Program Director

THE ORGANIZATION

The Water Trust empowers the poorest rural communities to provide their children safe water and a healthy, clean environment to develop to their potential. Since 2008, The Water Trust has partnered with more than 800 communities in Masindi and Kiryandongo, benefitting more than 300,000 people. In 2017, The Water Trust developed an innovative savings group-based approach to increase the sustainability of rural water and the impact of hygiene and sanitation promotion. The organization is currently scaling this novel program across more than 400 communities a year in western Uganda across Ugandan and refugee communities. Over the next three years, The Water Trust aims to scale up its programs through direct implementation and technical assistance partnerships, while continuing to partner with researchers to find new ways to raise the bar for impact and sustainability. This newly-created position will lead our finance and operations (currently all in Uganda) as we aim to reach more than one million people across East Africa by 2025. Learn more about The Water Trust at watertrust.org.

THE OPPORTUNITY

The Water Trust has developed an innovative approach to integrating savings groups with WASH programming to achieve more sustainable water and improved sanitation. With funding from leading agencies from The World Bank, USAID, and charity: water, the organization is poised to scale its program over the next five years across Uganda and beyond. This is an excellent opportunity for a senior rural development program expert to lead this expansion as well as drive research and innovation.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Program Director will lead the program design and implementation of innovative, sustainable WASH programs to support poor rural communities. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer, the Program Director will participate in the Senior Management Team (SMT) and manage directly a WASH social team manager, WASH technical team manager, and monitoring and evaluation officer. As part of the SMT, the Program Director will contribute to the organization’s long-term program development strategy. As the head of the program team, the Program Director will lead his or her team to effectively design and implement programs to advance that strategy, mobilize funds for future programs, and represent the organization at national and international events. The ideal candidate will have strong skills in facilitating participatory, data-driven program design processes and expertise in leveraging savings groups to help communities improve their lives through WASH or other rural development sectors, such as agriculture.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Program: lead and mentor program managers to effectively manage projects and teams, ensuring quality implementation and reporting.
• Program innovation: leverage community-level insights with peer learning and academic research to develop innovative new pilots to find new ways to deepen impact.
• Representation: proactively build relationships in NGO sector, build visibility of The Water Trust’s innovations and capabilities, and grow new and existing relationships to help scale our self-help group model and fund new innovations.
• Leadership: contribute to the organization’s strategy and support the COO in organizational development to support a high-performance work environment where staff are engaged and supported to develop as professionals.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

• Ugandan Country National strongly preferred.
• Master’s degree in related field strongly preferred.
• 10-20 years of experience in Uganda, including at least five years of experience in a leadership position in a high-performing development organization of a similar size, or in a regional leadership position of a larger INGO.
• Experience and expertise related to savings groups, behavior change programming, and rural development required.
• Experience in WASH strongly preferred.
• Experience collaborating with government and international agencies in developing NGO-government partnerships strongly preferred.
• Experience facilitating participatory program design processes and collaborating with academic researchers strongly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to successfully plan and manage the implementation of large multilateral grants.
• Strong interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills, and an ability to communicate across functional areas and cultural contexts.
• Excellent attention to detail and organizational skills.
• Strong analysis, writing, and presentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability to manage results and develop a high performing team.
• Ability and willingness to travel to rural communities, at times with availability of only very basic amenities.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English.
• Desirable: speaks one or more of the following languages: Swahili, Runyoro, Luo, Iteso, Lugbara, Lugisu.