Program Manager, CRVS (Africa and Latin America)

Vital Strategies, headquartered in New York City, is an international public health organization. Our programs strengthen public health systems and address the world’s leading causes of illness, injury, and death. We currently work in 73 countries, supporting data-driven decision making in government, advancing evidence-based public health policies and mounting strategic communication campaigns. Vital Strategies’ priorities are driven by the greatest potential to improve and save lives. They include non-communicable disease prevention, cardiovascular health promotion, tobacco control, road safety, obesity prevention, epidemic prevention, environmental health, vital statistics systems building, and multi-drug resistant tuberculosis treatment research. Our programs are concentrated in low- and middle-income countries and cities in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. Please visit our website at www.vitalstrategies.org to find out more about our work.

We believe our programs are strengthened when they are developed and supported by individuals with diverse life experiences, whose understanding of social and cultural issues can help make our work and workforce more inclusive. We encourage people of all racial, economic, social, cultural, sexual orientation, and gender expressions to apply. As such, our commitment is to promote equal employment opportunities (EEO) for all applicants seeking employment.

Vital Strategies is committed to helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to protecting the safety of our employees. All U.S. employees will be required to be fully vaccinated unless the employee is approved for a reasonable accommodation due to a disability or a religious reason.

Job Purpose:

The Program Manager – Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) supports the Bloomberg Philanthropies Data for Health Initiative, which aims to enhance public health data collection and use in low- and middle-income countries. The goal of the initiative is to ensure that a billion more people live in countries where data are used to steer public policy and program decisions. Under the Initiative, Vital Strategies, in partnership with other global public health organizations, is implementing a multi-year program to improve civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) in numerous countries and municipalities in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Pacific. Vital Strategies has full responsibility for provision of technical assistance to several of these.

The CRVS Improvement Program involves interventions designed to improve the registration of births and deaths; improve the availability and quality of cause of death information for both facility- and home-based events and improve the timeliness of available vital statistics information and reports.

The Program Manager – Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS) will have primary responsibilities in support of programs in Africa and Latin America. Main responsibilities will include communications, programmatic, and logistical support for planning and implementation of CRVS work plans, in collaboration with other CRVS team members. The Program Manager will work under the co-supervision of two Regional Deputy Directors.

Vital Strategies offers highly competitive compensation and comprehensive benefits. The salary range for this position is $76,000 to $88,667 USD. The candidate must have eligibility to work in the U.S. at time of hire. Preference is for the position to be based in our New York City office but consideration will be given to suitable candidates who are based in countries where Vital Strategies can legally hire. The salary range for candidates outside the U.S. will be benchmarked to the local market.

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Provide programmatic and administrative backstopping to the Regional Deputies for the Africa and Latin America regions, the Technical Advisors (TAs), and in-country CRVS managers.
• Coordinate operational, logistics, and financial support to the implementation of activities in assigned countries. These include organizing in-country, regional or global meetings; the provision of technical assistance by local and external experts.
• Track and contribute to implementation schedules for project completion and support country teams to reach project milestones and deliverables
• Review financial reports from contractors/subgrantees, the reconciliation, coding, and reporting of program commitments and expenses
• Ensure Finance Department procedures and appropriate project budget codes are followed to ensure submission of accurate reimbursement, expense and consultant requests
• Review regular progress reports and track progress from in-country implementing partners and generate summaries and recommendations for the initiative’s Director.
• Provide other program and implementation support to the DD, including but not limited to, scheduling team meetings, and participate in country implementation calls
• Ensure up-to-date workplan budgets
• Participate in drafting and ensure execution of agreements with relevant in-country stakeholders and external consultants (e.g., Memorandum of Understanding, Sub-grant agreements, and other contracts)
• Ensure progress monitoring of country level activities and track impact against key project milestones and deliverables in collaboration with the Program Manager responsible for reporting
• Ensure compliance with Vital strategies procurement policies and procedures
• Work with line managers and finance staff to maintain full situational awareness of implementation and financial status of the CRVS programs in Africa and Latin America; flag and raise issues to CRVS Director and Leadership Team as encountered
• Provide project management support to Technical Advisors as agreed and requested

Qualifications:

Education and Degree –

• Masters degree in relevant field or a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (business administration, human resources, operations) plus relevant work experience in program management as described below

Skills and Abilities –

• Excellent communication and relationship building skills with an ability to work with a variety of internal and external stakeholders
• French fluency required, communicational Spanish highly desirable
• Analytical mindset with strong attention to detail
• Ability to set priorities, problem-solve, and multi-task
• Demonstrated project management skills
• Personal qualities of integrity, credibility, and dedication to the mission of Vital Strategies
• Collaborative, dedicated team player

Professional Certification –

• Certification in project management or familiarity with relevant tools and methods a plus

Experience:

Required –

• Minimum five (5) years of overall experience in program management and operations with minimum two (2) years working with a non-profit organization.

Preferred –

• Prior work in NGO, non-profit or government sector
• Work experience on multiple continents a plus

Working Conditions and Physical Requirements:

• Willingness and ability to work across different time zones meaning some calls will fall outside normal business hours
• Willingness and ability to travel internationally