Project Director – WISH 2

About Us

MSI Reproductive Choices is one of the world’s leading providers of sexual and reproductive healthcare. We believe that everyone should have the right to choose. From contraception to safe abortion and life-saving post-abortion care, we are committed to delivering compassionate, affordable, high-quality services for all.

Today, our organisation has over 9,000 team members working in 37 countries across the world. Our success lies in the fact that MSI teams are locally led, entrepreneurial and results-driven, and are passionate about delivering high quality, client-centered care in their own communities. As a social business, we focus on sustainable delivery, efficiency, and funding models that are built to last, so that the women and girls we serve today will have a choice in the future too.

We know that access to reproductive choice is life changing. For some, it can mean the ability to complete an education or start a career. For others, it means being able to look after the family they already have. For everyone, it means the freedom to decide their own future, creating a fairer, more equal world.

About the Role

MSI seeks an exceptional Project Director for an anticipated five-year global family planning activity – WISH2 – funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). This role will also have a broader remit in leading MSI’s FCDO engagement for this project.

WISH 2 is the successor to the 5-year £272m Women’s Integrated Sexual Health (WISH) programme and will support women and adolescents, particularly the poor and most marginalised, to have greater voice, choice, and control over their Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) and improve the enabling environment for SRHR and gender equality as part of an accelerated, African-led inclusive demographic transition.

WISH 2 is one of three components of the overarching WISH Dividend programme that is being procured by FCDO. WISH 2 will support targeted countries on comprehensive SRHR including support for service delivery and technical assistance. WISH 2 will be divided into two geographic Lots. This role will be dedicated to Lot 1 which comprises Chad, DRC, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, and Senegal. The Project Director will be responsible for the overall strategic, technical, and financial management and operations of the project and will be the key liaison with FCDO and other global stakeholders. They will assume overall management and responsibility for project finances, results, staff, and partnerships.

About You

We recruit talented, dynamic people with diverse backgrounds and experiences, all united by a belief in our mission and a focus on delivering measurable results. We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace, where everyone feels able to participate and contribute meaningfully. You must be open-minded, curious, resilient, and solutions-oriented, and committed to promoting equality, and safeguarding the welfare of team members and clients alike.

To perform this role, it is essential that you have the following skills:

• Demonstrated skills and experience in building collaborative relationships and networks with donors, host-country governments, and local and international health and development implementers.
• Demonstrated ability to establish and maintain effective relationships across an organisation to achieve mutual objectives and maximise opportunities.
• Exceptional problem-solving abilities and demonstrated confidence in handling difficult situations.
• Excellent people and negotiation skills and ability to work effectively in cross-cultural settings and with a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Strong project and personnel management skills, including skills in consortium delivery/management and/or implementing partner management.
• Demonstrable effectiveness as a communicator who feels comfortable in all environments – from one-to-one communication to public speaking and high-level engagement:

Fluent in English and French, oral, and written communication skills.

To perform this role, it is essential that you have the following experience:

• At least ten (10) years’ experience in international health programming, including experience in senior-level management positions and experience leading large and complex projects.
• Demonstrated international credibility as a leader in family planning and sexual and reproductive health, including demonstrated understanding of, and experience in, managing sexual and reproductive health service delivery programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Experience overseeing high-value donor contracts and/or grants with FCDO, other donors, national governments, and international agencies.
• Demonstrable experience in managing complex relationships across organisations and across countries including generating consensus and support from multiple internal and external stakeholders and leading people through complex processes.
• Experience leading, managing, and mentoring a team, including matrix management across organisational departments; able to clearly articulate strategies that support a team to deliver results and respond to donor priorities.
• Experience in identifying, managing, and escalating risk at project, donor, and corporate level, ideally gained through experience of managing a Payment by Results programme.
• Experience leading and/or supporting youth-focused sexual and reproductive health programmes.
• Experience in inclusive SRH programming and experience/understanding of programming in humanitarian and /or FCAS settings

Personal Attributes:

We seek exceptional individuals who are aligned to MSI’s mission and entrepreneurial mindset. You must be a strong communicator, self-motivated and solutions-seeking, committed to driving social change in an environment that measures sustainable results and impact at an individual and global level. You must be able to work effectively with and across diverse teams and be comfortable with ambiguity.

For this role, we’re looking for an individual who is:

• A strong supporter of the cause of family planning and a woman’s right to safe abortion (pro-choice)
• Quality-focused and results-orientated
• Proactive
• Highly organised
• Decisive and confident
• Resourceful and determined.
• Self-aware
• Willing to travel (approximately 25% travel).

This position is contingent upon funding being awarded to MSI and on approval of the candidate by FCDO. Candidates must have the legal right to work in either the United Kingdom, or a country where MSI currently works.

For more information about the role, please view the job description and person specification on our website.

Location: London (UK), Dakar (Senegal) or Kinshasa (DRC)

Full-time: 35 hours a week, Monday to Friday (UK contracted hours)

Contract type: Permanent

Salary: A competitive salary and benefits package will be provided in line with the national context, dependent on location of the successful candidate.

Closing date: 13th November 2023 (midnight GMT). Interviews may take place before this date for exceptional candidates.

For internal employees applying from an MSI country programme, the role will be positioned within the existing salary structure of the country. Local terms and conditions of the country will apply.