to shape the portfolio of countries where CHAI should work on what immunization issues and where & how we should improve our capabilities to maximize our impact

• Bachelor’s degree and at least 6 years of working experience in the private or public sector with increasing levels of responsibility and leadership
• At least 3 years of program management experience with wider portfolio of technical areas or program countries and experience of team management
• Exceptional problem-solving solving skills and analytical capabilities
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, including ability to create persuasive presentations and written reports
• Demonstrated experience managing complex projects involving multiple teams, including priority setting, planning, budgeting, performance review and management; and influencing with limited authority
• Ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, set priorities, and work independently
• Ability to balance and find productive trade-offs between various tensions (personal style, incentives, timeframe)
• Strong interpersonal skills and proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships in a complex and multicultural environment with occasional tensions or conflicts
• High emotional intelligence, patience and thoughtfulness even in high-pressure, stressful situations
• Strong organizational abilities
• Ability to travel, mainly to CHAI focus countries and other global/regional engagements (approximately 35% of the time)

Advantages

• Past experience of working at CHAI
• Prior experience in public health, especially governance, systems strengthening, financing, and /or management of operations at the sub-national level, or similar fast-paced, output-oriented environments
• Prior experience in management consulting
• Strong experience in engaging with government officials and multilateral organizations in developing countries
• Professional proficiency in a second language of a CHAI vaccine program country
• Knowledge of vaccines, health systems strengthening, and/or health financing